3rql Escape The Haze Tour Supported by Speakeasy Skateboard ~ www.AmeerHakim.com

Images By Ameer Hakim
Words By Aiman Farhan

Malaysia, a country of people living with multiple religion and ethnicity with landmass of 329,847 square kilometers. With 13 states in the country divided with political powers by several political parties struggling to make ends meet on behalf of everyone ( hope they do ) . All eyes are set on the heartbeat of the city , Kuala Lumpur. The city itself was rapidly built after 50 years of the nation’s independence. Outsiders and locals were drawn in to the city as it would promise 101 chances of success and happiness in terms of business, holiday and life. Skateboarding has made it way to the city since the early 90’s.Today many spots has been discovered in this concrete jungle , the probability for a new spot to be found is quite rare in the city .Certain spots were taken down by the authorities while some are kept guarded away from skateboarders.

So we came out with a brief idea out of random talks. The idea is to discover skate spots outside the city where no one has ever skated .Looking at Pahang; one of the states in Malaysia located in the north surrounded with tropical forest as its attraction we decided to give it a try. Thus ‘Escape the Haze project’ was born. By the way Escape the Haze got its name due to the haze phenomenon that affects certain state in Malaysia.

Besides that we hope this project will become a medium to open the eye of Malaysian skateboarders not to focus skateboarding in one place or city since Malaysia is not a country with big modern cities ( New York for example).Malaysia has its identity as a country surrounded with tropical forest and it shouldn’t stop skateboarders to skate on this type of environment . We believe this is what one of the traits skateboarding has to offer, there is no limit for creativity in skateboarding no matter where the place you roll.

Along the way to Cameron Highland, this is what cousing the haze in KL

We started the journey by stopping by at Lata Iskandar. The first stop of waterfall place before heading up Brinchang.

After Lata Iskandar, we head up to Brinchang. A small town where locals meet and greet each other before continue the journey up. We've met a great locals that are very interested in our skating. For them what we were doing was something different from their everyday life routine.

We managed to arrived at Tanah Rata which is the town of Cameron Highland right before the sun settled. We the unsufficient budget, we decided to stay a night at the local mosque where we meet a humble imam who let us stay there for a night.

Evening time at Tanah Rata, we filled it with skating around town. We found a bus stop that currently was empty and we did a sesh just to warm up the night. The temperature was quite cold to compare with other states in Malaysia. It is the coldest place in Malaysia and it's around 16 degree celcius at night. We couldn't took our sweater off the whole night.

6.45am

7.25am

On the way to Boh Tea Plantation.

Amirul & Aiman enjoying the breeze.

My Breakfast

On our way to Jerantut, we did a random stop by at Sungai Pahang (Pahang River).

This river is 459 km in length, it is the longest river on the Malay Peninsula. The river begins at the confluence of Jelai and Tembeling rivers on the Titiwangsa Mountains and drains into the South China

Sea.

We arrived at Jerantut around 6pm and straight to Hotel DarulMakmur where we met Abang Haris. He is the Ganeral Manager or the Hotel and managed to hook us up with rooms to stay. Thanks Abang Haris !

Jerantut City at night.

The Crew with Abang Haris

Hotel DarulMakmur

On the next day, we skated at local Jerantut skatepark which is located walking distance from the hotel. Didn't managed to get any images but a few footy(coming soon).

Muzzammil having a knee check by the local "Tukang Urut"

We would to thank Wheel love skateshop for lending us one of their crew and hooking up us with some of their gears. Wheel love has been supporting the Malaysian rolling scene ( Skateboarding,In-line,Bmx…etc) since day one .The joy of rolling is meant to be shared with everyone without any discrimination on what they’re riding ,this is what Wheel love skateshop is all about .