#226 - Giant Reign 1 2012

The cat's out of the bag :-) After four years of begging

for an All-Mountain bike, Santa Claus (AKA my wife)

has finally relented and so I got a Giant Reign 1 2012

for Christmas !

I took my own sweet time before I started any sort

of  'review' for this bike. To date, I have brought this

bike to four offroad rides (mainly in Rooty Trail) and

one city ride where I descended on all the stairs that

I could find from Kallang PCN up to Boat Quay.

But still, I think I have barely scratched the surface

of what this bike can do (especially the DH part).

Ok, let's start.

Fork - the bike came with a 150mm RockShox

Revelation. This is the RLT version and it comes

complete with lockout and a negative air spring.

The front wheel is connected to the fork using

Frankentein's favourite - a big screw! Also, the

steerer is now  1 1/4" at the top and 1 1/2" at

the bottom.  This promises unheard of stiffness

in the steering department. However, God help

you if ever you need a different length stem or

if ever you need a new stem.

Rear Shock - Giant equipped the bike with

a Monarch RT. Up to this day, I'm still scratching

my head about this shock. This is the picture of

the shock from RockShox's website. If you notice,

the blue lever on that picture is missing from the shock

that I have on my bike. In place of the blue lever, is

a gold dial which is something like a blow-off valve.

Now, on my Reba (and the Revelation fork on this bike),

you lock the fork and then you set up the blow-off

using that gold dial. So I am wondering how I'm

going to use this gold dial on the shock when I can't

lock the shock in the first place???

GroupSet - funny thing that I had my first taste

of a 3x10 speed groupset (SLX) on an AM bike

instead of a CrossCountry bike. My 3x9speed

SLX has never let me down since 2008 and

I expect the same from the 3x10speed version.

Brakes - The brakes that came with the bike

are Avid Elixir 5s. The brake disks are 180mm

in front and 160mm at the back. These brakes

seem to lack in the braking power department.

I am used to SLX brakes with sintered KoolStop

pads and these Elixir 5s are nowhere near the

power of that setup. The good thing though is,

I'm not sure how it happened, but I tend to brake

more using the front brakes with this bike. If I

have powerful brakes that may send me straight

to Endo City. So, all in all, I don't see any issues

with the brakes (yet).

Wheelset and tires - The rims for this bike are

DT Swiss E540 (which as the name implies are

540grams in weight). The front hub is Giant's own

15mm Tracker hub. The rear hub is a Shimano

Deore number. The tires that came with the bike

are Maxxis Minion DHF 2.35 (F) and Maxxis

High Roller 2.35 (R). However, knowing how

anorexic Maxxis tires can get, I decided to change

the tires to Kenda Nevegal 2.35 Stick-E compound

for both front and rear (hehehe bad move).

SeatPost and Saddle - Giant has been equipping

their bikes now with Fizik saddles. My Anthem came

with Fizik Tundra, I can't remember which saddle came

with Paolo and Bal's Trance (surely Fizik, but which model?),

and now my Reign came with Gobi. The seatpost is the

new Giant Switch telescoping seatpost with Remote.

What disturbs me is that the Reign 0 (the next highest

model for Reign) comes with a Joplin seatpost.

The Joplin seatpost, if you believe all the reviews

on the net, must be the worst ever telescoping seatpost

of all time... and it is not cheap! So when Giant

equips their Reign 0 with Joplin and Reign 1

with the Switch, what does that mean???

Having that in mind, for the first 2 rides, I brought

a spare Thomson Elite seatpost with me

jussstttt in case.

Stem and HandleBar - As I mentioned before, Giant

seem to be having this overwhelming urge to be different

and so the fork steerer is now 1 1/4". It follows that the

stem is also that size and the length is 70mm with 8 degree

rise. If this does not suit you, then you might be out of luck

as I think only Giant manufactures this size of stem.

The handlebar is the exact same handlebar that

came with my Anthem. This is another head scratcher

for me as I find it odd that Giant chose to equip their

XC bikes with the same handlebar as their AM bikes.

What does that mean? Does it mean that the bar is

sooo wide for XC that Giant expected us to cut

down the bar? But I didn't cut down my bar.

Is that wrong then?

Anyway, that's the rundown of the bike specs and

so we now go and ride!

Changes

1. The moment I sat on the bike, the first thing that I

felt was ... this bike's handlebar is soooo 'tall'. Coming

from an XC background, I can't stand this. I took all the

spacers from under the stem and placed them all on top.

The stem is now at it's lowest. BUT the handlebar still

felt 'high'. I complained about this to SR Deck and he

told me that since the stem has an 8degree rise, I should

go and flip the stem upside down.... I said ... uhhh that

might result on some weird and funky steering traits

so I better not do that.

2. I thought that when I press the remote for the seatpost,

my bum will just go down? No? It didn't do that. I 

thought I got a lemon. In the end, I realised I had to

give the seatpost a bit of a 'nudge' before it will go down.

Going up is nice and smooth though.

Now, off to the trails :

3. Tires - I thought I was going to pass out !  The decision

to change the original tires to 2.35 Stick-E Nevegals

was definitely wrong! They were sooo draggy! After

just one trail ride, I changed back to the original tires

and I am now even contemplating on putting on 2.1

Crossmarks at the rear when all the mud dries up in

Rooty Trail.

4. I used the Switch Seatpost for two rides, it was

very nice to ride with the saddle lowered all the way

when going downhill BUT I find that there is actually

no need to lower the saddle that much in our trails.

So after 2 trail rides, I took off the Switch seatpost

and changed it to a setback Thomson Elite seatpost.

The bike is not just lighter now, my backpack is

lighter as well since I don't have to carry a spare

seatpost.

5. The steering is very twitchy! Is it because I lowered

the stem too much? Anyway, lowering the stem seems

to have helped in the climbing department and so I will

not put back the spacers under the stem. ... and so I

went hunting for a 700mm handlebar ... not just a normal

700mm handlebar, it has to be low-rise (stock Giant bar

has a 19degree rise), in fact I know that there are wide

straight handlebars (e.g. Sunline) ... but it has to be cheap

too hehehehehe. Lo and behold, when I went last Saturday

to Hup Leong's X'mas Sale, I saw a ControlTech 700mm

flat bar that only costs 66$ before discount! I got that!

Lucky, since it was the last piece. See picture above

comparing the ControlTech straightbar with the original

Giant bar.

6. Did I mention that the bike does NOT come with

pedals? Yup, you need to fork out more money to

get pedals. Nice thing that I have a pair of new XT

Trail Pedals lying at home just waiting for this bike.

7. Lastly (whew!), there are lots of fallen trees

in our trails nowadays due to the never ending rain.

After two trail rides, I noticed that I have been using

my biggest chainring more as a fallen tree crampon.

I use the biggest chainring when I'm on the road going

to the trails but I never utilise the 11T on my cassette.

So I thought the biggest chainring had to go! Good thing

there are some cheap and good bashrings at Hup Leong's

sales bin. I got a black MRP bashring for 28$ and

I installed it myself at home.

That's all! I am very happy with the changes I made.

I went to go for a trail ride yesterday (Sunday) and

everything was almost perfect ... I said almost because

... my wheelset seems to be heavy? (evil laughter ensues.....)

 



#225 : of Marathons and Triathlons

It's a Sunday and as I write this I am waiting for the
rain to fall ... I should be in the trails ... but when I
woke up and looked through the window ... Sigh,
dark rain clouds are on the horizon. I have no problems
cycling in the jungle during a heavy downpour. I am
not afraid to get wet. What I'm afraid of is falling
branches or trees.

Anyway, the StanChart Marathon has just finished
and the office is filled with war stories coming from
several officemates who have taken up running as
a means to lead healthier lives. Most of the stories
are both hilarious and unbelievable. I have heard
of people completing the marathon in 8 hours!
Imagine that?! I normally sleep for 8 hours. 8 hours
is soooo long to be flogging yourself, your joints,
your knees. But hey, who am I to say that? Most
of my buddies raced the 12hour overnight
race at Tampines.

So, you must be wondering what's up with the eye
candy pictures above in this post? The lady above
is my friend Michelle and the pics were taken from
her FB account. After hearing all the war stories
from StanChart Marathon, I learned that my friend
went for the IronMan in Australia.

Of course, I have always heard about the IronMan.
It's a swim, bike, run race. However, all this time
I never realised that the distances that I often hear
are in miles! Now that I personally know someone
who joined IronMan, I went and googled it. The
actual distances are 3.8km swim, 180km cycle
and then a full marathon (42km)!!! Downright
crazy! Can you imagine that? If you are a participant
in the IronMan, even before you run your full
marathon, you need to swim 3.8km and cycle
180km first!

So, congratulations to my friend, Michelle,
for doing something that I still can't imagine
how to do hehehehe.

The thing now is that when I mentioned this
to my biking buddies and they all told
me that maybe we should give triathlon
a try this coming 2013.

Crazy!

#224 : Saturday Ride

Saturday and NoLights Louie was looking for a 'simple'

ride. I don't know her definition of 'simple' but I told her

I will be going to T15 and maybe do 2, 3, 4 laps?

Depending really on how I'm feeling on that day.

This seemed to satisfy her requirements and so

off we went to T15.

We met at Velocity and cycled to Rifle Range Road.

We then cycled to Zheng Hua Park and did just 2 laps

of T15 as she was supposed to pick up someone

at the airport. Some, of course, will say that that

was an easy ride. But the thing was since we started

cycling from Velocity we never stopped until

we were finally at Esso to clean our bikes.

I don't know, but rides like that ... I find it

good for the soul. There's another trail that's

good for the soul! Rooty Trail! I'll go there one

of these days...during the holidays, when I can

have the whole place to myself ... then I'll do 3

laps on my own pace... 

... but that's for another time.

#223 - Shimano XT Trail Pedals

XT Trail Pedals - image from BikeReview.com

 Early this year, Shimano has introduced their version

of the 10-speed drivetrain. But along with the new XT and

XTR drivetrains, Shimano has also seen fit to revamp the

ubiquitous XT and XTR pedals. Now the XT and XTR

pedals are available in two flavors. One is the normal

minimalist version and the other is the 'trail' version.

Naturally, along with the introduction of the new

10-speed drivetrains, all of the components had a sudden

jump in price... and here I was hoping that the prices

would remain the same and the 9-speed versions

would be cheaper. Sigh, how naive of me.

Anyway, it looks like the only XT part that I can

afford right now are the pedals (LOL). The internet

was abuzz with how these pedals are sooo good

and sooo stable. Even one of my ride buddies gave

this a glowing review. On the strength of those

reviews, I went ahead and purchased said pedals.

There are lots and lots of descriptions of these pedals

easily obtainable on the Internet. There are even some

reviews with weights. Hence, I won't be describing nor

weighing these pedals here.

What actually, got me buying these pedals is the 'cage'.

See yellow arrows in the picture above. I had this notion

that the reports of unparalled 'stability' was due to

the cage. I thought my shoes will be resting on the cage!

But noooo... your shoes will only be resting on the

unpainted area pointed to by the blue arrows.

This area is bigger than the same area on the

old XT pedals ... but not by much!

In the picture above, the blue arrow points to the

catch mechanism for the cleats. Note that I thought

my shoes will be in contact with the area pointed by

the yellow arrow....

Picture above shows my Shimano shoes connected to

the pedals. See how big the space is between the cage

and the shoes?! I think that even with my full weight

on the shoe there is still no way that any part of my

shoes will be in contact with the cage of the pedals.

I have used these pedals on two offroad rides

and ... yes, I can feel that these pedals are a 

little bit more 'stable' than the older pedals.

But I have to emphasize that any feeling of

stability over the older pedals is jussttt a little

bit. In fact, it may even be attributed to placebo!

So, do I recommend these pedals? No! If

your pedals have given up the ghost and you need

to get new ones, then go and get the version without

the cages. Up to now, I still don't know what the

cages do. 

#222 : Sunday Ride

I finally reached BT while there's still fog

While having my BB replaced yesterday at Hup Leong,

Mechanic John told me to join a group ride that will

be heading from Casuarina to Bukit Timah. Hmmm...

since I, nowadays, am more interested in spinning

on tame fireroads, my response was none committal.

So I left the house at 7:20 this morning and by around

8am, I met the trio of KK, Boom and Mer going to BT.

I also met FreeRider Eric blow Gangsa DH going up to

that trail leading to Casuarina saying that he'll be

meeting the rest of the peloton as they come into the

trail. I waved bye-bye and started spinning happily

in T15 ... ahhhhhhh ... peace and quiet and easy

trails. Bliss. I did four laps of T15 and on my 4th

lap ... I saw the peloton coming out of the T15 PCN?!

So, what gives??? I told them FreeRider Eric went into

the trail hoping to meet them! It turned out there

was a newbie with them and said newbie was really

scared of going into the trail! So they went to Mandai

Ave and entered T15 via the PCN !?! ... and the newbie

looked very familiar... it turned out she's my office

mate! She said she has been bugging Brother Louie for

any offroad rides but he said there were no such rides.

Hehehehe sneaky eh.

Apparently, Rochelle (the newbie) has been cycling on

PCNs all by herself until CrestPursuit Owen gave her

a phone number that somehow led to the MTB Brothers.

We continued riding and met the trio of Boom, KK and Mer

again on their way home. The MTB Brothers said they're

going to have lunch at Bukit Panjang and I told them

I will be going my way once we reach the Bukit Panjang

exit. Mike the (ex) Mechanic was leading the way and

he led us to this very short DH section which I can

tell leads to Bukit Panjang exit BUT I don't recognise

that section at all. Due to that, I descended very slowly

and at the bottom there was this mudhole which will

swallow half your wheel ... I sensed disaster coming and

so I just stopped near the mudhole hehehehe.

Mike showed Rochelle the newbie how to descend and

after the presentation it was her turn to go down.

She descended very, very quickly (I noticed she is quite

good in the DH sections) but of course when she got to

the mudhole, she didn't lift her front wheel and so

she endo'ed! She wasn't hurt but she was covered with mud

from head to toe hehehehe. Welcome to Mountain Biking :-)

By the way, while chitchatting with the peloton, I learned

Boom took part in the Tour de Timor last September!

Envious! 6 days, 600 over kilometers! I think the current

issue of SPIN has a writeup on this most Epic of all rides.

#221 - City Ride

Images above were taken during my City Ride today.
I was supposed to do my long ride in T15 (3 laps?)
today... but the BB on my On-One died on me.
I didn't want to bring my Anthem on muddy rides
as I don't want to foul the bearings with mud during
the after ride jet wash at Esso.

So, I went to Hup Leong and had my BB changed.
... and while my BB was being changed, I went and
ogled at stuff that I can never afford (e.g. 2011 XTR
Groupset, 2011 Fox forks with Kashima coating, etc.).
It was while I was trying to compute how many months
I have to save so I can get an XT groupset when my
eyes rested on the new XT Trail Pedals ...

These pedals have a 'cage' and they have gotten
good reviews in BikeRadar and MTBR.com.
Heck, even one of my riding buddies, Brother Louie
gave these pedals a double thumbs up ....
and so I got them :-)

Why no pictures of the pedals, you say?
I took some pictures but I'll post them together
with a short review in another post.

That's it for now ... and if I finish my
ride early tomorrow, I think I'll head on over
to Padang to see if any of my buddies were
brought to the StanChart Marathon Finish Line
in a bus hehehehe.

#220 - Weekend

The past few weeks it has been raining every afternoon

or early evening. Due to this our weeknight rides to

Changi Village and Mt. Faber were limited ... well

limited is putting it mildly. The weeknight rides stopped

totally! ... and of course, once you stop riding, your

endurance goes down the drain.

I have decided to put a stop to my endurance' downward

slide and so this Saturday I went to T15 thinking of doing

2 or 3 laps of just fireroads ... but a flat has put a stop to

my plans! Not just that, since I was on tubeless tires, I don't

bring inner tubes and a pump thinking that the latex in my

tires will seal the puncture. The thing is, it has been more

than a year since the bike shop mechanic put the latex in there.

Sigh... good thing I had enough money for an early

taxi ride home :-(

I knew the qualifying for both the Mettle Games Urban DH

and River Regatta DragonBoat Race was on Saturday but

having had a flat, I was not in the mood to go anywhere else.

My son and I picked up my wife from work ... and my

wife works literally just a few doors away from Bike Stop

in Upper Thomson Road. So I went in to the Bike Stop

shop and browsed their wares.

I haven't had a flat for more than 1 year but now I have

had 2 flats in 2 months .. not a good record. Also, I have

this phobia of flatting in the trails because I haven't seen

a mini pump that could actually do the job properly.

... and then ... I saw this ultra bling Lezyne Micro Floor

Pump in all its shiny aluminum glory in the cupboard

at Bike Stop. I asked how much was it and was quoted 60$.

I looked behind me to my wife and I saw a barely

perceptible nod meaning 'ok, you can buy that' ...

but not so fast! I went online and checked the

reviews for this particular pump. BikeRadar said

'The best middle-sized mini pump we've tested yet".

That was it! I purchased Bike Stop's last piece of

Lezyne Micro Floor Pump.   

This is the group ride that I had to miss so that I can

take pictures of the 1st Urban DH at Singapore Flyer

in conjunction with the 2011 installment of the

Mettle Games and the 2011 version of the River

Regatta DragonBoat Race at Boat Quay.

I woke up early and reached T15 at around 8:15am !

I have to make up for the lost trail time yesterday.

I knew there will be a big group ride this Sunday but I

can't join since I wanted to watch some Urban DH action

and say hi to my ex-teammates in dragonboat.

I just did one lap of T15 and then I reached Zheng Hua

Park at 9:30am. I was hoping to catch the peloton

and say a few hi's and hello's but it seems the peloton

was slow in reaching Zheng Hua ... and so I left

to go to Singapore Flyer and Boat Quay hehehe.

I took a picture of this building on the way to SG Flyer

... but I don't know what this building is.

Ahhh SG's first Urban DH. Lots of guys (and there were

girls too, I think) having the urge to throw themselves together

with their thousand dollar bikes off the 2nd floor of the

Singapore Flyer for no apparent reason but to see who can

do it with style. Hehehehe just sourgraping. First, I don't have

the money to buy those bikes. Second, in the very unlikely

event that I scrounged enough money to get myself a bike,

no way would I grow balls big enough to throw myself

out of the 2nd floor of Sg Flyer. So kudos to all these

very skilled boys and girls for making history.

Singapore River Regatta DragonBoat Race at

Boat Quay. This is the race that signals the 'end'

of the Dragonboat racing season. This is an exciting

race because there will surely be boats that will

veer off the lane, ram other boats, or just plain capsize.

I walked into the pitlane and found my ex-teammates

and I heard that everybody is bitching because it

seems any team lucky enough to be in Lane 4 will win!

Something to do with the way the water flows

or something. Anyway, after this race, the dragonboat

community stops worrying about their sixpacks

and generally do nothing until Chinese New year

is over. Last time, the first race of the year has

always been MR500 on March. But it seems next

year there is a new race on February which will

kick off the DB Season.

Fallen tree at T15 leading to the vegetable gardens

at Bukit Panjang.



#218 - Climb

Have you ever stored your Nike's for a long period of time
and then decided to wear them? What happens? Most probably
the sole will peel. This pair of MadRocks was stored for two
years and when I decided to wear them ... no issues whatsoever.
Highly recommended climbing shoes. BUT next time, I will try
5.10s and the only reason is that they make MTB shoes hehehe.

Say 'Climb!' and the first thing that I think of

is Mt. Faber ... but a few years ago (2 years?),
I have always equated climb with the artificial

rock wall at Climb Asia in Farrer Park.

I have always wanted to go back and climb since

that is my way of relaxing and stretching. Yes, I

know there is Yoga for that ... but I always get

reminded of circus contortionists when I hear 'Yoga'.

Besides, climbing puts the fun into relaxing and

stretching! So, with NoLights Louie in tow, I

jumped out of my comfort zone, into the unknown

otherwise known as Bouldering AKA Tab's Specialty.

It's not that bad. It's not like the first downhill

in Bukit Timah or the whole of Kent Ridge Park.

The worst that I faced were some girls out-climbing

me and sniggering at my clumsiness...

... and so before I keep on digressing, here's last

night's highlights!

Action !



#217 - Sunday Ride

This group ride happened Sunday last week. A few of

the Eastern boys thought with Monday being a holiday,

they can afford to have a long ride with us in the more

exciting trails at Mandai.

Anyway, the attending riders who were supposed to

meet at Casuarina Curry at 8:30am were all late due

to the very very heavy morning rain. I, on the other

hand decided to become sneaky again. I am supposed

to accompany my family to Ikea/Queensway Shopping

Centre in the afternoon and so had to cut my ride short.

So what I did was to ride as early as 7am. I went

to Rifle Range Road and went straight to Zheng Hwa

Park by going opposite to the normal trail direction of

Belukar Track. There were no people in ZH Park

to chat with and so I went to Rooty Trail. The entrance

to Rooty Trail has really become water-logged this

past few weeks. I went in and did a slower than

usual ride of the trail and after that I stopped to

eat my breakfast of a sandwich and some cashew

nuts under the 'mango' trees.

I was regulating my pace because I don't want

to meet up with the rest of the peloton at the

Old Upper Thomson exit. I then went to Gangsa

and entered the the trail leading to the Summit.

I didn't stop at the Summit and continued on to

the first stream thinking that the peloton should be

entering the trail from the opposite end by now.

When I got to the 2nd stream I stopped for a loonggg

rest hoping that the peloton would show up ...

no such luck. I pushed on to the third stream

and dilly-dallied seeing as the 'handle' of the

'bridge' is no longer there... still no peloton.

Looks like I have to fetch them from Casuarina

Curry! I resigned to my fate and proceeded

with my ride.... and then finally! I saw StairRider

Deck ducking under one of the fallen trees on

the trail. Contact!

Everybody told me how sneaky my plan was

and as a penalty, I will have to continue riding

without rest hehehehe. I went with the peloton

back to the mango trees. It was while under these

trees when the whole MTB Brothers peloton

arrived. Lots of 'hi's and 'hello's as the Eastern

boys seldom see the MTB Brothers peloton.

After sharing some more biscuits and bananas

with the MTB Brothers, we all went and did

the reverse Rooty Trail. Now the peloton

is quite big. I think it should be more than 20

people!

After the reverse Rooty Trail, we all went to do

the main Bukit Timah MTB loop... That is I did

the last 1/3rd because I had to bail out once

I reached the trail leading back to Rifle Range

Road and clean, dry clothes :-)

Below are some pics of what was on test last week.

SR Deck's new SIDI Eagle Pro 5. Bought from Tay Cycles BT.
Deck comes from Shimano M181N which he said is very stiff.
However, he now declares  these SIDIs to be sooo stiff, that
those M181Ns feel like yesterday's peanut butter sandwich
by comparison. Also, they are not just very stiff, they are
also very light. After saying all those, he looked directly
at my eyes and told me : Mon, Absalon is right, we need these
shoes.  Luckily, Christmas is coming :-) 

Finally! After 2 months of nailbiting and scanning for newspaper
articles if there are cargo ships that sunk en route to Singapore,
Efren has finally found the Truth. The Elsworth Truth according
to him pedals soooo nice on the climbs that he sometimes shed
tears of joy whenever the trail points up. Of course, on the way
down I can't get too much info from him because he basically is
a good descender. So for those who want a good climber but
don't want the ubiquitous Giant bikes, maybe you need to search
for the Truth. You may find the Truth at Hup Leong in Chinatown.

The one on test here is Ronald's new 2012 Fox 150mm, 32mm stanchioned,
Kashima coated fork. Ronald is coming from a a TALAS 160mm
with 36mm stanchions. The claims are that this new fork of his is
400grams lighter from his old one. So while climbing, Ronald
can be heard muttering his mantra '400grams lighter' and this
seemed to do the trick. Of course, when we got to the stairs in
BT, 400grams is almost negligible and did not prevernt
him from blowing a gasket. Anyway, for me the best part
of the new fork are the words 'Kashima coated' on the upper part
each of the stanchions. This should remind you that the stanchions
are Kashima coated in case you ever wonder why your stanchions
seem to be goldish colored hehehehe.



#216 - Hiking

My toughest hike to date! I finally decided
to suck it up and finish climbing the Catchment
Path. Anyway, before I did this climb I did
some preparations... errr, actually, just one
preparation. I called one lady friend to go with
me. Hehehe so now, if I ever felt the need to
wuss out again on the stair climbs, all I need to
do is look over my shoulder and see my
friend suffering in silence. That should make me
feel like a weakling and spur me on ... in theory :-)

This hike started nicely because instead of
meeting my friend at King Albert Park McDonald's,
we met on bus 171. We accidentally took the
same bus. So no, time wasted there.

We went into Durian Loop first. Since we
were coming from the direction of Dunearn to
Rifle Range, this trail points upwards. This is a
nice warmup for what's to follow.

After Durian Loop, we crossed over to Bukit
Timah and headed to Catchment Path... and this
time I completed the climb. The only disappointing thing
is that I was expecting Catchment Path to go allll
the way to the summit. But no, it leads to the main
road. We walked a few paces up the main road
and then continued climbing using the Summit Path.
Around this time, I am already wondering why these
trails in BT are called 'path' when in reality they
are STAIRS !!!!

Once we got to the Summit, we then headed down
to Rengas Path and then to the Dairy Farm Loop ...
at first I thought since we already left the summit,
all trails should be pointing down... but no! Whoever
designed these trails made sure we will have a
great workout by making us climb again, then go
down, then climb.. you get the picture?

Anyway, we were already wondering if we
were walking around in circles when we heard
a group of people ask another group where the
particular trail that we're on leads. The answer
was that the trail leads to some waterfalls !

My friend and I thought 'WOW!!!' ! There's
actually a waterfall in here?! So on we went
with renewed energy. After a couple of paces
we started hearing what my friend described
as "heavy rain falling on the jungle canopy". After
a few paces more ... we finally came where the
noise seemed to be coming from but ... there
were no waterfalls ... then we looked down
and it dawned upon us .... ohhhhhhh 'waterfall'.
Yup, forget any romantic notion that you have
in your head about the word 'waterfall'. Here
it is being used loosely. See the pic above where
I doused my head with water? That's the waterfall.
But the water is very cold ... and I saw some
guys refilling their water bottles from that
stream !

All in all, the hike was good fun. It provided 2
full hours of suffering, I mean exercise :-)
It's just that on weekends, the place gets a
little crowded ... maybe I'll try to go there on
a weekday ... or maybe at night !