Day 5 - Wednesday

Woke up horribly grumpy. In our zeal to get cool, we had pulled the bed next to the a/c unit and Kale fashioned some ducting with some paper in the room. We woke up at 2am freezing our asses off.. that pretty much was the story for everyone from what I hear! I waited for the luggage truck and offloaded our stuff while Kale walked down to the food place since I don't eat breakfast anyhow. After the stuff was loaded, I wandered down for breakfast.

Breakfast was the worst it's ever been. There was only bread and pork porridge. Eugh. Kale gave up and headed back up to the hotel room to hunt for some granola bars to eat instead.

I climbed into the Anza van for the last time and promised to give service with a smile. I also stated that I only do water, and don't do wheels.. heh. In reponse for a request for a fan club, I stated that I had to be loyal to my husband, and hence couldn't accede to that request. Double heh. I think it was the banter that got me through the morning. I was already pretty much stressed out and praying for no drama that day.


Cycleworx in all its glory

Us at the start of the final day

The national boys and Kale at the rolling start

Terence looking fierce

Kale in the peloton somewhere

Luckily the race went pretty well.. or so I'd like to think. The pack took off at something crazy like 50plus km/h. We passed Raymond and Terence who got dropped, caught up with the pack to check on Kale and the Anza crew.. they were ok, so we dropped back to check on Terence and Raymond.. Terence was with another dude just behind Raymond. Terence said he was enjoying the joyride and didn't want to be picked up, and so we drove up a little to RAymond. He indicated that he would like to get picked up and so we loaded up his bike into the van. Terence was flabbergasted cos he had thought Raymond was going to ride with him and he too said he wanted to get on.. we had a good chuckle and said that there wasn't room for his bike... and Raymond climbed onto the van leaving Terence behind. Raymond had a good laugh at Terence's expense as we pulled away.. honestly though, Terence's face was priceless!! heh heh.. the poor chap!

We then tried, unsuccessfully to find a spot to feed Kale... the course was rolling alright.. just rolling downhill for a large part of it. We couldn't find a spot steep enough that they would be coming by slowly enough to grab anything from us. After a while, we gave up and pulled off somewhere just cos it was so far from where we had last fed them. Kale and the pack came whizzing by and yelled "too fast"... and I was pretty dejected.. =(

We then tried to drive up next to the pack later and I finally managed to give him a bottle.. we then drove up just past the 20km-to-go mark and pulled over. Just as I held a bottle out for Kale, the idiot riding with him tried to steal the bottle. He didn't look like he was going to, and then at the last minute he stuck his hand out and knocked the bottle down. I don't know who was more pissed, Kale or me.. I couldn't feed him again after that since it was within 20km of the finish. And I was pretty damn worried. Duh. We left Dave behind as he wanted to wait on Andrew just to make sure he was ok, and we took off to follow Kale's group.

Kale had gotten dropped by the earlier group and was trying to catch up with the group when we caught up to him. I kept on yelling (in my high-pitched voice) to try and encourage him. Not sure if I was more of a distraction than a help.. but he finally bridged the gap and made it up to the next group.


Kale catching up with the break ahead, I was holding my breath!


At the last stretch of the stage, as they headed up the steep climb, our van had to go a different way so we didn't get a chance to see them climb. Schumacher, our driver went round a corner a leetle too fast and I've never been so happy to have had a seatbelt on in my life!! Raymond asked if I had bought insurance!

Made it to the finish line in time to see Kale cross the line. I then headed back down with the driver to pick up Dave, but after driving down, I received an SMS to say he had already caught a ride and was back on top. Duh.
Picture from on top of the dam

Picture looking down. The road on the left is what the guys had to ride up.


The guys riding up to the finish line on the dam (if you squint you can see them along the road in the middle)

Kale crossing the finish line

Us at the finish line - you can see the terrain they rode up on the left

Kale and Jim being macho

Kale, Jim and "Tiny"

The lunch and prize ceremony followed.. and they showed a video of the past 3 stages which was pretty neat. We then piled into a van and a bus and took a looooong drive back to the hotel in Bangkok. We got stuck in the notorious Bangkok traffic and it was 7pm by the time we got into the hotel. Packed all the bikes up and then had dinner. This hotel was by far the sketchiest of them all – Chaleena Hotel. It was along the lines of a Hotel 81, only possibly nowhere as nice. It's the kind of hotel that would be rented by the hour. We had stains on the bedsheets and holes in the pillowcase. I think the icing on the cake was the piece of carpet on the bedside table and the 24-hour massage sign. So so sketchy!

The video playing on the last day

The awfully skanky room on the last day. Notice the carpet on the bedside table.

After a brief hunt for the coolest, least skanky room, we had our last de-brief. Was a warm, fuzzy-feeling kinda meeting with everyone saying their piece. Hakim came to the meeting visibly shaken from his walk down the hall. Apparently he said room 510 was haunted – he had heard moaning and yelling coming from the room. Heh heh.

A few of us (Eddie, Jim, Raymond, Terence, Hakim, Kale, myself and Uncle Richard) then headed out for a drink at a nearby restaurant where the guy singing was doing his best to ruin every possible English pop song. While we were there, we heard jumbled- up Thai-English versions of “Right Here Waiting” and “Love will keep us alive”. Classy! Kale and I headed back to the hotel early to crash. I was just kinda down. I had been holding out for a decent hotel in Bangkok and this hotel was the worst yet. At least the previous hotels had been clean. This one was just skanky! Tried hard to ignore the state of the hotel and fall asleep. At least the a/c worked!