Finally cycled to Sentosa, after years of procrastinating.

First attempt two days ago wasn’t successful as 1) it rained; and 2) Shanli got held up at home. Still managed to cycle around in the east, visiting some regular eating places and finding out that the entire tanjong rhu trail was closed due to KPE construction. So wasn’t a total waste.

Made it across the Sentosa causeway today, though a sign did mention no cycling or walking across. Normally a ticket booth would be at the end of the footpath but since it was closed due to the LRT construction, we just rode in with the traffic. No surprise that nobody stopped us and we could have easily disappeared into the island without paying but being honest people, we paid the entrance fee at the visitor arrival centre.

Rear tyre has been giving trouble since last wed. A slow leak saw it deflating every three hours after pumping. Limped to Dinah’s place and replaced the tube with one of her old bike’s. All seemed well until it punctured in the middle of the Dragon Trail today.

Stupid guy at the Siloso Beach bike station refused to help or lend tools to repair. Ok granted the management might not allow the attendents to do repairs but the guy (Mr. Roland as we found out later) was just uninterested to help. Mumbled some excuse about needing to repair some bikes so can’t lend his tools when he’s clearly sitting there slacking.

The lady at Palawan Beach was so much more helpful. Though she has no knowledge of bicycle repairs, she called up her boss to ask about lending the tools. She even offered us ice-cold bottled water which we gracefully declined. Turned out we didn’t need any tools and bought a new tube at $8! So ex but then no choice loh. Replaced it and was good to go.

The Subaru MTB Trail which part of it we found off Mount Imbiah was uber l33t. It even had a 2 foot drop off. Ended up walking down most of that part of the trail. The trail markings were removed as the race ended last weekend but garang friends spotted what they thought to be remnants of a trail and, though was overgrown with vegetaion, proceeded to bash thru. Turned out to be a dead end and had to “slide” down a steep slope behind the stupid bike station.

Sentosa turned out to be quite uninteresting with the off-road trail markings taken down. The paved tracks were a joke. Found out that signs like “Steep slope! Get off your bike and push.” on the “Challenge Trail” are probably meant for kids, which I think is a good warning for them. Maybe if Ubin had these signs then my friend wouldn’t have overshot into the sea.

Hmm… Will hit Ubin next week. Hopefully there’s still enough off-road trails to play.