When I got up to the apartment door, I tried to open it and a few things simultaenously occurred to me. One, the NFC tag for opening the door was not on my key ring. Two my spare bike key was gone. Three, the remote for opening the door was inside the apartment. Four, f**k! I immediately made my way down to the security guards downstairs and after some back and forth with the Nepalese guards who didn’t speak much English, realised that there was no way I was going to get into the apartment that night. Even checked with the owner of the apartment for the electronic lock pin numbers but nada. It was kind of frustrating to be so close and yet so far. This meant no food, no shower and more importantly no proper rest. I already knew before starting the ride that the third day was going to be the most critical.
I went down again to the lobby area where there were sofas and tried to think of alternatives. Two days later on Monday I would find out there was a lounge/library or even a gym which was air-conditioned and where I could possibly nap for 2 hours but at the point in time, trying to nap on the sofa was not working. I finally gave up and around one plus in the morning I decided to give up resting and just try to give myself more time and ride slowly. I took the necessary turnaround picture again and then headed off at about 1:18am.
By this time I was starting to feel the accumulated fatigue and lack of sleep, insufficient rest and proper food. I thought I was properly hydrated but I had no way of making sure. I made my way to the next fueling point without incident and then headed toward my next stop at Ayer Keroh. Along the way, I could tell something was wrong. I was unable to concentrate. My ability to anticipate traffic had severely diminished and I was riding very slowly. I also started feeling dizzy and nauseous and noticed some disorientation.
When I finally got to the Ayer Keroh R&R, I took on petrol and felt so bad I decided to sit down inside the convenience store. Tried to hydrate myself and eat something but it got worse by the minute to the point where I texted one of my good friends and called my sister to tell her I was feeling really out of it. My brother-in-law who is a doctor was of the opinion that I should not carry on and I didn’t object as I was feeling really crappy at this point. I even put up a post in Facebook to say I was giving up. I just couldn’t see how I could safely ride in my current state at the required level to achieve the goal. Having done that, I put my head down and closed my eyes. Apparently I slept for more than an hour and when I came to, it was past 5am. Under normal circumstances, leaving Iskandar at 1:18am would mean that I would have past KL already and here I was still near Malacca and going nowhere.
Just then, I saw a Singaporean biker pull up to the station and he came in to me to ask for help to text his friend to inform his friend of his location as they had split up on the road and his phone was not working well. I did what I could to assist and during the course of our conversation I realised I was feeling better. Much better. To the point where I decided I was going to try and carry on again. Informed my sister and then deleted the post on Facebook and off I went. This time I was going to stick to the route from the first day as I thought I would rather deal with traffic on the north south highway coming back rather than dealing with snarling KL city traffic on a Saturday evening. So off I went. When I fueled up near Karak, there were tons of bikers out for the weekend morning ride. I waved to some and they waved back. Soon, it was dawn and I was making my way toward Kuantan again.
I was tired and sleepy now. There was no denying it. I had to constantly talk to myself to keep from falling asleep and had to keep moving my arms and legs to maintain concentration on the road. I literally had to describe what I was seeing to myself because I just wasn’t looking ahead anymore. On hindsight, I should have known better than to continue but I was so focused on my goal I was absolutely determined to carry on. Thankfully with the rising sun came some semblance of energy and I recovered from that phase. Looking at the time deficit, I was falling behind and would have to make up for some lost time.
This was one of the things that I was constantly doing while riding. Mentally calculating and keeping tabs on time and speed limits and datelines and so on while simultaneously navigating traffic as well, sometimes on really twisty roads. To reduce the time debt, I had to bring up my speed to 160-170kmph which I did on the E8 toward Kuantan and Trengganu. I was so bored of this stretch of highway by now I actually dreaded it. My music, which is a constant companion on my riding road trips helped me keep my sanity for now. Again the weather was unpredictable and the rains came and went repeatedly. At one point the exact same kind of rain occurred at the spot where I almost crashed the day before and I actually cursed aloud. Like what were the chances?!
After I turned around at Bukit Jong for the last time I remember telling myself thank goodness I wouldn’t be back here again. 3 times in 3 days was enough. Again it was uneventful heading back toward KL but I did notice that I was getting detached from my riding. it was almost like watching myself ride. I couldn’t quite tell what was going on but I was beginning to hallucinate. I had never dealt with sleep deprivation on the bike before so I couldn’t recognise the symptoms. Time seemed to stretch out and I couldn’t really get a good grip on my riding. I noticed at several points it was almost like I was on autopilot although I still maintained some semblance of control and knew where I was and where I was headed.
The turning point was the fuel stop at Gurun. From here, it gets hazy. I remember going north from here to turn around but it seemed to take forever. I was also having trouble with road signs and kept making wrong turns and having to recover my directions. After the turn, I cannot remember a thing. I still get goosebumps now as I try to recollect what happened. The facts are that I somehow made my way from Alor Setar to Ipoh via the North South Highway which is about 180 plus kilometers without being conscious of what I did at all. I don’t remember how fast I went, what the weather was like nor the traffic. Given that this was between 5 and 7pm plus on a Saturday evening, traffic couldn’t have been too quiet.
I remember it started to rain really heavily and I was struggling to see. I was also wondering why I was in an endless dream where I didn’t recognise any road signs or why road signs would seem to have a familiar name mixed up with random letters. I remember just wanting to close my eyes and sleep. At one point, I somehow ended up in the car lane of a toll booth where I was so disoriented I just stopped at the gantry and stared blankly wondering what kind of bad dream was this. I was like, if I stop here will anyone horn? After a while, cars started beeping and I was like hey this dream is quite realistic. So I dismounted the bike and tapped on the window of the booth and said hey I am in the wrong lane and to let me through. The lady insisted I back up and go to the correct lane instead but given the cars backed up behind me there was no way that was happening so they finally let me through. I still thought I was dreaming at this point. It’s a bit hazy but I remembered I carried on riding and I seemed to be stuck in a loop seeing the same sign time after time. The rain came on heavy again and it was really pissing me off. Why was it always raining in this dream!
Around this time the rain got so heavy I had to stop at an area where there was food so I stopped to escape the rain. I was still disoriented for a few minutes and wasn’t sure if I was seeing things. It took me a few minutes to muster up the courage to ask someone a question. I can’t remember what the question was now but the person was real and answered my question. Slightly relieved that I was not in the twilight zone, I proceeded to order some food from KFC. After stuffing myself, I went back into the rain to carry on riding after seeing that the rain was not going to stop anytime soon.
As I rode, I went back into the semi dream world again. Finally I decided I had enough. I had vague visions of other bikers waiting under bridges to escape the storm and I stopped at one of them to ask someone where I was. At this point I had no idea I was in Ipoh. After the guy told me I was near Ipoh, I asked him which way to KL and he pointed before going off. So I carried on too. Still no idea how I managed to not crash my bike despite not being conscious of what I was doing at all. I still kept seeing the same signs and still kept on going. I remember asking myself what would I have to do to get out from this awful loop of a dream. More signs, equally confusing ones before I finally approached a gas station. It was a Caltex layby at Bukit Gantang, one I was familiar with from years ago when I seeked for help for a puncture. Seems like this petrol station has a special significance in my riding life.
The attendants there were kind enough to let me charge my phone and it was only then that I realised my good friend and sister were so worried about me they were in contact with the consulate and about to file a missing person report with the police. After some back and forth, I told them I was in no state to carry on. I was overcome by fatigue and was light-headed and my eyelids felt like they weighed ten tons each. I told them I would stay there for a while before deciding on my next move but the nearest decent hotel was in Ipoh which ordinarily was like 20 mins away at most but in my current state, 40 minutes would be optimistic. I eventually decided to have a go and try to reach Ipoh where I knew of a hotel I had stayed in before. Luckily, I made it there without further mishap or incidents and got a room for the night.
That was the end of my 72 hour attempt. I decided to stop here for good as I would be seriously endangering my life to carry on back to Iskandar. I was only about 587 km away and I had almost 6 hours from when I first stopped at Ipoh to get back to Iskandar.. Under normal circumstances I could do it in 5 easily. Oh well. Live to ride and try again another day.
The next day, after a solid 12 hours of sleep, I left Ipoh at around mid day and made it back to Iskandar sometime before 5pm. So close, yet so far. I was just over thirteen hours late.
Over the ride, petrol consumption was as follows:
Day 1: 146.323 litres
Day 2: 141.494 litres
Day 3: 104.349 litres (Until Ipoh where I quit)
Day 3: 133.472 litres (Until I reached Iskandar)
The first and last tanks of petrol filled are not included in the above stats
I am none the worse for wear after coming back except for general fatigue, sleep deprivation, itchy shins from wearing my socks so long, sore forearm muscles and fingers that can’t be straightened properly. My shoulder muscles and neck muscles are also aching. Surprisingly my back held up well with no pains or aches so I guess the weights in the gym must have helped somewhat. Funny tan lines as usual are par for the course.
On the bright side, my fund-raising campaign raised over SGD11,800 dollars for Soi Dog Foundation and Causes for Animals. It was a lot more than I dared hope when I first started. Together with my generous friends, colleagues and well wishers, I hope that these funds will make a small difference in the lives of the animals these organisations help.
As usual, I remember having so many things that were on my mind which I wanted to write about but now that I actually am back, so many of them slip my mind’s grasp. It was a bittersweet experience. Of course I would have liked to complete the challenge within the stipulated time but going through the hallucinations and out-of-body experience on an endurance ride like this is something I wouldn’t change. In certain aspects of my life I have always liked to find where my limits lie. I know the challenge can be done and I know where I failed and what went wrong. For now, this ride will remain on my to do list. Next time I will be more prepared.
Until my next adventure, farewell.
Here we go again 