Had an overnight cycling from East Coast to Changi Village to Punggol Park and back to East Coast.
Fantastic!
20 odd people again, but totally different in composition.
Went back from work, rested ate and went off to East Coast, feeling mighty lethargic and thoughts of why did I sign up for this swirling in my head. Haha.
Met at 10pm, saw multiple groups also having the same idea of night cycling, must have been an event or such.
started at 11, and ended back around 6 odd am.
We cycled the whole stretch of east coast, and went on the main road towards Changi. That was fun, saw aeroplanes taking off and touching down. Quite a sight at night while trying to stay in a single file.
Changi, ate the purportedly famous Nasi Lemak but turned out not to be too exceptional, it wasn't even exceptional. Moved off from there at 1.15am to the next destination.
Reached Loyang Tua Peh Kong Temple yard which amazingly was shared with a Hindu temple.
To say it was huge is an understatement. People would buy this particular incense and place it near this concrete like slab/rock and hope to see numbers from the smoke that emanates. Another practice was to buy a light from this trees of lights where it supposedly gives you luck for the whole year. The monks would relight the light should it die off, although I was told that they use electric bulbs nowadays. After that off we go to Punggol Park.
Punggol Park. Didn't reach it as some 'sotongs' became 'jellyfishes'. The 'octopus' advised that we should just move back to East Coast as it would take us another say an hour or two should we proceed. The still 'sotongs' were disappointed but what can we do, so we turned back.
*Names given by the guide.
East Coast.
One of the organisers fell awkwardly as he braked his front tyre whilst going downhill. Man, and good thing I braked with my back tyre elevated to an angle I'm still amazed at.. haha. As I was right behind him, he would have had tyre marks all over if I didn't. He had cuts to his palm but to me it could have been much worse seeing how he fell. Turns out he lost his concentration, and also he was in third position, apparently going for first.
Cycling at night is one real great exercise, there's the feeling of freedom as you become kings and queens of the road. Well, A part of the road. A left side strip. Anyway.
Next month!
Slated Around the Island Cycling Challenge : )
Hopefully it turns out well.
- Sotong.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Hooray! Mount Ophir!
The climb finally done...
took 2 days to climb and descent mount Ophir...
a brief maybe detail of the trip, so nice, I want to 'immortalise it"
after practising at bukit timah each weekend for err 3 times, it's time to go.
got to know that my team consists of 3 girls and me. altogether 5 teams. (some might go hummm... but I am lucky. (lol)
was the only malay.. humm.. interesting.. can become translator.
there were some family members, one with a young girl barely say.. 14?, friends of friends, and groups of BATC. waaaaah.
moms, ladies, girls herein referred to as girls.
no boys, so guys.
items to bring/carry -
shoes & sandals
3 litres of water.
2 sets of clothes at least.
toiletries.
lots of energy bars.
camping tent. -_- 4 guys were tasked to help and I was one of them :)
no other food as my team brought a lot apparently, told me not to buy.
17 Feb
- took leave to prepare and buy necessary stuff, like a trekking bag and food.
- changed bag as the bag which was used to train had people go 'are you sure this is the bag you wanna use' and so, it is not one you want to use for any trip.
-930pm at Marsiling MRT
- after head count, and etc. took off in 2 vans to Johor palm oil plantation and reaching there at say.. 2am 18 Feb
- at a base camp.
slept. : ) on the floor. nice. sort of.
18 Feb
- woke up, breakfast. shared food with my team.
- and off we go!!
- climbed up and initial stage of 800 steps. not so bad.
- then came the rocks.
- then the boulders.
- then the roots.
-then the roots and boulders.
- then we rested. at check point 2
- repeat
- then we rested at checkpoint 3, which seemed SO far off that we had checkpoint 2.5 and 2.8 of our own creation.
to our horror, there were no more stopping till checkpoint 5. O_o...
- repeat same process, but! we had to climb up ropes, ladders. :) - one of my favourite things as ahem ahem.
- and we walked up even more.
- took bottles of 2.5l water from these 2 persons. I suppose I can only help. will help if I can so that all will be able to make it. some were carrying far heavier stuff..
can't remember if we had anymore checkpoints. oh yah, 6.
- climbed up this steep wall surfaceish with ropes only. fear factor. haha
- climbed ANOTHER even more dangerous rock wall where if you fall... you fall all the way..
- beautiful scenery! was superb from there..
- climbed more, left our bags at this location and climbed the final few peats/rock to reach the summit.
my goodness! :)
awe. (aww)
sweet.
FANTASTIC!!!
- you can never know how high you can go.
- some towns look exactly like mini simcity.
- no words can describe it.
- after 20 ish mins of picture taking, relaxing, getting burned, 'fearless' posing.
- and this is where I got a new name. taufik -_-
- tho the person who said it won't read this, but lol. spread like fire or what.
- went down to checkpoint 7 to camp.
- finally the tent I was carrying became useful.
- went to wash up at an upstream location.
- brought my teammates downstream cos a malaysian girl was asking if they wanted to bathe. so... sorry X| should have brought you all upstream also.
- ate little cos wanted to conserve.
- brought a group of girls to this shack for toilet business. HILARIOUS. cos we exchanged riddles and the like and then some.
-slept early. in a 6 men tent, there were 4 guys. the rest slept outside, and the other groups, well, we just wanted to sleep.
19 Feb
- woke up at 10, 12, 4, cos the girls at the tent beside were talking about stuff (and I heard what), and once cos I was real cold. heh. apparently the girls at the other tent also did the same, so the other guys also went @_@ early in the morning.
-reason was cos the ground was uneven, we slid, and one of the guys in my tent, slid to a corner, poor him.
- the girls were talking loudly also cos they were trying out formation sleeping cos they kept sliding. HAHAHAHA.
- woke up at 6 cos my alarm rang, apparently the girls were awake far earlier than the guys. kaoz.
- washed up at the water spring, ate a Great breakfast, altho went to use my contacts after getting water and getting scolded -_-, and taufiked, and then packed off.
- walked down.
- and walked up! *($&#)
- walked down.. : )
- and walked up!! $Q@#$@#
- and down. for HOURS! OMG. if ever there was a time to go are we there yet, it was then. but we trudged on.
- then
HOOOORAYYY!!
HOORAY!!
- we were so elated at reaching malacca after tranversing Negri Sembilan as well, from Johor that we just went yay, hi fived the guide and went to shower.
- walked a tiny more before we reached a place where we swam a bit at a stream with a 1.8 m ish deep pond and shampooed at a 'waterfall' hahaha...
- time to go home..
- went to eat and the drivers treated me :D cos the rest were eating at a restaurant that cost them 15 ringgit each for a 6 course dinner.
- bought some ciggs for the driver.
- was called orbiquack by the youngest girl -_- after asking me about my scar. TMD. called her laoshu in return.
- went back.
- and 4/5 down the causeway from Johor, the vehicle I was in brokedown. HAHAHAA.. -_-
- the group of guys had to push the affected van to woodlands a bit.
- after say sad but quick byes, we went back using a van and taxis.
- interesting cab ride as the driver had a lotta stories to relate to us.
Thus, end of the trip!! : )
Long story, but at least I have immortalized my trip.
Hope to see you guys and girls again! : )
I love you all. lol. Big small old young guys girls (love as in not THAT kinda love)
Thanks for the memories!!
Forgot to declare that when I went back from the mountain I didn't declare the fond memories brought back. XD
Things to do:
give back poncho to Poh Guan.
treat him for treating me at malaysia.
ask him for $ for cab fare, in fact ask all 3 of the other cab sharing people.
see if i want to dragon boat.
check out white water at malaysia.
see what other mountains/watefalls to visit.
took 2 days to climb and descent mount Ophir...
a brief maybe detail of the trip, so nice, I want to 'immortalise it"
after practising at bukit timah each weekend for err 3 times, it's time to go.
got to know that my team consists of 3 girls and me. altogether 5 teams. (some might go hummm... but I am lucky. (lol)
was the only malay.. humm.. interesting.. can become translator.
there were some family members, one with a young girl barely say.. 14?, friends of friends, and groups of BATC. waaaaah.
moms, ladies, girls herein referred to as girls.
no boys, so guys.
items to bring/carry -
shoes & sandals
3 litres of water.
2 sets of clothes at least.
toiletries.
lots of energy bars.
camping tent. -_- 4 guys were tasked to help and I was one of them :)
no other food as my team brought a lot apparently, told me not to buy.
17 Feb
- took leave to prepare and buy necessary stuff, like a trekking bag and food.
- changed bag as the bag which was used to train had people go 'are you sure this is the bag you wanna use' and so, it is not one you want to use for any trip.
-930pm at Marsiling MRT
- after head count, and etc. took off in 2 vans to Johor palm oil plantation and reaching there at say.. 2am 18 Feb
- at a base camp.
slept. : ) on the floor. nice. sort of.
18 Feb
- woke up, breakfast. shared food with my team.
- and off we go!!
- climbed up and initial stage of 800 steps. not so bad.
- then came the rocks.
- then the boulders.
- then the roots.
-then the roots and boulders.
- then we rested. at check point 2
- repeat
- then we rested at checkpoint 3, which seemed SO far off that we had checkpoint 2.5 and 2.8 of our own creation.
to our horror, there were no more stopping till checkpoint 5. O_o...
- repeat same process, but! we had to climb up ropes, ladders. :) - one of my favourite things as ahem ahem.
- and we walked up even more.
- took bottles of 2.5l water from these 2 persons. I suppose I can only help. will help if I can so that all will be able to make it. some were carrying far heavier stuff..
can't remember if we had anymore checkpoints. oh yah, 6.
- climbed up this steep wall surfaceish with ropes only. fear factor. haha
- climbed ANOTHER even more dangerous rock wall where if you fall... you fall all the way..
- beautiful scenery! was superb from there..
- climbed more, left our bags at this location and climbed the final few peats/rock to reach the summit.
my goodness! :)
awe. (aww)
sweet.
FANTASTIC!!!
- you can never know how high you can go.
- some towns look exactly like mini simcity.
- no words can describe it.
- after 20 ish mins of picture taking, relaxing, getting burned, 'fearless' posing.
- and this is where I got a new name. taufik -_-
- tho the person who said it won't read this, but lol. spread like fire or what.
- went down to checkpoint 7 to camp.
- finally the tent I was carrying became useful.
- went to wash up at an upstream location.
- brought my teammates downstream cos a malaysian girl was asking if they wanted to bathe. so... sorry X| should have brought you all upstream also.
- ate little cos wanted to conserve.
- brought a group of girls to this shack for toilet business. HILARIOUS. cos we exchanged riddles and the like and then some.
-slept early. in a 6 men tent, there were 4 guys. the rest slept outside, and the other groups, well, we just wanted to sleep.
19 Feb
- woke up at 10, 12, 4, cos the girls at the tent beside were talking about stuff (and I heard what), and once cos I was real cold. heh. apparently the girls at the other tent also did the same, so the other guys also went @_@ early in the morning.
-reason was cos the ground was uneven, we slid, and one of the guys in my tent, slid to a corner, poor him.
- the girls were talking loudly also cos they were trying out formation sleeping cos they kept sliding. HAHAHAHA.
- woke up at 6 cos my alarm rang, apparently the girls were awake far earlier than the guys. kaoz.
- washed up at the water spring, ate a Great breakfast, altho went to use my contacts after getting water and getting scolded -_-, and taufiked, and then packed off.
- walked down.
- and walked up! *($&#)
- walked down.. : )
- and walked up!! $Q@#$@#
- and down. for HOURS! OMG. if ever there was a time to go are we there yet, it was then. but we trudged on.
- then
HOOOORAYYY!!
HOORAY!!
- we were so elated at reaching malacca after tranversing Negri Sembilan as well, from Johor that we just went yay, hi fived the guide and went to shower.
- walked a tiny more before we reached a place where we swam a bit at a stream with a 1.8 m ish deep pond and shampooed at a 'waterfall' hahaha...
- time to go home..
- went to eat and the drivers treated me :D cos the rest were eating at a restaurant that cost them 15 ringgit each for a 6 course dinner.
- bought some ciggs for the driver.
- was called orbiquack by the youngest girl -_- after asking me about my scar. TMD. called her laoshu in return.
- went back.
- and 4/5 down the causeway from Johor, the vehicle I was in brokedown. HAHAHAA.. -_-
- the group of guys had to push the affected van to woodlands a bit.
- after say sad but quick byes, we went back using a van and taxis.
- interesting cab ride as the driver had a lotta stories to relate to us.
Thus, end of the trip!! : )
Long story, but at least I have immortalized my trip.
Hope to see you guys and girls again! : )
I love you all. lol. Big small old young guys girls (love as in not THAT kinda love)
Thanks for the memories!!
Forgot to declare that when I went back from the mountain I didn't declare the fond memories brought back. XD
Things to do:
give back poncho to Poh Guan.
treat him for treating me at malaysia.
ask him for $ for cab fare, in fact ask all 3 of the other cab sharing people.
see if i want to dragon boat.
check out white water at malaysia.
see what other mountains/watefalls to visit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)