A fun ride, Farm Trail, Waterfall, Air Itam, 8 Jan 2000
We were supposed to do Serdang DH kamikaze on Saturday. All of the sudden, When I called Viper Ong to confirm our participation, he told me that the ride was off on Saturday. Reason: Some of his riders were still working on that particular day. Well, normal lar. Money talks, bullshit walks. So, instead of going down to Serdang to enjoy a scenic ride, we decided to do something on Penang Island. Called ST up and he told me this was gonna be an ac hoc type of ride. You know, like meet first and decide where to ride kind of thing? Meaning: Get ready to have surprise!
8 riders showed up at ST's house at 0730hrs. I was still having no idea where to go yet. "Lets do the farmer's trail.", said ST. Gulp, "farmer trail? "Yeah. Remember the trail on the right of the Hilton? We are going to ride to the farm house using that one!" Boy I am dead. ST told me about that trail before. "Very steep! Not many riders manage to climb up to the top in one breath!" Mark Ostyn "the Conductor" exclaimed! My face started turn from red to green to blue, and they were all looking at me with their usual devilish smile! "You are dead amigo!" I swear I could hear it from their mouths! My vision started spinning, the faces started looking weird and...okay okay. It ain't that bad but I was sure my heart was pounding, I was sweating like hell and started to plan to chicken out if there was a chance! Just imagine I was riding with 8 semi and full teng-kahs, and I was the only one who could even barely finish the climb in Air Itam Dam road without stopping!
As usual, we went to our usual fill-up point at Farlim. We got off for our ultimate feat to the Farm trail half an hour later. The first portion of the ride was okay. Usual ride lar. Air Itam Dam road, back road of AID and climb up to the Hilton at the entrance to Thien Poh Kong temple. Btw, it seemed like Oon was having a bad day lately. He had to stop and gasp for air on his way up to the Hilton! That was really an encouraging sign for me! We finally reached the trail head of the farmer trail after an hour or so of travel from the foothill. Before we started, ST decided that we should take a group picture.
The climb was, err, quite torturous. The initial stage was deceiving. It made me felt like "Hey, this ain't bad at all". I was falling into a trap that the whole climb will be as gradual as the initial climb, so I changed to heavier gear and started pressing the pedals so hard that I felt I was riding at 300 kilometer an hour! Everything went smoothly until we met at the first pit stop that Ah Hwa and other teng kahs were stopping to enjoy the view. The slope in front of me just went straight up! "The fun begins!". Wait, wait, wait...no Kodak moment?
How should I describe how I felt after all the breathtaking climb to the peak? I was speechless after I reached the top. Not that I couldn't speak because I was gasping for air, the view at the end of the trail was just beautiful. It was rewarding! I was able to see Pulau Betong and the Balik Pulau town over there. Actually, if we went on after the farm house, we would reach the Tiger Hill.
We decided to venture into another vicinity afterwards. This time we went to one waterfall at the back of AID. According to ST, this was the place that not many people know about it. It was a man made waterfall. The overflow water from the dam will flow out thru an opening, which made it a "waterfall". Some of us dipped into the water, and well, surprisingly the water was not as cold as I was thinking! Something worth brought out was the descent before the waterfall. It was very technical. None of us were able to sit on our machines and rode down to the descent!
Makan was done in Air Itam wet market. We tried the Air Itam's famous "koay chup" and Jawa fried noddle. I was a little bit dissapointed that we did not have a chance to have a thrilling downhill fun on Air Itam Dam road!
Stay tuned!