Life is busy now. Ex Praxis, 2nd Year ICT and Workplan Seminar back to back in three consecutive weeks, and I have to conduct range at the end of October.

Progress has indeed slowed, but I have never lost sight of the end point. However, the troubles I face in the organisation of the Tour is such that few others can relate to: sponsorship, logistics, travel worries, and the ticking timebomb at the back of my mind that screams at me daily - "4 months left!! Hurry!!" - Well, I will gladly hurry but for the workload I face in camp. It feels like every time I show my face in the camp, work of all sorts get thrust towards me.

Sports Council has finally replied with long awaited advice, with the contacts that I so badly require, including a direct link to Canon's sponsorship department. However, it seems like funding from SSC will be troublesome at best: proposal writing rears its head again! I am also currently eyeballing SPH Pocket Money Fund for their endorsement as a charity, and the situation seems optimistic, though nothing is ever confirmed until they sign on the dotted line (if any).

And I have finally decided on my bike: Jamis Aurora, which should cost about $1450, but maybe more after the inevitable upgrades to the lacklustre parts. For example, stock parts give 700x32c tires, when I need a minimum of x35c for such a long journey. Front and back racks are not inclusive, and panniers are yet to be purchased, though I know which I will be getting: Orthlieb classics, probably costing a total of $600 for 2 front, 2 back and 1 handlebar bag.

My budgeting now is slightly screwed, and I definitely will not have sufficient unless I secure the elusive sponsorship, due to cost of air travel from Calcutta to Singapore ($450), Visas ($200+), Insurance ($850) and international-level debit cards. Oh, and satellite phone and tracking devices are other luxuries that I have not thought to find out the cost of as yet.

If things go well, I shall be doing a mini-tour into Malaysia in December, maybe for a couple of days just for a trial. Let's see how things go until then.

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Child at Street 11 called half a week back to inform me that they will not be supporting the tour. Time to find another charity, and soon, it will be time to actually start finding sponsorship. I can feel Time breathing down the neck. There is simply not enough of it, and there are insufficient road signs to point me in the right directions.

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This is the deferment request that I put in to NUS Office Of Admissions on June 22 2009


Ms Alpha:

After a conversation with one of the OAM officers, I was told to write in to you regarding my circumstances and request.

I am currently considering deferment of studies for a year after my ORD date in order to make possible an envisioned year and half long Asia tour on bicycle. I am currently enrolled in FoS, matriculating in 2010, accepted into USP and holding a Faculty Award scholarship.

I understand that deferment currently is being granted only for cases whereby one has medical or military related reasons. Are there any possibilities that we can come to an agreement regarding my request for possible deferment? Universities elsewhere around the world are very liberal about the issue of deferment, so I do not see why NUS ought to be so strict in stopping any and all attempts to defer, outside of the inevitable National Service. In fact, when I wrote in to the Office Of Admissions 3 weeks earlier, the management did not even bother answering the question, simply closing the case without even a minimum of response.

I shall append a quote from the Associated Press regarding this issue:

---
Many college admissions officers support the idea [of deferring admission for a year or two]. While cautioning that a "gap year" between high school and college isn't for everyone -- and that just goofing off isn't worthwhile -- they say many students who take one return more confident and self-aware. [...]
Generally, schools make students submit a proposal beyond "lying on the beach," but often little more is required. The University of Chicago says it will grant deferrals for almost any reason as long as students don't apply elsewhere.
---

This is another example of students having deferred studies for reasons very similar to mine: in this case, it was to climb Mt Everest:

---
Take Samantha Larson. Stanford happily deferred her admission for a year. Her plan: Climb Chomolungma also known as Mt. Everest. And she did. Not only that. She became the youngest person to complete the seven summits challenge–summiting the highest peak on each of the seven continents.
---

How is my attempt to tour Asia for 1.5 years so different? What surprised me is that your answer regarding deferment is so abrupt. Just a straight No. As though no compromise will be heard, no proposal considered, and no appeals pondered on, and I should think that as a renowned global university, NUS ought to think beyond mere bureaucratic issues of administration of admissions to consider future requests to defer enrollment, so long as the request is valid and virtuous in itself. After all, at the end of the day, life and career and education is not a race, it is a stage to forge an excellent play. And I believe that my request is a living proof of the potential Singaporeans hold within for excellence, if only administrative issues are less binding on their actions.

I find it hard to believe that a request such as mine is turned down without any consideration whatsoever. This attempt to tour Asia will bring me to the foot of Mt Everest in Tibet, Vladivostok in Russia, and possibly even to Kazahkstan, and I have reason to believe that this breaks almost every record Singapore currently holds in epic journeys, camping trips, distance cycling and endurance events. It is a trip that I value highly, for which I am willing to sacrifice a year of studies to attempt, and the creation of which I am going to strive for relentlessly.

I await your reply.

Regards
Chua Yi, Jonathan

P.S. The content of the email has been slightly altered to protect the identity of the admissions officer involved as well as any other relevant but confidential information.


On June 26, Ms Alpha (Admissions Officer) replied back:


Dear Jonathan,

We are currently reviewing your case.

I’ll try to revert to you by end of the week, if not, latest by next week. Thank you.


July 13, I grew impatient and sent out another email to check the status of the request:


Hi, Ms Alpha

Is there to be a reply to my email? I have been waiting for 3 weeks and would like to see some response.

Thank you


This time, reply was surprisingly prompt. Not to mention that she implicitly told me not to get my hopes too high.


Dear Jonathan,

You may note that places will usually only be reserved for applicants serving full-time National Service (NS). For the case that you have presented in your email below requesting for deferment of studies to AY2011/2012 (instead of AY2010/2011), we are currently still reviewing your request.

Rest assured that we are looking into your request and we will revert to you as soon as the outcome is released.

Thank you.


Finally, on July 30, a full two months after my initial approach to NUS to request for deferment, I have been turned down twice, both times without any form of explanation about why I was denied, and why their policy is so narrowly construed to cater only for reasons of National Service.


Dear Jonathan,

We refer to your request seeking deferment for your studies beyond AY2010 as you intend to embark on a prolonged Asia tour on bicycle.

We have carefully reviewed your request and regret to inform you that it has not been successful as deferment is only granted to students who are serving Full Time National Service.

As such, you are advised to matriculate in August 2010. If you do not intend to matriculate in 2010, you can re-apply for admission to NUS when you are ready to pursue your studies at NUS. Application for applicants applying with Singapore-Cambridge GCE ‘A’ Levels qualification usually opens in early March every year. You can visit our website at: http://admissions.nus.edu.sg for more updates in the year that you would like to apply.

Thank you.


Good riddance for NUS OAM.

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I believe I have yet to shed any light on the upcoming Tour that I have been dropping so many hints on in the past two posts. Here goes...

The Tour will be an epic 5.5 month journey from Singapore to Tibet, ending in Calcutta. It will cover a total of 7800km over 172 days, ranging over terrain as varied as jungles and urban cities and mountains, in temperatures from tropical summer to wintry cold. All this, on a bicycle.

The plan is to head north from Singapore, into West Peninsular Malaysia and up into Thailand. From there, I will head north to Laos and into China, passing through the Yunan province and onward into Tibet. In Tibet, the goal is to set foot on Mt Everest Base Camp, after which I will head down to Nepal and into India, finally finishing in Calcutta, where I will take a plane back to Singapore. The journey should end just before University term starts in August.

The Tour is fraught with dangers like disease and robbers, and it is certainly no mean feat to consistently force yourself to cover up to 45km per day, every day, for 5 months. It gets worse in Tibet, where mountains of more than 4000m in height are ominously omnipresent.

Here are the facts:
Malaysia West Coast (Singapore - Khlong Ngae [Thailand]): 859
Thailand (Khlong Ngae - Chacheongsao [Near Bangkok]): 1153
Thailand/Laos (Chacheongsao - Meepeng [China border]): 1247
China/Tibet (Menpeng - Tingri [Near Everest Base Camp]): 3076
Nepal/India (Tingri - Calcutta): 1478

Total: 7834km (minimum approximated distance), 172 days (Feb 10 - August 1)
Min average speed: 45.5km/day

The current record holder for long distance cycling is Khoo Swee Chiow, who cycled from Singapore to Beijing on bicycle. It took him 73 days to cycle 8200km. However, this is done with support vehicle; he has a team that carries his luggage around for him, and has little to no travel worries like accomodation and safety. This is not the case for my attempt.

I will be carrying stuff like thermal sleeping bag, tentage, gortex jackets, winter clothing, food and drink, camera and repair equipment. These stuff are not cheap, I estimate to spend up to $2000 minimum for the lot.

There are many other considerations and precautions that I will require, like vaccinations against the tropical Yellow Fever, Hepathetis B, Dengue Fever, and whatever medicine works against the dreaded Malaria. Travellers' Cheques might be a solution to money woes as an ATM card is as good as useless, and there is always a worry that the bicycle will break down somewhere horrible, stranding you in unknown land with little help for miles. A satellite phone will be helpful, but expensive, and electricity will be scarce where I am heading.

Another worry is that of time. The time limit is the absolute limit, extension is not an option. University starts in August, and I have no intention of placing my education in jeopardy if it can be avoided (I did try deferring for a year, but was rejected).

I have mentioned taking up charitable causes in my previous post, and indeed I have made some headway into obtaining information on the kind of charity I will like to work for. Child at Street 11 looks promising, as an organisation that educates and helps young children from low-income and dysfunctional families break out of the poverty cycle in one generation. They provide free child care and pre-school education, and looking at their financial records, helping them is definitely more worthwhile than looking at larger corporations like National Kidney Foundation. They don't need help. Street 11 does.

Of course, for a successful charity drive, it means I must inevitably publicise widely for support in this event. I guess that by starting this blog, I have in fact taken the first step without intending to actually do so.

Last, but not least of my concerns, is that of sponsorship: I require someone, or some organisation, to cover up to $10,000 in costs for the journey. Some company whose products will contribute greatly towards the trip will be ideal, like some insurance company (Great Eastern?) or credit card company (Visa?), or maybe even bicycle companies like Shimano and Cateye. I'm not sure yet, but I suspect this may not be too tough. Obtaining the help of National Sports Council and SCTF will be good too, as well as the support of the various Singaporean embassies scattered among the countries of visit.

5 months and 8 days. Who ever said it was going to be easy?

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Last week, when visiting the bike shop, I met two experienced men who, unlike me, know exactly what they were talking about when they talked about touring. Rather than discourage me, they persuaded the uptaking of a new perspective: attempting the tour for charitable causes. It was David (old enough to be my father) who came up with the sucker punch argument that the completion of a desire has no fulfilment:

"Let us take this beer mug as an example: let's say that you suddenly decided to drink the entire mug of beer in one go. Even though you know that maybe after drinking it, you will vomit, but you challenge yourself anyway, to see if you can finish it. So you drink it, and you indeed vomit afterwards. Or, even if you did not vomit, what has completing the challenge given you? Nothing. Rather than feeling good, you will probably feel empty and sick afterwards, knowing that you disappointed and worried the people around you by risking your safety for you own selfish reasons.

"But if you do it for a good cause, ah, by undertaking such a punishing venture, you are benefitting others, not just for yourself. At the end of it all, ten, twenty years down the road, you can look back and feel accomplishment not for the success of the attempt, but for having done it and helping others in the process."

I agreed. The entire conception of the tour has now drastically altered: rather than going it alone, I will be enlisting the help of many. Sponsorship, publicity, charity drive, all these avenues will have to be approached and tested as part of the push. Once I consider all the possibilities and also all the things that have yet to be done, time has suddenly reared its head as the foremost concern. 5 months and 8 days left before the start of the adventure.

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This blog is created to chronicle insights and exploits, anything and everything about cycling in the life of one sworn to the bike
Also see my other blog: here

Chua Yi Jonathan
Ex-NJCian
JoyRider
Randonneur

Contact me at:
chuayijonathan@gmail.com

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