The day after I ascended the peak of Ben Nevis, surprising the weather turned out to be good. There was actually blue sky for a few hours! Crap! Lol! I chose not to ride on that day because I wanted to rest the muscles of my legs before riding again. So I just walked around town. Then I cycled around the mountain range to finally enjoy the view of the magical Glen Nevis range. Once the weather is good here, this land of the Scottish people really reveals its beauty. Their landscape amazed me. When I got back to the campsite, I heard people were talking about their climb to the peak on that day, saying that they had beautiful views from up there. I felt so jealous!

Scottish highland cattle. Theyre cute and sexy!

The next day early in the morning, the scary dark clouds coming in, it was raining heavily and the wind was blowing really strong! I could see waves of raindrops blown by the strong wind. I even saw a tent being blown away by the strong wind and 2 young girls were chasing it. It was hilarious! They were packing up when it happened. It was the way the shouted and the way they were chasing it made me laugh from inside my tent.

rush hour in west highland way!

So I decided not to ride and stay another day here. I just stayed inside my tent covering myself from the bad weather, listening to my favourite south american beat from my ipod. It reminds me of my big dream to ride in the Andes Mountains. It was my dream since a while now. I always imagine myself riding in the mountains of South America. Even when I climbed Ben Nevis that day, sometimes I imagine myself climbing my dream mountain, the Aconcagua. It feels like my body was here in Ben Nevis in the north of Europe, but my mind was somewhere in the mountainside of the Aconcagua, deep inside South America. Riding in the Andes was my original plan. Riding through the great Salar De Uyuni, camping at the beautiful Lake Titicaca, making friends with the Peruvians and the Bolivians were all part of that dream.

Scotland finally reveals its beauty for few hours when the clouds are giving ways!

A year ago back home, while my wife was busy searching for a job back in KL by my side, I was actually busy studying the map. I calculated roughly around 11000km ride from Quito, Ecuador all the way down to Ushaia, southmost of Argentina through the Andes range in Peru, Bolivia and Chile. I then decided that it should be later, since it will be very tough for my wife to ride with me in the thin air of Andes mountains, since this gonna be her first time. So we chose the easier route first, we chose Europe and finally we chose Iceland to be our starting point. That was how the story started for us. And only about 3 months before we should depart for Iceland, we discovered that we gonna have a baby. We were surprised and didn’t know what to do at first, everything was already planned, but it was great news. And that was how I ended up here alone, covering myself under my tent here in Scotland under the bad weather, while my wife is now waiting for me in Kyrgyzstan, chilling with her people.

the Glen Nevis range

Lately especially here in Scotland, I had some sleepless nights. Many times before I fell asleep, I imagine the image of my late mom. She passed away 5 weeks after I got married and it was still fresh in my mind. It was shocking when I saw her face turned white when the blood stops flowing in her body at the hospital. She was fit like an athlete even at her age. And the moment I saw her that day when her soul left her body, it was still fresh in my mind, giving me trouble sleeping at night. Even though I didn’t become the person most traditional parents want their kids to be, a doctor or someone with stable and high paid jobs, I hope that shes smiling now that she has turned me from a boy into a real man. When I was riding the mountains of Tibet and the Taklamakan Desert, I had no fear, because I knew that my late mom always prayed for my safety. And that god always hears the prayer from a mother for her child, and I became totally fearless. Now, I hope that god will hear the prayer from a son for his mother. I hope that her soul reaches her final destination in heaven.