March 9th, 2005
Well, I did promise all kinds of exciting pix of our exploratory ride of Bukit Timah Nature Preserve, BUT, a combination of Lymes Disease (= no short term memory =Jeremy) and ADD (attention deficit disorder (a hem- Jeremy) we did not have the camera with us when we arrived at the preserve and saw a whole family unit of monkeys. So, you'll just have to take our word for it, until we can go back and get the shots, that yes, there are bunches of monkeys at Bukit Timah! Long Tailed Macaques

We saw big males, and nursing mothers with really little babies, some without a bunch of hair even, (but long fingers) and some active youngsters who were quite interested in our bicycles when we laid them down to get a little closer to sit with them. The youngsters cautiously came over to within about 3 feet of us, and climbed on the bikes, licking and chewing the seat and jumping up and down on them. For all of you who know the Enduro, this would have been a first time shot for sure! Picture a young monkey sitting on the Enduro seat! Nuf said.

Bukit Timah is more like Scotia as I expected it would be, but take away even more of the rocks and roots! We did find the Dairy Farm Quarry too, and have recently heard stories of experienced climbers having fallen to their deaths, (one guy who climbed at our gym, Climb Adventure is now among the departed but we didn't know him) as of about a month ago when he relied on an existing bolt. Needless to say, we won't be relying on anything there. As well in 2002, a young kid also fell to his death, and Jeremy found the marker that showed that. And yes, there are mosquitos! Have I mentioned yet in the blog that Dengue Fever is a problem here? I'm bound to get either that or Malaria as I seem to be the mosquito magnet, even with a strong breeze, which there was when we were exploring the quarry!

It took us about a half an hour the more direct route, via roads etc..instead of the bike path to get to Bukit Timah from our condo. Not too bad for a half a day of riding. Then, when we got back to our condo we hung at the pool, naturally!

Sunday was our bike hash out at Changi, again, we have no pix. For good reason of course! We did have the camera with us BTW! We got up early and decided, against very strong recommendations of our hash grand master Barbarian, and the article in the newspaper the day before, to get our bikes on the MRT! We cannot afford to get to the hash start points if we can't use the MRT as it's the cheapest mode of transport available to us here besides riding. If we had used a van, it would have been $35 each way. If we took a taxi, it would have been about $20 each way, and they would've been cranky that we put two bikes in it. The MRT, cost us less than $2 per person one way! We calculated that it would have taken us at least an hour and a half to get to the start of the ride, by riding, so we opted to take the MRT. Our plan was a good one, as it seemed to work. Lots of bungee cords and large black plastic bags and removable wheels later, we dressed up our bikes in bags and just nonchalantly went for it! We got quite a few stares from other passengers as you could clearly see that we had bikes with us. Chain rings poke right thru plastic bags as do handlebars and forks and pedals! No matter, we were on! Now, who had the map?

Excellent Q! We quickly learned (from asking someone) that we needed to get off at the Tanah Merah MRT. But, we also learned that neither of us had the directions to the Yacht club, nor our Singapore guide books. We thought, no matter, it CAN'T be THAT hard to find the Ferry Terminal, right? We'll just ask someone. So, we exited the MRT, and rushed to a point out of sight to put back together our bikes and began riding...aimlessly, as NO ONE knew which way the Ferry Terminal was. Funny, there's only like 2 on this island, I can't believe that no one would know where the closest one to us was. No matter, we rode on anyway. We were now about 15 mins from the hash start time and we had no idea how to get there or which direction to go. Finally after riding for about 20 mins we found a bus driver who had pulled over to wait for a group and Jeremy asked him which way we needed to go. We went BACK the direction we came from and eventually found the road that led to the Ferry Terminal. We also then saw signs for the Yacht Club so we knew now that we were on the right path. About an HOUR later of riding on a flat, straight, only slightly breezy, in full sun road, we arrived at the Yacht Club, one and a half hours after the pack had left for trail! We were sweaty, did NOT have our bike gear on, as we thought it would look too conspicuous on the MRT and had no idea what to do next. OOOOPS! Neither of us had a lock either, as we thought we'd be riding our bikes not leaving them anywhere so we weren't quite sure what to do next. Have I mentioned that high end bicycles are a HOT commodity here and young kids will scale the sides of bdgs to get to bikes on upper floors if left on balconies, and we know more than a handful of folks who have had their bikes stolen from almost literally under their noses....??

We knew the hash was going to end at the Yacht Club and that a buffet lunch was to be had but we didn't know what time. We found some folks at the restaurant who said, "one o'clock, 25 bikers come!". So, we had about 45 mins to ride around. We decided to see if we could find the trail. We did, we found the end of the trail and started to work our way backwards and in about 20 mins we saw the first of the returning hashers coming our way. We decided to keep going, and wait till we could join the majority of the pack, in it of course was Barbarian, who was like, "Well, how very nice of you to join us!" in that condensending brittish accent! He's outgoing, that's why he's the Grand Master!

So we rode back with the pack, back the way we came, and enjoyed those showers on site which the ladies room was quite nice! And put back on our sweaty clothes we rode to the Yacht Club in and got ready for lunch!

We met 2 new to the bike hash folks, Ange and Adam. Not together, just individuals. They both had such great stories to share of other adventures, so we had lunch with them. Adam was scuba diving during the Tsunami and discribed some purely crazy underwater experiences of swells and closterphobia with 6 divers and a million fish all trying to stay in one small eddy. And he also told us of a dive where a woman who was with them was nabbed by a whale shark and drug straight down, down, down...only to be released a few moments later! Did I mention that I'm now getting certified in Open Water Scuba???

Ange wants to get back into climbing and is going to Krabi, Thailand in April. We learned of Krabi from one of the guys at Climb Adventure, Hatta! Ange is very cool, and we hope to spend more time with both Ange and Adam in the future!

Adam is also going to Bali in April, like we are, when his two kids come to visit him here in Singapore. He's also a new transplant! So far, Jeremy's mom, Sherry, has booked us to do a wreck dive on our first day in Bali! It will be the Tulamben Wreck dive. To see what we will see click on the underlined link and view, the Living Seas website. Then on the LEFT colum, click on Dive Holidays. Look in March 26 for the Bali Itinerary. As you read down the intnerary, you will see the Tulambem Wreck Dive. Click on that and you see underwater what we will be seeing on this dive. If you put your curser on the pix you can move the view around 360 degrees! Awesome! Our trip to Bali is scheduled for April 5-9th. More on that in a later blog. For a peek at the dive site and description, click here. (and click on Dive Sites--then go to Wreck, drop off)

Oh, we only took the MRT one way, b/c we decided to ride with Ange, Adam and Simon to get us part of the way back to our place in Clementi. One by one, they split off to their repsective locations. Simon got us the closest leaving us in Clark Quay. Jer and I decided, oh what the heck, let's just ride it the rest of the way. The total ride time was just over 2 and half hours! We sorely miscalculated how long it would've taken us to get to the hash start, so it was a good thing we took the MRT in the morning! At least we got to see East Coast Park, which is a bike path along the ocean out in the East. And although it took us a long time, in the grand scheme of things, it's really a lot closer than you think. We had to take a few breaks as neither of us had water (b/c we thought we were going to the MRT) so we had to buy a drink to get us to the end. Our condo!

Now I have to go to my first confined water dive for my scuba certification so I bid you all adieu! By this weekend we will be diving in Malaysia! Can't wait!

© December 6, 2008