Diary : when it all began...........

"Lo! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of night and day, and the ships which run upon the sea with that which is of use to men, and the water which Allah sendeth down from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and dispersing all kinds of beasts therein, and (in) the ordinance of the winds, and the clouds obedient between heaven and earth: are signs (of Allah's Sovereignty) for people who have sense."
Pickthal's translation of The Holy Quran, 2 : verse 164 

“Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.” – Kurt Vonnegut


3am, 20th May,
Subang Jaya


It all started with a religious polemical argument within my fellow form-mates in MCKK [ class of 69 ] in the jubileeintan69 website.
Two chaps were almost getting too hot under the collar over some 'ranting' issues, the usual 'purist'  vs 'traditional'.

I interjected and suggested we discuss a possible Kuala Lumpur- London drive instead to 'defuse' the hot situation.
Two weeks later saw myself, Peng[ an oncological paediatrics consultant from UH, semiretired, survived cancer of colon ], Bab [ ex Petronas ] and three others brainstorming on this [ Jed, Deng and Bastamam ].

Driving to London at 60 !!??
As usual with most Malaysian style  brainstorming session, we had teh tarik to 'warm up' the neurons , then gulp in a couple of roti canais, followed by a full plateful of  mee mamak. Then , and only a 'much later' then , the 'storm', sans the brains..........

Talk about 'crazy' people, we do have a lot of them coming from MCKK, at least during my time I was there.....that is why we have such thing as BERSIH  now. Restless souls, semiretarded childhood , a preamble to a delayed protracted adolescence  coalescing into late adulthood !!
But we are certainly no  'sissies' from VI or St John like our friend NTR .......
[ NTR was definitely not MCKK of course, not like his late dad... Otherwise he would not be so 'takut2' as he is now. Everyone in and out of Amenu knows his problem, but the typical' lallang' he is, he is not reading in between the lines and still  waiting for someone else to 'bersih' his problem ! My God ! Once a 'lallang', always a 'lallang' ! Must be in the water they serve at St John or VI. No wonder they always lost in Rugby to even RMC .]


We are doing the KL- London drive sometime next year, probably August after Eid. We agreed on a possible route driving thru Myanmar[ hopefully Myammar opens up its border by then], Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan [  Osama Ben Laden's Abottabad, Quetta etc etc] and on to Iran via the Kyber Pass, then Turkey. From Turkey onwards it would very 'light and easy' heading for Europe and London, via Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia, Bavaria and Switzerland. My initial plan for leaving on the eve of Ramadan and doing the Umrah and Eid in Makkah midway was shot down .Bab and Peng were unfortunately not 'mad' enough. 


We reckoned 2 months would be ideal for us to be able to pack in visits to some World Heritage spots and towns along the way.I will drive my Hilux single cabin with the help of my 2 boys, while Peng and Bab plus minus wife will probably in between them secure an old Landcruiser Prado. We plan to 'camp' as much as we can along the way. On  'breaking camp' in London we would go our separate ways. If Bab's and Peng's Prado is still intact by then they will ship it back to KL. Plan B would be to sell it as scrap iron in East London.So far my other classmates are not yet 'mad' enough to 'want to join us'.


I have my very own plan B and plan C : will drive down to Florence and leave my Hilux there with my son in law and daughter who is currently looking after Malaysia's 'durian plantation'  owned by Petronas there.
Some eight months later, after doing some decent work in my hospital back in KL, I would take a two month break and do the 'Muslim Conquest' route in the reverse direction:
Serville, Cordoba, Gibraltar, Tangier, Casablanca, Tripoli , etc and etc and finally Cairo. That would be , insyaallah the 2nd phase.

Godwilling , in late 2014, plan C would be  a trans-Siberian cross to Vladivostok from Moscow and the Stans in the West. This would require a wee bit more of ' mind over matter doa  and zikr' as this is basically no man's land. Insyaallah.
'Angan2 orang tua'.


My plan B. click here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6dmIyaSSBA&feature=related


..and if Peng and Bab  are still quite game and crazy enough we will, insyaallah, proceed to plan C,
click here :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXZJAbMyWV4&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_2LmfFz_uw&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxL9Z4z83tg&feature=relmfu  ,

I doubt Yang Ariff  Datuk Alizatul , who most probably has more sense than all the three of us all added together, would not veto 'Peng' into joining us at least for plan C.
I definitely can reassure Yang Ariff Datuk that plan A is basically 'no sweat' insyaallah. It is just as easy and breezy as a drive from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Teganun, x50 of course....we will have 'kerepok lekor in London's Malaysia Hall, insyaallah. Yang Ariff can perhaps take her time off from her busy Hall of Justice's schedule, and join us for a spot of 'chopping' at Oxford Street's Selfridge, courtesy of Malaysia Airlines of course.