OTW Mekah

On Two Wheels. Lately, I haven't been blogging as regularly as I wanted to. Two reasons: 

1. It's been frustratingly difficult to access my own blog. 

2. My proposed motorcycle trip from KL to Ka'bah is demanding more and more of my time and focus as the ETD [March 14] draws closer. 

Who has been attacking our blogs? Tok Scribe is the latest of our top bloggers who have been facing queer problems with their blogs in the last few weeks. Readers are also facing problems trying to get into Helen Ang, Apanama, and OutSyed The Box's blogs, among others. Are we "under attack"? The MCMC told one of us, "there's no such thing, that it could be a) issues related to reception/line or b) problems with Blogspot, the enabler that is used by the bloggers affected". In other words, the MCMC had nothing to do with the strange phenomenon. Wallahualam.  

The Triumph Explorer

The Road to Mecca. Most bikers dream of doing that long-distance journey at least once: of spending days, weeks or even months on the road and in their saddles munching miles and chasing the horizon. Since I first rode a motorcycle legally in 1977, I've ridden in Singapore and Malaysia and I have done test rides in Italy, Spain and Germany but never gotten to do that adventure-touring stuff. By the time I hit the half-century mark, though, I started to think less and less of it.  

Yet, here I am suddenly making preparations for this trip that will take me on my Triumph through Thailand, Laos, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Chechnya, Georgia, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Nine bikes and a 4-men motley crew, 18,000 km take or minus a few clicks, 65 days ...  

Yesterday we had our final briefing, did some off-road crash course, and rode together for a little over 100 miles. By the end of the day - one afternoon, actually - and I was exhausted! This week the visas are being readied, there'll be vaccines to take, the laptop to repair, the holy Umrah course to attend. It's kinda cool for a biker to quote the saying: "It's not the destination but the journey". In my case, however, it is the destination that draws me into this sojourn; the journey itself should be an awesome bonus.  

More on the Wasatiyyah-Holy Land Expedition on this blog later ...