Penang Hill-10 May 09

My second ride on Penang Hill-Downhill Trail. Start from 168(Penang Hill Peak) and ending at No 3(Youth Park).

Go all the way up to Penang Hill by tram. RM3 + RM1 for the ticket. RM3 is for the one way ticket up and RM1 is for our bike to be carry by the tram carriage.

Riders: Hock, Kheng Hong, Jesse, Hotel Ghee and me.

It started to rain when the tram about to reach Penang Hill. While waiting for the rain to stop, we had coffee at the Penang Hill coffee stall. Waited for around half an hour for the rain to stop before we start riding down.

It was quite slippery. Ghee crash not too far from the starting point and hanging on the cliff. Luckily nothing serious happen. For me, of course never crash la(on the place where Ghee crash). Me pro ma... Actually I never ride down there, I push my bike down. Smart leh... Haha... After Ghee crashed, it was my turn to crash. Sigh... Tried to avoid some roots. But the avoiding attempt failed. Nothing serious happen, no scratches at all course able to jump off the bike on time. Lucky me.

After that, the ride(or maybe hiking down carrying a bike) was quite smooth all the way until No 3. Crashed twice there. Only me crashed. WTF... But luckily there was no hiker around the place where I crashed. At least can safe some face... Haha... The first crashed was when I try to make a drop. The second crashed was caused by roots(AGAIN) and it was in the chicken run. Ride in chicken run also crashed. Pai seh lo...

While on the way down, we saw a tortoise with a thorny shell. Saw a snake near 84(mid point of Penang Hill) too.

Kheng Hong posing with Mr, maybe Ms Tortoise

This is the nearest shot I can get,
ask Kheng Hong to take a photo with this
greeny creature, but he chicken out... haha...

3 May 09-Sunday Ride

Planned to go Penang Hill for some downhill ride. Have to cancel it due to heavy rain. I am fine with the cancellation because I don't feel like going there also. Don't wanna hike down the hill carrying my bike. Hehe... No ride on sunday morning, only dim sum at Weng Fu's place.
We went for a ride on Air Itam Dam and plan to ride up to Ngo Hean from AID in the afternoon. But damn "suay" ride half way start to rain again. We took a rest at the temple on the way to Ngo Hean. Anyway if it doesn't rain also don't think we can ride up, cause there was an auntie on motorbike told us that there was landslide on top blocking the way into Ngo Hean.

When the rain was not that heavy we decided to ride up again. Rode around 10 meters the rain start to pour again. This time we never made any attempt to wait for the rain to stop. Decided to go down. It is a disappointed Sunday for us.

Got some consolation at least, we saw a crab, yes crab, eight legged creature that walk sideway, crawling on the trail when we wanted to start riding down. Didn't know that crab do live on mountain. I was asking around my friends what crab is that. An auntie in the temple overheard me, she screamed from the temple "sua chim la, ha mi chim"(mountain crab la, what crab). Thank you for the information auntie.

Labour Day Ride

Went for a ride with a group of downhillers. It cover AID-IronX-Titi Kerawang-Teluk Bahang-batu Ferringhi-Bla Bla Bla-Ayer Itam. Total distance is about 40km(according to 1 of the downhiller). This is one the longest ride I ever had so far. More than half of the distance was on the road. So it is not that bad.

We meet up at 6.30am at Asia Cafe. I was a bit late, reach there at about 7am. Our normal group was spread into 2. Me, Jerry and Hock together with the downhillers rode to IronX. Jesse, Ghee, Tan Sri Yeoh, Debbie, LiGirl and Olivia took the tram up to Penang Hill and rode to IronX through Tiger Hill. From IronX we rode together to Titi Kerawang.


Debbie, Ah Ghee and another guy from the downhiller group crash due to slippery trail. Debbie was right in front of me when she crash. I think she love the trail so much so that even when she falls off her bike, she try to kiss the ground. But this is not the right way to show your love Debbie. Luckily she was not seriously injured. Only bleeding on her knee. Don't know how Ah Ghee and the other guy fell, but according to them it was also due to slippery trail.

We pass few vegetable farms. The scenery is fantastic. Have to ride this trail again.

Other photos can be view here and here

Protective Gears

Had always wanted to get a better protection gear(especially body armour) for myself when going for rougher trail. Feel that it is safer to ride with it. What to do, skill no good have to depend on protection gears to avoid injury. So when Boo Leong came back for Cheng Beng last month, I ask him to smuggle in one body armour and few other things for me.

It is very uncomfortable wearing this ironman suit especially when going uphill. But this uncomfortable feeling is nothing when you fully UTILIZE it. No regret even if you need to pour out extra few litres of sweat.

My other protective gears are fullface helmet and shin guard. The next thing I am going to get is goggle and a better shin guard.