So I finally got my Bike license but am in no hurry to look for a bike yet. Still, it was good to have a bit of refresher after all, and one fine day Li Jin dropped me a message asking if I was interested to go dirt biking with her friends in JB for one of the Sundays.
I gave it some thought, and figured what the heck. I also recalled Colin mentioning a couple of times his interest in riding, and in fact, dirt biking for that matter as well. Since I hardly knew most of Li Jin's friends, I decided it'd be best to ask Colin along too, it was also a great time for him to strike one off his bucket list.
The preparation leading to the trip had a few setbacks, mainly regarding transportation into the trails which LJ could not confirm. In the end, she, Colin and I took a cab from JB into the holding area which was not that far away.
At the waiting house, we selected our gear, packed our essentials, and left the rest of the stuff in Liza's car. With everything ready, we still had two more people who were joining us, one of which was Melissa, a school mate of mine from Dunearn Sec, who would have thought eh? Small world indeed.
So we headed next door for a heavy breakfast before embarking on our way into the trails.
A bit of miscom, we later realised that the bikes we were going to ride were not auto, not a problem for me since I passed, a bit of a problem for a number of the new riders. Luckily there was a small circuit for everyone to get a brief introduction to the bikes they would be riding, and to try their hand at it.
Colin, who has MTB experience, caught on pretty fast with the gear changes, it wasn't long before he was handling the scrambler pretty well.
Li Jin, unfortunately, met with a minor mishap at one of the turns when she lost control and the bike landed on her ankle, resulting in a sprain. Mind you the road was very uneven so even without cars, the humps and bumps need a bit of getting use to.
She may be out from riding, but not out of the action, as she decided to continue with us via riding pillion on one of the guides.
Melissa too suffered a minor fall, resulting in a cut on her palm, no biggie, it was the trails after all, I think I've had worse on the mountain bike in Ubin.
Before long, circuit training was over, and it was off to the actual trails. Seeing that most of us were beginners, we went for the simpler one, no major jumps, just dirty roads and humps. It was like plantation riding seeing that were are in a palm oil plantation after all.
There was a technical section at the course which was a tad scary for those who have never rode before, but I think everyone took it like a champ, Mel's boyfriend (both of them are go kart racers btw, Mel's one of the top female drivers), though without a license, had enough biking experience to tackle it pretty well.
I think at some point most of us were thinking to ourselves how slow we probably were among these guides who were riding veterans who hit much higher speeds at such places. It felt like a good ride though I can't help but keep thinking we must be looking quite funny at times.
By the time we were done, it was 4pm. Quite frankly it was exciting and tiring too...you'd think 4 hours who fly by easy peasy, but it's quite a work out as well.
We had a quick meal and headed back to the waiting house for a shower and change. After a group photos and a few good byes, it was off for dinner. Li Jin who was still injured had her husband Jeff save the day when he dropped by after the ride to pick us up, and piggybacked her along the way, so sweet. =)
Dinner was back at Teck Sing restaurant. I'd been there before, but did not know it was the same place when LJ kept saying we were going to have "Paper wrapped chicken", I guess we were still thinking it was the same one as Hillman we had the other day.
Overall, it was a good fun day at JB, quite adventurous, and I think Colin managed to enjoy himself too...we may just ask the NTNT guys another time, and LJ's planning another too so that some of the NB runners who are interested can join along...but of course, not any time soon...$100 for a full day is pretty good money actually.
Glad to have done it.
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