Secret secret ride Part 2.

26th JULY 2015 Secret Secret Ride :-

   Another of Tailook's hush hush ride. Invitation only ride. For some reason this was meant to be another ride where we do not tell people where we are going. How far we are riding. How long the ride is gonna be. Who the actual ride leader is will also not be disclosed. You are only told where to meet. Bring your bike. And wait quietly...
 Ummm... Keep quiet? That's gonna be asking quite a bit from me. What's the point of going riding if you are not allowed to talk? If keeping quiet is the new rule. I gonna pick up swimming instead. And trust me, that is not an idle threat my friend. The only real reason i come to ride is because i wanna talk. No one speaks to me at home. That's why i wake up at 5 am on a Sunday, drive 90 minutes to some godforsaken place in the middle of nowhere. So i can say things. I don't care if you really listen to what i say or not.
   It's pretty boring talking to your dogs. I tried. They agree to everything you say. And they do not argue. It gets a bit mundane after 3 minutes. And those eyes.... It's like staring into a mirror. A man can lose himself if he does this every Sunday. So i chose to ride.
   And it was a handful of old goats seen at the usual meeting point. Counted 6 goats in total. Not too bad. I have 6 fellas to talk to today. That's a lot better than my usual 2 doggy chat partner. Ecstatic i am...
   The convoy of cars took off towards the actual secret meeting point. We had to take extra caution about where we are really gonna meet up. This is a secret ride after all. Arrived at the second secret meeting point. Eco Venture Resort. Drove in and almost had a heart seizure.
   There were 30 plus riders gathered at the parking lot.
   If this was meant to be a secret ride by Tailook. He has done a shit lousy job at keeping it a secret. How did so many people find out about the ride? Having so many riders present got Tailook scratching his head. He looked to CT for help. CT offered him a pack of tissue. CH shook his head. Pete started chewing his bun. Unker took out his folding chair. We are in for an early show. How is Tailook gonna explain this circus?
   Turns out, Ben invited his entire village from Sungai Long. They came expecting a wedding banquet breakfast do. Only to be told this was a secret ride. Well... it is supposed to be a secret ride after all. So it's not entirely wrong not to tell 30 riders why they are asked to gather there on a Sunday morning right? Anyway. That's Ben and Tailook's problem. We were just waiting quietly as instructed.
   Disappointed.
   No riot took place. No one even vaguely attempted to punch Tailook or Ben. Not one person...
   Sigh.
 

A geese and a gorilla.

   Had to convince Portugeese Victor there is nothing to look forward to. Nope. The Chinaman is not gonna get pummeled today. Set up the bike Victor. Keep the coffee and sandwich for later. Let's ride somewhere. That will usually help ease the pain and frustration. Reluctantly, the Old Geese ambled off towards his car to get ready. Pure agony. Saw him kick a few pebbles as he walked off.
   After some haggling and something spoken in Hakka. The group took off. It was pointless asking. This was a secret ride. The ride leaders took it so seriously, the entire pre-ride briefing was conducted purely in a mixture of Hakka and Pidgin. All the guys from Sungai Long nodded in agreement. The rest of us blinked.

   We headed towards Tekala in a single file. No words was spoken. I was bored. No one spoke. Its almost like swimming now. 20 minutes of pure cranking on tarmac and everyone kept quiet... What is this? Mission Impossible? 'bird sound...'

Hanz right after a radioactive rabbit exploded on him.

   Just before arriving at Tekala junction, Ben stopped the entire herd. Up this way please. Ben pointed up to what he calls Gorilla Hill. I may not be the smartest in class during my time, but i am pretty sure we do not have gorillas in Malaysia. At least where i live i know for sure. Then again, this is a secret ride remember?
   So up the hill we went. Bloody hill is relentless. 45 minutes of cranking and the hill continues to torment us. Even after 45 minutes of continued cranking, you are no where near the peak. What sort of gorilla is this? And all this was done in utter silence. I wanted to strangle the bloody gorilla...

Orang asli kid spotted testing Borky's bike.

   First regrouping conducted midway up Gorilla. Waited a good 20 minutes for Fisherman and Fisherwoman to come up. Fisherman looked flushed. He looked like he went 3 rounds with the King of the Jungle. Nobody dared ask. Waited for Fisherman to catch his breath.

   " You fellas go ahead. Along the way up, me and Judy made a decision. We want no part of this secret society bullshit. I was young once. I know this secret secret thing will lead me nowhere but an early grave. You fellas go on. Believe it or not, me and Judy actually plan to live a bit longer. We will head towards the car and enjoy the lake side view. Watching that is much less painful on my eyes than watching Jesse in lycra. "

   We could not argue with that.
   Off we went after saying our goodbyes to the both of them. Dark silence tracked us as we made our way up to the peak of the gorilla's head. Took another good 20 minutes of cranking before we finally arrived at the peak. Short regroup and off we went. Now the downhill begins. Flying down the gorilla's back towards his ass was never more fun. Hanz enjoyed its so much it took him forever to ride down that hill....

CT doing what he does best. Another spot marked and claimed.

   With Hanz finally arriving at the bottom of the hill, the group rode straight into the connecting single track for another round of downhilling through pristine jungle trails. Almost 15 minutes of pure unadulterated single tracks pointing down.
  Arrived at the rubber plantation for the next regrouping. The rubber tappers came out from the hut to see what the commotion was all about. Saw Jesse in lycra. Took a step back and decided it was better to just keep quiet.
   Laughter was only heard 10 minutes after we walked up the hill.
   And what a hill that was.
   Took almost 30 minutes of dragging and hauling to get the bike up the hill. CT tried so hard to hold it all in. CH was melting. Krankster mumbled something in Hainan. Manta begged for his apple. Unker gave him the evil eye. Up the hill we walk in silence...

Rubber trees all straight and nice.

   Managed to organize another regrouping session at the peak of the hill.
   Then someone noticed that the Old Geese was nowhere to be seen. Searched all over the bush and under the tree stumps. We even got Dotty to stand up just to be sure she was not sitting on the old geese. Nope. The Geese has left the building. This secret ride is turning into a culling session. Including the Geese, we have now managed to cull off a total combined aged of almost 200 years. The average group age has just drastically dropped from 53 to 49. Average weight did not plummet too much though. Considering that the Old Geese and Judy only has a total combined weight of about 90 kgs. After a futile 2 minutes of searching, we gave up and hoped for the best.

   From then on, it was all pointing downwards.
   We had an entire 6 km of  down hill to enjoy. Purely downwards and nothing in between.You could the car parked in the distance.If you look really hard, you could even see Fisherman enjoying his Cornetto.
   Hanz was in tears.

Dotty doing a VC.

   In the blink of an eye, we were back at the car. Rain came right after the bikes were loaded. Perfect timing.
   Fisherman came offering lunch in the form of fried rice. He decided it was probably better to remain in the secret group than sitting around watching ducks swim. Duck watching is only fun when you are 93 years old. If you are still able to see then.

Un'believable.


 

Kota Damansara Ride 5th JULY 2015

Kota Damansara "Take your friend for a ride" Ride 5th JULY 2015:-

Teres checking out the Danish buns.

   Returning from the long confusing weekend in Cameron Highlands, KDCF was a much welcomed ride invite. It will be a late 0800 hours ride time. Not having to drive 90 minutes to the trail head is a blessing. So KDCF it was...

Teres re-checking the Danish buns.

    The usual crowd at the Section 9 toilet started gathering on Sunday. Most of the guys decided to bring their friends for this week's ride. Teres brought his 2 beo's. KY brought a Danish dude that is slightly shorter than a coconut tree. Yellow Manta brought 3 prosperous Minions from the banking industry. King Kenny brought a dude that was fasting and late. Borky brought himself. Victor was happy cycling in circles when we were getting ready. Jacky wanted to bring somebody but nobody wanted to ride in his MPV. Krankster as usual came smiling to himself for some reason unknown to us. Choi! was supposed to bring Mei. Mei promised to come by herself  instead. For once Choi! showed up at the trail head on time.

Manta with helmet on.

Manta helmet off.

   Krankster as usual gave the group his usual briefing. Took him a good 3 seconds to realise nobody was listening. So off we went into KDCF. King Kenny stayed back for his friend to arrive. Choi! also told us to move ahead. He still harbours hope that Mei might show up. KY took a look at Choi! and shook his head... Victor giggled to himself. Being love struck really does make a man hope for silly things. For all you know, he might be praying for Mei to bring him mangoes.
   Into KDCF. The climb begins. Nobody spoke. It was full focus cranking till we came to the first rest point inside Harmoni. Some chatter and off we went again. Trail condition. Almost perfect. Slight damp with gentle breeze.

Do not smell shoes during ride.

   Arrive at the Temuan junction. Nobody said anything again. Off into Temuan and back to the Scouts junction. Then a quick run down towards lakeside. Arrive down at the usual feeding hut where most of the guys were waiting. A bit more chatter before it was decided it's time to move along back towards the car. Choi! protested and begged, we had to tell him.
   Mei is not coming today... You are really all alone today. Poor guy was stunned. No mangoes and no, we will not hold your hands while you sit. If the pain is unbearable, take a good look at the lake. Choose a spot carefully. It was nice knowing you....
   So off we went. Another near silent ride back towards the car...

Take your friend for a ride scene 1:-

Minions.

   Bring 3 minions for the ride. Make sure they are lagging behind you all the time. Get away from their line of sight. Each time you stop. Release the air from your tyres and get one of the minions to pump the air for you while you have your apple. Supervise while they struggle to get the correct pressure. Do not dirty your hands. Your are eating your apple remember? Compliment them at the end of each successful air refill. Then repeat the cycle as often as you. When they start getting suspicious, blame the air loss on technical things using technical jargon's... Then compliment the minions again on their acute sense of observation. Give each a pat on the back. Continue chewing the apple.
   The Manta brought many apples and buns last Sunday.

Take your friend for a ride scene 2:-

More minions...

   Tell your friend to show up 15 minutes behind the actual agreed starting time. When he arrives, tell him to hurry up and make him chase after the main group. Make plenty of hissing sound while you chase. Do not smile. Tell your friend to take all the left turns in the trail. Then you ride off quickly. Make sure your friend is unable to keep up. It's ok. It is not possible for him to get lost inside the trail. You did give him specific instructions to keep left all the time. Switch on your Ipod and ride off like a bat from hell. Ignore the pain in the chest or the beeping sound from your heart rate monitor. Focus on taking all the left turn except for the last one where your turn right to connect back into Harmoni again.
   Kenny's friend only rode in a circle twice before he realized something was wrong. He decided to hook on to Robert instead and finally found the elusive right turn. And upon returning, find Kenny sitting under the tree with a very disappointed look on his face.

Take your friend for a ride scene 3:-
   The ride was almost 3 hours in total. Borky came alone. It was ok, he was with his friends after all. Poor Borky kept asking for food each time we stopped for a break or to wait for the back markers.

   " Where are we going for food later ya...?"
   "  Are we going for roti at Subaidah later....?"
   "  You think i should order the Curry Fish Head or the Mee Goreng..?"
   " Waa.. today's ride is long eh? I am hungry."
   " Eh... it's almost 11 already. Come la.. let's go get something to eat..."
   " Long time never eat Bak Kut Teh eh... mmmm."
   " Eh... it's almost 12 already. Come la.. let's go get something to eat.." 

   Out of consideration for the poor guy. The entire group hurried back to the car. We didn't want Borky to suffer unnecessarily. As fast as we could, everyone packed up and got ready to get lunch for poor Borky suffering hunger pangs the past 3 hours on the saddle. Come on now ... hurry hurry.

   Borky was nowhere to be seen. He decided to go home to hug his wife.

Take your friend for a ride scene 4:-
   Smile and promise to meet at the trail head. Do not trouble your friend.

   " No need to come pick me up this weekend. I'll get there by myself. 0800 hours for the ride to begin right? Noted. I'll be there. See you. Dried mangoes right? xoxo..."

   Send a smiley icon via Whatsapp....

Pure agony.

   Mei is having a blast down in Sydney. Check out her Facebook posting... Choi! firmly believes it was simply a case of misunderstanding and a break in the line of communication. That was what he told the Vietnamese masseur.
  The masseur is well trained. She only laughed in the toilet after Choi! left...

Circus is in town...

Un'believeable...

Jim Thompson Ride Report from the Yellow Manta

   The second part of report from last weekend's PCC ride and hike in Cameron Highlands. This report is courtesy of the Yellow Manta. Even with blurred vision and some signs of senility kicking in, he is still very much awake and conscious during the ride to give us a view of what occurred during the ride. He tried to remember as much as he could. Respect your elders. Patience is a virtue....

JIM THOMPSON REVISITED 27th June 2015:-

Date: 27 June 2015

No of riders: 13.

Ride distance: 45km, starting and ending at Habu.

Time taken: About 6-7 hours.

Carrot Cake Consumed: 25 pieces.

Coffee: 25 cups.

Donuts made: 26 pieces.

   The idea was a last minute thing. Unker Danny got wind of the Tailook organising this hike up Gunung Irau where supposedly some scenes of the movie “Lords of the Ring” were secretly filmed. Especially those mossy forest scenes. So we were made to understand.

   Unker asks why just hike? Hiking is not an activity that figures very high in his bucket list so let’s go ride Jim Thompson. You know, sort of like a fellowship of mountain bikers and crazy hikers. The idea quickly caught on with many. It even had Jason jumping up and down with excitement who initially thought we were gonna go check out Jim’s famous chain of silk stores. And that was how his sweetheart, Christine ended tagging along for the trip. And no, she didn’t visit Jim Thompson. Ended up with the crazy hikers.

 

Single tracks galore...

   The Golden Mountain Villa continues to be our favourite lodging grounds whenever we ride Jim Thompson. Conveniently located just across the entrance to the Boh plantation in Habu, it also gives us a final reward in the form of an awesome 5km twisty downhill run from the tea house back out. This is if you do the Jim Thompson loop in counter-clockwise direction starting from Ringlet. Another thing about this Golden Mountain Villa is,  it’s got a nice little garden area where we can hang out and get ‘hydrated’ sufficiently for the next day’s big adventure. And they are flexible with checkout times and have no issues with our washing the dirty bikes with their taps, post-ride.

 

Jim Thompson at it's best.

   So the crack of dawn had 9 of us rolling down to Ringlet for breakfast and to meet up with the McNabs and a couple of their friends who were joining us for the ride. They were driving up from Kampar that morning itself.

   We had on our GPS the track log that was last captured back in the 2011 trip. So with the recent floods at Bertam Valley, we were a bit concerned if sections of the route were no longer passable or if the route had to be altered. Guess our fears were unnecessary.

Donut making class in progress.

   Route remains very much intact even if some sections are now overgrown. In fact,  what were once narrow cemented tracks are now fast being reclaimed by Mother Nature and turning it into lovely if a bit overgrown single tracks! That particular section after the last steep descent in the farming area all the way to the village in Pos Mensun is a joy to ride! But that metal bridge is no more! So we had to hack and find a way down to the river to get across to the village. That was when I almost disappeared down a bottomless hole hidden amongst the thick undergrowth! Connection to the village track re-established, we formed a human chain to get the bikes down and across. And just as we were finishing with this arduous task, 3 little orang asli boys appeared and pointed out an easier way to cross the river! 

Endangered creature spotted.

   After an apple break at the village, the fun begins! Ahead of us was a 15km grind all the way up from 2,000ft to almost 5,000ft altitude where the Boh tea house is! What we like here was the fact that the stretch between Kampung Boh to the edge of the Boh plantation has now become a wonderful off road ride. That narrow cemented path is hardly any more with Mother Nature having reclaimed most of it. So you get nice leaf-covered single tracks here cutting across pure jungles and bamboo forest, and almost 100% under tree canopy. There is even a point where erosion has made it look like Plan C in Kiara. One wrong step will send you tumbling deep down into the ravine! Obviously this had all of us off the bike.

   For first-timer Natalie, the worst was over when we finally got to the edge of the Boh plantation. Or so she thought! Until Joyce who had ridden Jim Thompson some years before with us and who knew better told her to brace for more hell ahead! C’mon, ladies. It’s just another 5 or 6km to the tea house. All riding amidst the beautiful grounds of the Boh plantation. And Jason hasn’t even gotten out of the jungle yet!

Taking the 57th break of the day.

   What followed seemed like endless grinding from tree to tree which provided the much needed shade as we paused to rest our very sore butts. For Peter Wong, the better strategy was rather to ride from one lamp post to the next. Thankfully there was a very cooling breeze blowing.

   First to arrive at the tea house were our forever fit Dotty ( never mind if she hadn’t been riding much of late ) and Hanz. They appeared not to have any problems with burning arses like so many of us do.

Dotty doing what she does best...

   Most of us were sipping tea and enjoying some very fine banana carrot cake when our ‘sweeper’ Jesse finally radioed below, asking where was the tea house. And it wasn’t even 4pm yet. We were all dug in to wait till dusk actually. Well done, Jesse...!

   The 5km blast out to the main road was godsend. Which explains also why the Jim Thompson is best done in a counter-clockwise fashion. We used to ride it the other way round but the many changes that have taken place inside the route really doesn’t make it any more good to tackle it any other way. No doubt it requires a 3,000ft grind over 15km but it’s done in very nice surroundings and except for a few sections, is mostly rideable. Turn it the other way and one would end up having to tackle pretty steep hills on cement tracks inside the farming area plus an 8km grind on highway back to Ringlet. Bad.

PeteW chasing lamp post number 109.

   Hopefully there will be another trip next year. At the rate things go, it won’t be long when the Jim Thompson loop will lose most of its charms.

Ride Report courtesy of Yellow Manta.

And all we silly hikers got to see at the peak was this... Boo Hoo.