Sumatra?

Yesterday Kris and I flew off the Island of Langkawi and officially ended both of our 2011 race seasons.  I am calling it the year of the dodo bird.  Between being burnt out, injuries, and flat tires it definitely wasn’t a highlight real year, but it did have a some stellar moments. The Mongolia Challenge was one of them and wont soon be forgotten.  Malaysia was pretty rad itself and the likes of BC Bike Race and 24 hrs of Adrenaline are always a blast!  When its all said and done I can’t wait for 2012 to start as there is some unfinished business out there.

The Langkawi bike challenge was the polar opposite of the Mongolia Bike Challenge.  Both great races, the LIMBC being more of a relaxing vacation on a tropical island as we stayed in the same 4 star hotel for the duration of the event and raced our bikes for a total of 6.5 hrs over the 5 days.  In the other hand you have the Mongolia Bike Challenge which put us on a crazy 1400 km adventure through the heart of a very desolate and amazing country.  A little rougher around the edges and a little longer as we would bike more during some of the Mongolian stages as we did for the entire LIMBC race.  That being said I think it is rad that these stage races can be so diverse as it gives us riders a chance to race in a variety of completely different settings.  As far as I’m concerned the LIMBC is a perfect way to end a long race season as there is a ton of time to relax yet we still get to feed our biking passion with some short hard races.

Last night Kris boarded the Cathay Pacific flight back to Vancouver and I boarded an express train to Malaysia’s capitol of Kuala Lumpur.  Kris was headed back home to go on a week long elk hunting trip with his Dad and some friends up an inlet near Sechelt.   I was pretty set on heading back to Canada after the race but then I figured out it would cost me just $50 to change my ticket.  When there’s still some juice left in the legs and some rad places to explore around on my bike in 30 degree weather it makes it pretty tough to hop a plane back to a country going into winter.

Today I’m taking a day off in KL to rest up, see some sights, and make a plan from where to go from here.  Having left my panniers at home I will need to pack light as all I have is my  Angstrom 30, North Face day pack.  This shouldn’t be a problem as the weather is pretty consistent here and everything is dirt cheap to buy if I forget anything.  As far as where to go from KL I don’t really have a clue.   Malaysia is a pretty developed country with a descent amount of traffic so I have my eyes set on Sumatra, part of Indonesia which is a 2 hour ferry ride across the water. My friend Jack Funk, an avid traveller and one of the most positive people around got me hooked on this one.  It is suppose to be a pretty jungle place with alot of the roads looking more like creek beds then transit routes.  As one guy put it, “a bike trip through Sumatra, although very challenging, is incredibly beautiful and interesting. Good luck finding an accurate map of this place!”   This sounds like an interesting place to go!

It feels nice to officially be done racing for the year.  After taking September mostly off the bike I am  pretty motivated to ride right now.  Next yr is looking really exciting so I figure once I run out of steam over here that I will head back to Canada and try to take a good chunk of time off the bike and work on filling the bank account for the year ahead.

Right now this concrete chaos that I am in is getting old pretty fast.  The city is good in its own way with ample of cheap street food, coconut waters, and a black market which puts Walmart to shame.  I am really looking forward to getting the wheels back spinning again tomorrow as I will head towards Malaysia’s oldest city, Melaka, and figure out a boat ride to Indonesia from there.