those motor cycling days - (2)


our first motor bike tour of peninsular malaysia ended in disaster. there were four of us - all teachers at balestier hill secondary- riding our own bikes. we were headed for kuala lumpur. in those days, kuala lumpur was already the capital city of malaysia but it was in the state of selangor.

we made a stop at melaka for lunch before pushing northwards. when we were somewhere in negri sembilan, it started to rain. we decided to take shelter by the roadside. we had planned that if it continued to rain, we would spend the night in seremban instead of kl.

as fate would have it, the rain petered out and so we decided to make kl our destination. somewhere near kajang, johnny,who riding ahead, was blinded by the glaring headlights of an on-coming car. he hit the curb and crashed his bike. james, who was riding just behind him, could not stop in time. he also ended lying on the road. fortunately, the two of us at the back managed to avert a collision. we parked our bikes and went to check on our friends. both of them needed medical attention. we called for an ambulance which came and took them to kajang hospital.

at kajang hospital, the one was not so seriously injured appeared to be badly shaken. he was in a state of shock. we had our shock when the doctor mentioned that he would to resort to reduction to treat johnny. for a moment we had visions of him being amputated. we were relieved when the doctor explained to us that they had to put his hand in a cast.

the next day, james was discharged but johnny was transferred to the kl general hospital. so, we did make it to kl but not in our preferred circumstances. we camped at the field and visited him during visiting hours. we sought the help of the singapore's consul in kl and made arrangement for the two damaged bikes to be transported back to singapore by train.

when we returned to singapore, the bikes were still not back. the bikes arrived a few days after our return. we had to go down to the tanjong pagar railway station to collect the bikes.