MfMC's Ride for Missing Children-Merdeka Ride 2013

On 31st August 2013, a group of 15 cyclists from GDC (JB), TOK (BTHO, Cheras), OntahmanO (Selayang), ARC-IIUM and IIUM X-Team (Gombak) gathered at Bandar Baru Selayang Petronas Station. As early as 7:30 am, they were already there getting ready for MfMC's first anniversary Merdeka Raya Ride. Exactly a year ago, a group of cyclists (about the same number) from the ARC-LP, IIUM team did the first MfMC's Merdeka Raya night ride from Kuala Kubu Bharu to Fraser's Hill. That event marked MfMC's first activity since formed in August 2012.

While last year, the group merely did the ride, it was very much different this year. Apart from cycling, the group did take the opportunity to approach the local community in various location where they made their stops to share and distribute MfMC's pamphlets. 

MfMC's Pamphlet English version

Amongst others, the pamphlet  introduce MfMC to the society as well as sharing strong message on children's safety. To further instill the sensitivity of the society on this issue, we shared past cases of missing children back in 1980's to the recent case of William Yau who went missing after the parent left him and his siblings in the car without adult's supervision.

MfMC's Pamphlet Malay version

The reason why we shared the past cases was not to bring back the black marks to the family of those children. We are sensitive on that, however, we strongly believe that to create and increase the awareness level, the effective way is to remind the society of the past cases so that they take note and learn something from it. The pamphlet also consists some tips on the same subject and printed in dual language i.e. Malay and English.

As you may be aware, MfMC consists of, amongst others cyclists who have been doing a lot of cycling activities in the past. Since last year, the group thought it was a great idea to propagate the message on the importance of children's safety through their activities, hence making their activities more meaningful. Hence, the tagline "It is not just for fun, it is for a reason".

Group photo before the ride

The MfMC Merdeka Raya Ride 2013 was kicked off on 31st August 2013 at about 8am with the first pit stop and regrouping of cyclists just before going downhill to Ulu Yam. After about 10 minutes break, the group continued their cycling and reached Kuala Kubu Bharu at around 10am. They had their breakfast and regrouping at KKB.

At KKB, the group took the opportunity to distribute MfMC's pamphlets and share the message on children's safety with the local community. The response was good and they were interested to know more about the cause MfMC's fighting for. We could see children and parents reading the pamphlet even when the group was about to continue their cycling to Fraser's Hill. That has already made the group happy feeling that their effort was appreciated.

Part of the group en route to KKB

After about an hour break, the group started their cycling and by that time, it was pretty hot out there and they had go for about 40km climbing route. It was tough at the beginning but with the passion to promote the issue of children's safety, the group endured the challenge and they felt like luck was on their side as after they passed the dam, the weather was getting better and shady. It then started to rain a little bit here and there until they reached Fraser's Hill. As it was raining in Fraser's Hill and the group was rushing to reached their destination of the day i.e. Raub, they stopped at Fraser's Hill just for a meal and prayer. The group was then divided into two i.e. 2 cyclists continued their ride to Raub via Tranum to finish off their initial plan of 3 days cycling while the rest headed back home.

The ride from Fraser's Hill to Raub was rather easy as it was downhill almost 80% of the route but it was raining heavily from Tranum to Raub. Safety is always first, hence, they had their safety lights blinking from their seat post to tell other road users of their presence on the road, so as to avoid accident. The two of them safely reached Raub at around 6pm where they put up a night at Seri Raub Hotel. Being a small town, there was not much of activities at night in Raub with most shops were closed at night.

Hotel Seri Raub agreed to help us distributing the pamphlet

On the second day, 1 September 2013, the plan was to do approximately 140km ride from Raub to Tanah Rata via Sg Koyan and Ringlet. They started their ride as early as 7.30am, but not without approaching the local community in Raub. Seri Raub Hotel was a nice, clean and comfortable budget hotel with their 2 single bed room is RM80/night. It is suitable for a short stay or if you want to take a rest and spend a night before continuing with your journey. It is located right in the middle of Raub town, making it very strategic as travellers from KL to Kelantan or vice versa will pass by Raub town. Next to the hotel, every Sunday there is a pasar tani and the two of them took the opportunity to distribute the pamphlet there and share the message.

Pasar Tani from the hotel room

Again, it was a warm welcome from the local folks and we were glad. However, there were people who were curious with the two of them, dressed in complete cycling suit, with their napsack at the back and distributing pamphlet to people.

The makcik was spotted reading the pamphlet just before the two of them started their ride

    

With one of the local folks

With local traders

Yes! it is about children

The duo before their 2nd day ride...proud with Jalur Gemilang

The ride from Raub to Sg Koyan where the duo made their first stop to refuel (carboload) was rather enjoyable with most part of the route was flat and is some locations it was rolling. The duo bumped into 3 cyclists coming from Sg. Koyan heading towards Raub. While the route was easy, they had to make a forced stop to change the bicycle tube as one of them had a flat tyre.They finally reached Sg Koyan at around 10am. Taking a break of about an hour at Sg. Koyan where they had light meal before going on climbing route of about 90km, they did approach few local folks on the mission as well as distributing the pamphlets.

Meeting local folks at Sg Koyan

 

Warm welcome by folks of Sg. Koyan

With kids at Pos Betau

They continued with their ride at around 11am. It was fun for the first 30km after Sg Koyan with the route was more of rolling. The tough part started thereafter with more of long climbing and the weather was so hot. Nonetheless, they made a quick stop at Pos Betau and took picture with the kids of the aborigines.

It was about 40km from Pos Betau to the nearest town, Ringlet in Cameron Highlands. It was really tough and challenging. They made a short break at KM 48 from Sg Koyan.

As they continued with their cycling, the weather became hotter with no place for shading. About 15km before Ringlet, it was shady as it seems that it was going to rain. But the rain drops for a little while only before the sun came out again.

With all the energy they had, enduring the heat and challenges while motivated by the mission to raise and create awareness among the society on the importance of the children's safety, the finally reached Ringlet at around 4.30pm and that was after they cycled for about 130km. They had late lunch at the Ringlet food court and performed prayer at the Petronas station.

Marvellous feeling!

They continued their ride at around 5:30pm to Tanah Rata. They did a pit stop at Bharat Tea House where they had their teh tarik. The feeling of having the teh tarik after such a long ride, at the highlands surrounded by the greenery of tea plants was marvellous. All the pain they had endured just went away. As it was getting darker, the duo could not stay longer there and had to rush to Tanah Rata before it rains. They reached Tanah Rata at around 6:40pm, which is after about 11 hours on the road!!!. First thing they need to do was to a place to sleep. It could be hotel or backpackers or even homestay. After a short tour of Tanah Rata, they decided to stay at Planters Hotel. Another budget hotel, costs the 2 of them RM135/night. Unfortunately, the weather climate in Cameron Highland has been warmer with even it was raining outside, people do not wear jacket. In the room where there was no air-cond, it was really warm.

The 3rd day on 2 September 2013, the duo started their ride to Tapah via Lata Iskandar at about 8:30am. They approached Planters Hotel and they agreed to help to distribute the pamphlets to their guests.

Sharing the message at Planters Hotel

 

Off we go...bye-bye Tanah rata...till we meet again

The ride from Tanah Rata to Tapah for about 50km was seen as a reward for their hardwork for the past 2 days as it was 90% going downhill. They made a brief stop for the last teh tarik session at Bharat Tea House where they distributed the pamphlet to the patrons there. The response, as usual has been very warm, which we believe due to our cause which is closed to the people's heart. Everyone knows that the issue of missing children is a serious issue and something more proactive need to be done and that is MfMC is trying to i.e. create and raise the awareness level among the society on the importance of the children's safety.

Distributing the pamphlets to the patrons ate Bharat Tea House

 

With Abg Radzi (former Kelantan cyclist) and his kids

After the brief stop at Bharat Tea House, the duo proceeded to Tapah. The made another brief stop at Lata Iskandar, a nice waterfall which is very closed to the narrow road. While making the stop, they were approached by a local tourist guide who were interested when informed about the ride and the message they carried with them. The tourist guide asked for pamphlets, which the duo were happily gave for him to put at his backpackers hostel.

Lata Iskandar waterfall as the background

The duo proceeded to Tapah where they end their ride. They reached Tapah at around 12pm. 

He did it!

He did it!

This marks the end of the ride...Alhamdulillah, it was a safe ride

From the ride where MfMC met and greeted the local communities in various places along the way, we strongly feel the agreement by the people that we met for the need to have more promotion and awareness campaign on the issue of missing children because more often than not, the causes that led to the children go missing are repeatedly the same. We hope that with this little effort by, we are able to promote the awareness among the society on the importance of children's safety.

We wish to record our appreciation to the people that we met for thjeir warm welcome.

MfMC is humbled with the support that we received during the ride by the duo. We wish to record our heartfelt appreciation to Hadhari Resources Sdn. Bhd., Jitu Bio-Tech (M) Sdn. Bhd. and Jawhari Furnitue Gallery for their monetary contribution for our pamphlet which we distributed to the local folks. We wish to also record our appreciation to the cycling team from ARC-IIUM, OntahmanO, IIUM X-Team, TOK and GDC for their direct participation during the ride. Last but not least, thank you to those who were involved in the ride, directly or indirectly and those who prayed for our success and safety during the ride.