Weee......KL CAR FREE DAY!!! :)

Hi all,

Here's an update on the KL Car Free Day that went on yesterday morning......

A day before I was about to head down to KL, I was encouraged by Gus Ghani (the guy who was so kindly promoting for me) to bring my panniers along for the event. I was reluctant to do so at first because that would mean setting up my rack again....which meant me fiddling with it again after a long time...hmmm

Well, eventually, I bought into the idea and decided to set up my rack and boy, did I have a "fun" time! But surprisingly, it didn't take me that long to set it but I had a minor problem with one side that needed cable ties instead of bolts and nuts but it was easily settled by my friend, Chin :)

And then, I got a sudden inspiration to print stickers of my book cover to paste it onto my panniers, as part of my marketing strategy....luckily, my printer friend managed to print out 2 stickers for me in a jiffy and i stuck them onto my beloved Ortlieb panniers....sorry Ortlieb, had to cover your brand for a short while! 

Have a look and of course, I had to bring my bicycle and paniers to the seaside to have some promotional photos!

 

Taa daa....my bicycle, helmet and panniers by the beach!

 Hmm....simple advertising :)

On the event day, which was on 7th Dec, 2014....I woke up early and eager to get to the venue because I wasn't familiar with the roads of KL anymore. Gus had already given me clear directions to the carpark but trust me to get them mixed up! I had to call Gus for directions again but still it was a bit confusing because I had already past the turning! Sigh! In the end, Gus had to end the call and he told me to try to find a parking somewhere along the way.....

Luckily, it was still early and the roads were very quiet.....so after some turns and stopping to ask an early jogger for directions, I finally made ti to the designated carpark where I was supposed to meet up with Gus but of course, there had to be a running event at that very same place!

So I had to park along the roadside. Good thing I came early! Informed Gus about the running event and he was running late! So we decided to meet at the start line.

I saddled up my panniers, which was loaded with my books, onto my bicycle and rode down to the starting point. The crowd was slowly growing but nobody I knew was insight.....

Then, one guy came up to me and asked whether I was Sandra and I said 'Yes" He introduced himself as Lim and he asked if he could have a photo with me :)

Well, little did I know that he and his friends would help me out during the short ride....my rack gave way as we were heading towards the Petronas Twin Towers and I lost a screw!  It must have been all that rattling from Kuantan to KL in my car that the screws got loosen....and in all the excitement, I forgot to carry my tools with me! Great! 

Now what??

Luckily for me, Lim and his friends came to my rescue! We pushed my bicycle to the side and they began fixing up my rack again. One of them decided to take out one of his unused screws from his bicycle and it fitted perfectly! Phew!!

And they tightened up my rack and it was so much sturdier now!Thanks a million guys!

 My heroes!! (Lim, second from left)

I finally met up with Gus in front of Petronas Twin Towers! Somehow, we seemed to have missed each other at the starting line! Anyway, good thing he stopped there as there were some cyclists who wanted to have a go at his ELLIPTIGO. Check out his special bicycle.......

 Gus with his ELLIPTIGO! :)

Lim and his friends decided to cycle on while I waited for Gus. We took some photos in front of the Twin Towers and there, I met an avid cyclist Jotaro Yen. He came over to say hi and decided to get a copy of my book then and there! Wow...my first sale for the morning! :)

 My first customer, Jotaro Yen :)

 

After spending some time in front of the Twin Towers, Gus and I rode to the finish line which wasn't very far. Soon, people started to gather around us because of ELLIPTIGO! Then, some cyclists came up to me to say hello and I also managed to sell some of my books then! Thanks guys for all the support!

Book signing session! :)

 

 Met up with Jeffrey Lim, the guy who so patiently came up with a map 

for cycling around KL area! Kudos for his amazing work!

Ok, one for the road :)

Soon, the event ended about 9am and the crowd slowly dispersed and cars were now allowed back on the roads again. As Gus and me were cycling back to our cars, we stopped to say exchange farewells when a runner suddenly stopped and asked Gus about his ELLIPTIGO. This lead to Gus promoting me and my book and we eventually found out that the guy was on his own solo tour to the islands of Malaysia! Small world!

We let him have a look at my book and he wanted to get a copy! But we had to follow him to his finish line because he didn't have any cash with him (he was actually taking part in the same running event that morning).

So we rode to the finish line and waited for him to come by.

While waiting for him, another runner came up to me and asked if I was the girl who rode around Malaysia! Wow! Really?? His girlfriend Dion, was fascinated with my journey and they wanted to get a copy of my book!! Crazy or what??

So in the end, I managed to sell another 2 books unexpectedly and what's most rewarding is that they really wanted to read about my journey!!

Thank you all for your support!!

 (Left to right - Zulkifly's wife, Zulkifly, Dion & Hujan)

Boy! What a great morning! I followed Gus to his car and thanked him for all his great help before heading to my car. Gus told me it would be easy navigating through the roads around Lake Gardens......

Errr......

Yup, you guessed right.......I got lost the minute I left Gus!! It took me about 30 minutes (and many hills in between!) to finally find my way back to my car!!

But it's all good......I had a great morning, did some workout (when cycling up those hills!), sold some books and met old and new friends along the way!!Life is good! :)

Well. until my next update....have a great week ahead! :)

My very first "official attire' !! :)

Hi there!

Just like to share with you my very first "official attire" !! Thanks to my friend Dickson Lim, who helped to design this simple yet nice logo for me :)

From now on, whenever I don on this shirt for my talks, I will be hearing the lyrics from the song "Hall of Fame" by "The Script"....saying "and the world's gonna know your name!!" playing in my head!! hehe......

Have a great day!!

Cheers :)

KL CAR FREE DAY RIDE - 7TH DEC, 2014

Hi there!

A few weeks ago, I received an interesting message from one of my facebook friends, Gus Ghani. who is an active sportsman (and always seem to be so happy and smiling, judging from his facebook photos!).

He said that he would like to arrange something for me to help promote my books and cycling as a healthy community activity to the public at the same time.

He suggested that we join the last monthly car free day for the year in KL. It is an event where some of the major roads will be closed to vehicles so that the public can bring their bicycles and cycle freely for 2 hours. Based on the previous car free day events, this event seems to be well received by the public.

The plan is for me to do an informal Q&A session about my tour with the crowd after riding 2 loops around the closed roads.

I thought it was an awesome idea and Gus started an event page for this and titled it "Last KL Car Free Day Ride" and invited people to come for this event. He has been posting up little updates from time to time to keep the audience updated and he even started a simple contest for me! The winner will receive a complimentary copy of my book from me during the Q&A session.

And his latest initiative...a cool poster for the event! (graphics done by his good buddy, Akmal) I will be trying out a very special bicycle named ElliptiGO (courtesy of Gus, of course!). From the pictures on the poster, it looks like I will have to stand and cycle! Hmm....it should be FUN! :)

For someone who only knows about me via facebook, I think what he is doing for me is AMAZING!

Thank you so much Gus Ghani for all your help!!

For those who would like to know more about this event, you can check out the link below :

https://www.facebook.com/events/1543358165880551/

Hope to catch some of you at the KL Car Free Day on 7th Dec, 2014!!

Until my next update, happy pedalling! :)

Some happy news!!! :)

Hi there!!

Yes, yes, I know....it's been awhile (again!) since my last update...oops! my bad :)

Anyway, I have some some very happy news to share with you all!! My publisher just called me and told me that my books have just come out fresh from its THIRD reprint!!! Number 3 baby!!

.....thus the photo of the BIG 3 !! :)

And the most exciting part of this is that 50% of the reprinted copies have already been ordered by an organisation!! Woohoo!!

Ahh....wonderful news like this sure makes my day! :)

Hope you all are having a great day too!

Cheers

A timely gift from CyclingExpress.com :)

Hi there,

Apologies for not updating my blog for awhile now....hmm, I don't know where the time went! hehe

Anyway, about one and a half weeks ago, I received a nice email from the good people of CyclingExpress.com saying that they were looking for Malaysian cyclists who blogged and they wanted to give us a complimentary RM100 cash voucher to try out their online bicycle shop. In return, we will have to write about our shopping experience with them.

At the same time, I was looking for a new good bicycle pump. I went for a 108km ride recently down in KL and my back tire had to have a puncture at the last 1km!!! I had the extra tube but my old pump didn't work!! I had to push my bicycle for the last 1km....sigh! Time for me to get  a new bicycle pump and that was when I received this nice email from CycleExpress.com....talk about amazing timing!! haha

As I browsed through their website (which was pretty interesting! Check it out at http://www.cyclingexpress.com) I was having a whale of a time, looking at the items being sold there! Man, if only I had loads of money!! haha but no, I have to be disciplined enough to look for what I needed....which was a good bicycle pump.

I needed some recommendation and an editor from a bicycle magazine suggested that I get the Topeak DXII which is hardy and handy. This is when I found out about the Prestas and Schraders heads!  I took his advice and checked out the price.....they were on specials and it was within the RM100 budget! Woohoo! Add together with the shipping, I only had to pay RM1.41!! Practically a gift! Not too bad for first time online shopping eh?

But since this was my first time doing online shopping (yes, I'm that backdated!), it sure took me awhile trying to familiarise myself with the ordering system. I felt like a klutz because I kept going back and forth with them, asking them questions on how to order online haha....luckily, KC, the guy who was liaising with me was very patient with me and guided me along.

 

Several attempts failed and I was getting a bit frustrated! The gift voucher code didn't work and I had to write back to KC to have him check it out. He came back and said that the voucher was void because because my payment was invalid! I then realised that my debit card had zero limits  Oops! He initially didn't believe me when I told him it was my first time shopping online until now!!! hehe....

He then gave me a new gift voucher code and I tried it again....and made sure that my debit card had some cash in it and voila, this time, it worked!! My purchase was successful!! Yay!!

Estimated delivery was about 6 days and they told me that my parcel would arrive on 31st July 2014...and I could track my shipment. Boy, I never knew how fun it can be, tracking my parcel and it sure did arrive right on the estimated date! Thank you KC and CyclingExpress.com for this timely gift! Now that I have experienced online shopping, I will be sure to check out your site from time to time for some other exciting things that I might need in the near future!

Have pump will travel....watch out world!! :)

 

 My brand new Topeak DXII :)

A million thanks for these encouraging feedbacks!!

Hi there!

A few days ago, I was just reading back some of the wonderful comments that I have received ever since my book was published. It really felt so good to know that my book is being put to good use out there, one way or the other and it is continuing to do so.

As a result, I felt that it would only be right for me to say a BIG THANK YOU to all my readers who have bought my book, read it and wrote back to me with their positive and encouraging feedback. It is people like you that keeps me going and knowing that I am on the right path.

Thanks to my friend's encouragement, it gives me great pleasure to share with you some of the wonderful comments I have received so far :) .....

  

Dear Sandra,

Hope this mail finds you well. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your excellent book, ‘Pedalling Around the Peninsula’. It is such an entertaining book with lots of adventures and fun in it. After reading your book, I felt I had to write to you to let you know how your book had entertained and inspired me.  

I spotted your book when I was on holiday in Penang last year. I brought it back to Europe and read it with much enthusiasm and interest. I wanted to read about the adventures and about places I had and had not visited in Malaysia (and your book delivered them all and more!). I was looking forward to reading the book every evening after work – to continue the journey around Malaysia. As someone who has lived abroad for many years, I found the book to have made me better informed about my own country.

I loved the way the book was written – containing descriptions of lots of little incidents, and with lots of photos (especially those of yummy Malaysian food!). It made me feel like I was part of the journey round Peninsula Malaysia (with side trips to our neighbouring countries). I didn’t want the book to end as I wanted the adventures to continue. I was looking forward to visiting the next town with you and Mak each day!

Thanks for sharing these experiences with us - the people who dream about and are not able to go on this journey (yet).

In the meantime, keep posting the news on your blog and keep up the good work!

Regards,

CH, Europe

Hi Sandra, my name is Benji, and while here in Malaysia (KL) I bought your book and read some of your blog. Your trip around the peninsula is amazing, and reading your book has been a joy so far.

Thank you for writing about your adventures! It's very inspiring!
Benji, USA

 

Hi Sandra,

My name is Wee, I come across your book “Pedaling Around the Peninsula”, it is truly inspiring and fascinating, as I did it before across the northern peninsula when I was 17 years old.  Your book re-inspired me to re-gain my long distance cycling spirit after so long been hibernated.  I still have the reminiscence of the toughness of crossing the East-West highway, and it was the most challenging part of the journey, and I have to sleep under the army camp on top of the mountain, as I under estimate the challenge.

Again, thank you for writing this book, keep going with your good achievement, and looking forward to read your upcoming second book!

Cheers,

Wee

Hi'  Sandra.

Just writing you to congratulate you with the book you wrote about your bicycle tour of Malaysia. I came across it in a KL bookstore the week before i started on a bicycle trip of Malaysia and the book has been very helpful and inspiring for me.

Lot's of good practical info in the book that has helped me a lot when it came to finding accomodation for instance.

I put up a little review of the book at a travel site where i do some blogging about my travels around the world: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/222ac6/

I have biked around 40 countries worldwide so far and is always looking for new horizons.

All the best from the road.

Claus, Denmark

Hi Sandra!

I just finished your book last weekend after came across in The Sun May 9 2012. A real GREAT book for me. I just don’t know why I was so eager to look for this book as I have not been reading “story” book for the past 20 to 30 years! Normally I will read those “relevant” to my work or interest i.e. more serious stuff!

I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your effort, determination and of course, your courage! You have a good idea to write it down and publish in a book. Honestly, I don’t think of having the courage to do myself.

Lastly, I just want to say TQ, Thank you and Thank You Very Much for writing the book and sharing with us. It allows me to at least to feel or imagine of the journey! I really appreciate it!

TQ.

Ho, Selangor

Hi Sandra,

Just finished read your book about the journey around peninsular M'sia! Never regret buying the book!

Lets get to the comment: Wow! I know the journey have ended months ago but i still want to congratulate you  for the great journey and im amazed with your (and Mak's) spirit!

Once again, congratulation for the success and thank you for the tips in the book!! 

Yves Lemat, Miri, Sarawak. 

Hi Sandra,

I happened to be in MPH and came across your book on 4th May. Started reading it on 6th May and I couldn't put it down till I finished just now at lunch. I felt like what you did after your journey, opps! no more 'updates' to look forward to. Once, in my early 20s I wanted to backpack around Malaysia in between jobs as I always felt there are places I must explore within my own country before looking outwards. But my boss refused to let me leave early and I lost the chance with the arrival of kids.

Now, reading the book made me feel like doing it but at my age now, by car would be fine, don't think I can survive what both you and Mak did. Am quite wimpy! I told my husband we can use your book to have an idea where we want to go! Nicely written, good job. Regards to Mak as well for making the adventure very interesting. 
Lily, Malaysia

Hi Sandra
I've bought your book from MPH yesterday, it seems really fun and interesting.
I love cycling and dreamed to do bicycle touring for a long time but most of my friends think that is impossible and crazy. Anyway, your book really gave me much of encouragement. I'm so enjoyed while reading it.
Many thanks and all the best to you.
Rachel, Malaysia



Hi Sandra,
I just finished reading your 'pedalling around the peninsula'. Congrats! You are so inspiring! Wish I could also pedal like what you and Mak did.
Nasim, KL



Hi Sandra,
I enjoyed reading your book,is so fresh to see a Malaysian doing this. Can't wait to see your next challenge touring in Sabah and Sarawak, hopefully I will be back in Tawau and try to bump into you on the road :)
All the best!
Sipek Quek, Malaysia



"Marvelous book. Affordable in price but rich in contents. Give us thousand words about Malaysia and really, we proud to be Malaysian! Kudos to author & MPH Publishing"
Mohd Shahadan Bin Mokhtar, Malaysia


Sandra,
Love your book very much. Hope one day can travel whole Malaysia like you and Mak.
Steven, Malaysia

"Suddenly I realised it is my dream since I was young to cycle round this country. Almost forgotten after busy with work, family & life. Thanks to Sandra Loh for her book cycling around the peninsula. It really woke me up. I have a dream to achieve"

Tan Lang Seng, Malacca (....and he sure did achieve his dream end 2012!)

2 years today and growing stronger!!!

 

Hi there!

We have just turned 2 years old today and we are slowly growing stronger!!

Lots of exciting plans ahead for us and we look forward to sharing more interesting stories in the near future!

Do drop by once in awhile for our updates then!

Cheers!

Great start for 2014!

Hi all,

Hope you guys are having a great 2014 so far!

Well, for me, it's been pretty good! We got a surprise request to be interviewed by a radio station in KL recently along with 2 other cycling enthusiasts in conjunction with their topic of the week....cycling in the big city!

Pretty interesting listening to the other 2 cyclists as well!

Here's the podcast :

http://www.bfm.my/ilovekl-two-wheels.html

Then 2 days ago,  I had the pleasure of playing "tour guide" to a touring couple from the "Land of Giants" hehe.....Mattijs and May from the Netherlands! Great to show them some parts of Kuantan that were interesting and they loved trying out all the different types of food here! Good on them :)

Why "Land of Giants"? you might ask....well, Mattijs is about 6 feet 5 inches! (1.9m). He said that he was only average! Most of his friends are like 7 feet tall!! (2.1m) Wow!!

Needless to say, I was like a dwarf standing next to him! .I'm only 5 feet nothing! (1.52m). Have nicknamed him "Giant Mattijs!" hehe... 

.

Well, May is equally incredible too! Such a warm and friendly person and not forgetting STRONG!! :) They practically zigzagged across Malaysia and crossing the mountain ranges! So you can imagine how strong they really are :)

They are now at the tail end of their 5 month tour around South East Asia and Malaysia is their last country to visit before heading back to the Netherlands. Actually, Mattijs have cycled most of the countries in the world in 2008! He was on the road for about a year....so he's one experienced world tourer!

You can follow their adventure via www.wezijneenblokjeom.nl

It was a great opportunity to share different experiences and exchange stories with each other! Wishing them happy pedalling and memorable adventures to take home with them!

Cheers!

  

 

Awesome couple! "Giant" Mattijs and lovely May!

 

 

Santos touring bikes.....