Many Kukup-ers would totally understand when I said that none of my friends deem a 200km ride by bike as normal.
Well, their negative response did discourage me a little before leaving my house at 1am on Saturday, a day when you would not want to get out of bed before the sunrise, especially when the drizzling rain cooled the whole atmosphere.
My energy and enthusiasm started to pump in upon seeing 50 other “crazy soul mates” at the optical shop excitedly moving up the bikes to the lorry to go to Kranji.
The feeling of sitting on the lorry flashing through the roads in the middle of the night was just simply awesome. The cool breeze swirled my hair and flattered my skin.
Starting to cycle from Kranji MRT, I began to worry about the sun heat as well as the enticingly challenging and seemingly endless roads that I had to cycle through the next day.
Initially, it was exciting. The drizzling, to me, was like a special treat; honestly, I would rather choose the rain over the scorching sun. I kept counts of how far we cycled every time we stopped for a short break. But slowly, when we cycled upslope, I started to feel the strain and my legs just refused to pedal. It was so disheartening to see myself further and further away from the rest of the group while pedaling uphill…
I had little mental and physical strength to continue. But cycling is never about fighting the tiredness alone; it’s about having company to motivate one another, to multiply up whatever little energy left in our “fuel tank”. Having in mind that my GLs would be waiting for me in front, my teammates behind who kept on cheering “jiayou, a little bit more”, I knew I could overcome it by just keeping keeping on.
At times when all encouraging words seemed to have little effect, I reminded myself of this beloved teammate, small in size but exceedingly full of mental power and abundant with determination, Jingmin. Knowing how to ride not so long, she never fails to challenge herself to achieve what we might think as “mission impossible”.
When we were at the prata place, 37 km away from Kukup, never in my life had I declined to try delicious prata, because I just wanted sleep more than anything. Once we reached, I almost fell dead on my bed after my shower and lunch was just like quick bite so that I could get back to my dream land.
In spite of how sleepy I was, after lunch, it was immensely hard to resist the heart-to- heart talk that my roommates and our guests of honor, some uninvited guests (haha joking) were having in my room. I guess that is the trademark of SMUX events, we challenge ourselves and we share the experience as one family afterwards.
The night spent at Kukup was memorable too. Dinner was great. If anyone had not eaten the stingray that day, you really ought to really go back to Kukup next year. Oh also, if you want to go walk-walk around the neighborhood area to get the juicy and mouth-watering mango ice blend, you do it before 9 pm. It’s a small town and people rest early after all.
Talking about food, there is also the “cannot-be-missed” chendol on the way back to Singapore. The trip back was of a slower pace and going down the steep slope was so shiok!!! It was more dangerous, more safety caution needs to be taken, but definitely adventurous too.
Finishing Kukup was like conquering another limit that I hadn’t imagined before. Besides the personal sense of accomplishment, Kukup also gives me many meaningful lessons; about how to look out for safety concerns for one another, like the GLs and the seniors always did, about how to care for your whole team’s welfare, to boil water for the team to make sure everyone is hydrated, etc. At the same time, no one should be alone at any point of time, for any reason, so sounding out for your team to wait for you is a simple and effective solution.
I remember once Junyi said that Kukup is his favourite ride. Admittedly, I never enjoyed biking as much as I did at this trip. When I came back alive with my tan and my cheery face, my friends, being inspired, changed their opinion thinking that maybe they should try it one day too!
By Emily Pham
Biking Admin IC
