Teens and their dad cycle from Penang to mark 180th anniversary of St Margaret’s Secondary School
What did you do during the June school holidays?
Two sisters, Gehna and Tareena Chandna from St Margaret's Secondary School, cycled 800km from Penang to Singapore to commemorate their school’s 180th anniversary this year.
Why Penang? Because that is the resting place of Maria Bausum, better known as Maria Dyer, the British missionary who, in 1842, founded the Chinese Girls' School in Singapore.
The school is now known as St Margaret's Secondary School.
On June 19, Gehna, 15, and Tareena, 14, paid their respects to their school's founder at the Protestant cemetery in George Town, Penang, before setting out on their epic journey, accompanied by their father Dheeraj.
They cycled through small towns, fields and plantations as they avoided the highway as much as possible, Dheeraj told Stomp.
He said: "We stayed in small budget hotels along the western coastal route as these small hotels allowed us to keep our bicycles in the lobby overnight.
"We would start cycling around 7am until 1pm or 2pm daily. After which we went around exploring the town we stopped at. That was to relax our minds as well as make us excited to cycle to the next town so that we could explore more new places.
"We ate at makeshift stalls along the old highway and enjoyed lots of local food. We replenished our water bottles by stopping at petrol kiosks."
It took them 12 days to reach Singapore and they ended their journey at St Margaret's Secondary School in Farrer Road on June 30.
Dheeraj called it a "priceless feeling" to have completed the "gruesome" 800km ride.
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