Home Sweet Home

I have lived in several cities. All of which are memorable for one reason or another. As far as road cycling is concerned, I got into the sport in Houston. I saw how a city can be cyclist-friendly in The Hague.

Home, though, is Kuala Lumpur, or ‘KL’. I have lived on and off in KL for almost fifty years, in twelve different homes within a 10-kilometre by 13-kilometre rectangle.

Half of those homes, including the two most recent ones, sit within a 1-kilometre by 3-kilometre rectangle. I am definitely an inner-city dweller.

My Strava history in KL started in October 2012. Since then, I have ridden many kilometres within that 10-kilometre by 13-kilometre rectangle containing all the KL homes I have lived in.

Until recently, I remembered only eleven of those homes. Of those, one has been razed and is now a car park, and three have been replaced by multi-storey buildings. I often ride past five surviving buildings where I lived and past where the four used to be. The only previous home I have not cycled past is the apartment in Taman Bukit Pantai.

What of the forgotten home? I was digging through old documents and came across my original birth certificate. Hand-written in blue pencil on paper so creased it is held together with cellotape.

I have masked some of the details, including “Mother’s usual place of Residence.” A quick check on Google Maps revealed that I regularly cycle within 400 metres of that address.

A few days ago I took that 400 metre detour. The building is still there, sixty-six years after I was brought home to it from Bangsar Hospital.

Getting to this building involves twice merging across multiple lanes on a busy road. So, I am unlikely to ride past it much. It is nice to know it is still standing, though. Which is more than I can say for Bangsar Hospital.