Sunday, June 28, 2009

My South African friends and their Homebuilt Catamaran

I am always blessed to meet up with interesting people all the time. Several years ago (2004) one nice looking catamaran sailed in to Chukai and I happened to be at the car park next to the water front. I introduced myself to the sweating sailors as they stepped off their inflatable and that was the start of a long friendship with Jeanne and Don Pickers. Both of them are from South Africa.They were doing island hopping in the East Coast and they were on an extended holiday. I was invited to their Parley 38 catamaran which Don has built from plans. Now, Don is a professional farmer in South Africa and he has taken a few years of his spare time and spare money to build this magnificient sailing machine. There has been many magazine write ups about their building process and also their sailing adventures (Multihull International magazine). This guy Don is gifted in making things and I began a long process of picking his brain on boat building (The other guy whom I did a lot of brain digging on boat building is Robin Tan....more on him later). At first all these PVC foam, vacuum bagging,polyester resins etc seemed like Greek to me but thanks to a lot of stupid questions and attending University of Google I slowly began to understand more of it.Jeanne and Don's catamaran named KATRINE in Chukai.

I brought Don and Jeanne to my fruit farm to see if he could help me with the slow rate of growth of my trees.

Don as Jeanne puts it is the Man of man, always cheerful and forever in good mood. He has an eye for details and is very precise in his work. I almost cannot believe that his beautiful catamaran is home built! He knows alot about every thing and is not a specialist (A specialist is a person who knows alot about very little !). The little girl with the tongue sticking out is my daughter Alicia.

Jeanne is a very good writer. A lot of her articles had appeared in magazines and they are publishing a book about their adventures.
On one of the school holidays I took my family to Langkawi where they are based and stayed a night on their cat. We sailed to Pulau Singa the next day and had a picnic there. Don and Jeanne came out with some mouth watering dishes while we enjoyed ourselves. The young man under my arms is my son Alwin.Look at all the good food that we were served.

My wife Lily does not understand why I enjoy going to sea. To her, it is hot and uncomfortable.She needs all the extra towels to protect from the sun! Looks like a Bedeon Tribesman!A catamaran is one big playground where there is a place for everyone .

A seed has been sown into me. I keep dreaming about building a catamaran later!

Friday, June 26, 2009

The Dahon Mu 8 Folding Bike

I was a little itchified and almost bought a used Long Haul Touring Bike that was advertised on the internet. The bike has a 1992 frame but most of the components are about 5 years old. This is when I did an evaluation of my Dahon Mu 8 Folding bike whch cost about the same as this used touring bike. In the end I realised that for my type of touring needs the convience of a folding bike outweights the supposingly ruggedness and"correct geometry" of a touring bike. I will buy a Long Haul Trucker touring bike when the time comes for me to do an extended tour.





In a folding bike, the geometry can be adjusted easily. Raise or lower the seat or the handle bar as required. The Mu 8 has a set of 20 inch wheels but due to a good gear set, the bike is nice to ride and achieving a 22 km/hr average speed is easy. I have done several riding trips from Kemaman to Kuantan and upon arrival at Kuantan I just fold the bike to store in my car which my wife and kids had driven down. Movies and a good Chinese dinner later, I drive home in air con comfort. This will not be possible with a full fledged touring bike. Might have to drive my pick up if I wanted this one way cycling option.

My bike is equipped with a GPS and a logger so that I can trace my tracks on Google Earth...High tech for a low tech machine.It has a set of very nice Shumano 8 speed gears. No complains on this but certainly it is not a racer or an off road machine! just good enough for a very comfortable 80 leg RPM ride.The advertised rate of folding is 10 seconds but I normally take about 30 seconds.Good enough for me. I have taken this bike from Kemaman to JB by bus and then entered Singapore with the bike folded. I got up the MRT and all the Singapore buses without any extra charges. I have the convience of a bike in Singapore to get my work done. Later when I wanted to ride from the causeway to Lakim bus terminal in the evening I found the traffic very heavy. I chickened out a bit but not a problem with this bike. I just folded it and got into a cab to go to the bus station for my return leg. No extra charges. Imagine the convenience of being able to fold the bike and take it up the hotel room when on bicycle tours. If it breaks down,no problem too. just fold it and look for a bus/train to the nearest civilisation.I always keep the bike at the back of my 850 cc Viva when I go to work so that if there is a chance that I finish off early I take a bike trip home.....that will be another story!

Mountain Biking to Jeram Tanduk and Jeram Kota

This area is also another of my backyard playground. The mountain streams around the mountains of Air Puteh are very refreshing and very often when I have suitable friends around we will be off to this area for a few days of camping and fishing. The much sought after ikan kelah can still be caught but the number and size has been reducing due to human greed.I have also canoed down the rivers several times. Today is I am off from flying so I took my mountain bike and cycled to the two Jerams that are in Sungei Nipah. Sungei Nipah is about 20 km long and it is one of the tributaries of the main Kemaman River .

Kg Air Puteh is 30 Km from Kemaman town and is the starting point of the trips to the Jerams and waterfalls.Last month I cycled from Chukai to Air Puteh and back on my folding bike (65 km) so today I skipped the "good road" portion and drove to Kg Air Puteh to start the journey.
There is a sign board just at the village that shows the distance to the waterfall. All the roads are timber tracks . If it rains the tracks are slippery.
Today is Friday so there is a Pasar Minggu on the main street of Kg Air Puteh.
Just at the end of the street is a junction turning to the right, This trail leads to Jeram Tanduk. Jeram in Bahasa Malaysia means rapids.

I spotted this poor buffalo being held in captivity (maybe to be slaughtered later). The human master cleverly lodge the buffalo's head in between two poles to restrain it from wandering around. So friends, please value the freedom that we have for if not when someone puts our head between the two poles we will be like the buffalo!

This is how the road looks like all the way. A lot of loose pebbles too and not to mention the uphills and some downhills.
Another signboard at a junction. Turning right goes to Jeram Tanduk and going straight goes to Jeram Kota. First to Jeram Tanduk ......

There are several of these Jerams around this area. Makes a canoeing trip interesting too.
A family was having picnic nearby when I arrived .
The boys even fabricated a Tarzan rope for them to swing around.


Next I proceeded to Jeram Kota. I believe they call this place Kota (Town) because there is a very good camp ground on a level piece of land.



On the river bank at Jeram Kota .

This area is a very good camp ground...flat, elevated from the river and there are steps going down the river too.The serenity at Jeram Kota. After Jeram Tanduk I rode another 2 Km to a timber camp. In some of my previous trips I had camped in the timber camp.
Having a chat with the two workers here.

From here I took a U turn and cycled another 15 km to Kg Air Puteh . Going back was more tiring!

Bike loaded up my old faithful. I have had a good workout! Anyone keen to join me for the next trip?


Sunday, June 21, 2009

Bicycle Touring in the 1970s

In the good old days the word "bicycle touring" has not been coined yet. The bicycle was used to get us from point to point almost for free as we had very little money those days. My first bicycle was a hand me down from my mother in 1972. This was a reward for achieving a good result in a public examination..the LCE (Lower certificate of Education) in 1971. The brand was FUDGE and it was a solid steel bike. It had dual hub brakes and it had a set of 3 speed hub gears that was operated by a small shift level with the markings of H Heavy, M Medium and L Light.I was very active in scouting and when I was an assistant scout master in 1974 and 1975 I organised many cycling/camping trips. In this photo you can see me and my bike. I am the guy in scout uniform. Notice that the house behind is a wooden house and that house was in Klang Road where one of our scout stays. Today this scout from the Tang family is a multi millionaire who has made his money in the construction industry.


We used to cycle in a straight line convoy in most of the trips esp those long ones. Cycling 100 miles a day was normal. Sometimes we cycled through the night as it is cooler and to save energy only the cyclist in front and the cyclist at the back will have the bicycle lights on. Quite a few times we had been warned by the Police not to do such bad practise.



Notice the types of bicycles that we had. Either you had a racing bike or you use an "ordinary" bike. Mountain bikes were not invented yet.




Chee Mun was my scoutmaster when I was a Boy Scout in 1969/70


One of the long trips that I made in my school days was a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Pangkor Island and then to Penang island in late 1975. We cycled the whole night following the Kuala Selangor coastal road to Lumut and then by coastal road to Penang. That was about 300 odd MILEs. While in Penang at the Kek Lok Si Temple I was told by a fortune teller that I will be a very luck person soon.
Next dayI saw a newspaper advertisement for the post of Air force Pilot. Not wanting to miss the interview, I came back to KL by Nanyang Siang Pow newspaper delivery van for a sum of $5.00. That includes the transportation of the bicycle as well.


I was indeed very lucky .Three weeks later, on 16 Dec 75, I had my hair cut and my 10 finger prints taken and I started my military training in Port Dickson.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Solo Kayaking Down Sg Chukai


The Sungei Chukai has its source somewhere near the Ibuk/Paman area. In the bad old days when there was no roads linking to this interior outpost, this river is the only link with the "outside world". My father in law who served in the Police Force in the 1960s used to tell me of their trips to Kg Ibuk to investigate some outlaw activities was by Police motor launch. and it was a long journey. Today you can drive from Chukai to Kg Ibuk just in 20 minutes. The river is navigable from Kg Yak Yah down to Chukai town. I have "played" in this river many times ..both kayaking and by power boat. Today is the start of my 3 days off from flying. The kids have their activities lined up so I thought I will make a kayaking trip and later a cycling trip for the day. It is easy when the equipments are available just behind the house. This yellow fibreglass single seater kayak was purchased for RM 500 second hand 25 years ago. I named it LANUN 1 and it has seen quite a bit of action!


Arrival at Yak Yah launch point. This is the spot where tourist are taken down for a fire fly watching trip at night.


A slipway is available and this river is famous for its Udang Galah so on weekends a lot of weekend fisherman come and try their luck.

I launched my kayak here as well.


The river is clean and the only thing floating down the river are these flowers. Quite alot of it all along the way. Being swamp based, the water is blackish and I have always been reminded that there are crocs around as there is an abundance of prawns here

Due to the recent climatic changes, GREEN APPLES are now found on the banks of Sungei Chukai. The monkeys do not eat these green apples so I am not going to touch it as well!! When I enquired from the orang kampong, they told me this fruit is called Batu Kambing (Goat's testicles))

A lot of these white flowers are also found drifting on the river.


More Green apples

This jetty is part of the Kemaman Zoo. Very soon you can fish from here.



Trying their luck!


I took a short cut through this channel.


The vegetation changes to that of nipah palms on the lower parts of the river


Long Beans ......any takers?

The roots of the swamp trees are "raised" naturally to allow breathing.

This is a bunch of fruits from the Nipah Palm. Tastes like lychee but with firmer flesh. No cholesterol too.

No sweat!

Fish farms are found on the lower parts of the river. This area is the spawning area for a lot of fish esp the sea bass .

Can anyone spot the monitor lizard in this picture

This channel leads to my house. At low tide now.

Journey ends here. Total distance is 20 km and it usually takes me 2 hrs 30 mins of relaxed paddling.

The kayak is washed and stored ready for another trip. Anyone interested for a trip?Just drop me a line. After a shower, I will be peddling my bicycle to bring my truck home