$co0t3r

This morning in the ferry, an Indian man walked up to me and asked, “Eh…this scooter is new model ar? Never see before wan? I never see this colour before”. I’m like ok what should I say? Is he being sarcastic or what? I replied, “No la uncle, this scooter very old d, my grandfather’s time wan.” He continued, “Oh ya ya, can see that through the number plate PCP.” Then he walks away. So random.

I bought this scooter because I want to cut down my cost on travelling since I’ve to travel to Butterworth every day now. Instead of paying RM7.70 per trip (ferry), now I only pay RM2.00. That is a cost saving of RM5.70 per trip. Let’s take an average of 21 working days in a month; 

Total savings for a month = RM5.70 X 21 working days

=RM119.70

Total savings for a year = RM119.70 X 12 months

=RM1,436.40

That is quite  a savings and the cost of my scooter…RM500. Even so, I did not pay a single cent for it, because I ‘traded’ for it. I sold off my old fulcrum 7 wheelset for RM500 and I got the scooter for RM500. After the set off, it’s like consider free lo. Haha.

If I work here for 10 years, I would have saved a whoping RM14,364.00, that’s if the price of ferry transportation remains but I doubt that le.

Traded this

and this

For this =) good deal?

Century Ride Ipoh 2012

After the wedding, I drove down to Ipoh from Penang at about 12am. After checking in and setting up my bike, it was already close to 2am. The race starts at 7am and I’m supposed to be at the check point to meet Daniel (a triathlete from Penang) who collected my race pack for me at around 6am. But I was still asleep at 6am till he called me. I was damn exhausted from the 3 week business trip to Jakarta and all.

Met him around 6.30am, collected the timing sticker and he asked me, “So sub 5 huh?”. I just smiled and say, “Cannot lah – 3 weeks didn’t train already”. Then after a small chat, off I went to the starting point. The crowd was pretty huge, I think they estimate around 1,000+ cyclist. Ate my powerbar and waited for the race to start. It was my first time doing 160k, and I really don’t know what to expect. I’ve done 100k before, and found it do-able.

At the start

Countdown begun and we were all release, a little messy at the beginning due to the bottleneck starting point but it cleared off as soon as we hit the major roads. I didn’t wanna push so hard because I know I wouldn’t be able to last at 30km/h for the entire ride. My goal was to be as close as 5 hours. Just at the start, one by one cyclist started zooming by me. In my mind I was like, “Seriously? Aneh keng?”. I stayed discipline and I continue at my pace until I was at the wheels of a peloton, I lost my discipline and started cruising at their speed which is about 40km/h.

Less than 30 minutes into our ride, riders from the front shouted, “Slow! Slow!” and everyone in the peloton also shouted, “Slow!Slow” because there was an accident in front. Saw a few cyclists sitting at the road side with the bike pretty badly damage. With the  rise of carbon frame and wheelset, getting involve in a crash is never a good thing. Few Ks later, same thing happen and I thought to myself, this will never happen to me.

I was sitting comfortably in the peloton and was enjoying my ride BUT suddenly a cyclist in our group fell in the front, 2-3 bikes away from me and I was like sh*t, gai liao. I saw them lying on the road when I quickly press the breaks as hard as I could but I still skidded due to our high speed. I hit one of the bike that is lying on the ground and toppled on top of another guy.  I quickly get up, pick up my bike and water bottle, checked my wound to see if there is any serious cuts, fortunately just minor scratches. Checked my bike, and it don’t look good, my chain came off but thankfully it can be fixed. When I continue cycling, I saw the front wheel was crooked, that is not a good thing. I didn’t know how bad it was but I know I wanna finish this race no matter what. I prayed to God to keep me safe and help me finish the race in one piece.

After this incident, I got a little scared drafting and riding in a peloton because you may get involved in an accident even though you are careful and all. So I rode alone most of the remaining 110k. It wasn’t easy but it was the safest. Every time we go down a small slope, I would picture my front wheel giving way and me crashing again. But that didn’t happen; it was just my imagination going wild.

Pic courtesy of cycling Malaysia

I stopped for all the water station, to rest a little, clean my wound, freshen up, refill and to get some bananas. All these are essential in a long ride like this. The weather was pretty good, it was cooling most part of the ride. When I got to one of the water station, there was a man holding those sponge soaked in ice water and he asked me whether I wanted one. I said yes, and I was expecting him to pass the sponge to me so I could cool off myself but he came to me a ‘showered’ me from my head to my body and all over me. I was like ‘uhhhhhhh…wah wah wah…shiok lo!’. It was unexpected but it was a good move, makes you more alert and awake.

I then continued my journey. At about 130k mark, I could feel my legs giving in. Muscle cramp, an athlete’s worst enemy. Why I say so. I can still go on if I have cuts and bruises but muscles cramp, no way, you can move your legs at all. I stopped at the side of the road and stood there for a while because I can’t get down from my bike and stretch. In that moment, I feared I won’t be able to finish it because it’s one of the worst cramps I’ve ever had, worst when it involves both legs. I continue sipping 100plus and prayed in my heart. Once the stiffness went off, I came down and stretch. Cyclist by cyclist zoomed pass me and I felt ‘humiliated’.  I always wanna give my best or to try to be competitive but this is not one of those days. I was already defeated mentally. After 5 minutes or so, I got back up to the saddle and continued pedaling.

Even by saying that, I tried to dig deep to motivate myself or to get myself going for the 30km. A light bulb popped out, since I can’t exert that much energy to minimize the risk of muscle cramp again, I was reminded about a training method from the book that I’ve been reading for the past weeks, ‘The Big Book Of Endurance Training and Racing’. It is mentioned we should all train within our Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate and improve aerobic speed over time; mine was around 150 BPM so I tried to stay within my range. To stay within 150BPM, my speed was about 20kmh to 25kmh but it felt so much easier and I feel I was more in control of my body and muscles. I was very focus on my target heart rate and soon, I was in the zone.

Me and the medal at the finishing point

After our last water station, I looked at my meter 155km, 5 more km to go. Yay~! But after reaching 160km, I don’t see any sign for the finishing line and we were still on the main road of Ipoh. It was a dangerous road as we were sharing road with other motor vehicles. Even tho there is a traffic controller but car still drive according to the traffic light and it almost hit me. Tsk tsk tsk. I cross the finishing line at about 168km on my meter and slightly under 6 hours. Definitely my second hardest day of my life and I have to thank God for sustaining me and keeping me safe again.

Very nice pewter medal

Next up, Merdeka Cup and 100K (10k run + 90k ride)

Life in Jakarta Part III

Food here is not as good as Penang’s but I’m not a very picky person when it comes to food. My eating philosophy is, ‘eat to live and no live to eat’. =) For the first few days, our team ate in a mall which is of more quality compare to the street food. A normal plate of fried rice cost about IDR30,000 equivalent to about RM10, quite expensive also.

One thing I realized about the food here is, there is no such thing as besar or add rice/mee. When I made my order, I told the waiter ‘tambah nasi’, he nodded his head. When my fried rice came, I had another additional bowl of white rice and I stunned for a moment. Had to mixed the fried rice and the white rice myself.

My experience in another food court, ordered chicken rice and add another bowl of rice which cost me IDR8,000 (RM2.70), expensive to add rice here. I’ve asked one of my Indon friend and she re-confim that you may only order two portion as there is no large. Seriously…

I’ve left Jakarta and took the domestic flight to Pangkal Pinang, we now dine at the club house here. Home cooked dishes by Indonesians. This is the good stuff, it made me feel like home, white rice, dishes and soup. Even though it’s a bit spicy but I love the food here.

KFC

KFC - look how the wrap the rice. macam burger.

Soto Ayam

Nasi Goreng Gila

soto betawi hawker stall

mee goreng hawker stall

Street food in Indonesia is about IDR10,000 – IDR15,000 (RM3.30 – RM5.00) but the quality is not that great. I had their local Soto Ayam, Soto Daging, Soto Betawi, Mee Bakso, etc and it’s just so-so. Not really my type of food. Most food here will be served with a cracker (snack).

I can survive here but I won’t enjoy the food here. Starting to miss my grandma’s soup; chicken leg soup, ABC soup, bkt soup, fish soup, leng ngau soup and many others.  

Life in Jakarta Part II

I saw a group of cyclist on Friday night, I guess it was a weekly thing for cyclist there. But cycling in Jakarta is not ideal, however, the cyclist were all in the busway lane (special lane for bus only). I don’t think I can stand riding there due to the bad air and traffic. I’m starting to miss my bike and Penang island.

Security is really tight here. You have to go through the scanner before entering any buildings; shopping malls, hotels, offices, you name it. Before the guard let our cab in, the driver would have to wind down the window and open the car bonnet for inspection. (And the reason for the winding down the side window is due to the super thick dark tinted glass. They have no rules for it.) The guards would check the side of the door with a metal detector and underneath the car.  This is to avoid any suicide bombing or terrorist attack I presume.

hotel's check point

shopping mall check point

Corruption here is pretty nasty. They do it upfront without any hesitant. I was in the immigration office to report myself there. I was then being called into a room, which you have to take picture, sign and drop a coin in a customer satisfaction box. While waiting for my turn, another officer came in a shook hands with the officer who was gonna attend to me soon. He then reshuffles the order of the files. And I was like WOW, this happen right in front of my eyes and then don’t give a shit.

notty corrupted immigration officer

 My friend told me as long as you have money here, anything and everything is possible.

Life in Jakarta Part I

It’s an eye opening experience for me to be here. As we left the airport and hit the streets, I was blown away by the development here. 6 lane roads which were jam packed with cars, super high rise building which were well design, people everywhere and it was busy. A very busy city and I have to admit, my perception towards Indonesia was always ‘ulu’ because I’ve been to Medan for a mission trip many years ago. And that memory of Indonesia stayed with me but I was very wrong.

 

Roads here are very different from Malaysia, you can rarely see traffic lights because it’s just one straight road and you can only turn left. The left turn will lead you to the other side of the road or a location around there. But still, this did not reduce the massive jam every morning and evening. And because of the ocean of cars, the air there is very much polluted. You can see people wearing mask to reduce their intake of carbon monoxide.

Drivers honk all the time here but it’s very much different from Malaysia. In Malaysia, you honk and it follows with, “This stupid driver! Aiyo….lady drive, no wonder! Wth! Signal la stupid ass! Don’t know how to signal ar?! Etc” Here it’s a way of signaling, for example, “I’m coming through, Please give way, Be careful, I’m turning out, etc”.  No temper being shown by the drivers here and I tell you, it’s impossible for Malaysians to drive here. No way! They drive as close as 1inch away from another vehicle including the motorist.

One thing I realize about myself is, I don’t really like living in big cities.