Day 1 Tanjung Piai - Kukup Part 2

Distance: 11.37 km
Average Speed: 19.2 km/h

I had decided it was necessary to start the ride from Tanjung Piai - everywhere we looked we were reminded of our geographical position vis-a-vis the Asian continent, and I figured it made sense to traverse the length of the peninsular from south to north. So back we went to the resort. It isn't really a resort - more a collection of chalets over the sea.

We stopped the car under the shade of a tree and started unloading. Assembling and preparing the bike, I felt a little nervous. 3 weeks before we were married, Mei and I sat on the beach at East Coast in Singapore, taking a break on our usual weekend bike ride. I took a video then and we joked and laughed about how, in 3 week's time, she would be 'Mrs Cheong'. Well, I joked I would be 'Mr Lam'... At that point, I recall now how 3 weeks still seemed such an eternity.

Putting on my cycling shoes, I had a flashback to my dinner conversation with Andrew Wilson shortly after I'd heard of Bill MacDannell's walk and after the Lasobans had thought it would be a great idea to travel through the country like he was doing in America. Andrew had encouraged me and his question that swung things around was 'how would you feel, 5 years from now, if you did not do this?' There was only one path to choose from that point on.

I remembered going home and talking to Mei about it and the poor girl, just half a year into the marriage, had suddenly to deal with her husband cycling off into the boondocks for weeks and weeks. That seemed so long ago.

And now, here I was. The intervening 3 months had flown by and this was it. I'd hardly cycled more than 20 kms a week in the last 25 years, and until I started training for this ride, was a few kilos in weight and a couple of inches around the waist too much for physical efficiency on a bike.

Nervous, yes. Excited too. And more than a bit sad. In the two years I've known Mei, my life has never been fuller nor more complete. We've hardly spent more than a working day's hours apart, and I knew that contrasting my resolve to do this ride was the feeling of not having Mei by my side at the start and end of each day.

I got on the bike - having never ridden it with a full load before (call me stupid, call me foolish...). I couldn't get the back wheel pumped up to the desired 45psi and later discovered it was indeed possible to do that, if you pumped when the bike WASN'T fully laden. Call me stupid...

All set, a great big hug from Mei and heartfelt 'I love you' and 'take care' and off I went. Having so much weight at the back made the front lighter than I've been used to but I settled in. Good thing I insisted on a very short first ride.

Through Kampung Serkat, past the UMNO Hari Raya bash, and people were smiling and waving at me. It felt good - the cycling was easy and the mood was great. A few minutes into the ride and I began to wonder where Gan and Mei were. I couldn't see them in my mirror and then I panicked and started patting my pockets thinking maybe I'd hung on to the car keys by mistake...

The silver shape of my car eventually appeared and with a horn, some last shouts of encouragement and smiles, they were off.

I got in to Kukup with no difficulty at all - 11 kms is nothing of course. Lili had given me the number of 'Kukup Floating Chalet' and I'd contacted Oliver Lee earlier. I rang him when I arrived and found his place not far from the main road, off the main Kampung Air Masin road.