Crash

So here's a picture I forgot to post of Charlie and I hitch hiking with the gigantic box through Singapore's customs. This is where we got scanned by the x-ray and the customs people thought we were trying to sneak into their country....
So Charlie and I hit the road from Pekanbaru and stayed the night in Bangkinang (where I wrote the last posting from). then started cranking the next morning around 10 am east towards Lake Maninjou. We cycled some 30 km super strong, through tons of people throwing 'Hey Mister' left and right and 'How are you?' lingering around every corner, it's at this point that we realize that this whole attention thing could get old real fast, we charged and then the heat started taking its toll. I looked at my Sunto watch and it read 105 degrees F off my wrist. I couldn't seem to maintain a satisfactory level of hydration and I felt myself getting the cold sweats (almost like someone who feels super warm during the late stages of hypothermia). It was kind of scary...I pushed a little further, looking for some shade but without success I just stopped on the side of the road and drinched myself with water and pulled out some nutella (which had liquified in the furnace of the day). I literally drank the hazlenut cocoa gooness for some extra energy and pushed on....to find Charlie just over the next hill in the first shade in almost 10 km. Welcome to Sumatra! We learned our second lesson in cycle touring: Never leave on a cycle tour without a topo map. (Kind of common sense but a lesson learned the hard way)

However we found some relief in the form of a minibus that carried us through the brutal mountains and the scorching heat into the fertile and lush terrain of west sumatra. The change was like night and day...brutal dry desert-like terrain into lush tropical jungle.

So we stayed the night in Payakumbuh and pushed on to Lake Maninjou the next day, super excited to our old hot desert life and welcomed our new moist shady life of cycle tourers. Lake Maninjou is a beautiful crater lake just barely south of the equator that boasts 44 hairpin turns through a beautiful setting overlooking the lake. And it was everybit as awesome as it was hyped up to be.....most definitely the most beautiful stretch of road I've ever cycled! We dodged monkeys in the road, tried to avoid local buses zooming around each hairpin turn. It was quite the picturesque setting....check Charlie out:

Here's another beautiful shot of Charlie that I can't seem to upload. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30635912&l=971d5&id=64201834


So we stayed the night in Lake Maninjou which was like our own personal paradise. It was at this point that we realized that we must be carrying waaay too much extra gear. We could feel every ounce during our climbs. So we purged our gear and literally started shedding anything that was remotely iffy. We started asking questions like, 'Why are we hauling a pharmacy across Asia?' We ended up with a huge pile of unwanted gear that the hotel guests gladly took off our hands. We loaded our bikes back up and could immediately feel the difference. Off we went to Bukittinggi.....


We wandered around Bukittinggi looking for malaria medecine, a seamstress, soap, t.p., and a barber (as my hair had become a shaggy mess that left a sour taste in my mouth after the near heat stroke incident). So we went to the barber and after a discussion with Charlie...I ended up doing something that, anyone who knows me, would have never in a million years guessed I would have done.....yup. Even I couldn't believe I did it! The next morning I even shaved my face....I feel like an alien to myself. I keep doing a double take when I catch myself in the mirror. That's really me!


That night I learned the third lesson in cycle touring: Never sleep near a mosque without an IPOD right next to you. I was abruptly awoken at 5 am by crazy repetitive prayer chants that resembled a aboriginal bipolar man stuck in a cave for eternity (not to diss on the muslim religion). It was never ending and broadcasted from loudspeakers that appeared to be 15 feet from our window (and my IPOD was burried in my bags).

So the next day we awoke with a new cycling philosophy...trying to get in most of our cycling before the sun gets the opportunity to pin us into submission. So we awoke at 6 (after the freaking mosque alarm clock) and were cycling by 6:30. We logged 77 km before noon. We were stoked....we cross the equator (check out my new look...it feels awesome). Here's some pictures.....


So we're currently in Payabungan (about 200 km south of Lake Toba). I'm feeling stronger by the day, the soreness in my legs and my butt is starting to subside. My thighs and butt are going to be like steel.....and I counted 25 'Hello Mister' in 15 minutes this morning. It's starting to get old....until the entire school comes running towards you to wave and give high fives (then we're quite ok with it).