A Day Before OCBC Cycle Singapore 2013 for a Mini Tour

A trip that was planned a couple of of months ago and eventually I am back to the City of Lion for another adventure. I started from Sindor Road and the time was 6am.

The first place I had to find was Nex Mall @ Serangoon where I supposed to meet LK Tan & two lady riders from Kuala Lumpur.

I managed to find Nex Mall without any difficulty and had ample time for a breakfast. I found a Food Court next to the mall where I ordered a Singapore Prawn Mee (with pork ribs added). The taste was reasonably good.

Here come the power ladies Kellie & Suit Yan.

This is Tan, my counter part in Singapore.

We bumped into Kevin at mid-way riding whom we were supposed to meet at F1 Bldg. Then came the rain as forecast. We were so near the meeting point yet so far from the building.

Eventually all met up at Singapore Flyer together including Patrick Soh & Kenny Wong, all waiting eagerly for the rain to stop.

 Joe & myself took the opportunity to collect our goodies from the collection centre.

Finally the rain stopped and we were all set to go.

I was lucky to meet Woon Tai Woon on our way out off the building, I hope we can meet again in the near future either in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.

Security measures at the Marina Bay was very tight as expected.

We took a brief rounding the vicinity with many photos taken for remembrance.

We maneuvered attentively out of the centre city via Geylang and Hougang towards north.

An amazing super clean back lane of the shop houses of Paya Lebar.

Kellie needed to pump air into her tryes and an expert to adjust her handle. This particular man in blue did it all these for free it is unbelievable. I was impressed with his generosity and I salute to him.

At last we reached the PCN (Park Connector Network) of Serangoon.

We were impressed with PCN, such a lovely set up for cycling. 

Our hero came to a rescue for a girl fallen and needed first aid badly and Patrick was the man, good and well equipped. Well done Pat!!!

This is a public toilet with external metal cladded finish that is clean, attractive with free drinking water fountain for you to refill.

A bridge that can lead to Changi & East Coast unfortunately that was not in our plan and hence I shall be back for this bridge in the near future.

These dames were having a photography session and were sporting enough to allow me to take a snap with them.

 Some of the scenes at the Park Connector Network.

We ended our riding adventure at this building "North Star" @ Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 where we completed with a makan together before we splitted our own way back.

A total of 58.17km that I have completed for the day from Sindor and back to Sindor.

The route we took from Marina bay to Punggol and its surroundings.

I enjoyed riding in Singapore and there are still plenty to conquer and I hope to come back for more.

70km Ride in the City of Kuala Lumpur

This event is a combination of 2 routes into 1 and making it a long city ride. It started with an idea to do a long ride within Kuala Lumpur if possible a huge loop around Klang Valley and it was after a ride organised by Jer Ping to Ampang that prompted us to do this. 24 of of us made ourselves free for this event.

We gathered at RSC Dataran Merdeka and were supposed to start at 7.30am but as usual and expected it was slightly delayed. The ride started at 8.15am.

I did not expect the turn out to be so good (24 of us). It is nice to see many riders riding together though it is not easy to manage one but luckily we have fellow riders helping to marshal the ride. Thanks to all these good buddies. 

The first place place we visited was the river side of Klang River to see some attractive mural drawings on the wall.

I realised that many of us like this place it's unique and a favourite place for photography.

We were fortunate that the place was dry enough for us to ride on it cos it has been raining the last couple of days. The surface is not safe to ride when it is wet.

This event is relatively a long ride and fuel is obviously very important in order to have enough energy for the journey.

We were slightly hindered by a passing rain never the less the weather was good most of the time.

We left Brickfields around 9.10am after our breakfast and moved on to Ang Seng connection  for the motor lane at Federal Highway.

After a 40 minutes ride from Brickfields we were at Hutan Pendidikan Bukit Gasing for a brief stop.

This was the first painful climb @ Gasing Hill some of us did not complete it. They knew that the group could come back the same route hence they waited. See this lady on the left Suit Yan she is strong she did a few climbs of this stretch...don't play play gentlemen!!!

10.15am - at the top of the Gasing Hill and that was the completion of Stage 1. Well Done!!!

This is Leo Sumulis, a touring cyclist from United Kingdom was happy to join us in this event, we hope he had a memorable time with us and will see this document when he is back home in approximately 5 months time.

10.30am - we were thrilled by a water festival at Chetawan Thai Temple at Jalan Gasing, yes it was Songkhran festival and we were so lucky to be able to celebrate it in Malaysia. Khap koon kap.

By 11.30am we were back to RSC Dataran Merdeka as a few of us have to leave earlier. We took the opportunity to rest and reset ourselves for the next stage.

We then cruised out of the city centre towards Ampang.

We regrouped at Ampang Park LRT Station and left at 12.20pm

12.45pm we reached Sri Ganesar Temple at Kg Pandan but unfortunately it was just closed for a break.

The time was about 1.30pm many were hungry and "angry"....some ate Thai food.

And some ate Ampang popular Yong Tau Foo. A word of caution never delay food for riders especially when one is hungry..... and everything was back to normal after a filled tummy... hehehe.

3.00pm - All set to roll for the balance of the exploration, substantial time was used for lunch it could have been improved with lesser meal time. 

3.10pm - Crossing into Ampang Indah, Taman Mulia near Saujana Ampang for the last kill.

The early finishers at the peak taking up limited shade as the sun was scorching hot and merciless.

Jimmy Chow, our veteran rider cruising steadily up the slope.

3.35pm - Siew Kheong was dehydrated and needed water badly if given a cold drink to him that would be absolutely marvellous.

4.10pm - MRR2 into Pandan Perdana. We took a different route back to the city going through housing schemes like Melur, Putra, Pandan Perdana, Shamelin and Maluri.

What a relief we completed the event and were back to RSC Dataran Merdeka at 4.45pm. It was a long day indeed an enjoyable and memorable 70km ride.