Woke up to a splitting headache. Learnt something new today. Cheese does not go well with whisky and Cantonese break up songs.
Final day of ride today. The group will be splitting up today. 7 first timers will be headed off to visit the volcano before doing a 35km downhill loop, then meet us up at Tutur Welang bike park for a round of white knuckled downhill run. The rest of us will be taken for a gnarly technical downhill drop in Mendek before proceeding to Tutur Welang. Apparently this technical bit helps with indigestion.
Team Bromo left at the break of dawn. The rest of us had a lazy breakfast before heading out at 0830 hours towards Mendek.
Seeing that today will be a last run. Most of the guys decided to take an easy pace. Antony was told to keep the pace at a retiree pace. Off we went towards Mendek. A lazy 35 minutes drive to the trail head. This was to be a new trail that Antony found only weeks before. Even our guide Bayu and Indra has never ridden it.
Trail description. Easy ride through a village. Enter farm land. Start of gnarly descent. 200 meters of tight criss crossing switchbacks. Regroup at bamboo forest. 100 meters of sheer drop into razor sharp rocks. 75 degrees at most. Then fast high speed single track before the village. From there on, it was a leisurely ride through sugar cane plantations. Ending up at the school field with cold beer in the van.
The ride was pretty uneventful. The few suicidal riders rode down the technical bit. Then it was an easy chatty pace through the villages. The pace was so leisurely that Grouchy felt guilty for going so slow. He felt obliged to go take a dump at one of the villagers home. At his age, taking a dump in the open was a wee bit breezy for the old nuts to bear with.
Between Indra and Bayu, Indra drew the short straw. Indra had no choice but to accompany him. Grouchy doesn't speak Javanese. Grouchy wasn't convinced we would not leave him for good in the middle of East Java. Antony did not give Grouchy a track log. Taking a dump alone is boring.
We waited an hour.
Indra came back looking like he attended a dear friend's funeral.
Arrived at the van and away we packed up towards Tutur Welang. An hour of weaving country roads.
Arrived at Tutur Welang. Found the rest of the 7 riders waiting for us. They had a gala time visiting the volcano. Aldrich did not get mistaken for a lamb and gotten himself thrown into the volcano. Tycoon smiled when we complimented him on his Italian Job last night. Ivan just smiled to everyone he saw. Ivan was simply glad he did not get left behind at the crater.
Tycoon's was told cycling would help him lose weight. |
As usual, we broke into the two designated groups. By now, most already knew where their pecking order position was. This was to be a 15 km of pure bomb down through the forest. We will be riding between trees. We will be churning through plantations. We will be in between dry river beds. Expect some jumps and bumps beneath the dry leaves. And loose rocks the size of your fist.
And bomb through we did. Tailook was the first casualty. He decided to have a better look at the loose rocks on the ground , while travelling at breakneck speed. Tailook stopped very quickly using his right calf and thigh. We congratulated Tailook on him managing to sweep through the trails without scratching his bike. Then Jowei decided to give one of the trees a hug using his left shoulders. Part of his jersey remains on the tree. Bike got off scratch free. These are a bunch skillful riders. No matter what happens, the bikes are always looked after. To say that the guides were impressed would be an understatement.
Ended the ride at the river. All arrived with a frozen grin on the face. Jowei looked slightly whiter than his usual self. Slapped each other on the back and headed towards the lorry. Gave the bikes to our guides and prepared to get onto the lorry for another round round of descending. Spotted Indra whispering something in Javanese on the phone.
Indra received a distressing call from Antony. Team A had a casualty. Seems someone took a tumble and needed medical attention. Group decided there and then that we will wait and do an assessment when the injured party arrives.
It was an hour of waiting. Desmond took a tumble and hurt his stomach. Group decided that we will not continue anymore. Ride ends. Desmond gave us the thumbs up and we packed up for the 2 hour journey towards Halogen Hotel. Our final stay before flying off back home tomorrow.
Arrived at Halogen. Checked Desmond in for a rest and hope he would feel better after a clean shower. The herd prepared for dinner. Dinner was to be in Layar Seafood Restaurant.
Layar Seafood Restaurant was 17km away. Took us 55 minutes to travel the 17km. A few fellow riders had to be resuscitated upon arrival. It was a long long drive... We drove past 3 McDonald's and 1 Starbucks. We could only stare and wave in hunger. VC looked like he just had his heart broken for the first time.
Entrance to Layar. |
To put the experience in context.
Imagine being in love. You are 21 again. Young. Wide eyed. Innocent. Clueless. Hopelessly romantic. The other half whisks you away for dinner in Layar. Promises you a time of your life. You arrive in Layar. The crab and prawns are getting a manicure. The fishes are having their scales arranged. Lobster getting a wax and polish so they look their best. Everyone in the restaurant dressed to the nines. And i am referring to the waiters, not the guest. You get chaperoned to your seat. You get the best selection of fresh seafood. Your partner is charming to a fault. A bottle of wine notwithstanding. Your emotions gets drowned in overwhelming affection for all things sweet and fluffy. Only thing missing would be the single knee and ring shimmering, blinding you... Then your partner tells you he wants to break up with you.
This was how it felt in Layar.
Layar is where you take people to, when you plan to terminate your relationship with them. It's the same as getting your last meal before they hang you. You get to eat the best meal of your life before they exterminate you.
It was forgettable.
The fish served on the table looked like an Ethiopian. Vegetables was as limp as Oily's hair. We could count our fried petai. Our prawn looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger's cousin. The lobster at the next table looked like it just got a fresh coat of car lacquer. And a wax.
We could only stare in shock. Krankster smiled for the longest time. For the first time, his nuts was the tastiest thing on the table. VC looked like he had his heart broken for the second time on the same night.
Our bill came up to almost 7 million rupiah for a party of 20.
A few needed resuscitation before we could make our way out from the restaurant.
We found Ben and Antony waiting for us at the van. I have never seen a smile so big on anyone's face before. Ben and Antony had the best fried rice in Surabaya at the warung outside. Something caught me in the eye. Had to shed a tear. Ben smiled and patted me on the back. I wanted to chew his nose off...
The drive back to Halogen was as silent as a winter's night.
Un'beliveable.