CFAL 05 - Part 2

The weather..

September is a wet, wet, wet month up in Penang.
Its been raining in the evenings, nights and mornings. So, we do expect a real soggy ride on the event day and had to make do with that.
We had our breakfast at the hotel's cafe and after a good fill, we went up to our room to bring down the bikes.
As usual, we folded our ride and brought it down to the lobby and set it up.

Our simple plan

Michelle wanted to take a look at the touristy area downtown.
We rode towards Fort Cornwalis and spent some time there taking photos.
There was a steady stream of people in the area, mostly out of town visitors and foreigners.
I got a closer look at the walls of the fort and staged a shot there with Michelle.
From the Esplanade, we rode off towards Weld Quay where the action is.
To my surprise, there were quite a few tourists on bicycles.
They were rented at a cost of RM15 for three hours from tour operators within the area.
We saw some funky little bikes parked at the Chew jetty and later realized that it belonged to a group from Singapore.

Getting ready

Ready to roll

The bicycle lane

No bicycles were allowed on the planks, so, I stood watch over our bikes as Michelle made her way down the Chew jetty.
She said that it was "no great shakes". 
So, we moved on down Weld Quay and after reaching the end of the road, we rode towards Carnavon road before shooting off to Straits Quay where the CFAL05 goodie bag collection was held.

Sea pooch: a dog at the Esplanade

The Sea-dog checking out Michelle

Strolling along the jetty

At Fort Cornwallis

Murals at the Chew jetty

Goodie bag time

We arrived at the Straits Quay before noon. 
While pushing my bike towards the entrance area, I saw a group of cyclists on their folding bike.
There, I met Mohd Radzi Md Noor.
He came a day earlier with his family and had just collected his jersey and cycling kit.
While we were chatting two middle-aged Ah Bengs walked past.
They stopped near me and one of them was looking at my bike at the same time, sizing me up.
His expression was something of shock and disgust.
I don't know what his problem was, the guy just kept staring at my bike.
At the collection centre, I also picked up my Garmin Fenix which was sent for repair.
Mr Yong of Quicksports was kind enough to deliver the watch to me in Penang.
After all the formalities, I met Mr Chan from Singapore. He was much friendlier than the lot that came with him with their expensive bikes.

Michelle picking up the goods at the registration counter

We cycled back to the hotel and parked our bikes.
Later, Michelle and I went to the Gurney Plaza for lunch.
There was a nice place serving bbq pork ribs and that was our treat for the day.
The rest of the day, we kinda lazed around and headed out for dinner with our host, the Goh clan.