The plan was to ride from Putrajaya to Singapore, covering a distance of 400km within 27 freaking hours and this mad challenge was thought up by Mr. Akmal of The Basikal a few weeks before. My nutrition plan for the challenge was a massive KFC face stuffing session for lunch and dinner few days continuously prior to the ride. Bwahahaha



On the 24th May, me - without any prior sleep, the six of us gathered and started in Putrajaya at 3am and off we went in the direction of Sepang and continued to Port Dickson onwards. Alex, the dude in orange was riding a foldie and he was leading the pack most of the time. Mad. Everyone else was a mix of mountain bikes with slicks and tourers.



An hour into the ride, the sky opened up and it poured heavily, massively. Initially I thought "hey this is cooling lah". The situation started to suck when the rain turned to a storm, visibility was pretty much limited up to 10 metres and everyone else disappeared cause I pedalled like a grand mother. Me and Usop got lost, then we had to backtracked a few kilometres because we overshot a turning - things are sucking salty balls oi.



After 3 hours, the rain started to subside to a slight drizzle. Nearby Salak Maju, Sepang - two more riders joined the fray. The 8 of us then climbed the maddeningly steep and zigzagging Bukit Pelanduk in total darkness, devoid of any street lights with lumbering lorries constantly cutting us off on the narrow single lane road whilst spewing fumes in our faces.



By 6 am we took a break at a Sepang Petronas station. The rain really did sapped our strength. I had 8 pieces of KFC's fried chicken before the ride, expecting it to last until Port Dickson but here in Sepang I was ingloriously hungry macam babi. Alex was so nice that he shared his dates and aprikot seeds with everyone that incredibly sated my hunger.



At 8am we reached the turn off to Port Dickson. Whereby everyone has disappeared into the distance, me and Usop was in the pakcik pack and decided to stop for breakfast. As expected, the first hot meal of the day after 80km riding in the cold wet weather is the best meal ever regardless how bad it tasted. Had nasi lemak extra nasi with rendang daging, ayam kari and 3 pieces of telor mata. I even took a 5 minute nap.



We caught up to the rest of the guys as they were loading their bikes after breakfast. Bought bread and chips at the 7-11 and an hour into the ride, everyone else disappeared (again!) as me and Usop was back in the pakcik pack.



Instances like this made our progress slower then the main pack. I stop for photos if theres something remotely interesting, but i also stop at stalls selling sugar cane juice, coconut juice, karipap, keropok lekor, kueh bom hahahaha



See what i mean? We stopped to pose at Sg. Linggi, Negeri Sembilan. Up until now, the sky was dangerously cloudy looking and threatening to unload lorry chuckfull of rain but it never did. Cloudy all the way from Port Dickson to Melaka. Cooling but with a slight headwind.



At about 1pm, we stopped at a roadside stall here in Masjid Tanah, Melaka for lunch. It wasnt good at all, shitty infact but it was a brief respite from the heat and the constant hilly upidy-downie route. It was here that we communicated with the main pack and surprise surprise they were 20 donkey kilometres away in Pantai Puteri. Thats's when a holy-shit giddy-up-oughta-catch-up moment hit us both and we swung our legs over our bikes and for the next 2 hours we pedaled furiously hard non stop.



150km, at 4pm I reached Bandar Melaka. But this here is when I realised I accidentally dropped Usop on the fast and furious pedaling from Masjid Tanah. Everyone was like "Where's Usop dudeee?" and I'm like "I dont knowwwww".



So as the rest of the guys are filing out and heading to Muar, I was like "Hey ho lets go take a photo with the fancy A Farmosa building thing" and the plan was to catch up later. Exiting Melaka, I asked for direction to Muar, where instead of the shorter coastal road via Merlimau, I was directed into the Johor AMJ highway. Holy FUCKEN shit man. The AMJ added an additional 10km to my route and as an "exciting" bonus as it was a highway, it was hilly as fuck, oh with loads of cars, lorries and trailers. There wasn't even road lights.

Have you ever felt the urge to drop kick your bike? Or its all over for you and you just cant go on anymore? I was sure my energy level is at the negatives as I was literally falling asleep on the bicycle. To top it all off, my mp3 player died on me 10 minutes into AMJ. Ahhh shit lah you Sony. Akmal told me to wave down any lorry because my joints just cant take anymore fucking babi hills. Although Muar was only 50km away but i arrived at Bentayan Food Court - to the hankering loud applause of Akmal, Usop, Man and Nazim at 8.30pm in Muar. Fek. 4 hours sial.

So far we (me) have done 210km in18 hours - which leaves us like what, 9 hours more to complete the challenge, another 190km. So a unanimous collective decision was made between all of us, and that was to fuck this shit. Like seriously, fuck this shit we cant go on any more. Alex and Matthew said screw this we're taking the bus into Singapore. Prof Daud's skewered his knee somewhere in Merlimau, where his daughter picked him up and drove him back to KL. Which leaves the 5 of us wondering what are gonna do to salvage this trip.



Im not sure about the rest of the guys but up to this point my ass, knees, ankles and thighs were killing me. My wrist were swollen like little pears and I was so glad when everyone decided to check into a hotel to spend the night. I remembered being so tired that my hunger were being overwritten by my need to go to bed. I couldnt even scratch my ass without eliciting any kind of muscular pain. My wrist, ankle, neck - overall body was in pain. Ouch.

The next morning after breakfast, I hobbled away to a massage parlour - which to my amazement the amoi groped, twisted and popped my limbs + muscle back together again. It felt good and I was sure I can do the ride down to Singapore. But by then everyone agreed that we're gonna load the bikes into a car then drive down to Johor Bharu, cross the Singapore Causeway and cycle 40km to the Merlion before nightfall. Usop departed from our company in Muar and we bid him farewell.

For the following 150km from Muar to Johor Bharu, the four of us sorta "cheated" to get to Singapore. But by now all we wanted was just to get the whole trip over and done with.



By 4pm the three of us were crossing the Causeway and the other guy decided that the Singapore border is the end of his ride. Oh well.



We decided to travel light, so we left our panniers, bags and water at the car. We were thinking that probably we can easily dash through 40km within 2 hour but we neglected to remember that New Singapore with its massive influx of new migrants in the last few years was more crowded and congested. The traffic, added an hour into the 2 hour estimation.



Alas we reached the Merlion at 7pm. Hurrahhh



We started from Putrajaya on Friday, 24th May 2013 at 3am and finished on Saturday, 25th May at 7pm - a total of 38 hours. We cycled only 250km from the total 400km. From the initial 8 riders, only 3 reached the final destination.

All in all, we only complete 1 out of the 4 tortureride checklist:
1. All riders ends together
2. 400km
3. 27 hours
4. Kuala Lumpur to Singapore

Although it was tough for me, the ride was an awesome experience. Plus I made new friends - so thats a huge plus. Next time when another ultraride invitation comes along I know what to do - run as fast as possible in the opposite direction! I'll just stick to ordinary makan kayuh santai touring, thank you.