January 31st, 2005
Sunday we decided to try a bike hash. We found out about it from the internet, but then John (from the climbing gym) told us to come, that it would be fun, and really laid back. So, we thought we'd give it a go. The start was 11km away from where we are staying at Davis's. Unfortunatly, we can't take our bikes in the taxi (or at least 2 won't fit) and you can't take your bike on the MRT, so that left us with riding there. It took us about a half an hour, taking the main roads, yes, 4 lanes of traffic and over passes (they call them flyoevers), by road construction and on highways. It was pretty crazy. We don't have our biking gear yet, it's still on the ship coming over...so we did our best with our crappy commuters and no helmets and no chamois. (bike shorts with a lovely padded butt)

We found our start place with no problems, and if I work at the Dog Care School and Salon, we passed right by it, it would only take me a sweaty half an hour to get to and from work. The start was at someone's house. They had a gated home, with patios and pool. Very nice! You can check out the bike hash at www.twa.com.sg

We signed up, met the grandmaster, "Barbarian", and saw that all around us were men and women decked out in nice bike gear, with really nice bikes. We rode up on our crappy commuters, Jeremy's with a milk crate attatched to the back, and me in Chaco's and linen capris pants. We stood out like a sore thumb. But, after borrowing helmets from Barbarian, (helmets are mandatory) we were ready to accept the challenge and put our crappy commuters to the test.


("Barbarian" in red/white/blue)


(Borrowed helmet, linen capris, Chaco's and milk Crate)


The Hash began with everyone heading out to find the first trail marker, which was either chalk or peach colored Toilet Paper!



Part of the trail took us through a Chinese Cemetary. It felt kind of weird riding around all the markers and tombstones but some of them were really ornate with gold leaf and decorative urns.



In the cemetary I had a problem with my seat post slipping all the way down, making it difficult to ride effectively. Jeremy had one adjustable tool, and another hasher happened to have another tool that we could borrow to tighten the seat post. We met the sweep at this point as we were now at the end of the pack.

This trail was both on



and off road...



We met some new folks along the way. Check out the scaffolding...it looks like saplings lashed together.




And saw monkeys on the trail. They were a bit skittish and really fast. Hard to take a picture!



The trees were really amazing. Some of them had crazy growths on them, while others had stringy vines that hung almost the whole way to the ground. We were riding in a temperal rainforest when we weren't on the road.



This hash was the 300th and after the ride was over, we all met back at the start to do the circle, including charges, namings and down downs. Even riding our crappy commuters, and having seat post issues, we ended up coming into the end at about the top 2/3. We ended up passing many many people who got flat tires or multiple flat tires along the way. But not us. We were however passed when we stopped to take pictures. In the circle, they all had a lot of fun picking us out for riding single speed crappy commuters and of course b/c Jeremy had the milk crate attatched to the back of his bike. We got named, Jeremy's appropriatly enough, "Basket Case", and any of you who know him from riding, know that this fits him perfectly, with or without the crate on his bike. And my new bike hash name is "Pole Dancer" b/c of my seat post slipping up and down.

We learned that if we joined the Bike Hash (for $S60) that would get us 18 rides throughout the year, and special "members privaleges", like the next bike hash in 3 weeks to Bintan, Indonesia. We are very excited about going to Bintan to explore another island for the weekend. If you check out the website I mentioned above you can view pix of the hashes as well as Bintan from last year. Bintan was in September of last year.

As well, next Saturday the bike hash is a Dog Hash! We are thinking of going to that one too, to check out the dog scene. So far I've learned that most dogs in Singapore aren't really outside much. You cannot take them on public trasportation, and the maids (Domestic Helpers) are usually the one's to walk them, and they aren't socialized that well, making grooming a little more complicated until the dog gets to know you. Maybe we'll have some fun dog/bike hash pix from next week.

Davis returns on Feb 6th. The day we move into our new condo!

© December 6, 2008