Another scouting expedition...

BLOODY HELL!!!!

Is again the word for yesterday's expedition... X-p

Yesterday we went out for another scouting expedition in our campaign to get acquinted with the touges around our area, this time, we were joined by Turbo Jr :-D and no longer riding the unreliable half-exploded 3rd-level wight-reducted selotaped-DYI-cap-ayam meteorain X-p (do excuse my honest opinion Cloud.. X-p) but we went with the 'Howling Banshee'!! X-p a car just a tad bit more reliable... X-p and a whole lot worse in many ways... X-p the policy of riding the Banshee is to "not ask of any weird sound it makes (usually because it's writhing in pain and agony.. X-p) nor question any leaking liquid one may notice.. Drive it with faith, and LO!! It shall not disappoint thou..." X-p

Our butt-ugly green kancil (or is it blue?) :-p dubbed the 'howling banshee' for its notorious howling due to the poor old engine needing an overhaul.. X-p (some people say the engine sounds like a rotary.. O.o I find it sounding like a banshee howling.. X-p thus the name.. go figure.. :-p) well, it's a gas guzzler that can put mercs to shame, a real adrenaline supplier for its high body-roll tendencies (and an even higher body-rolling possibility... X-p) a car battered, bruised and condemned to be 'everybody's-car-that-nobody-takes-care-of'... A car full of 'everyone's-junk-and-no-one's-responsibility' X-p A real survivor considering how Ryo and I often subject it to countless unjustified punishments.. X-p all for the sake of satiating our unsatiable lust for Touge ectasy... X-p The poor beast... may it serve us for many years to come before it is left forgotten rusting in some junkyard... X-p

Well, the expedition did not really kick off till midnight :-p after we did some errands, we went to pick up Jr (and tolerating Cloud's incessant complains of a headache.. >.> hehe.. nah, that one I made it up.. X-p) and off we headed first out to Cheras to do another errand.. :-p

Our destination this time around is the infamous haunted home turf of Team Kansei, Kuala Kelawang!!! X-D (check out their blog for more info at http://kansei.wordpress.com/)

By 12.30, we were off to the purported direction of Kuala Kelawang X-D (and this time it's not really a kamikaze stint like last time.. :-p Jr did some research X-p but all we knew was that we had to head to Semenyih... wherever that is.. >.>) and it didn't really start off smothly.. By the time we were heading out, I WAS ALREADY GETTING SLEEPY!!! X-( Cloud was already turning on and off like a bad radio X-p and for Heaven's sake, I GOT WORK TOMORROW!!!! WHAT ON EARTH AM I DOING AT THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT??!!! X-O

Of course, no one ever said that the things we do ever was backed by any sound reasoning.. X-p so we headed off again into the unknown.. :-p But I can't really say much about the way there... I; like Cloud; kept on turning on and off like a bulb with a bad starter.. >.> But I was finally able to maintain perpetual consciousness (though I can't say the same for today here at work.. X-p GOD!!! MY BRAIN IS PULSATING DEMANDING SLEEP!!! IT'S A RIOT UP THERE!!! X-p) when we reached the kampung road leading up to the touge... :-)

It had some mild-long sweeping corners, with some turning in to a tight exit (which was pretty much a scare :-p considering we had never gone there before...) and there was no lighting whatsoever (typical of all mountainous kampung roads...) so there were some really dark corners that just jump out at us from the pitch darkness... :-p (and the howling banshee's lights were not helpful at all.. X-p considering it had only 1 good light left.. :-p truly the one-eye warrior.. X-p) a prelude of what's to come...

Ryo was the driver, and he didn't really push the banshee through the roads.. Considering how ignorant we are of the road condition (and how me and Jr kept on panicking every corner.. X-p the wimps...) It was actually just cruising through.. Of course, the Banshee's notorious body-roll did helped in unsettling the stomach and weakening the knees.. X-p

Then we finally arrive X-D the infamous Kuala Kelawang Touge.. It starts off from the Pekan Hulu Langat junction to quite a decent hill climb (which the Banshee is so terrible at.. Considering it is a 660 Stock Kancil with a bad engine and a whole load of people, including 2 heavyweights.. X-p) and turns into a succession of corners one after another that would put every pie-throwing contest to shame.. X-p and it was like that through most of the course.. And some of the corners, like before, just seem to jump out of the darkness in its so-far succesful efforts of wetting our pants.. :-p There was quite a number of corners that starts off mildly, turning in to a sudden violent sharp exit... That is when my heart jumped out spattering on the windscreen.. X-p

Jr panicked through every corner (so was I, but hey, I'm the writer X-o) and as the co-driver, gave a very distorted description of the corners... X-p Every corner we came across, he described it as a 'hard corner'.. Not to mention there were a number of times (most of the time X-p) he gave the total opposites of the corners (due to probably permenant brain damage :-p an after-effect of the fear spasm attack.. X-p) shouting out "HARD LEFT!!" when it should have been a right (of various degrees.. Which was not important to Jr's vocabulary.. X-p) and so on..

We had started the night with a full tank, but throughout the touge, nearly half of the tank was spent, and the Touge doesn't seem to be coming to any eventual end.. :-p So we decided to turn back when we hit the half-a-tank mark (since throughout the journey, there was no gas station within any practical proximity to the course.. So the threat of running out of gas along the way was, just as the threat of turning turtle, definitely real.. :-p

Half-way through the course began the donwhill section... A whole new set of fear sets in.. X-p Unlike the blinding exits of uphill attacks, donwhill runs don't usually have that kind of nasty suprises, but it does come with a caveat... :-p Every corner always just tempts the car to overshoot (due to the momentum and inertia of the descent) and jump the ledge down the cliff into the seductive ravenous dark abyss... X-p Of course, such an affair would always end up with someone getting hurt.. :-p one way or another...

Then miraculously, like a sudden lull in a storm, we reached the end of the course (we're not sure.. But we thought we had reached the end.. :-p judging from the cessation of the endless heart-stopping corners..) we stopped by the roadside for awhile.. Those that had actually wet their pants went to answer the call of nature (which was unfortunately only me and Ryo X-p) and by 1.55 we headed back.. This time, I was behind the wheel >:-)

Not that it makes much of a difference :-p besides the fact that I suck more than Ryo in tackling corners.. X-p (I'm a wimp!! >.<> But then the second terror began X-) (not for me though, as I was having really great fun!!! X-p) The succession of corners were exhilarating X-) I had to do a lot of steering correction to keep the Banshee's understeering under control, and with the rapid successions, steering work has got to be crisp and sharp... :-) truly it's a great place to sharpen all that.. X-) I never really did pushed the Banshee hard (it was supposed to be a scouting expedition :-O) but the traction of the car was so bad, that even at such low speeds the car was suffering from very terrible understeer, and the notorious body-roll was very prominent throughout the course... :-p Nevertheless, IT WAS GREAT FUN!!! X-D

But kudos to Cloud, our ever great zen guru... :-) throughout the whole run, back and forth, he just maintained his cool.. quiet sitting at the back, so intense in his stare, that you're forgiven if you'd thought that some philosophical revelation had suddenly dawned on him amidst all the chaos and clamour... He had reached the state of 'ULTIMATE NOTHINGNESS'... He feels nothing, he fears nothing, he THINKS OF NOTHING... X-p an empty brain I guess is the best thing to have at the touge.. X-p think too much, and you'll be paralyzed by fear.. :-p like the rest of us.. X-p

Then it all ended as abruptly as it began... The furious winding corners just suddenly gave way to mild leisure temperate bends... :-) and finally everyone's heart can stay to rest ^^ the worst is over.. :-) and now it's our time to make the journey back.. The time is 2.20 a.m (I can't imagine how fast Azuri of Team Kansei went through the Touge to set the track record of 4 minutes and a half.. I throw my hats down at him (~~,) truly he's a touge pro.. not like us amateurs.. X-p)

So then we started to make our way back... Apparently someone wanted to eat (I don't think I need to mention who.. X-p) as all that back-breaking overwhelming fear (yes, we sound like pathetic masochist... X-p the sad truth..) sapped all the food in our stomach.. :-p So we reached Bandar Kajang at 3am, and drop-by the local 24-hours KFC there... :-) we ate till 4!! >.<>

When we finally started to really make our way back home, Jr got SO sleepy, that we was starting to go crazy O.o because his sleep deprivation was starting to sap his sanity.. X-p (I presume partly also because of the terrifying experience early on as well :-p I'm not suprised if someone lost a couple of marbles or two back there.. X-p I'm sure I did..)

Me and Ryo got home at around 4.30, and this morning I woke up late again... T.T luckily I just made it in time to clock in to work before office hours begin... :-) but MY GOD!!! I'M SO SLEEPY!!! RYO!!! GIVE ME BACK MY NIGHTS OF COMFORTABLE SLUMBER!!! X-O

Hehe... Of course there is no waltz without the other partner :-p hoho.. well, last night was superb X-) the FC is finally coming out from the workshop today X-D and looking forward for another crazy night and unproductive days.. X-p

haha...

*Note: Pictures courtesy of Team Kansei