Cycling Pledge , August 2007

On August 17 to 20, Sky Adventure Club of Taylors University College took on a new challenge which has never been attempted before. It was not a normal outing like in the past, not the usual camping or hiking experience that was done again and again, this was a cycling pledge which aimed to put advertising on a new edge by cycling all the way from Subang Jaya down to Muar, Johor and doing road shows along the way in conjunction with our great country’s 50^th birthday. The pledge was not another Guinness World Record moment; however, it turned out to be an adventure to be remembered for the 15 participants and 1 chaperone that took on this challenge. This was a pledge where Raleigh sponsored S.A.C 10 hybrid bikes and one special bike which looks like a hot rod with flames on its sides, in red and without brakes to cycle and advertise at road shows during the journey. A cycling trip not for the faint hearted, but a challenge that required patience, perseverance, mental strength and also physical strength to complete and survive. Along the way, there were not only cars and straight roads but also steep hills, dusty roads, heavy traffic and also the blistering hot sun to endure to reach our destination. But there is also goodness in it, we were also able to enjoy the scenic view of taking trunk roads to our destination, the fresh air of the woods rather than the usual and boring route of a highway and occasionally the fun and fast paced downhill rides that come after the treacherous uphill. We made stops at a few famous places to do our road shows that will be explained in the following paragraphs.

Day 1

All of us gathered at Taylor’s Business School ground floor at 6 a.m. to pack up, distribute things to bring and for the cyclist, to get changed and prepare for the journey. We took about an hour or so to stuff the things into a van and 2 Myvi’s that will be accompanying us along the way. We moved out in a guy-girl-guy-girl formation with our president as the lead of the troupe. Each of us took the first few hours easy as we battled early morning traffic before making it into the clearer and also narrower roads. We took the route via USJ and turn off after The Summit to the LDP to Jalan Puchong. After passing the Puchong Utama – Seri Kembangan LDP toll, we had a police escort us all the way to Putrajaya where we parted ways and the cyclist made our way to the big mosque in Putrajaya. We took turns going for lunch and opened our stand with the Fly.FM crew with us and giving out goodie bags and flags. At around 2 something we left the mosque area and continued with our journey. As web battled our way through the mountains and dusty roads, one of our cyclist had a cramp and amazingly enough, at that moment, an ambulance van passed by and they even turned and stopped to see if we were alright. Something you don’t see every day. On and on, we went and we traveled and finally reached Port Dickson at around 10 p.m. All the cyclists were exhausted and rested at an open area where the crew cooked dinner. We had a marvelous baked bean with luncheon meat mixed with rice for dinner and after dinner, at around 11p.m. we set up camp, went over to a public restroom to bathe and clean up before hitting the sack.

Starting point - TBS

At Puchong Utama

On the way to Putrajaya
Roadshow at Putrajaya

with FlyFm crews at Putrajaya

Day 2

In the morning, at around 5a.m. it was raining so heavily that we got up and packed up and stayed in the cars till it was over. At around 7 a.m. the crew cooked breakfast and we ate our fill till at about 9 something, we all packed up and prepared to continue on with our journey. The journey on the second day was not as long the first day, we picked up the pace and cycled at a faster speed and also there wasn’t as difficult as the first day with less uphill climbs and not as steep as well. At around 5p.m. we arrived Malacca and stop by Jonker street to have a go at their famous cendols. Then at 7p.m. our stand was set up and we began promoting and doing our road show till about 9p.m. After we finished doing the road show, we packed up and head back for some R & R for the last day of the pledge.

Port Dickson

On the way to Malacca
At Jonker Street

Malacca's Cendol

Roadshow at Jonker Street , Malacca

Day 3

Everyone got up at around 9 something and had breakfast before starting off for the final leg of the journey. At 10 something, we headed out and pushed on to Muar. This leg of the journey was the shortest of the whole trip as the journey lasted only about 4 hours where we stopped at Tanjung Emas to have our lunch cooked by the crew of course. At about 4 something, we left Tanjung Emas and headed to town where we set up our stand and began promoting till about 5.45 when we finished, packed up and did a little shopping for ‘otak otak’ before departing back to Malacca. At about 7 something, we stopped and dismantled the bikes, stuff it in the van and headed back to Malacca.

We did it !

Roadshow at Muar

Day 4

At the end of our rigorous journey, we all woke up at about 9 to 10 a.m. had chicken rice balls near Jonker Street for breakfast and walked around to shop for souvenirs before heading back to Kuala Lumpur and arrived at Subang Jaya at about 5 p.m. where the bikes were unloaded, reassembled and kept at Taylors Business School car parl, packed up our belongings and headed home for the comfort of our own beds.

Overall, this is another successful event that was organized by the Sky Adventure Club of Taylors University College. Accomplish or Do Not Begin!!!

Mount Nuang Orientation Trip , August 2007

Recently on August 14 2007, 15 brave hikers ,(8 senior members and 6 junior members accompanied by the club advisor Miss Alina, a.k.a “The Rock”) hiked up Mount Nuang, Hulu Langat. This is no ordinary hike to the junior as for the senior it is just another adventure hike but for the junior, it’s an orientation camp that they’ll not forget anytime soon.

At 7.30 in the morning, the members arrived and gathered at Taylor’s Business School to pack supplies and equipment for the hike. After everyone was done packing and stuffing their bags into the cars, we had a marvelous breakfast at the newly named Foh Foh restaurant beside TBS and departed at 9 in the morning. On the way, we made a stop near the entrance of Hulu Langat for the OCP to ‘tapau’ lunch before continuing on with the journey to the base of Mount Nuang.

Arrival at base camp was a little behind schedule. We arrived at 11.30 and started preparing for the hike. At 11.35, we began hiking and it was no easy walk in the jungle. The hike was about a 70%to 80% uphill and about 20% to 30% downhill hike from the beginning. It led from a yellow dust road used by trucks and motorcycles to move up and down the mountain to gather forest fruits such as durians(yes, there were durian trees along the way but in a safe distance from our heads) and banana trees. After hiking up the dirt and slightly muddy road for 3 hours, we finally arrived at the first sighting of a cool, clean and refreshing waterfall. There we made a short stop to enjoy the sights and sounds of the forest cupped with the cooling waterfall and began chowing down on the lunch that was bought earlier. About 20 to 30 minutes later, we continued our journey upward and reached the camp site known as Lolo Campsite. The place was large enough to support 200 campers at a time and we found ourselves a wonderful spot near the waterfall and also away from other campers.

We reached our camp site at 3.10pm and began setting up tents and relaxing from our tiring journey upward. Shortly after relaxing, everyone headed to the waterfall and enjoyed sitting and chatting around in the small area that we had. The water was clean and cold and cold, and I mean REALLY cold to the point that if you jumped in directly, you’d jump straight out from shock of the cold water. We also had a little splashing game where the guys ganged up and splashed the girls who were afraid to dip into the freezing water whilst the guys, took a dip into cold water one by one.

After playing around in the water, the guys started scouring for firewood while the girls distributed and planed what to cook for dinner with the ingredients supplied. At night, we all had a filling dinner and played ‘Mafia’ and ‘pump pump’ till its lights out at 10.30. Some of us woke up at 4.30 am to refill our water bottles with fresh clean untouched water.

At 7 am we cooked breakfast with leftover from dinner and also some tuna biscuits that were supplied. After breakfast, 4 brave men went back into the freezing water in the morning to enjoy one last dip in the stream nearby. At 9.30 we packed up and took pictures of our success on conquering Mount Nuang and started heading down at 10.30. We arrived at the base at 1.30 and head back to Subang Jaya where we had lunch before going home to clean up and rest. Yet another mission accomplished by the members of S.A.C!