KUCHING: Alex Stmrock Wong lives in a different world. A world where he spends most of his life seeking adventures, travelling and doing things that ordinary people may not even attempt.
Travel, he admitted, was his first love but he has also engaged in sports, dabbled in music and other interests, reaping much success in some of these.
His first trip in Sarawak was on a scooter which he rode from Kuching to Tawau in Sabah over 13 days. He also made the trip from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu, involving a distance of 1,300 km over 13 hours by bike and 15 hours by car.
He has logged in to 35 European countries and has been to much of Asia, even Russia but his greatest adventure was his attempt to cross two continents solo on his motorbike.
His love of adventure is like how mountaineers are driven to the next peak after each successful climb and perhaps also to test his limits.
It is thus fairly obvious that Alex Stmrock Wong, born in Sarawak, is not the average Joe as he lived his life trying out many new things, going places with many interesting tales to tell too.
Another hobby is being a collector from an impressive of sports cars, motorbikes, even setting up a racing theme cafe right in the heart of Kuching, at Jalan Chan Chin Ann where his memorabilia collected over the years are displayed.
The café which resembles a mini museum or gallery has his sports paraphernalia, his travelling gear, his musical instruments, his library of books.
Most striking of all is a full size real size F-1 special edition replica car of Aryton Senna and the helmet belonging to the F1 legend of the 1980s. Other artifacts include his jet-ski and his go-kart racing gear which portray his past as a racer in jet-skiing and go-karting.
Also included are trophies from his sporting days as a jet-ski racer and his go-kart racing, also maps of his travels, his travel bag, the Malaysian flag and his Petronas sponsored sports attire.
Much of his days have been spent on exciting trips and journeys around the world while nearer to home he went on excursions throughout Sarawak or Pan Borneo trips to Indonesia or to Sabah.
His most exciting trip was undoubtedly his Pan-American trip which even the former Yang Di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, an adventure lover, wanted to see him about, to learn more of his trip before his started his journey.
That trip which crossed two continents was his epic trip for there were many interesting, dangerous and even near-death experiences across 30,000 km and travelling, almost 80 per cent of the time solo on a motorbike.
His daredevil adventures and reputation won much traction as when the late Anthony Bourdain, the famous chef, visited Skrang in Sarawak on his second trip, he brought along Alex as his companion and personal guide.
Only the Covid pandemic and lockdown stopped him in his tracks not once but twice in Sabah and Kuala Lumpur.
Alex started in sports when he studied in a boarding school in London where he had his introduction to a bike from his brother who owned a superbike. He also followed his friends while studying in England to see them race in the Formula 3 cars which he got hooked to.
He recalled earlier in his life he went to a boarding school in Australia where he had to run marathons, and use motorbikes to herd the animals like sheep in the farm. That was where he learned his biking skills.
Alex a former Malaysian jet-skier has won many trophies representing Malaysia in the 1980s in such international meets as the Asean championships in Bangkok.
Before that he was also involved with racing cars and go kart racing.
After he gave up on sports he decided to go on adventure trips to different parts of the world.
His first overseas trip was when he wanted to make a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Myanmar but it was a failed attempt. He was stopped by immigration as they did not want him to see the killings in the country that happened at that time as Alex had carried a camera to film his adventure.
In 2013 he travelled from Kuala Lumpur to the former Soviet Union countries which ended abruptly in Uzbekistan. He met friends who travelled with him on the trip but left them in Russia. That trip of nine countries was covered in 51 days.
The Pan-American trip was his longest trip. It was a 65-day journey across the Americas from the bottom tip to the top in Alaska which covered 30,000 km. It was fraught with dangers and thrills.
“I spent 80 per cent of the time travelling alone and I had faced near misses along the way. In Mexico I was just lucky to have arrived at an ambush a few minutes late otherwise I would have been caught in the cross-fire between the police and drug cartel members.
“During my South American trip I suffered a broken socket and six punctures. However at every few kilometre stops there were old men who will mend your tires for which I paid only USD1 for their service.”
Along the way there were also people who flagged him down and give him food.
His trip to South America to Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Nicaragua, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, the United States and Canada took him to some of the most beautiful scenery which he captured in his lens and compiled into a book entitle “Till the Road Ends.”
“I am a jack of all trades. My main interest and passion is travel and I will go any place at the spur of the moment without much forethought.
“I love to travel and I make up my mind very fast if an idea hits me to go some place,” said Alex.
Another great accomplishment of his has to do with his musical talent – he was a rock star who has performed in concerts and also saw his music composition written into albums.
His band performed as the opening act of the Deep Purple Concert held in Singapore years ago.
“Now I am going back to music,” said Alex who has several albums to his name under SingleTrackMind.
