My first bike touring.

It happened in 1976, when I was in form 2 at a school shortnamed by  SMDARY in Bota located in central Perak. I was 14 then. It wasnt really planned, I was going to  attend my cousin's wedding in a town called Bagan Datoh, located in the southern tip of Perak State. The distance was about 60km away from my sister's house, which is the medical staff quarters located in Bota Kiri. I lived with my elder sister since I was 13  and left the house when I enrolled to college 4 years later.

I was riding on a second hand Raleigh, which I turned it to fixie. I bought it for RM 20 from a friend. RM20 was hefty, the money that I received from the education grant program by the Ministry of Education to support the poor in the rural.The value was about RM 150 a year. BTW, I grew up in poverty and barely afford even for basic necessities. It was kind of hard for my dad, a farmer with 11 dependents to  make ends meet in small farmland. I had to live with my sister(a nurse) to secure proper education. The bike was then completely stripped, left only with basic stuffs to be pedaled. Bike those days were fully equipped with carrier, mud guards and chain cover, all made of wrought iron. I dismantle the parts as to make the bike look cool according to those days standard. I then packed my stuff in the small homemade backpack and wheeled down the road with less than 15 bucks in my pocket and with a pair of jeans, t-shirt and cowboy hat. Such outfits looks great at that time, everything was hippies.

Those days a ringgit and fifty can buy premium meal.  I had my breakfast with only fifty cent, 20 cts for nasi lemak and 20 cts for teh tarik and 10cts for 2 pieces of 555 cigarettes, it was sold in loose pieces and kept in the cylindrical can, one was lighted another was kept in my hat. By the way, I was in the learning stage. I quit 15 years later. Smoking was really cool that time.

The journey was cool, passing through mostly fruit orchard before I reached Kg Gajah and cycled through rice field till I reached Teluk Anson (now is Telok Intan). Along the the way there were not many houses like today. At some stretched, it wasnt even have anyone passes by for hours, all I heard were only the sound of wild birds sings. It took me about 4 hrs to reach Teluk Intan with a few stops off course. I put a night at relative house in Teluk Intan and continue my journey the next morning.

From Teluk Intan to Bagan Datoh, I passed through Hutan Melintang and Kg Selekoh. It used to have a private ferry crossing the Perak river, which was operated by Sime Darby as they owned the surrounding rubber estate on both sides of the river. Now the ferry has been replaced by bridge with a new road connecting Teluk Intan to Manjung and Lumut.

After Hutan Melintang, I pedaled through mostly cocoa and coconut plantation. Whenever I stopped for a rest, I noticed that people speaks java, I couldnt understand a word. When they cracked joke I just laugh for the sake of respecting their joke. Anyway, they are nice people and they instantly switched to BM once they noticed that I was kind of blur. I reached my auntie's house just before lunch time. It was kind fun to have such ride. I return back to Bota Kiri on the same route a week after the wedding.