Hello everyone,
Joyce has been giving me constant reminders, or rather 'pestering' me to do a write-up on the Oct 16-18th Fraser's Hill trip, much to my reluctance (just kidding)! Only found the time to complete it now, so here it is.
Originally, Joyce had planned to head up to Fraser’s Hill with a group to take part in the Cyfora race on Oct 17th, and had made arrangements with Eric accommodation-wise. When the race was postponed to Nov 1st, she decided to go ahead with the trip and asked a few of us along. I had no idea how steep the hills actually were, and Joyce just said that I can do it, leading Donna and I to conclude that Joyce doesn’t want us to ask so much, just do it.
So with no idea what I was in for and all excited, I woke up at 3am on Friday and did a nice spin before meeting the rest at Eric’s condo, 630am for the long journey to Fraser’s. It wasn’t long till I dozed off, bored by the lack of music in Peter’s car and at the speed we were going at! When I woke up, I was greeted by hot air, to which Donna informed me that the air conditioning wasn’t working! Yikes! Peter then explained that his car was old and wouldn’t work well on long journeys, and it was Joyce who forced him to drive up haha.
After lunch at Tai Thong restaurant, we took a deserted route to the next regroup point, Kuala Kubu Bahru (KKB), passing through rows of half-built deserted houses which looked really eerie. As we reached KKB, we found Ivo, Joyce, Johnson and Goh dressed in their cycling gear, all ready for a ride. It was close to 4pm at that time and they wanted to ride all the way up to the bungalow. Donna was convinced to tag along, with Johnson as her escort, while I didn’t want to cos err lets just say I felt very constipated!
After reaching the bungalow at 5plus, the Young-At-Heart men wanted to take a walk around town and I tagged along, not wanting to be left in the bungalow alone. Soon, it rained and we quickly walked back, with Joyce arriving at the bungalow alone. She said everyone had reached the GAP gate at 6plus but had to wait till 7 to cycle up, and it was pitch dark as they rode up at their own pace. We had dinner after everyone had arrived, and exchanged tales of the ride.
Apparently, the guard at the GAP gate had informed them that tigers had been reported recently in the GAP area. Those who rode up were praying for the whole 8km to the bungalow that their front light would not shine into the eyes of a tiger. Ivo cheekily claimed that he saw green eyes staring at him though and Johnson said he saw Thai-girls instead of Tigers! The housekeeper later confirmed that he did see a Tiger with a few cubs roaming about before. We also chatted about the music in the cars; Ivo had latin/jazz music played, Eric had oldies/country western, while Donna and I could only hear the sound of the Peter's car engine! Joyce also said Ivo had something planned for midnight involving tabletop dancing, but it never materialized with all of us retracting to bed by 1030 each night! Very disappointing!
Looi was telling us over breakfast on Saturday that he was sleeping soundly when he was woken up at 3am by Joyce crawling under his covers, to which Joyce replied with a “I think you are still dreaming!”
The scariest thing I have ever done was the 8km downhill on the GAP. The roads were a little wet from the rain the night before and I skidded a little. When we reached the bottom, my fingers were numb from braking for too long. We then split into two groups, with Joyce, Peter, Goh, Johnson, Donna and I turning left to ride to Bentong, and Ivo, Glyn, Looi and Eric going right. The next 21km down was a much nicer experience as it was slightly less steep. About 5km down, we passed a landslide and I saw Joyce and Goh dismounting from their bike and walking so I followed suit. We stopped to take photos and waited for Donna, who was daring enough to cycle through the mud. Peter, not happy that he didn’t get any praise like Donna, exclaimed, “I rode through the mud too!” to which he was ignored by the Queen.
After the 21km downhill at the T-junction, we waited for Donna again. Joyce and I went ahead first to find a “toilet” on the way to Bentong. We passed by a Durian wholesaler and Joyce wanted to take photos. With her fluent Cantonese, she managed to charm the boss and he offered samples of durian. As the rest came, he had no choice but to offer to all and everyone was in durian paradise except me, who was suffering from inhaling too much of the durian stench while being ordered to take photos of them!
More flats and slight downhill on the route to Bentong, and we finally reached the town where the famous ice kachang shop was. It was really good! Donna, Goh and I were also jokingly discussing that we should get a cab back to the bungalow as it was now time for the uphill torture!
The Queen attacked after taking a few photos and only Johnson responded. Soon, it was just Donna and I, as we dropped Peter and Goh. We were baking in the hot sun and stopped for shelter at a rare shaded area by the road. Goh came soon after and we joked that we need to call Ivo to pick us up. Donna really tried calling but to no avail and Peter passed us. We continued riding till the T-junction just before the 21km uphill, where Donna and Goh wanted to call for help again as they had run out of water. I had half a bottle left and went ahead. It was like South Buona Vista hill, only much steeper. Was going mostly at 14-16kph, and up to 20kph at some flatter parts. After a few bends, I caught up with Peter and overtook him. Felt like it was never ending and started calculating how long it would take me to reach the GAP gate. Also did not want to look at the speedo too much as the distance was going by ever so slowly. About 5km to the GAP, a car horned at me. Donna and Goh had gotten a lift and the car could fit another. I shook my head and the car went off. I saw a familiar figure in the distance with 3km to go. Who else but the Queen! Delighted, I rode with newfound motivation and managed to catch up. She had also run out of water and was slightly dehydrated. I offered water but she said nevermind, almost there. We were happy when we finally reached the GAP gate at about 2:20pm. At 2:30pm, who else but the lovely Ivo came in his car with Eric and a 2 litre bottle of orange juice!
We were allowed to ride up at 2:45pm and Joyce attacked again. Tried to chase but couldn't catch her so I just rode steadily at 8-11kph. About halfway up, I was almost behind her and Ivo's car passed me with Goh, Donna and Peter. Someone in the car secretly took a photo of Joyce and I, and we have yet to see the photo! Hint hint! The road flattened out quite a bit on the last 1.5km and we were relieved to see the Fraser's Hill town. Used the last bit of energy to climb the steep short slope (which Joyce said was comparable to Genting) to the bungalow and we made it, all 115.4km with an average speed of 21.2kph from my speedo.
Joyce was always requesting for a bowl of chopped garlic for lunch and dinner. At dinnertime, Ivo said, “Garlic is good for your skin. My wife eats a lot of it” to which Joyce replied, “Don’t lie, garlic is good for sex. No wonder you got your wife to eat more”. Johnson also told us his interesting life story which left everyone in awe!
The next day, it started raining at 530am and we didn't want to take the risk and ride down the GAP. Some of us went for a walk instead where we got 'attacked' by a dog named Tiger (as Joyce puts it) and it followed us for most of our walk. When we went back to the bungalow, Ivo and Glyn were ready for a short ride down and back up the GAP. Donna, Goh and I followed Johnson as he wanted to explore around town on the bike. Little did we know that we had to climb quite a bit and we had slippers/track shoes on. It was enjoyable though and Ivo even washed our bikes for us later on!
After lunch, we packed our bags and were ready to go home. Donna and I 'begged' to sit in Ivo’s car with Joyce but Peter refused to ‘release us’. Thus, we had no choice but to ‘endure’ Peter for another 7hours++ (just kidding, Peter!). It was worse for me than for Donna as there was a lingering smell of durians that were stashed in Peter’s boot!
As usual, cars were overtaking us left and right, leading Peter to proclaim that “Just like cycling, it’s not that I’m slow, I’m just keeping a respectable distance from the others”. We were finally greeted by Singapore streetlamps at 845pm!
Thanks to everyone for making this an enjoyable trip and to the guys for buying t-shirts for us girls! Much appreciated!
Good Evening Evelyn
J
