K3-Bukit Penara-Hilton, An "Easy" ride, 19 March 2000

I was promised that this was going to be an easy ride. "Easy one lar. No K5 I promise!" " Come lar, got SYT to join us you know?" Well, I had three rides on the same day in my hand. I could choose whichever group I wanted to join. Viper Ong's place is closer to my house, and I do not have to pay a bridge toll of RM5.60(if you happen to wonder how come I pay a ringgit and forty sen less, I use Touch and Go card lar! Oh by the way, the rate of RM5.60 only applies to the card that was purchased at the Penang Bridge office.). What made me decided to join ST was because of the mention of S-Y-T! Hey I am a strong and fertile human being and getting nervous about newly arrived female being is a natural response okay? Furthermore, Gary tried to talk me into joining ST's ride instead of his. "You teng kah lar. I am afraid our group will bore you to death! Also, the lady rider who's going to join ST's ride got good figure you know?" Wah, Chup Coca Cola! Whether the claim was true or not but I had a strong feeling that he didn't want me to join in because of the presence of teenage lady riders(!) in his Sunday ride group. Hmm, a conspiracy going on?

There wasn't a big turn out this morning. Apparently, the increase number of Sunday rides has thinned out the participation. We only had seven riders showed up this morning including one new young chap from Bagan Luar and after the three long months of absence, Roger. Oon and his buddy, Xiang did not show up, and not surprisingly, Fatt did not show up as well! Kind of understand that after that two day vacation with his girlfriend at Pedu Lake, he needed all the time to recover from that trip. You know what I mean lar huh?

We all had been to the trail before. I at least rode K3 once. The difference for the ride today was in stead of riding on K3 only, ST decided to climb up to the half hill only, cut to Bukit Penara and then going down to the Hilton via off road track that connected between Hilton and Bukit Penara. We were all set to go after we had our breakfast at 1997. By the way, I had the most expensive breakfast in 1997 this morning. RM4.50 for a slice of bread with butter, a sunny side up egg, two badly fried hash browns and a giant sausage! A rip-off!!! Next time I won't order that again! Maybe because of the heavy breakfast I had, or maybe because of the after effect of the two bottles of Carlsberg I had a night before, I felt heavy to cycle. Everybody was already on their way to K3 and I was still struggling at the foothill of Air Itam Dam road. Everybody was waiting impatiently when I finally reached the first pit stop at the crematorium of Kit Lok Si temple. Well, you can't blame me what? I am turbo snail, the slowest knight in the K.O.T.R.T! What can you expect from a snail right? Anyway, I only had five minutes to catch up my breath and the group decided to continue!

How to describe the trail in K3? Well, it is not as torturous as K5 but steep enough to take your breath away. If you do not know keep your own pace and keep on peddling, you will never reach to the top. This was what happen to two riders from Bagan Luar, Heng Ee and his buddy Jin. They were in the front trying to outdo one of teng kahs in K.O.T.R.T, Leong who was also our unofficial bike doc. Apparently, they ran out of steam after a while and couldn't keep the momentum to move on. Quite a sight I must say. They just watched me in horror that I passed by them with my usual slow pace and smiled at them! It must a nightmare for them! "Gosh, Turbo Snail overtook me! Arggh!!!" I finally reached the second pit stop speechless. The climb really took my toll! First time ever climbed to the second pit stop non-stop! Heng Ee and Jin finally reached 10 minutes later. Jin explained that he took a wrong turn. Everybody was looking at me. Hell, I need a break okay? I just can't be a sweeper forever!

It seemed like everybody was very impatient and so eager to continue without considering there were weaker riders like me in the group(Don't laugh! I am a slow and old fart already liao okay?). The rest at the third pit stop only lasted less than 5 minutes. The descent to the Hilton was proved to be too much for some of us. Even though I enjoy technical downhill very much, I decided to go easy this time. The rooted trail was the one that I had never ridden before! The present of small drop offs here and there made it much more difficult to descend without risking my life! Jin finally gave up at the middle of descent. His thighs cramped! Lucky for him. I was not in the front which I always did when it was a downhill. I could see the pain made on him. Yeah it was painful but not deadly! ST and Roger arrived afterwards. Since it was only a short walk from our fourth pit stop. We encouraged to proceed to the pit stop and we would see what could we do to help him!

I decided to leave the rest to take care of Jin after we reached the fourth pit stop to catch with Leong and Heng Ee at the Hilton. The ride down to the Hilton was bumpy and slippery! There were booby traps on the way! The trail was full of pot holes! If one were not careful, I am pretty sure he/she will kiss the earth sooner or later. That was happen to me. At one sharp turn, I was charging down full speed not aware that was a pot hole in front of me. When I realized it, it was too late. I had not choice but to release my front. Wham! I thought I was going endo. Instead, I went thru without being thrown off the bike! Apparently, the free front wheel and the Rock Shox Jett T2 smoothen the impact. If I still on rigid, there would be two scenario: a bent front fork with a bent wheel or a bent front fork, a bent wheel and myself with a fracture arm or collar bone! Now I came to appreciate having a front suspension fork. Before that, I was keep on wondering besides having a smoother ride, what other advantage of having suspension fork? Now I know!

The thrilling downhill sensation from Hilton all the way to the foothill still remained as exciting before. I have never grown tired of the adrenaline pumping action and all the bumps, skids and flies when going down in more than 75 kilometers an hour! This was the funnest part of the ride! Heng Ee and Leong decided to give me a "lesson" by challenging me to see who would be the first to reach the foothill. For your information, the trail from Hilton to the back road of Air Itam Dam is a bumpy cement pavement, which means there are bumps here and there. Not like a speed bump but more of like a hump that if you go too fast, you will be catapulted in the air for couple of nano seconds! While the rest will be a tarmac to the foothill! As the old Chinese saying, "Old ginger gives more oomp!" I smoked them upside down on cement trail! They wanna give me a lesson? Hell, when limpeh got involved in bicycle racing, they were still wearing tampon sucking neng-neng! It was a thrilling downhill, I was virtually in the air all the way down! And the trail was a little wet and slippery! A slight mistake would throw me into the cliff! I wasn't that lucky when we decided to have second on the tarmac. Heng Ee first disappeared from no where. Maybe because of the winding road, he did not dare to chase after me after we flew over the first speed bump. I didn't know that Leong was just couple of hundreds meters away until I reached the second entrance to the Kit Lok Si temple, which was quite heavy in traffic! Maybe the age took over my animal instinct to go kamikaze, I decided to slow down and let Leong to overtake me! Yeah from the expression from his face. He thought he finally beat me! We'll see buddy, we'll see! Next round Gopeng!

Was it an easy ride? Well, compare to the last rides I have done with ST, it was! Still, it was one hell of the ride that will sometimes scare other people off but one thing for sure, we all enjoyed it very much! Makaning was done at Air Itam wet market. The Java Mee and Lum Mee were as good as usual. You should try it next time you come to Penang!

Oh by the way, what happen to the SYT that I mentioned at the beginning? Well, she did not show up! All the hypes about her still remain a mystery! Will she turn out one day? I don't know. Maybe, Maybe not!

Stay Tuned!