The Great Outdoors

Penang Kayuh Kayuh Makan Day 4

The gang in Escape Park.

We met again at 7.30am for the last ride of our trip. We were supposed to ride again later on the other side on the mainland but I think we had more than enough rides already. In fact I was a wee bit lethargic already due to lack of sleep! 

Winson can't get a transport today and after some planning and re-planning and some stuffing and re-stuffing, we managed to get all riders and bikes onto 2 vehicles and another rider followed Jimmy's car. Winson had to ride to the bus station and ride the bus to Teluk Bahang.

We reached Teluk Bahang without our breakfast as we were late already. Cikgu was asking for breakfast, hahaha! Larry told him that we are riding to the breakfast point. I rode here before, so I know where the breakfast point is.......it's also our final destination for today! We started off as soon as Winson disembarked from the bus in Butterfly Farm.

Picture time at the dam.

I made a mistake of firing up the dam last time without warming up last time and this time I rode really slow on low gear till the dam. The dam is not far actually but a climb almost at the beginning will really hit your form without proper warming up. We reached the dam area and the place is really scenic. Chris and KK is a first timer here so photo session is a must for them.

After the dam, is the low grind up to the '800' as the local riders called it. It's actually a signboard saying 800 meters guiding drivers to the fruit orchard. Riding the Dash up here is totally different from riding the Speed. Dash was faster but Speed was more comfortable.

The symbolic '800' which is the peak.

By the time I made my way up to '800', Larry was no where to be seen. It seems Winnie sent him down first to book some 'wanton mee'. Haahaha! I recalled last time when we rode, we missed the noodle as they changed shifts after 10.30 am. So just to make sure that we eat it this time, Larry sped down first. The '800' is the peak here and after this will be another 4 kilometers of down hilling. I was not too used to the high center of gravity of the Dash so I was careful going downhill. Anyway there was no hurry as I know the place.

The elusive 'wanton mee'. Not for late comers!

We all sat down at the local coffee shop in Sg.Pinang and we had the wanton mee. Jimmy went off to get some ' Ban Chang Kueh ' or crispy pancakes.  Me as usual will have the local 'pat poh peng' and it never tasted better after a ride. There was a lot of bantering and jokes and our table was a bit noisy much to the amusement of the locals there. They must have got used to the hordes of cyclist as this is a popular cyclist route on weekends. After the meal, we are back to Larry's favorite place, the nutmeg farm.

The lady there was amused and asked why were we back again. After all it was only like yesterday we were there. We said this time we rode from the other side of the island. We also filled ourselves again with the cooling nutmeg juice, FREE! 

Nutmeg galore here!

On the way back, we stopped again for local laksa which was served by +another nyonya restaurant housed in a bungalow along the route. I was too full to even drink, let alone eat. So, I played with a Jack Russel owned by the restaurant owner. If they don't want the dog, I will gladly drive up again just to fetch the dog back! It was so friendly and lovable.

Meet my new friend, "Jack Russel"

Finally, a hard 4 kilometer climb back to '800'. I took it easy as I know I won't be the last as the Brommies 6 speeders and Cikgu's 7 speeder are at a disadvantage. Wai Keat was going back and forth!  It was uneventful climb and we all reached the '800' but was ushered to carry on. From here it is all the way down till the car park.

When we reached the car park, we decided to treat Larry to a real meal where we can actually eat together. You see, Larry is a vegetarian and on most of our meals, he didn't really eat. So, we ask Larry to take us to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. Larry took us to The Bock Restaurant in Kedah Road and we ordered some good food and enjoyed together. We were famished and emptied the plates in no time.

A nice vegetarian lunch.

Later at the hotel, we rested a while and then packed up our bikes. Larry planned to takes us over by car to the train station. While Winnie went home to clean up and change, Larry took a shower at the hotel. When Winnie came over, we packed up our stuffs and bikes into the car and drove over to Butterworth. Before that, we had skewered rojak and also 'Lok Lok' where skewered seafood were dipped into boiling soup and spread with an array of sauces of our choice. It was really filling and before you know it, it was already dark and we were on our way to the railway station.

Our train was to leave at 10.28 pm. We can see that Larry and Winnie was really tired already and we persuaded them to leave us there and go back and rest. We can managed already. We waited at the station for another 2 hours before we departed Butterworth.

The kind hospitality given to us in the last few day by our fellow Penang riders is really hard to repay and we are worried when time comes where we will be host to them on the Fraser's Hill Ride later this year, we might not be able to match their hospitality! But we will try our best to repay their kindness. Till then, we shall ride together again. This is also not our last ride in Penang, there will be Phase 2!