Showing posts with label sarawak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sarawak. Show all posts

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Slummy City


Early in the morning i went off shopping for Chinese New Year supplies for next day festival. Its about 40 minutes drive to the city which is the hometown where i originally born. The city is very small, packed and not much to shout about, it very slummy, quite place to be and not that busy during peak hours. The city is very much "Village City" where much local come from outskirt of the city to do businesses and there not much development, commercial or tourism value yet. As for retirees and old people this is perfect place to be away from capitalism. As i move about in the only shopping complex in town theres not much things attract me to buy and appreciate only good fast food and local cakes to keep me enjoy for the day. By 8.00pm the city is very much in silent mode and not much of a night life. Everyone is at home with family and friends.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Rough dry adventure

Its very dry and hazy today but it wouldn't stop us having fun in weekends. We're testing the new trails made by friend for upcoming races just nearby Miri public park. Lots of rough spot, spikey bushes, huge drop of downhills and climbing. I got this bad luck where my pedals hitting my swollen legs until the wound got bulging and errupt some goo, lol. I hope the new trails will be ready for races soon. I haven't been racing for more than a year since i've successfully secure 2nd place on last mountain bike race in Bakam motocross trails..


Sunday, May 31, 2009

Ride under blue sky

For two continuous week our local weather remains sunny and hot. All dry and blue sky. Good news for me but bad news for others. All pack up, bike in my sedan and i'm leaving for the trails to meet up with other mountain bikers to hit the trails that was located 5 minutes drive before Lambir National Park. As usual before ride i got my chance to view some new blings on our buddies rides, IBIS carbon bikes, FUJI carbon and SHIMANO SAINT which hardly seen at local shop. Cool.
We hit the trails at 3.30pm going up and down the hills i mean way up and way down. The surface was all hard rock and slippery so i had to keep my butt on the saddle to keep the grip down. The trail dust looks beautiful as it smokes some tails as we weave down the wide dry trails under the blue sky. We move from high hill down into fields of swampy plantation and again going up through toughest rocky trails like having 3x gravity on our feet. Some doesn't make it though but lucky me i already fuel up my body with dozen of bananas, high sugar carbonate drinks and few plates of meats in the morning...hehehee..
At the end of the ride i realised my brake lever losing its pivot king pin which holds the brake lever in its place. Damns that was the 2nd time i lose the pin. The rocky trails must have cause my bike to vibrate too much and it flew off the coop. Well time to get back and order custom parts for it. However my Sunday was well spent having back with buddies and burn back some calories so i can eat like a king again before next ride..hahahar.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Fun under the sun

A week of hot weather, cloudless sky all blue atmostphere. As for me sunday was at best mood.... i like hot dry and sunny day especially weekends where outdoors activity are big times for me. As usual in the early morning i always have my ultra heavy breakfast and ultra heavy lunch lots of sugar and carbo stuff for my afternoon muscle overdrive. At 10am we have our usual bikers gathering behind our friends bike shop just to hangout and hear what's up for afternoon plans. All of us excited as today weather is much promising and won't be much of a muddy ride. By 3pm all of us gather around like bikers ritual site at our local beach side esplanade full of public beach goer which at the same time having a beach festival near by. Finding car to park is a mess but lucky we park in a same group. We gather under the shady trees at the heat sore up high under the bright blue sky, we went off 20 minutes later towards the hilly forest behind the plantation estate through narrow trails. Our riding routine as usual: ride up and down the hills, ram through bushes and cruise through dusty and rocky trails at chaotic speed and bla bla bla... Today hardest obstacles always been climbing the loose steep cracky hills, i felt like 50% of my sugar and fat burned into energy in just few minutes...which is good news for me as i need to empty my body for our BBQ dinner later once we arrive at finishing point. My mood swings up high, felt at higher karma, on my way to return home riding on reverse trails back towards finishing points my pedalling becomes lighter and enjoyable, felt like the wind pushing me from behind like friendly soul of the forest pushes lifting me forward at high speed, I just seat down comfortably and ride my bike like "flow like a river" through the trails using my body momentum....its was like dancing around the hall with a smile. Not a drop of sweat needed to pedal through rough terrain as i speeding at break neck speed. The wind was very breezy i felt at ease. I reach the finish point at the beach carpark in just few minutes leaving long trail of dust behind.

Few minutes later one by one all of us arrived and prepared our evening BBQ dinner hangout. BBQ sweet saucy lamb chop meat, snacks, ice creams, cold drinks, beer, local marinated shrimp sauce (cencaluk), fried chicken wings and other nice munchies waiting for us. Everyone was enjoying the evening chatting, sharing passion about the rides and had few stories to laugh about. I consumed too much food that evening more than what normal human being can handle....almost felt wanna puke. The evening sunset was beautiful as the sun slowly sunk behind the orange fantasy pink colored horizon where the sky is cloudless...its truly priceless to see such view and lucky enough to be outdoor witness it. Sky turn to pitch black and the stars began to sparkle brightly on clear sky, all of us still sit and relax as we gather round socializing ourself with BBQ stands still cooking our favorite dinner. More buddies turn up who absent for today ride including our road cyclist friends. We hangout till 8.30pm when all of us pretty well stuff out and food were all cleaned. So i head back for home, have a nice cold and hit the bed as i'm all tired and in a good mood to sleep.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Miri Wet Land adventure!



Yesterday was a special day for me, was unexpected it turnout to be interesting ride of the month. Sunday morning was a bit drippy morning after raining throughout dark morning but ended before 6.00am. Usually i don't plan to ride during wet season because it would took me more than 1 hour to clean and maintain the bike after muddy dirt and muddy ride. Somehow there was strange feeling everytime when i look out into the windows staring into the sky with mixture or dark cloudy background with bring white cloud and blue sky noon at 12pm. A little drizzle rain, i called my friends and they said they are planing to ride somewhere near Bakam district which is very very distance from bad city weather. So i took my luck join them hoping i could escape from gloomy rainny city weather. I load my bike into my Sunday joyride car which i use to carry my trusty and dirty bike and drove kilometers away from home via coastal beaches using MIRI-BINTULU road. Its was a very clam and gentle weather as i move towards the outskirt of the city and into the remote country side where everthing is blue and green.
Upon arrival everyone in large number of biker already gather around unload their bikes and apparel. We're near the beach at our usual parking spot where you can see beatiful sight and scene around the beaches. The seaside is very bright litted light golden silk cloth waving on the surface and the wind really pounced on my body feel very refreshed and cleansed. By 3.30pm we start our ride through the villages and deep into the woods. It was dry surrounding at first entry but as we go deeper into the bushy and dense crowded jungle everthing getting very wet and muddy, We have to navigate and balanced our bike through slippery terriains, wet mud holes, narrow tree gaps, falling tree trunks, upp and down the hills with very high speed turns and corners. The best part is we have chances to clean our bike by going through very heavily flooded jungle with deep murky water which probably due to heavy rain and flood nearby some river. The water almost reached our knee level but we pedal as much torque as we can to avoid being stuck and spread the water into break it to minimal flood level. Through out our ride we encounter wet - dry - wet - dry -wet -dry - wet - dry situation. Our trail space become much narrower and narrower the further we break into the jungle. To to large number of people we need to stop due to heavy traffic...hahaha. Some of our rider really old people but they really have extreme endurance and power like a teenager thanks to their daily workout on their bikes, so far no one of them have problems with broken stamina and injury. We stumble lots of difficult obstacles especially with deep river grooves where long channel of river was crossing our path. We have to cooperate by helping each other to pass through the river. We have to help carry other people bike to another side of the river banks and up to stiff cliff. I can see there lots of positive team work and heavy task to help people around us....at the end everyone manage to get through the difficult challenges. Our rides sure comes with crashes, human splat into the water, same tumble into the dirt while other loose balance and fell into the clif,..barely.. for us that's is fun and exciting and no one argue about it else its wouldn't be called adventure ride. Thanksfully we didn't think about dangers like wild animal, reptiles and danger that lurks around us.
After hours being in deep forest we finally spotted an open air land just above the hill, we climbed up by passing through the river, climb up the dusty crusty hills and on our way towards the logging hils. Its all up and down, zig zagging and full speed to the highest peak on the land. On top of the dry dusty land we take a break and enjoy the beautiful sight around us. Its was the best moments being up there high above the sea level looking below carpet of trees, distance seas and experience fresh breeze of wind drying our soaky wet bodies which dry us in an instant. I took lots of beatiful photo on my PSP cam. A mixture of golden sunset rays and sunny blue sky, white clouds and orange yellow trails provide contrast and harmonic view on my camera lenses. Everyone was tired, i can feel my tummy become more and more slimmer as fat burned out excessively, i can see my six pax now..hee heee... So we continue our journey again with convoy of mountain biker exiting the logging trails and heads towards nearby tarmac road road which leads toward the beaches where we parked our car. Its was quite far distance and we need to pedal fast to reach the destination before dark. Due to fact some of the riders are roadies these guys sprint so fast few of us have to break away like F1 car. I have to push my power and leg muscle to the max to give a hard chase and draft at least on of the top 5 rider behind so i can draft behind another rider with less wind head-on resistance, everyone travel very fast with at least 1cm gap between each rider tyre colse enough to catch low wind resistance....we called it DRAFTING.
From exiting point at "Sungai Rait" tarmac trunk road to Bakam finishing point it tooks only around between 10-15 min to reach there at screaming speed.....by the time we reach there everyone hearts and muscle felt like it wanted to explode...hahaha., Thankfully we all serve with chilled cold and gassy isotonic drinks full with sugar to relieve our body ache. At the parking spot the sun already behind the sea glowing dim orange ready to give way to glittering stars. We hangout for a while and chat about the rides. As for me this is totally cool adventure ride, totally and emotionally keep me alert and excited. At least i dont have boring life, everyday life is always full of adventure. I loving it!