KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 -- Retired teacher, Mohammad Lasim Deraman, 57, shows the condition of his badly damaged Yamaha NMAX 155 scooter in Leh, Ladakh, Jammu Kashmir Province, India before being repaired to continue his solo exploration mission in seven countries for a distance of 30,000 kilometers.
He said after three months of riding and arriving in Mumbai, India, he decided to take a flight back to Malaysia with the intention of bringing his wife along on the journey, however, Covid-19 hit the world causing the trip to be postponed. Mohammad Lasim said he had to go through various challenges to complete the expedition including encountering problems when his scooter broke down, travelling through rocky, muddy, narrow and steep mountain paths in India and Nepal as well as facing the extreme cold weather of -20 degrees Celsius which could lead to acute mountain sickness .
The former special education teacher at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kolombong, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, said he started going on expeditions riding various types of motorcycles since 2008 and among the places he has visited are Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and the African continent.