Morning!

Good morning from Pasir Pekan, Kota Bharu. We'll go out looking for breakfast food soon.

Stage 4 Complete!

Alhamdulillah, we safely reached Pasir Pekan, Kota Bharu yesterday (a.k.a Townsand-upon-Newcastle). Once again, the support car arived later - only this time is due to traffic jam. Kota Bharu is more familiar compared to Kuala Terengganu. All in all, the toal distance covered is 420KM on the bicycles while the car clocks almost 550KM due to support duties. It's such a relief to be able to relax and wind down here in a tranquil village.

More stats and photos later.

Roadside Repair

Apparently the replaced tube this morning doesn't hold up very well so that means anither repair for us today.

Bike Repair

Shahir's tyre punctured yesterday so we are having some extra maintenance work today.

Shahir is Having His First Rice Breakfast

Total footage for yesterday is 11.36GB, not much to shooot after Penarik yesterday.

Stage 3 Complete!

Alhamdulillah, after a grueling 12 hour ride Shahir and Badruddin reached Jerteh. Night ride is not only challenging for the cyclist but to the support crew as well as it is difficult to stop by the roadside and low visibility. Here's wishing a relaxed trip to Kota Bharu tomorrow. Amin

Night Ride

Today our ride extends into the night because we miscalculated the route distance and there's no homestay at Permaisuri. So we still need to push on to Jerteh.

Penarik

The route from Kuala Terengganu to Penarik is the best so far. Gentle breeze, wide open road, white beaches - it's simply heavenly! We took a quick nap at the Penarik Mosque where our 10 minute snooze feel like a hour. Simply magical for our weary soul.

Stage 3: Kuala Terengganu - Jerteh via Penarik

At last, the sun shows itself. After two days of dark, cool weather now the heat is on especially for Shahir and Bad. Blue sky is a boon for videographer like me but that means more effort for the cyclists. Our breakfast was fried noodles and keropok lekor which only costs us RM12. That includes fresh bananas as well. Hot tea still costs just 50 sen here in KT.

We planned to flag off at Masjid Kristal but we missed the junction and took off from Pulau Duyong instead. After that we stop to get some supplies - medicine, brake pad and water.

Now I'm waiting for them at Petronas Merang. Pray for our success!

P/s: Ate deep fried tapai here but it's too sinful to be featured here! :P

Stage 2 Complete!

Alhamdulillah, we finished stage two despite the imminent threat of storm. Thanks to those who prayed for us. Weirdly, the support car arrived later than the cyclists today. Well, KT is a rather unfamiliar territory so getting lost is not uncommon.

The last leg from Marang to KT the cyclists pushed to 27km/h. We alse came across the Terengganu state cycling team doing their training.

We are staying at Pulau Kambing tonight and tomorrow we'll push to Permaisuri or Jerteh, InsyaAllah.

Tripod Hack I

A landscape tripod can be very handy as the legs can be moved independently. As such you can put it in the passenger seat. Perfect for the solo videographer like me. Just make sure you keep your eyes on the road and don't exceed 80km/h.

Pitstop at Dungun

Stop after 30km in stage 2. Will press on to Rantau Abang.

Off We Go!

Flag off today is rather late at 9am and the weather looks rather gloomy. In this kind of weather, 7am and 7pm doesn't look that different. The sky is grey throughout the day. The temperature yesterday is around 23 degrees which is quite cool. The Meteorological Department report indicated that the weather today will be similar to yesterday but being in Terengganu it will be rather undpredictable. It will be a long day today so do pray for us!

Breakfast in Kerteh

Second day, stage 2, Kerteh - Marang.

Bismillah, we will start our second stage today, after our breakfast.

We have washed our bikes, washing the chain, and washing the mud and dirt and grime that we have collected during testerday's rainy ride.

We are expecting a storm today in Terengganu, so please pray for our safety!!

P/s - i have strained my leg muscle, so today i am doing a recovery ride. Not along one too. Hrhehehhehehe

Stage 1 Complete!

Alhamdulillah, we reached Kerteh by Asar prayer. Thanks to our friend's family for hosting us tonight.

On the technical side we used up almost 13GB today. Shots were mostly using the 18-55mm and 50mm lenses.

Lunch at Kemasik

Pitstop at Kemasik for lunch after almost 6-7 hours of cycling covering 90km. A minor setback is when Badruddin's bike tube punctured. Nawfal had to go back to Kuantan because he have on-call tonight.

Pahang - Terengganu Border

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Location:Chukai,Malaysia

Cherating

Somehow, when waiting at the bus stop in rain reminds me of Totoro. I half-execting to see a giant cat standing besides me. However, being in Cherating I just meet with foreign tourists. One of them is David from Vancouver, Canada. He said that this is the first country he really sees Islam. He also going to KT and then to KB so perhaps we'll bump into him again later.





Firdaus
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Location:Cherating,Malaysia

0930HR Day 1

We have reached the 30km mark near Gebeng junction. Next stop is at Cherating.

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Location:Balok,Malaysia

mutaqee misran part 2

muttaqee misran decided not to follow us, at the last minute, one hour prior to flag off. he's surfing at pulau redang as the wave season is coming to the end.

so three of us today: Badruddin, Shahir, Nawfal the Pahang State Rep and two support cars: Firdaus and Rae. it is raining outside and we are cycling!

Six Hours To Go!

Six hours to go and we still haven't assembled the whole crew. Taqee reportedly went surfing. So far, we have used up 32GB for footage today. We also recorded vlog using the Nokia N8.

Turned out that Bad didn't have any clinic tonight so we are a bit relaxed and can catch up with preparation. That's all for now, a good rest is essential for the flag off tomorrow.

May Allah ease our way...

Firdaus

setinggi penghargaan

setinggi penghargaan kepada penaja utama kami:

Hj Ghazali Hj Marson

Rabi'ah binti Ahmad

yang sudi menaja kami untuk mendapatkan barang keperluan dan bekalan sepanjang kayuhan ini.

ahli-ahli keluarga kami

yang tidak putus-putus mengirimkan doa supaya kami selamat dalam perjalanan ini.

sahabat-sahabat kami

yang tidak putus-putus memberi sokongan, dorongan dan nasihat kepada kami.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

jangan lupa doakan keselamatan dan kesejahteraan sepanjang kembara kayuhan ini.

Initial Shooting

Alhamdulillah, so far we managed to record interviews with Bik and Dr. Jamal. Both of them give valuable information and tips for the ride. Bik mostly covered on the techincal side while Dr. Jamal stressed more on health. Both if them also gave substantial input on safety. Dr. Jamal also recommended us to put support car sign on our cars so people will be more alert.




We also scouted the flag off location which is the new IIUM Kuantan mosque. Most likely we'll pray fajr there and straight away move out.

On the technical side it seems that the 550D didn't hold up very well. Many time we encountered overheating alert. Perhaps now I need to use the 60D as the main camera.

Badruddin still have dental clinic session tonight so we'll shoot him coming out of the clinic then have briefing with the rest of the team.

Firdaus
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Location:Kuantan,Malaysia

OMG!

less than 40 hours to start the 800km ride! help us Ya Allah!

Shooting Equipment

For this shooting we'll be using Canon 550D and 60D with several lenses. As we didn't have any dedicated sound recorder the 550D is hacked with MagicLantern so we can have clean sound. Our primary mic is a Sennheiser G2 ew1000.

Most of the equipments are on loan from friends. The only purchase I made is a Firewire harddisk with capacity of 500GB. It cost a dear RM467 but for video editing you really need the speed. An existing USB HDD is used for backup. Ideally, I would like another HDD for backup but this setup would suffice.

Most of the time I'll be shooting alone but some friend will assist for the first 3 days. I almost finished packing and InsyaAllah I'll depart from KL this afternoon to meet up with the rest of the gang tonight. Tomorrow morning we'll start our shooting!

Firdaus
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shopping

we are buying our equipments and accessories as well as spare parts needed for the ride tomorrow. I already made some surveys and ask for some tips and guidance for a long distance ride from coach/athlete maker: Abang Abdul Rahim Kadir and ex-athlete Rejim Mongol. I am so glad that abang Rahim is sponsoring his set of tyre for us to use it as a spare tyre, as his shop, Le Tua Bike Shop in IM8, Indera Mahkota, Kuantan does not have "cheap" tyres to be used as spare tyre. he also gave us special discounts for items in his shop too! thank you abang rahim

for those who are thinking about starting to ride a bicycle, don't worry. we will make special interview with abang rahim the athlete maker on how to buy a perfect bike and some technical stuffs to be considered.

stay tuned!

p/s: look who got the new specialized expert road cycling shoesfor this ride!

photo by Rejim Mongol.

the route

i went through the route when i was travelling to kota bharu to attend my cousin's wedding. on the way, i checked the route for this weekend ride and here are some pictures of the actual road we are cycling in just the matter of few days.

-bad

sunrise in besut

kuantan bypass

corn stall

dungun

marang

kelulut

marang, reaching to KT

beautiful mosque

petronas refinery complex, paka