Was in Penang last month for the Jamboree, and while I was there, we took Grace and Jo on a culinary tour round the island. First stop was for Dim Sum lunch at Zim Sum Restaurant (点心之家).

Zim Sum Restaurant is located along Jalan Anson, diagonally opposite KDU college. Most taxi drivers would have heard of it, so no trouble getting there. But if you’re driving, here’s a tip for from someone else’s blog:

It is not easy to find a parking lot there. Many customers prefer to take the risk and park on the road side for free. Alternatively, you can pay around RM3 per entry to park safely at Penang Chinese Ladies’s Chin Woo Association.

Here’s a few points to note when you visit Zim Sum:
1. Although there are a few dim sum pushcarts being trolleyed around, customers are actually asked/advised to go to the counter to pick up the dishes instead.
2. The final bill is calculated based on how many plates of food are on your table (similar to how they do it at Sushi conveyor belt restaurants)
3. They don’t serve any other drink except Chinese tea
4. The more people you go with, the more worthwhile in terms of cost and variety
5. MUST try the Chee Cheong Fun, which is made freshly on the spot

Zim Sum Restaurant (点心之家)
35 Jalan Anson 10400 Pulau Pinang
Business hours are from 6.30am to 12.30pm.

Earlier this year, I went on a spur-of-the moment trip to Redang Malaysia just to get away from it all. Find a willing travel partner, and was all set to go. It was a long weekend, and I was in need of some colour, pasty white was soooo last season *tsk*.

I have to say, it has to be one of the prettiest beaches in Malaysia.

Where to stay
Most people, especially those going with families, would usually opt for the Berjaya Hotel on the busier side of the island. But if you’re looking for something quieter and more rustic, stay at the Coral Redang Beach Resort on the other side. The rooms aren’t great, but honestly, you won’t spend much time in there anyway.

Things to do
As touristy as it may seem, it’s still worthwhile to go snorkelling at the marine park just 15mins boat ride away. Don’t forget to bring your underwater camera, because you can take some pretty amazing photos on a sunny day. If you don’t have one, don’t fret, the dive centre rents out underwater cameras too.

If you dive, I heard they make two trips out a day to wrecks.

If you just want to chill, do what I did, park yourself on a deck chair for the day, read my book, tan and swim. And if you’re a geek like me, there’s free wifi resort wide.

Getting there
Another tip if you’re planning to go to Redang… take a flight! The 10 hour journey there on bus and boat was truly painful!

You can actually find most of the information you need on wikitravel.

Morning of the PCC Ride, I woke up with butterflies in my tummy. Nervous because it’s been awhile since my last epic ride, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to survive this ride.

Woke up groggy from the lack of sleep, but it helped that we had a pre-ride routine:
- Get changed, fill hydration pack with bottled water, pack our toolkit, spare tubes, happy food, power gels, hydration salts, grab bike, helmut, gloves and we’re good to go.

We loaded the cars, had a quick carbo-loading breakfast at a near by coffee shop, then proceeded towards the University of Nottingham KL campus assembly point. Once we reached the school grounds, we unloaded and cable tied our ride passports to our bikes.

All registered participants are given a ride passport to collect stickers at every checkpoint.My goal was to get all 4 stickers!

The route was split into 4 stages combined to give you 65km of riding. Here’s the trail explained on the PCC website.

Stage 1 is a fast and flowing pure cross-country route with very few technical sections. It could be considered an easy ‘warm up’ even though it’s 21km! 70% canopied and no big hills.

Riders are advised to pace themselves well for Stage 2 (19km) where you’ll put your ‘warmed up’ muscles to good use. Again, very few technical sections, 1 river crossing and 70% canopied trails. Get prepared for the big-ish hill climb. The rest of the stage has rolling hills.

The best part about check point 2 was the chilled watermelon the organisers had arranged for riders. That was very much welcomed and appreciated! When your body is that exhausted and dehydrated, whatever you eat just tastes so much better. At that moment, you’re going “OMG this is the BEST watermelon in the world, the bananas taste so good!”. But I bet at any other given time, it would just taste blah.

Oh and forget about hygiene, because by that point, you don’t really care. You’d grab the watermelon with your glove, proceed to chomp it down, dripping juices all over yourself and when you’re done, wipe the excess bits off your face with your dirty sweaty cycling shirt.

Stage 3 is short at only 10km but that’s because there are not that many flat sections so it includes some short hill climbs and fun technical descents.

Stage 4 is the best with 16km of estate tracks, plantations, single tracks, flats, climbs and more climbs and a grand finale descent back to the Finish.

This year’s ride was especially taxing for me, but I’m glad to have finished it. I was absolutely spent, and was just looking forward to a nice hot shower and a big lunch.

In summary: Fantastic cross country trails, although I would have preferred more flowy downhills. Race was well organised as usual, but a shame it started to rain before the lucky draw started, we all left to avoid getting totally drenched.

On a side note, it was lovely to meet some Malaysian riders who have been following this blog *waves*.
From left to right: Nik, Max, Eric, Yew Weng, Chee Han, Wayne, Chi, Ling, Angela, Leon

After a wanton mee and chee cheong fun, we were all set for what seemed to be, a very long drive home.

Thanks to the PCC guys for organising the ride.

Next epic ride: Penang Jamboree 2009… Who’s going?

First big ride for 2009 was the PCC Presidential Ride in Kajang Kuala Lumpur. Judging from the number of mountain biking posts this year, you can tell how LITTLE I’ve hit the trails. I guess it was the culmination of the break up, lack of motivation and no partner to cycle with. So the PCC ride this year was a little tough mentally and physically.

We all drove up on Saturday morning for the Sunday ride. Thanks to Nik for carpooling and giving me and my bike a ride up to KL. The convoy of 4 cars took about 4 hours from Singapore to KL.

We reached the hotel early afternoon, which meant we had the rest of the day to kill. Hmmm… what to do, what to do…. We went into KL Central, and decided to get a massage! OMG, that massage was the worse massage I’ve had in my entire life! It was rubbish. The masseuse clearly had no idea what she was doing, i felt completely physically abused. Let’s just say there was a lot of hair tugging and back slapping!

We ended the night with a seafood/zhi char dinner before heading home for an early night. I know it’s not terribly exciting, but I just needed to pen this down, so I’d remember what we did.

Read more about the ride in the next post.

Spent the long weekend at Redang Malaysia snorkelling, sitting at the beach, reading, sipping on cocktails, sleeping and basically marvelling at how beautiful this place is.

It was a nice getaway, more photos to follow soon.