We were headed towards Kuala Lumpur on
a fantastic highway, cruising along when I
suddenly saw smoke coming out of
partner's bike. I started honking and
gestured him to pull over immediately. It
was exactly like what had happened in agra
when we were riding in India. The oil pipe
had dislodge. After making sure he was
okay, I looked at my new gear and felt really
bad about the splashes of oil all over it.
Thankfully it was not too badly soiled. DiDi, the founder of BigBoy Adventures is a really helpful and
hospitable guy. he was kind enough to let us stay at his office and
even organized a BBQ party with all bikers of Kuala Lumpur, where
we made a presentation about 'Ride To Be One'. It was a great
experience for us, as we relived our journey and it helped us
appreciate how far we had come.
In about 5 minutes a highway patrol car
reached us and they gave us some oil and
partner fixed the pipe. We stopped at the
first petrol pump and bought some more oil
and cleaned up much as we could. We drove to Penang on Wednesday, as it was the only day of the
week that his boat sailed for Medan (Indonesia). We dropped off our
bikes and completed all the formalities. In 5 days, our bikes will arrive
in Medan. We will take a short flight to Indonesia and pick up our
bikes from Mr. Lim.
I told partner that I was tired. And he quietly
replied, "Can you understand how I must
feel ? " And he is right. We serviced the bikes
in Thailand and we thought all was done !
We don't know why this bike behaving like
this and it is damn tough for him. As we had a few days to spare, I decided to return to Kuala Lumpur
and attend the DRE (Ducati Riding Experience) with Neharika at the
Sepang Circuit. I was very happy to see her and we had a great time
with the Ducati team of instructors.
Our longest stay while on our ride has been in Malaysia and it is time
to move on. We both were missing our bikes and felt the need it get
back on the road ! We hired the services of Mr. Lim to transport our
bikes from Malaysia to Indonesia on his famous 'Onion Boat'.
Time to get ready and fly to country #8 Indonesia.
June 9, Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia.
Our important learning in this situation is -
we take it as a part of our ride. That is the
only way for us to carry on. we
are grateful that we find our solutions and
we are getting stronger each passing day.
The fact is that our dream is much bigger
than the problems we encounter ! We
reached Kuala Lumpur around 9 pm and
thanks to Nachi (Ikjot's friend) a room was
booked for us.
I had to fly to South America and the
Caribbean for my visa and passport
paperwork. Partner too did a quick trip
to India. I decided to stop over in London
for a day and also catch up with my old
friend. with 11 flights in 8 days, I've
realized that nothing can be easy, when
it comes to my life.
After a break of 9 days, we both returned
to Kuala Lumpur and applied for our
Australia visas. While we waited we took
a quick trip to Kuala Basut, the
Perhentian Islands and then got back to
Kuala Lumpur.
"Ride To Be One" series will be covered in separate "Road Stories" e-book.
Hence, the remaining stories related to this series will not be featured here
from the next issue. We will announce the 'Road Stories" e-book soon.