An MTB adventure in Langkawi Island, 13/14 May 2000
It was one hell of the rides in Langkawi(I don't remember when was the last time I used the same expression to an awesome ride)! The XC in Kisap was sweet, the climb really took my breath away, and the road ride, yes the road ride. It was first ever I nearly swept all riders but Eng and Vipers Ong on an undulating tarmac and under hot scotching afternoon sun! Thanks to Ben, Eric and his gangs, it was a place well worth visit again.
It all started when I wrote about my trip to Langkawi. Actually it wasn't a trip. I was there for my interview for an aerospace engineering position in Measat. For those who are curious about the outcome of the interview, yours truly apparently is not good enough for the job. That means I didn't get it! Maybe I am overqualified or I am asking for too much but hey, USD7k/month, accommodation, a red Ferrari F50 and a paid 20 day vacation are reasonable request right? Hehe...Anyway, ever since that report, I have been bugging by other knights about when was I going to organize the ride in Langkawi. Busy lar. You know, as an SQE with "bright future and good prospect"(yeah right, otherwise I won't read classified on NST and recruitment on the Star everyday!) in Solectron, I have so many things to do and so little time for me to really sit down and think what are we going to do during the weekends. Life was so much simple when I was riding alone. I could always skip the ride during the mating call period or I just received the latest album from my favorite Baroque composer or Nine Inch Nail to blast my Yamaha hi-fi set! Man was it awesome, the window shattered thumps(I refuse to call it beat okay!) and the uncensored lyrics from the NIN just simply turned me on! Call me an s&m freak but yeah a well written alternative music turns me on!
Okay enough of bs, lets talk about this ride. I brought up the Langkawi trip thingy again during our recent visit to Fraser's hill to ST. Big mistake! "You do it lah! Me and Francis have done so many trips already. It is your turn to do it now!" Boy, I shouldn't bring it up but no choice lah. In order to show that I was also a team player, I hesitantly accepted the job and started the plan! With just two weeks lead-time in my hand, I had a tough time to meet the deadline if there wasn't helps from other knights. So, I became a trip organizer. Ben, ST and the rest would help to find out how much would cost us to go to the Langkawi Island for two days visit. I will be taking care of spreading the news and found out the final headcount before the 7th May. It wasn't as smooth as our previous trips. Instead of getting the headcount by 7th, we got last minute inquiries as late as 11th. I really appreciate the teamwork we all had shown - Azmi was nice enough to help to get the cheapest ticket/accommodation package at RM103.00. ST to find out more on ferry ticket and schedule to Langkawi Island. Ben to tie in Langkawi MTB group and Viper Ong and Gary to spread the news about this trip and helped to collect fees from participants! I think this what makes the K.O.T.R.T. so special. Even though we make noise on and off about spending too much time on this MTB thingy but when the time comes, everybody starts volunteer and get the trip materialized without asking for any compensation!
We took the 8am ferry on Saturday morning and arrived at Kuah jetty, Langkawi four hours later. It wasn't a smooth sailing. I saw couple of riders, including ST having terrible sea sick! The boat rocked right and left, front and back and up and down. All the sudden, everybody fell silent and some of the riders started proceeded to the platform. Minutes later, they all came back with a stain on their shirt! ST was even worse, he couldn't talk at all! Yours truly was too tired to throw out so I slept all the way to Langkawi! We checked in the hotel right after we reached the island. Ben and the Langkawi folks already made to take us for a ride at 3.30pm on the same day. Seeing the terrible state on some of the riders, I thought I should tell the Langkawi folks that we would have to cancel the ride on Saturday and just conquered the Gunung Raya on the following day. To my surprise, everybody agreed that we should do the ride at 3.30pm! Well the majority always win the vote. We did the Kisap ride at three thirty!
How should I describe the ride in Kisap? It was fun! The 15km trail was just fun! I couldn't find word other than fun to describe. Oh by the way for your information, Kisap is an official site for Langkawi mountainbike race. This was the trail that you would find almost all flavors of XC rides. We sped thru thick bush, cross the stream risking to be bitten by leeches, fast and thrilling ride on rocky terrain and awesome downhill. Eric, the leader of the ride this day and armed with a Cannondale V700 was simply terrible. He virtually flew on the trail. Most of us had problem to keep up with him, well, not me lar! Don't know what happen, I just stick to his ass when there was on flat terrain and downhill. 
Apparently, he tried very hard to throw me away but tough luck, I just followed wherever he went! It was just a high speed chase between and him. We didn't manage to finish the whole loop as the time was getting late. We decided to skip the last uphill battle and went back to Kuah. There was a 13km tarmac ride. Again, something happened to me. I managed to tail the front pack, which was riding at ~40km/hr all the way. I think the air in Langkawi Island had special portion that would definite boost me up!
It wouldn't be a K.O.T.R.T's event if we did not try the local food. We did our dinner at one of the local Thai restaurant. One thing I observed about this town was there were a lot of Thais and nice looking too! Maybe because of the close proximity of the Thai border? I don't know. The lady who served us was tall and excellent figure. It was a waste if she did not get involved in modeling! I wish I had taken a photo to share it with you. Okay lets talk about food. It was tasty. No, not because of the nice looking waitress okay? It was really good. We really had a good time. Thanks again for Ben and my brother in law, Guan(yeah, he's just another MTB freak!) for taking us to this excellent dinner.
The conquer to Gunung Raya was done on the second day. It was nothing special, just to be frank. As what ST put it, "It is just another mountain that we have conquered." I think most of the riders who joined this ride would agree with me. It was a 12km gradual uphill ride on tarmac. Very much like Gunung Jerai. Interesting? For me, well, it was just another uphill climb. One thing though, we had cycle 13km before we reached the trailhead. It was not an ordinary tarmac ride. We had tackle two long but gradual climbs on the way. Knowing that I would have to cycle another thirteen extra kilometers under hot scotching sun, I decided to reserve my energy during the climb. Instead of trying to finish the ride in one hour, like what I did in my previous ride in Fraser's Hill that was very similar in gradient, I maintained my speed at 6km/hour, which would take me to the top in 2 hours. Compare to Gunung Jerai ride, the ride at Gunung Raya was more scenic. I was able to enjoy the scenic view to the Kuah town along the way. I was alone all the way. The front pack was racing against time while the rest were having tough to maintain their climbing speed, I was riding all alone by myself. A frigging boring ride! I decided to have a scheduled 1 minute stop for every two kilometers to wait for the riders behind to catch up. Tough luck. They were no where to be seen! I finally reached the top after one hour and 30 minutes. The last rider reached the top 30 minutes later.
We all had a short rest at the cafe at the top and then headed back to Kuah, which was proved to be an agony under the hot scotching sun! I think we had been conned by the local mountain bike riders, or maybe I was overloaded after the high speed chase in Kisap. It was not as enjoyable as what I thought during the downhill. I would have to keep on cranking to keep my Diamondback moving. It took me 13 minutes plus to reach the foothill. By the time we were all on our way back to Kuah town, I was virtually exhausted! The 13km tarmac under hot scotching sun was no fun at all! I had to return to hotel before 3pm to check out and our time was running out. Everybody was so tired after the uphill battle(they tried to beat the one and the half hours limit!). Nobody wanted to be a leader to lead. Viper Ong and Eng, the strongest riders in the group, were already no where to be seen. I had no choice but to lead everyone.
It was a torture riding under hot afternoon sun, some more I was leading most of the time. Daniel, one of the kamikaze kids, was too tired to lead the group when it was his turn. I ended up leading most of the way. The fight for a survival took over. What I had in my mind at that time was "I have to reach Kuah, I have to reach Kuah..."! We were like a bunch of zombies on saddle! I did not realize that Daniel and I were the only two maintaining at ~35km/hour until we reached Kuah town. I decided to take a rest to wait for the rest to catch up before heading to the gathering point at one of the hawker food coffee shop.
It was an exhausting ride but we all enjoyed it. The ride in the Kisap was the highlight of this adventure. There are still trails that we have not explored yet. I have promised to Eric and his group that we will come back again! We are planning to make it a three day event. Two days for the ride and the third day the shopping bugs! When? Keep posted!
Stay Tuned!