July 26, 2008

Kuantan – Kuala Terengganu Ride: The Challenge Against Nature

26July 2008 / Saturday / 05.30 p.m.

The ride to Kota Baru was not exactly a free and easy ride in entirety. We were very lucky that up to Kuantan the weather was almost on mercy on all of us throughout the ride. Then, our luck of the weather made a turning point when the rain started to drizzle as we rode to Kuala Terengganu. We made ourselves as friendly as possible to the drizzling rain and tried to enjoy the ride amidst the drizzle.

Well, who are we to challenge the supreme power of Allah the Almighty. As we were nearing Kerteh where we planned to break the journey for dinner at Anoi’s house (Ani’s younger sister) the sudden hard pouring down of the rain had us surrendered and scattered ourselves for shelter. Again, we were very lucky because we were only a few metres away from a nearby cosy restaurant at Ajai. All soaking wet, Halim, Atin and K made a vrooming ride for that comfortable shelter. It was quite a frustration also because Anoi’s house is just 10 kilometres away.

Everybody was shivering cold especially Ani. While the guys attended to the bikes, the ladies made immediate order of hot drinks and food to ease themselves. We were stranded for more than an hour for the rain to subside. We took that opportunity to have our break and enjoyed the food and drinks. We also put our journey on table for plan of action with regards to the wet weather. At that point it was already passing 8 p.m. Our journey had come to a delay point and we needed to be more patient then.

We decided to proceed our journey considering the fact that the rain did not seem to stop at any moment. We rode in the heavy drizzle all the way to Anoi’s house. Upon reaching Anoi’s house we were already soaking wet all over again. Everybody made a run to the bathroom to get into warm clothing.

Though Anoi was kind enough to have some food ready for us but we were quite full at Ajai just then. Nevertheless we ate as much as we can for we had hundreds of kilometres of ride to make in the darkening night. The rain seemed to drizzle all the way through the night and there was no sign it would stop at any point of time. After much discussion we decided than to continue our journey and got ourselves ready for the ride. It was then 10.30 p.m.


Anoi & her family with Nik & Ani before leaving Anoi's house in Kerteh.

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