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 Mr.
Alex Koh (1976 - ?) started his adventure as a junior college
student participating actively in the outdoor club’s many
activities like canoeing, dragon-boating, trekking and cycling.
During his university
days, he spent probably as much time on Lonely Planet Thailand
vis-à-vis his lecture notes. For the holidays, he would take
a 14-hour bus ride from Beach Road (Singapore) to Haad Yai in southern
Thailand before catching a 17-hour train ride to Bangkok. All in
all, that would take him some 40 hours but then he had more time
than money. That was adventure.
Fearing that he would not have much holiday after graduating he then exercised his initiative and spent the first 3 weeks of his very last academic semester to backpack northern Thailand. He did however send his tutor for Travel & Tourism a postcard. The Nanyang Business School graduate got his degree in 2000 but decided to follow his heart rather than his qualification by joining the People’s Association Sea Sports Club (PASSC) the same year. Just 4 months into his very first full time job, he took leave to cycle the Longest Downhill In The World with Isobel Cook (England). He will always remember Gyatsola, the highest pass (5220m) on the 950km Lhasa-Katmandu highway where they were taken in by a pair of nomads on a snowy night. He had not slept in an A-frame style yak-skin tent at such an altitude before. The opening at the apex of the tent that was to let the smoke out also conveniently let the snow in wetting his face during the night. He woke the following morning to find the water bottles on his bike frozen. In 2002, he made 2 separate solo cycling trips to Vietnam and Laos. His intention was to cycle the 1700km (Hanoi-Saigon) National Highway 1 but he logically decided to call it a day after 1000km or so as he found the traffic to be unbearable. In actuality, it was his experience in Tibet where he was taught a lesson that one should always respect the elements beyond one’s control- that prompted him to cut short the trip. The Honda motorcycles in Vietnam could carry anything from a family of 5 to 3 pigs. Once, he witnessed a Honda carrying a coffin! The Deo Hai Van or “wind cloud (mountain) pass” that separates northern Vietnam from the south will always be hard to forget. Clearing the pass, Mr. Alex Koh hit a bump on the road and flew off his bike. He lost consciousness as the next thing he could recall was a group of Vietnamese carrying him to a hut. He subsequently treated his abrasions and checked his (limbs’) range-of-motions before cycling the remaining 30km to Hoi An. At the USD10/night Pho Hoi 1 guesthouse he was checking into, he noticed that the staff had looked apprehensive about the heavily dusted and bloodied Singaporean standing across the counter. In picturesque Hoi An, Mr. Alex Koh rested (rather, it was limping around) for several days over dumplings and Ba-ba-ba. He will remember his very first shower after the fall- it was his longest shower ever. Water over broken skin was just not pleasant. This, he learnt a lesson on speeding! In April 2003, he resigned from the PASSC to embark on the London-Singapore-New Zealand cycling expedition that took him 574 days through 23 countries. His cyclometer that started running from Trafalgar Square, London, recorded more than 25978km when the trip ended. There were a couple of instances where public transportation was part of the entirely self-supported expedition. The first was the ferry crossing the England-France channel. The second would be the police pick-up truck that he used after being robbed (of his bike and all possessions) in the Thal Desert (near Mianwali) of Pakistan by 3 armed men. He had also used transportation going from Katmandu to Lhasa as it was politically impossible (he’s not sure if it is possible now) not to be part of a group tour going into Tibet from Nepal. In snowy eastern Tibet (near BaYi), he stayed the freezing night alone in a dilapidated hut before hitching a truck back to Lhasa to seek medical treatment after being bitten by a dog. After a jab that was administered by a nurse as all the doctors were on holiday as it was Losa (Tibetan New Year), Alex proceeded to extend his group visa. As it was not usual for the office concerned to do visa extension, Alex had to list down his reasons and all the places he had visited during his entire stay in Tibet. Holding the piece of statement Alex wrote, the officer said that Alex had visited places that foreigners were not allowed to! And, each day of his illegal activity would make him 500RMB (1USD=8RMB) poorer! As Alex speaks Chinese, he pleaded in the language to the officer handling his case, he also took out his Singapore identity card and pointed to his race which reads “Chinese” and continued his plead as a Han Chinese. The officer went to see his boss, came back, and said that Alex would not be fined, but not before reminding him that he was being let off on humanitarian grounds. The Gong-An then told Alex that he should remind his fellow Singaporeans not to engage in illegal activities in Tibet China. Alex would also recall being fined in pot-holed Romania for dangerous cycling, “checking” into a disused Bulgarian hospital that had been let out as a hotel (the smell was just so hospital!), sleeping in the lock-up cell of a police station in Turkey and cycling through tear-gas in Pakistan. He would also remember bombs going off near the Muslim Hotel (where he stayed for several days) in Quetta, Pakistan. The following morning he was at a barber shop for a hair cut where he met a policeman and had a brief chat about those bombs… Alex: “how are things now? Were those bombs put by country
“XYZ” ” In Nepal, Alex, Andreas and Marcel had the entire western most portion of the East-West highway to themselves as the Maoists were having some issues with the military that resulted in the shutting down of the highway to all motorists and the implementation of a curfew. So, the 3 cyclists shared the entire highway with wild deers and elephants through the rural part of western Nepal. On at least one occasion the 3 cyclists had missed the 7pm curfew time and were so worried that they would be fired upon by the soldiers as they entered the town. The 80Rs/person (1USD=72Rs) Navaratna Restaurant and Lodge in Sukhad would be “memorable”. The local military had set up a machine gun post on the roof of the 3 storey building, which was also the tallest building in Sukhad. Alex was thinking that if the Maoists were to do anything offensive, the hotel might be a target! Many had asked him to name his favorite country among the 23, he doesn’t have one, but he did have fond memories of Iran, Laos and Australia. His least favourites would be Romania and Singapore where drivers just don’t give way! The transcontinental trip ended in Bluff, South Island, New Zealand in October 2004. In April 2005, he embarked on a short 90-day trip through Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan- Xinjiang China- Karakoram Pakistan- Ladakh India with Andreas Merten and Marcel Jassman from Deutschland. (Mr. Alex Koh met the 2 Germans in Tehran back in 2003 when they were all admiring the murals on the walls of the former US embassy.) The accommodation near the Customs and Immigration on the Kyrgyzstan side of the Kyrgyzstan-China border would rank No. 1 as the “darkest hole” in Central Asia. The floor was littered with cigarette butts and unfinished food, the beds had all slumped into a dirty mess and the heaters were not covered. It was lucky that none among the 3 was electrocuted. Alex doesn’t recall paying for a room more depressing than this. Sary Tash, Kyrgyzstan, was memorable. The German-Singapore Team had arrived in snow & rain at the tiny town that had a cemetery on a little hill across the road running through. The sensation of seeing a white cemetery being swallowed gradually by the falling snow was peaceful. It was calming. Alex, however, would not say the same of the backgammon challenge that took place between him and Jassman in the town though. During the 3-month tour, the 3 had skipped some of the boring sections. Towards Leh, the capital of Ladakh India, Mr Alex Koh was almost swept away by a stream that was running across the road. The water had come down to the road from the snow that had started melting in the upper reaches. In December 2006, Alex spent 10 days with Richard Cowan, New Zealander, sea kayaking sections of the Abel Tasman, Lake Rotoroa and Marlborough Sounds. Some 6 months later, he again teamed up with Richard with the addition of May, Singaporean, to sea kayak the Doubtful Sound area which is part of the Fiordland National Park. Of the 16 days the trio was in the Sound, they had a combination of rain and hail for 13 days. We are not talking about the nasty sand-flies yet! Though unpleasant, the sand-flies do keep the tourists away, preserving the tranquility of the place, for those who would “always go a little further”. In Winter 2008, Alex, May and Richard helicoptered into the Preservation Inlet area of New Zealand where the three spent some 3 weeks in the sea. Among Alex’s many friends, they share a common thought; that being able to travel is a privilege. Hopefully, as we go about our daily lives, we will all tarry a little to spare a thought for those less fortunate around us… Alex Koh.
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