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.

Day 1 Tanjung Piai - Kukup Part 1

Deadlines... I got about two-and-a-half hour's sleep on Sunday night. There was just too much to do - completing some work, rigging up a rear mud-guard, testing out the full load on the bike, and all this while spending my last weekend with the kids for the next six weeks. I got in to bed about 1am then got up again less than 3 hours later to do the last minute stuff.

Still, Mei and I got the bike loaded up and left the house just a few minutes later than the 7 am we had planned. We figured there was no real rush, so were under no great stress. We even had time to have breakfast with Gan at Sunset Way. While Mei and I waited in a queue at a stall, a local resident cuts right to the front of the queue and placed her order. We protested clearly and insistently and got served first - and it's women like this I shall be glad to leave behind for the next month-and-a-half.

Customs and Immigration were cleared with no fuss and we drove through worrying rain - well I was worried, not the rain - all the way in to Kukup, when the rain happily (OK I was happy, not the rain - well, maybe the rain was too, oh nevermind) let up and the sun shone through cool grey skies.

Lili bte Tokiman now manages the Kukup and Tanjung Piai National Parks. I had not seen her in a few years but we recognised each other immediately. She is now married - and I think her husband is much happier she isn't stuck in the jungles of Endau Rompin for weeks at a time. The Endau Rompin Park staff are usually in for 3-week stretches after which they come out for work and a short break for a week.

She recommended a hotel described as 'floating chalets' and off we went to explore Tanjung Piai. I once did a project here which explains my familiarity with the area. The people at Johor Parks are always very nice - they smile, wave at you, and are immensely helpful. On the way out, Gan was stung on the ear by something which caused great pain and a swelling. When we got to the office, they immediately sprang into action and pulled out medicine chests and cases, pored over the tiny labels of a multitude of bottles and tubes. After 5 minutes, we found nothing of any use for what seemed to be a bee sting. Then one of the staff reappeared with a bottle of Minyak Angin or Fung Yau. The ancient-recipe Chinese oil did the trick and the pain subsided.

The Mangrove around Tanjung Piai are not in themselves of great botanical interest - nearby Kukup has many more varieties. What is interesting about Piai is that it is the southern-most tip of the Asian mainland. The Park is heavily touted as this and we discovered a bizarre and grotesque monument to this geographical claim. A concrete platform about the size of a basketball court was built out on the edge of the promontory. On the 3 sides facing out, there are signs with purportedly profound sayings.

I couldn't see the point of 'Veni, Vedi, Vici' in this context. And when Gan read 'Whoever conquers the mind, conquers the world' he turned to me and remarked he didn't realise he was at war with his mind.

The last sign, with the vista of the Melaka Straits behind it announced that you were now at the southern-most tip of mainland Asia. Metres away from this sign is a huge glass-fibre globe mounted on a steel frame which in turn sat on a chamfered concrete platform. The modernity of the painted globe and chrome steel frame contrasts strongly and painfully with the four grecian-style mini columns that adorned the leaning vertices of this platform.

The whole thing sat incongruously on this sun-drenched stage disdainfully surveying the complex ecology and wonders of nature pointing to it at its apex.

I would not be surprised if the whole globe lit up at night. I did discover that the whole could rotate. I grabbed one of the steel arms and pulled at it. The globe pissed on me... Holes where the glassfibre had been broken took in the rain and as the globe swung around, emptied their contents on me as if to mock me.

And so we left.

We went back to Kukup for lunch at one of the seafood restaurants lining one side of the main street.

We had a decent if confusing lunch at Coastway Restaurant. The confusion starts when you notice the signboard outside says 'Causeway Restaurant' while another one just a few feet further inside pronounces you've entered 'Coastway Restaurant. I somehow don't think this helps the staff at all - the two teenagers waiting on tables were in a state of constant rush.

When they came over to serve us, we realised the rush was partly due to their confusion. The rest of it was simple inefficiency. The older of the two plopped some plastic laminated menus on the table and took out a note pad to take our drinks orders. Gan asked if he had 100 Plus whereupon a look of bewilderment spread across the young man's face. He turned and ran back to the front (OK I'm not making this stuff up - you enter off the main road and walk in 30 metres through this long building, past the kitchen and to the sea-facing end where the tables are set out) for two minutes. He eventually ran back to announce, yes, there was 100 Plus, so Gan ordered two.

We had a medium sized dish of Kangkong (we'd ordered a large portion), Fried Squid (we'd ordered steamed) and a fried Sea Bass (after the Kangkong and the Squid, we thought he'd serve us Pomfret instead).

Lunch was very tasty and good value at RM57, then we drove back to Tanjung Piai for the start of the ride.

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