Malaysia

 On the breakfast menu today was an option called the “Malaysian breakfast”,  A choice of chilled fruits, Chinese Porridge with choice of chicken or fish with bean curd.   Mmmm, and travelers wonder why they get diarrhea… 

  Last Thursday night at 2:45 am, my teammate Kris Sneddon and I began a 13 + day trip to the small island of Langkawi in Malaysia, to race in the Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge (LIMBC).  The race was a rather last minute addition to our race calendars as we had both already taken to our off season training plans of working and hunting.  The organizers here have found a bucket load of cash and have been inviting bike racers from all over the globe to take part in there newly formed race.   That combined with the $ 130 000 in cash to be won has this race looking more like the World Championships of stage racing, not a end of season wind down race.  There are World Cup racers and Pros from every continent here, with the exception of South America.  It is rad.  We can’t wait to rip some legs off, and at the same time probably get our legs ripped off as we are now playing around in the big fish tank.

The 23 hr trip over here was stellar, except for a run around in the capital of Kuala Lumpur in which our 3 hr layover quickly got eaten up by a long immigration line and then the discovery that we had to switch to another airport 25 minutes away to catch our domestic flight.    With 1 hr until our flight we were still on a bus driving down a freeway.  Were still not sure how, but we and the bikes, all made it onto the flight.  Kris and I both had to change out of our sweat laden t-shirts as a result from our bike box packing marathon.

Langkawi itself is an archipelago of 99 islands just off the west coast of Malaysia/Thailand.  It reminds me of a Pirate of the Caribbean movie with rain forest clad islands dropping off into the clear blue Indian Ocean.  There is one road, 65 km long, circumnavigating the main island with an 823 m mountain in the middle.  We have nearly biked around the island in the 3 days leading up to the race and have been impressed with the natural beauty and its cleanliness, which is impressive given there are over 60 000 permanent inhabitants.   The monkeys are a problem as they have already put the chase on a couple young American riders.  Today we saw them up to there usual monkey business as they were rummaging through a garbage can,  rivaling the Raccoon species in there ability to disperse garbage across a neighborhood.  They aren’t the only animals around as Malaysia is a mega diverse country, thought to contain over 20% of the Worlds animal species.

Malaysia is  also very diverse culturaly as it is a fusion of three of Asia’s oldest civilizations- Malay, Chinese and Indian with a few other ethnic cultures mixed in its population of 27 million inhabitants.  Its economy is surprisingly well off as it is ranked in the top 30 in the world.  We are in a bubble out here on Langkawi island but we get the overall impression that Malaysia is in a pretty good situation as it is in the middle of one of the World’s major trade routes.  The presence of such a high level event as the LIMBC seems to be a good sign of where this fascinating country is headed.

Tomorrow it’s back to work as we will line up with the 167 Pro riders and tackle a 62 km UCI Marathon race.  Day 2 is a 25 km UCI XC race, followed by another 25 km XC race on Stage 3.  Stage 4 is a 13 km hill climb up the Islands mountain and the final stage is a 30 minute short track race around the local sport complex field.   This week is going to be hard with all these short, 110% effort races.   It isn’t what we expected coming here as there were 7 hr, 4 hr, and 50 km days on the schedule but these have been taken out in replace of some shorter, higher amped events.   Sorry body but you are going to find a newer high end speed this week and hopefully by the end of it there will be some NOS in the system to be used at future events. 

On another note, Malaysians drive on the left hand side of the road.  We still haven’t figured this one out but to our luck the drivers  have been patient with us up to now.  A nice treat after spending allot of time riding around Costa Rica and rural Alberta.    Over and out, time to carbo load.

Throughout the week I will be posting Stage updates at http://www.sleepmonsters.com