Weekend Ride to Musang Kenyir Resort 8-11 Aug

This trip was planned at least 2 months ago, waiting for the good time & willing people to join us. It's also part of our training for Enduro Africa, for the long saddle time. Helps to train the butt!!
10 hours of riding by countryside roads along the eastern coast, & the weather couldn't be better. It's also our first trip with the Canon G9.

We met at GP Esso at 7am on Friday. First stop, Yong Peng for fishball noodle breakfast, followed by DURIANS! Quality was excellent. Smooth creamy & fleshy...

Riding past Kuantan & Kuala Trengganu, we met Mr Chong on the way at Gawi jetty at around 5pm & we followed his car to the bike parking area. Carefully parking our bikes & covering them, we left on the boat to the resort.

The wooden chalets were built in a row on stilts & facing the lake. Peaceful place, set in the jungle. Simple rooms with fan & attached bathroom. Because we were at an altitude, the air was cool, especially in the evenings.

Saturday morning, Tony & Catherine were out early in the lake trying to catch some breakfast.

Today's plan was to go to the waterfalls. It took us a hike of at least half hour in the jungle before we finally got to the falls.

Great view & cool waters welcomed us after the hot & sweaty hike. We climbed over to the large rocky platform...

Back to the resort for lunch... listening to Mr Chong tell stories!

Post lunch, some of us decided to take the boat out again for some fishing. Especially excited are Hubert & Tony... suspect that's their main purpose for this trip. According to web info, this area is supposed to be an angler's paradise.

Tony in soft sand.... which promptly swallowed his leg up to knee level. Undeterred, both of them continue crawling on all fours & still managed to cast their fishing lines!

Sunday - a day entirely spent on fishing. Woke up & were at the jetty by 7am to take the boat out before breakfast. Managed to catch a glimpse of a wild young elephant near the water. When it noticed us & our cameras & fingers pointing excitedly, it trumpeted (maybe angrily) and ran off into the trees to hide.

Not much luck with fishing, we came to an area of shallow waters, to have a dip. Water was clear & gently flowing as it was just a short distance from a waterfall. The shin deep water was just perfect for lazing & enjoying the company.

Having tired ourselves out, lunch was served. For all 3 days, Mr Chong was our personal chef, cooking up pro-standard dishes, which we promptly polished off in no time. Apparently he learnt his skills from friends in the food business.

Here we are, lounging around & chatting the afternoon away, contemplating to go out for another fishing trip or not. Then the sunny weather took a turn & the distant dark cloud moved over & we were in a middle of a torrential downpour!

Glad that we're not out in the lake. We stayed in, watching the raindrops on the water surface & felt so relaxed... The magpie which was around earlier stopped chirping .... but soon after came back again to chirp. Signalling that the rain is stopping soon, indeed it was just a passing shower!

Dinner that evening was a nice BBQ with lots of food. Great treat to end our stay, with lamb chops stealing the show.

On Radio 91.3FM

7 August 2008.
Dark clouds loomed & it stormed as I made my way to the studio... reached there with soggy feet & clammy trousers.

We're going on air with The Married Men crew - Rod Monteiro, Andre Hoeden & Audrey Lim. First time on radio for the 2 of us, & so excited! Brought our Canon G9 to take pictures with the celebrities at work ;P

The DJs seemed to be having so much fun at work, I don't think it even feels like work! But according to them, there's lots of preparation before each show can be presented, so that's what we don't see or hear about. What's true is that there's a whole lot of amazing hi tech stuff in the studio that they're using.

We talked about Enduro Africa on air & shamelessly publicised this blog to the whole nation. So those of you who've actually come to this site because you heard us on air, THANK YOU!!

Here they are in between the interview, Andre & Audrey having a chat, while Rod is pressing the 101 buttons & switches to make sure the next song or jingle gets in correctly..... Cool yah!

Here's their website, with schedules listed in there : http://www.radio913.com/

Singapore Bike Fest on 2-3 Aug 2008

Last weekend, bikers all over the island gathered at Kallang Leisure Park, for the S'pore Bike Fest 2008. Convoys roared into the parking area, one on each day, attracting cheers from the crowd. Bike stunts were also the draw for most.

Organisers Team 27, very kindly allowed us to publicise our Enduro Africa project at their booth. With poster & laptop in tow, we got a video running and had leaflets to distribute.

Much credit goes to the earlier article in Motorculture magazine, as some of the bikers read about our trip & were asking us more questions... Glad to say, we managed to sell a couple of Sins vouchers and about 20 bars of chocolates to supportive friends. Others simply donated cash to support our cause.

Behind our booth was the private collection of a guy who has great tastes in restoring classic Japanese motorbikes. Looking at those classics inspired us to get our own classic bike someday.

On the 2nd day, we parked our Transalps at the bike park & set up a mini display with a poster between the 2 bikes. Must have attracted some curious stares outside too!

Live band played into the night & Singha beer was the drink of the event. The open air pub atmosphere ended each night.

With Peter & Jack from Team 27...

Hooking up with some hardware

In preparations for the ride, we had been thinking about what equipment to bring....
starting off with the hardware like phones and cameras.

So we have settled on a Canon G9 digital camera, a Nokia N82 and a Nokia E90. Here are our thoughts on choosing this equipment....

Being lifelong canon fans, we felt the Canon G9 is the only camera which could do advanced photos, take movies, while retracting into a small package that fits smoothly inside a riding jacket pocket. As we only recently got the camera, no photos worthy of posting, so we'll write more about this another day.

Nokia N82 & E90 - simple combination, really. Both phones have GPS enabled maps, so we WON'T get lost. N82 is touted as a blogging phone with kick-ass 5MP digital camera focussing via a Carl-Zeiss lens. E90 is for those longer rest sessions where we feel like penning down random thoughts thru a qwerty keyboard.

Guess we'll be using quite a bit of this new kit in the coming months!

Piaggio X Evo - mega scoot!

I rode the Piaggio X EVO!!!

it's a 400cc scooter, with a single cyclinder engine!

Thus, making it (technically) a thumper!

While thumpers are usually rough in engine vibrations, this thumper is the total opposite.

Smooth power delivery is name of the game, and the bike simply surging away from the lights with generous torque. It is this reliance of torque that allows the engine to operate in a lower rpm range, so regardless of speed, all i could feel is a gentle beat of the thumper keeping me company.

Underseat space is excellent, with enough room for two helmets, while the windscreen and fairings allow for cruising at illegal speeds!

Quite the perfect companion for commuting and trips into Malaysia.

CarBuyer Club blog

We are currently on CarBuyer Club website:

http://community.carbuyer.com.sg/kickapps/_We-love-motorbiking/blog/80775/20855.html

Here, we will be posting our pictures from Enduro Africa.

We're in MotorCulture Asia!

Our Enduro Africa project is currently being covered in Singapore's leading bike magazine - MotorCulture Asia - Vol 3, Issue 12.
Check out the full page article!

Sunday morning at Tanah Merah

This is my first attempt at doing some off-roading at Tanah Merah (not counting some previous unplanned experiences in Malaysia/Thailand).

The goal was to take a ride with the KTM, which was obviously more suited for the trail. But as luck would have it, the bike died & failed to respond to my kickstarts while I was less than a km away from home. So with not much of a choice, I pushed it back to the carpark & took the Transalp out for the ride instead.
There we were, 2 Transalps heading towards the eastern part of Singapore, & meeting up with Chuah's Africa Twin. All above-200kg elephants headed for the muddy trail. What were we thinking??!!

Once we entered, we chose the safer lines whenever we saw puddles or soft sand. Here I am crossing gingerly on the hardpacked ground.
Slightly further up where Seung & Chuah decided to inspect the road ahead while I waited at the back...
My road tyres, obviously unsuited for the dirt was caked up in no time (especially after the dramatic wheel spin & getting stuck in a hole)
The inevitable happened & my Transalp landed on its side, when the front tyre slipped on a muddy slippery area. Here's the right side with the result of the mud mask....
Seung takes on the little enduro trail with ease, of course...with his mountainbiking skill. Wished I had my mountain bike with me!
It was a nerve racking but overall fun ride. Next time, we've got to bring in lighter weight bikes.

Online "Donate" button added!

Hi everyone,
This post is for all who have been checking back on our fundraising status.... Thank you!

We have added in a DONATE button on the right, so that you can easily contribute to our fundraising efforts!

All you need is a PayPal account or a credit card.

As of today 4th July 2008, we have raised S$5,475 out of the target $30,000.

Still a long way to go!

Cycling in Bintan 21-22 June

Our weekend trip with Jerry & Shannon to Bintan for some cycling. This is another part of training for Enduro Africa -- Endurance Training. over 70km on road cycling this weekend!

Early Saturday morning in Tanah Merah ferry terminal...checked in our 4 mountain bikes. We looked fresh as we waited like forever for the ferry to arrive.

About 2 hours later, we unloaded at Tanjong Pinang & met up with the resort representative Tracy, who took our luggage & led us out of the town. We're on our way to our resort some 37km away. Bright sunny afternoon.
A halfway stop where we took a break & refilled our water bottles.
A self-taken photo by Seung while cycling... We managed to ALL get into the picture!
37 km & some hills later.... Our resort at Ocean Bay.
Walking in to our rooms, the setting was really perfect. Surrounded by water, the rooms were on stilts "kelong style" & stretched out to sea. The wind blew freely through the gaps in roof & walls.

Spent the afternoon chatting on the wooden walkway, enjoying the sea breeze & sound of waves. Total relaxation. The sun set onto the horizon in front of us... creating the silhouette of the stilts against the water's reflection.

The evening was spent having a nice seafood dinner, followed by a mini fireworks display by the beach.

The next morning, we woke up to a very low tide. The sea had receded & all the plants beneath were visibly flopped onto the seabed. Looked as though we were in the middle of a plantation!

The early morning serenity broke into a drizzle & then it poured! Rain was dripping through the gaps in the roof & made a little puddle on the floor. Good thing it was only a passing shower.... We went for breakfast & was glad we weren't cycling in the rain.

Jerry & Shannon with their matching brolly :)

After the lazy morning, was lunch! Scrumptious feast of charcoal heated steamboat fish (first time for me!), chilli crabs, honey chicken & hotplate egg/veggies was our last meal here before we get onto our bikes again. All the 3 meals have been super solid... with fresh seafood & fish deliciously prepared. That's enough reason for me to come again!

We started on our journey again.....back to Tg Pinang ferry terminal.

About 17km from the resort, we passed by the durian stalls, which saw the day before. Stopped for energy boost of a durian & some mangosteens. See how happy we were!

Another 13km before we hit the town & traffic was getting heavy. It's a Sunday & all the folks were out & about. One thing we discovered were that the locals like to honk all the time, whether they're passing us or whatever.... Maybe its their way of saying "hello", "hi tourist", "excuse me while I overtake", "nice bike" or "nice butt"!

The city ride was about 7km. We managed to manouver through the crowd and finally got to the terminal. We're an hour ahead of time!

Nice chillout place & highly recommended!! http://www.oceanbaybintan.com/