Missing In Action

On November 8, 2015, we went to Sepatang to have seafood. This was the third successive event of the series of food hunting organised by my former student,Melanie, and her classmates.

We had our breakfast at the Larut Matang Food Court at Taiping.

I tried the mee noodle at a stall where I saw many people queued up for their turn to be served.

After the breakfast we adjourned to the Taiping Lake Garden to enjoy the fresh air and scenic view that Nature could offer.

At the car park there we saw a rent-a-bicycle service. Most of us were very enthusiastic wanting to have a bicycle ride around the Lake Garden.

We checked with the Malay proprietor regarding  the rate of hiring a bike. He told us that he would charge RM 5 per bicycle for half an hour duration. According to his experience in the trade, to cycle  round the lake would take about twenty minutes and he would give us an allowance of extra ten minutes if we could not return the bike within thirty minutes.

From the narrative of the proprietor and my past experience touring the Lake Garden , I assumed  it would be an easy job to cycle round the lake within the stipulated time.

I thought if I cycled along the road in a counterclockwise  direction, I would be able to come back to the starting point once I had completed a full circle like what the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan who had sailed around the World in a similar way.

I cycled  along the road built on an undulating terrain. After cycling for more than twenty minutes, I realised  I  was nowhere nearer to the car park bay where I hired my bicycle.

I knew I was not following the route I was supposed to.

The only way for me to get back to the starting point was to cycle in the reversed direction along the road where I came from.

As I was doing that I received a phone call from Melanie who was anxious of my whereabout. She asked me to tell her my nearest landmark so that she and the others would be able to locate my location and to  come to my rescue.

Melanie and two others arrived twenty minutes later in a car to fetch me. I pitied a student of mine who had to cycle my bicycle to be returned to the owner.

My missing in action was mainly due to my underestimation of the vastness of the Lake Garden compound and my ignorance of the changes of the landscape of the vicinity of the Lake Garden over the last few decades.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience of temporarily missing in action although I was rather thirsty and exhausted after such an unforgettable event.