Taman Negara! 08-11 June 2001

Get up three in the morning, drive 12 hours from Prai to Taman Negara, dead tired upon arrival at the Nusa Camp, sleepless night before the ride on Saturday and encounter with the "shan tai wong", the King of The Mountain, the 10 wheel drive timber trucks that zooming on the logging track. These are the stuff that 14 of us from Penang who decide to spend their precious three day leave with their machine instead of their love ones. I must be frigging crazy to join the ride since I have not been riding seriously since my wrist injury. But I did join the ride! Am I nuts? I don't know. When Derek decided we should do the TN ride, I was 50-50. First, boss is going to scream at me left and right. Second, my fiancée is going to give me her trademark long face again, and third, I am not fit enough for such torture. If you read the report from the brave souls of the KOTRT at TN reccee trip, you know what I mean!

We decided to limit the number of participation to 40 riders only after the more than 60 riders experience we had during our Pos Mensun trip. God must be at our site, we had exactly 40 riders joining the ride. 14 Penangites, the rest from KL and Singapore(2). What happen to Penangites? Are they not adventurous enough? I don't know, probably KKK(Kiasu, Kiasi, Kiamsiap) rules in their blood...:) Anyway, the group was fairly large. The 40 riders splits into 4 groups, 3 go to the 34km ride(Kuala Tahan to Kampung Pagi), 1 goes to the shorter ride(Nusa Camp to Kampung Pagi). I was thinking of joining the short ride, Green number. Shorter distance mah. Because of that, I was not only bombarded by fellow knights, also from some of the KL riders, who rode with me before. "Come on lah, you go short ride?", "Mother cow you, short ride? In your dream!", "Aiya, I got flu also do long ride what" Yeah, yeah, I am not fit for the torture and they do not want to let me go. So at the end, I was the only rider with green number doing the long ride(hey, you guys should give me rookie of the ride award!)! Oh yeah, we gave riders number plates. Red number is for the long ride. Green for the short ride. Pretty cool. It makes the whole ride look professional.

I was with the second group. The first 4 km was not that bad. I had no problem to follow the rest at the 4km tarmac ride before the Kuala Tahan trailhead. Since I knew I was not going to survive if I went all out, I did it in casual pace, which made me always the last rider in the group. The fun began when we finally hit the dirt. Again, I was at easy pace. Two Singaporean riders, Gerard and Adrian were with me. With their state of the art fullies, which of course out shine my beaten Diamondback! Well, it's the engine that counts. If you have a Ferrari body but Kanchil engine, no use right? But they are different. They are real good. I was totally left behind when we hit the first god forsaken climb. The uneven surface, the long climb and my unfit body made me climb down from the saddle to push the bike! I should have stuck to my original decision. By the time I managed to the end of the climb, the rest of the second group was already no where to be seen.

It was a long downhill to the junction at the Nusa Camp. I did not go down at full speed. Maybe it was because I still had the phobia with me. I always looked at my right wrist whenever there was a sharp turn. I still had the fear that I was going to hurt my wrist again! It was a wide logging track. I should have enjoyed it if not because of the fear that I still need to overcome. It took me about one and the half hours to reach the Nusa Camp junction. Consider my not really fit situation, it was a good time. And funny, I felt like my legs started to warm up and energy slowly came back to me. I started crank hard after I went pass the junction. Maybe I was too anxious to catch with the rest of the riders, I shifted front gear while climbing up. Big mistake, next thing I knew I had bent few chain links! I had no choice but to stop and cut the chain out. I did not realize I had bent them. The chain acted funny. It kept on drop to the smaller chainring and jam the drivetrain. Tom caught with me and helped me to find out what was happening. He thought I had bent the RD hanger. So he "helped" to unbent it. It did not solve the problem either. Since the camp was not far away, I thanked Tom and asked him to continue his ride. I would turn back to the Nusa Camp if I still could not find out what was happening to my bike in another five minutes.

I found out about the bend link when I turned the crank. I tried to cut with my chain cutter without any success since my right wrist was still weak. I was about to say " the hell with it, I am turning back!", Sany and Adli showed up. After I explained to Sany and Adli what had happened to the chain, Adli helped me to cut the bent chain out. Five links were missing from the chain, which I would not be able to use 44-18 for the rest of the journey! Almost half an hour had wasted for the bent link thing. By the time we started to continue again, time was already 10 o'clock in the morning. I remember in last night's Derek's briefing, the Shan Tai Wong began zooming down the track at 10 in the morning. It did not take us long to encounter the first truck. It was awesome! First time I had seen a 10 wheel drive vehicle, some more it was made in Malaysia! It moved kind of slow because of the fully load of timber logs at the trunk. I could imagine how would these 10 wheel drive monsters behave when they are not loaded! Man! After the first logging truck we encountered, we knew that if we did not move fast enough, there was going to be hell lot of them coming on our way. Adli's and Sany's radio clicked at the same time. Paul of Bicycling Malaysia, who was helping to sweep the trail warned us about the on coming convey. He told us that would be another 49 coming out! It was just short while after the first truck, we encountered the second after the long hill climb. And we were stuck there for at least another 15 minutes!

I must be very smelly after the first 20km ride. A bee came to my hand, I did not realize it was a frigging bee. So I used my left hand to swept that little bug away. Then, "thing!", I got the stung! The hook stuck to my finger. I did not feel anything but I quickly pull the sting away. It was too late. The venom was already pumped into my finger! Again, thanks to Adli's help, I managed to kill the pain by using the stung patch he gave me! Two more riders caught up with us when we were waiting to let the convey pass.

It seems like the convey was never ending. We could not wait at the same spot for too long since there was 14 more kilometers to go. We decided to go with caution. With Sany and Adli at front, I was between the riders. One of the riders decided to go forward after he realized that that I was going down with crawling speed. Man that two falls I had in Kulim High Tech and Singapore must have cast a dark image in my mind about flying down the slope. I lost sight of them by the time I reach the foothill of the slope. Paul and the sweeper truck was at the bottom of the slope. He insisted that I should hop on the truck since it was going to take some time for the convey to clear. I had no choice but to hop on. I wanted him to put me down once we had cleared the convey. Apparently, he had another agenda. He was too helpful. He thought maybe he should drop me and another rider at the tip of the next climb! I should thank him for being thoughtful. The time was approaching 11am and there was still 14 km more to go. But I wanted to continue. The plight took over. I assured him that he could pick me up if I did not make it to Kampung Pagi by 12.30pm. Reluctantly, he finally agreed to let me go but he wanted me to carry one of his walkies. Sorry lah Paul. I was such an ass that day but I wanted to finish the ride, that's all!

The second hill was even tougher than the first one. Maybe I had stayed idle for too long. The muscle was already asleep and it took longer time to wait up the spent muscle. I decided not to push this time and used the imaginary bungee cord technique. Funny, I had never thought of that when I did the first one. This time I made it. Paul was at the top of the climb. I had to stop because of on coming logging truck. There was another rider behind me struggling up the hill. I thought he was already in front. Apparently he was not, or I had passed him when I hopped on the sweeper truck. The trail was clear after letting that logging truck pass. I decided to continue the ride. Another rider decided to hop on the truck since he did not feel good to continue. It must be a confidence blow for me. All the while I admired his strength and stamina. But the last night flu and extra 8km he made on tarmac(he missed the entrance twice!) had taken a toll on him.

It was tempted for me to hop on the truck after seeing one of the toughest riders decided to hitch the ride. But my plight still told me I should do the ride. I still had one and the half hours to go. I told Paul to pick me up, even with force, if I did not make it by 12. I could see a relief from his face. With that in mind. I must beat the 12 o'clock dead line. If I don't make it. I would have to hop on the truck in disgrace!

The third climb was even tougher than the second one. This time I could not make it. I was too weak to crank uphill even at 22-32 combo. Who say 32 teeth is the ultimate limit? My body screamed for 34 but I only had 8 speed(don't tell me I am thinking of 9 speed XTR, arghh!!!). Again, Paul was waiting for me at the peak of the hill. I had to stop again for the passing logging truck. It was a brief stop and I continued cranking down the slope. It was another long slope again. Again, I squeezed the brake levers with all the strength I had. My radio started alive again. There was conversation between Sany, Adli, Azmi, ST and Fatt. That told me Kampung Pagi was not far away! It was an energy boost for me. I later overtook another 4 riders. Which made me not the last rider to reach Kampung Pagi!

After asking the kids on the escavator about how far was Kampung Pagi("You still have one mile to go"), I used all my strength to complete the last remaining stretch. The time already pass 12 noon deadline. But Paul was no where to be seen. I took the opportunity to crank faster and faster. I don't know why. I had this last burst of energy to push me to the end. It was a welcoming sight when I finally saw the Kampung Pagi sign. At that point I already did not care whether the kids told me the truth or not. My survival instinct already took over my logical sense. I even left that sweet looking lady rider behind. I just wanted to finished the ride.

I finally made it to the trail end at 12.15pm, four hours after we began from Kuala Tahan. I was glad that I made it even with my present shitty physical state! The rest arrived 15 minutes later. We did not waste any time and hop on the awaiting boat to our lunch place!

We had BBQ dinner at the same night. I brought over 80 wings and 80 sticks marinated with my mum's secret recipe. Few awards were given to few riders except they forgot to add the Best Rookie award, which supposed to be given to me! Hehe...

I stayed at Nusa Camp until Monday. Sunday was a free day. Azmi and ST decided to lead a group to trek to Abai fall, which I later learnt that they got lost on the way to the waterfall! And worst of all, they went to the wrong one! Since it was my first time to Taman Negara, I decided to follow another group of rider to do the ever famous canopy walk, which was quite an experience for me!(Darling, wish you were with me!!).

It was one hell of the ride and one hell of the experience at Taman Negara. If I were in a better shape, I would have enjoyed. But I was not in my peak form. Why does it always happen to me whenever there is a great ride? I don't know man!

The trip was a great success. Kudos to Derek, Azmi, Sany, ST and Sup(for the nice looking T-shirt) for their time. You must be the one who love this sport or you will not bother to do it. Without their effort, this TN trip would not happen! They really go through all the hassle to reccee the trail, make the accomodation arrangement, BBQ, design the T-Shirt, prizes and the maps that used during the presentation and give-away as prizes/sourvenour for all the volunteers. You won't see this kind of stuff at trips that make by some eco tourist agents! I am looking forward to the coming TN trip, which will not happen until next year. For those who have missed the trip this time, make sure you make it next year. I assure you that you will not regret it!

Stay tuned!