5th Day - Chances and Fate

We have two replacements today. Catherine is replacing Ian and KJ replace Jet for the day from Kampar to Ipoh. (Cat’s personal note: I could not sleep the night before because I was too excited about her first ride for the trip!)

The journey was filled with dust. Many big lorries and trucks were on the road. However, the cyclists enjoyed the 40+km ride. We sang to entertain themselves with songs like “Shalala in the Morning” and “We are the Champion” Also, we did a quick detour at Ling Sen Tong and took some pictures of the statutes with handphones. We camwhored too…

Camwhoring..

Ryders of the day!

Detour to the temple

8km to Ipoh!

The ryders covered the whole distance in only an hour and a half compared to four hours for the same distance on the previous day (tells a lot about lack of punctures and unexpected break downs). Woohoooooooo!!

Our friend in Ipoh, Shu Ling, brought us to a great dim sum breakfast. The nostalgic decor and creative menu provided all of us a restful and playful atmosphere. The morning of good cheer concluded with the after taste of real Ipoh white coffee enjoyed at the comfort of Shu Ling’s place.

In front of the restaurant

Cycling to Shu Ling's place

One of the nicest looking buidling in Ipoh

Cat is emo'ing

Not until 4.00 p.m. did we finally gear up for the next second leg of the journey which was to Kuala Gula that was when the series of unfortunate events started for the day. What was believed to be a three-hour ride turned out to be a sad misreport of our GPS computer, the actual estimate was a shocking 100km more which will be 7 hours of riding in total. It cannot be done without great risks! The destination was thus pulled backward to Taiping. The ryders decided to press on.

Before rolling out of a meter, KJ discovered that his front tire has punctured AGAIN… (KJ: What the __!) The already anxious team went into emergency rescue only to discover a bigger problem – the hub has suffered a crack from the whole journey. All plans for the day came to a complete halt, and almost half the town refused to take the bike in for repair until we got to this curious shop. The old mechanic agreed to do whatever needed to be done.

Nic trying to fix the tire

Shu Ling and her family generously provided us their place to put up a night at. Also, they allowed us to use their van to send Jet’s bicycle to the shop for repair and also to places for meals.

Shu Ling!

After dinner, the team wanted to go to the night market to collect pledges and donation, but the plan was scrapped off when the team argued over the mode of transportation we should use to reach Penang in time.

Jet is holding his baby in the van

In the 1st bicycle shop

bus VS. ktm.

The major issue surrounding the decision came from the bikes. All things aside, KTM would be the best choice if they didn’t disallow us to bring the bikes onto the train deck. As dinner worked its miracle, KJ thought of a way to side-skirt the rule. The principle of loopholes in ambiguity: It is not a bicycle, it is an oversized luggage ;-)

And so the team re-visited ktm station, this time to confirm that oversized luggage can be brought onto the train. And turned out, the problem was never with the bikes, we just talked to the wrong persons- the train manager gave us the green light to mount our bikes (yes, we don’t have to hide them as gigantic packages anymore) onto empty spaces on the train. Yehaaaaa~~!!! Way to go KJ!!!!

That’s set! 5pm tomorrow… choo-choo up to Bukit Mertajam, Penang.

Picture of the day:-

Sometimes words do not mean a thing but an expression does...