Group Biking Trip!

Some of you guys may have seen my Bike riding event last last weekend.  I haven't been doing many rides since last summer, but I wanted to get at least one more in before it became too hot, so I tried to get a group together for a Sunday afternoon ride in the New Territories.

Well a bunch of the 'YES' rsvps flaked at the last minute, but Wingy and Brandon and I went anyway.  (actually I was worried there'd be too many people to have a manageable group - so it wasn't too bad to just have three).  We decided on the Taipo - Fanling route.

So we met up at the KCR station and walked to a nearby bike shop to rent bikes:

Since my bike is locked up in Shatin, I decided to make things easy and rent a bike here too.  We ended up paying $60/person (~$8),  not sure why the prices were higher than their signs said they'd be the weekend before, but since we got decent bikes with front suspensions, I can't complain too much.

We battled through the crowded sidewalks of Taipo and finally made it out to Taipo-Taiwo Road:

ok, not too bad, but it gets even better.

Ah, now we're really in the countryside.  Its hard to believe there's a city of 8+ million right on the other side of those hills... (Shenzhen)

Here we are crossing the KCR tracks.

I should have taken more pictures... we took it pretty easy, and thankfully it wasn't sunny and wasn't that hot,  I hardly broke a sweat.    When we got to Fanling we decided to keep going to Sheung Shui even... an extra mile or so down the tracks.

Rather than riding back, we got lazy and decided to take the train back.  I have seen bikes on the train before, so I know you're allowed to bring them, but I never tried it before. Thankfully we had Wingy with us to try and figure out how to do it... all i know is that if you ride your bike on the train platform or inside the train, they'll call the police on you. :-P

Getting two bikes in the elevator was not easy.  I guess I could have carried it down the stairs...

After returning our bikes we took a walk around Taipo...  we happened upon this humorous scene:

Notice the two pale guys in white button down shirts talking in vain to that guy's back?  you can't see their name tags, but trust me... they were in fact mormon missionaries... trying to teach these poor misguided Taipo residents about Joseph Smith and the Angel Moroni.

We decided to show Brandon the Taipo Market:

yikes!  the Wet Market!    i think i got SARS while i was here...  :-P

But despite my misgivings, we did get some dinner upstairs:

don't worry,  i didn't get sick.  It wasn't too bad and the price was pretty reasonable.  I didn't know they actually had cashew chicken in Hong Kong... but apparently they do. :-P

anyway, for those who couldn't make it -  let's do another bike trip soon!  whats going on this sunday!