The third time is the charm. After two prior attempts to join Michael Turton in cycling Sabah, I made it. I only had to skip a week of snowboarding with fellow TYPO3 geeks in Austria.

Bike Borneo or snowboard the Alps?

What a tough choice, but since I’ve snowboarded the Alps a couple of times now, Borneo it is.

Overall, I had a wonderful time pedaling along the Borneo pathways. However, would the real Malaysians in Sarawak please stand up?

The further south we went, the more Chinese it became

Seriously… I ate more Chinese food and spoke more Chinese on a daily basis than when at home in Kaohsiung Taiwan. English in Southern Taiwan is a like a lost art, but the amount of Chinese’ism in southern Malaysia was totally unexpected.

When we did get to meet real locals, it was amazing. Extremely friendliness all the way.

We also had fantastic opportunities to eat some of the best BBQ wings and skate fish of our lives. Super fresh juice of 5 different fruits and vegetables, just helped it all settle smoothly.

Up in Sabah, that’s northern Malaysia, for those who like me don’t look at a map until in country after a few days; the roads are smooth, reasonably marked and populated by extremely friendly slow driving locals. The small towns were even more so friendly. A truly wonderful, first few days of our biking getaway.

Kota Kinabalu – Lawas Route

Thank goodness for GPS tracking errors. I can’t seem to clean up the data, so it’s 1,200 kilometers out of whack.

Lawas – Tedungan Route

Our first foray in Brunei was simply, cool. A long, new, beautiful highway into the jungle across the landscape. Wow! Jungle and rice fields, gorgeous. The second foray into Brunei wasn’t so much fun after a bad night’s stay in Tedungan.

It only got worse as the roads are marked in such a manner to keep outsiders to the main highways, even to the tune of adding easily 60 kilometers of riding between points. I admit that 24 kilometers of excess riding was my own fault for not backing the GPS out to see that we were making a circle to within 15 kilometers of our starting point.

Pffpt…

Flat goes Michael’s rear tire and all spares. Whoomp, momentum sloweth. He limped into Kuala Belait with help from real locals and on Sunday, we pricey taxied to Miri.

Tedbugan – Kuala Belait Route

I really did check out several shops in Miri to find tubes. Alas, during Chinese New Year, you truly find out how many businesses are Chinese owned. I think we spent 4-5 nights in Miri.

Miri Bike Inner Tube Hunting

There was a nice jungle trek to Batu Niah caves. I’m so glad we did it, but darn that trail was slippery. I wouldn’t be surprised that several people break a leg or arm every each year.

Cycling from Miri to Batu Niah was my favorite ride of Sarawak. We actually got to ride along the ocean and see it. Only a few times up near Sipitang did we get to see the water. Otherwise, the rolling hills were tolerable and road conditions fair with easy going drivers.

Miri – Batu Niah Route

Michael said these were roller coaster hills. I didn’t think much, just concentrated on up, down, cycle harder, numb, brain, dead.

Since the inland road was even rougher and drivers a bit more racing, we tossed the bikes on a bus and rode the last part.

Bintulu – Tatau Route

In Tatau, we once again tossed the bikes on a bus into Sibu. Rolling hills and racing drivers make the longer distance cycling in the heat, not so much fun.

We spent 3-4 nights in Sibu gobbling down mangosteens and rambutans when possible. On Sunday, we toasted our bodies while taking an express river boat to Kapit.

Ah, isn’t in the middle of the jungle with no cars supposed to be barren like? It was more of a frontier town just an easy drive away instead. Crazy… but cool. Oh yeah, one of the best ABC ice’s yet.

Outside of a little going the wrong way, Sibu to the airport was a nice finish to our Borneo cycling adventure. The Sibu airport folks are very friendly and helpful in getting our bikes checked in. However, I would recommend bringing sandwiches or other food from town if you plan on eating at the airport. The departure level food stand isn’t too bad, but ground floor was wasn’t appetizing. Of course, I could just be tired of seeing and eating the same thing, day-in, day-out.

Sibu Airport Roll Route

Once back in Kota Kinabalu we crashed for a couple of nights and wondered out every few hours to eat, take photos and people watch. About time we could watch others instead of them watching us sweat riding our bikes in Borneo.

Return?

Yes, I would. However, I’d stick to Sabah, northern Brunei, and down to Limbang next time. There’s plenty to see and do there to keep me happy for a couple of weeks cycling, boating, and whatever else comes to mind.

In January, I flew over to New Delhi and Hyderabad India for a couple of weeks to visit friends and join Axelerant as their Chief People Officer.

As Axelerant’s Chief People Officer, I’m responsible for talent, capability, culture. This means, keeping people motivated, encouraged, smiling and fulfilling their lives. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s an amazing challenge that’s definitely not boring or repetitive.

Thank you Axelerant for helping me change careers, expand myself as a person, and help others reach their own goals. I’m finding myself stretching to learn basics while having already mastered much of the advanced stuff over the past 25 years of tech work.  ;)

Peichi and I rung in the new year in style with our great friends from Taipei, Wei-tschie and Winnie. As a special new year’s treat, we took a boat cruise around Kaohsiung Harbor.

Thank you Michael and Todd of OnABoatParty.com for recommending this.

Last Friday evening, I picked up my new Performer Toscana USS 26″ recumbent bicycle. It’s a beast… now dubbed Pig Red.

About 18 months ago, my hip nerve and lower back issues got bad enough, that I could barely cycle 100 meters. While working in Germany, I was able to build myself back up to a 70-120 kilometer ride every couple of weeks while cycle commuting 4 kilometers each way.

That’s a far cry from my near daily 20 to 50 kilometer wakeup and weekend 200-300 kilometer long ride before the pain let in.

In coming back to Taiwan, I noticed that I was starting to get nerve issues in my hands while riding and I still needed a week between long rides.

I love to ride and not being able to was starting to drive me nuts. So I started to look for alternatives. A recumbent was one of them and after test riding, despite the shakiness, I ordered Pig Red.

Pig Red is a metallic red, 26″ wheel touring recumbent with SRAM components and Avid disk brakes. It rolls along just fine. Climbing isn’t so bad either.

Big brother Michael Turton took photos during our weekend ride from Wufeng outside of Taichung to home in Kaohsiung.

Overall the recumbent is well built and I enjoy riding it. However, there’s some issues that need to be overcome. I’ll be working with Performer to get them sorted out before my two-week Malaysia cycling trip in February.

Wufeng-Kaohsiung Bike Route

Issues Recap

• Bottle holder pulled out at 50km – Still trying to figure out what to do…
  
• No kickstand – Supplier now under patent issues
• Dangerous flag placement – Removed flag
• Broken rear fender mount – Move mount point
• Bad rear rack placement, no room to lower seat angle – Pulled rack back slightly
• Crooked seat or rack installation – Rack was crooked
• Rear fender mount doesn’t fit into wheel well – Moved mounting bracket to seat stay mount
• Steering tube rubbing paint off – Added black tape-like protectors
• Neck brace holes and velcro pads misaligned – Not a comfort or stability issue
• Seat padding not long enough – One size only seat pad, seems to shrink under 88 kg
• Seat padding doesn’t overcome neck brace edging leading to shoulder soreness – Shortened neck brace bracket
• Cable stretching like crazy – Prior to 300 kilometers, seemed like I was adjusting something every 20 kilometers
• Brake mounted bell quit working properly at 100 kilometers – Removed original bell, put on Cateye bell

Sometimes, you’ve got to do what you mother wants. So here’s photos for her. Love ya Mom!

Peichi and I deeply enjoy getting our hands dirty with WWOOF.

That’s, Weekend Workers on Organic Farms, for those that don’t know. In short, it’s a wonderful opportunity to share culture, language, skills, experience and simply yourselves with other like minded, let’s embrace and live life people.

One of our favorite places to get away from it it all when WWOOFing is with Cristina, Pier Angelo and Dato in their two building villa called Vetriceto, Italy. It’s 50 kilometers to the northeast of Florence. A world away from hectic life and technology.

This year, we spent over 2 weeks in Vetriceto labeling jars, canning and jarring fruits and vegetables, raking leaves, preparing for the Tuscany Rural Exposition in Florence and more. It’s always a good time for hard work, at an easy pace, with wonderful people while   eating well and getting a good night’s sleep.

When it comes time to leave, it’s hard and we can’t wait to go back.

Thank you Cristina, Pier Angelo and Dato for making us part of the family.

Peichi and I had a last minute invitation to Paris for Taiwan’s 10-10 celebration. So with our rented VW, we sped our way across the German and French countryside only to get stuck in Paris traffic for an hour to go 5 kilometers. Never again, there’s a reason I much prefer riding my bike.

Can I have a travel bike now?

Bags waiting for train transfer near Stuttgart Germany.

Last Friday afternoon found me getting lost from the new Taipei Central Bus Station on the way to Wanhua to meet with big brother Michael Turton. It’d been 14 months since we last saw each other, pal around, and gripe or praise the wonders of life.

Seeing Michael again didn’t disappoint. Especially when it included biking Taiwan’s amazing highway 7, also known as the northern cross from Sanxia to Yilan. Over the next few days, I got to reacquaint with old friends and make some new while climbing 2,000 meters over 180 kilometers.

A very nice weekend as an official welcome back to Taiwan.

Peichi and I haven’t had much concert attendance these past few years. In contrast, while living in Seattle, we were at Benayora Hall or another location almost once a month for a classical performance. Given that we’ve missed such a musically inspired life, we took advantage of living close to the Salzburg Music Festival.

One Friday, we took in a children’s opera and Israeli Orchestra. Another evening, we attended the wonderous Andreas Schriff.

Attending the Salzburg Music Festival musically filled us with joy and we’re looking forward to getting back into attending classical performances regularly.