In a world both strengthened and corrupted by love, what remains true?

So many people, over so many centuries, have tried to define love. but have they really?

Are we all romanced by the thought of ever-lasting love, the happily-ever-afters, and the promises and hopes that sappy love stories bring? Are we seeking some kind of solace that the world isn’t as cruel as it really is?

How can love be black and white, when sometimes you love without reason; and in rarer times, with unconditionality?

We’re back!

Strangely enough, it felt like I just woke up from a very long dream. Settling back to the old routine came without any difficulty; 5 weeks of not touching my handphone, and I was texting like a whiz once I touched down - like I was never gone.

The crowds in Singapore felt very stifling though; 5 weeks of vast space, and now we’re back in the concrete jungle.

This post is really dedicated to the people who have gone through thick and thin together.
Waking up at 1am for trainings; jumping for joy together when we secured a sponsorship; smelling one another’s farts; sorting out everyone’s laundry, including the undies; gorging on unhealthy food together; having ice cream while huddled in the car; group hugs on cold cold nights.

I miss them, terribly. This expedition will not mean so much if not for these people.

Team Zero Limits.
Leong . Bryant . Lesley . James . Daniel . Kath . Yukina

Sweet homecoming. All of us were quite drained from the 22 hour flight.

with the “+1″, Mr lim hy. (=

The vast nature wonderland. Along Denali highway

Museum of the North, at Fairbanks

Almost nightly ritual: sitting around a fire set up entirely by little twigs and huge logs, boiling hot water for making hot drinks. Marshmellows are a bonus.

Singing, off-key and missing lyrics

Grocery shopping with a little fun. It’s really meant for people with walking difficulties.

The guys reeaaaaally enjoy grocery shopping.

Crossing the icy streams of water to get to the face of Exit Glacier

On Matanuska Glacier (or bry’s “Makansutra Glacier”)

Sailing past the end of the rainbow. Absolutely beautiful.

Dan’s toes, Kat’s paint marker. Smiley feet!

On the ferry from Skagway to Juneau

Under the rainbow

Enjoying the summer day

Pumping it!

At the Trans-Alaskan pipeline

Mini golf! Which I sucked at so bad, the guys didnt even regard me as competition.

Husbands’ waiting area.

Human mushers. As opposed to the traditional Alaskan dog mushers.

Zzz.

At Denali National Park

Dandelions.

So, we’re one day short of the official end of the expedition. Riding ended about 5 days back, and we’ve been going around for our “rest and relax” part if the expedition, and tomorrow, we’ll be hopping on the plane home.

Thanks baos and everyone else for your well-wishes on the blog; very much appreciated and they’ve brought alot of warmth in the cold summer nights! Thankfully, after Lesley’s accident (wanna know what happened, read this), riding had been pretty smooth sailing. I think we’ve all been extra careful, especially at the downhills.

Honestly, the trip seemed too short and it feels like we’re going back too soon. As much as cycling had been tough, and battling nature’s forces had been really challenging, in retrospect, it had been great fun too. As much as we concentrated on overcoming the difficulties while riding, we’ve had much laughter on the road as well.

And after-cycling activities wont be as enjoyable if not with this bunch of people. I’ll miss this expedition terribly (I think I’m missing it already), as is missing my teammates.

(You can click on the images to get a slightly bigger view)

Final riding destination: Skagway. Complete with champagne and party poppers.

The team and our team banner

Climbing yet another hill; what’s new with Alaska and the Yukon region? We’re so used to climbing slopes that we dont complain about it anymore. It’s still tough to climb a hill, especially when your entire ride seems to be full of it; but Alaska has really broken my phobia of climbing hills.

Scenery on the last day of the ride. These are mountain-top lakes, so we were looking at beautiful azure lakes with snowcapped mountains as the backdrop all the time while riding. It’s extremely picturesque! And we were blessed with a glorious sunny day, so the ride couldnt have been better except for one thing: with the sun came impossibly strong winds.

The last ride was probably one of the most difficult rides we’ve had. It was almost 80km worth of uphills (no kidding), and the headwinds were so damn strong, I was threatened to be thrown off my bike a few times. Our usual speed was 28km/h, but for that day, our speed was about 15km/h. Uphills reduced our speed to about 8km/h, and we even have to paddle when we’re going downhill!

Me with the impossibly adorable Golden Retriever, Jacks. Somewhere in Yukon.

What we’ve been doing other than riding
Whitewater rafting at Denali National Park. This was during the initial part of our expedition; it feels so long ago.

Took a tram ride at Whitehorse, Yukon

The quaint gold-mining town of Skagway

Took ferry from Skagway to Juneau. The whole ferry ride was sooooo scenic; ranges and ranges of snowcapped mountains, with intermittent sightings of whales and dall porpoises.

Reached Juneau! That’s the Mendenhall glacier in the distance.

Went whale watching at Juneau. It’s only unique to Alaska that a group of humpback whales congregate to feed for the summer, and we’re very lucky to have seen it.

Glacier kayaking! The weather wasnt too good, it was raining; but it was something not to be missed…

…because, the view is like this.

Bestie Bry and me, kayaking in the midst of ice bergs and basking in the majesty of the Mendenhall glacier. It was raining quite heavily then, and it was extremely cold. But it’s all worth the pain.

While we were kayaking, HY and leong saw a black bear fishing for salmon!

Beauty after the rain

Traipsing on another glacier in Anchorage: Matanuska glacier. This is one of the few glaciers in Alaska that they allow people to just walk on it.

The ice was slippery (duh), and all of us have fallen at least once.

It’s in Alaska, where the land is shaped, in many ways, by the forces of nature that you truly understand the its power, and how insignificant humans seem to be.

Okay, it’s 2.12am here in Yukon, Canada right now, so i’m gonna sleep very very soon.

Anyway, we’re in Yukon!

Crossing the Alaskan/Canadian international boundaries..

“Welcome to Alaska”

Look at the amount that we eat.. we’re putting in more than we’re burning

Slurps.

Climbing up a steep slope!! Alaska seems to be full of them.

This was a particularly cold and rainy day. I think the lowest temperature we got while riding was 1 degrees C!! Bloody crazy. All of us rode till we couldnt feel our hands and we had trouble enunciating our words. So we played a game of who can say “how much wood can a wood chuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” the most quickly.

We saw a black bear while driving!!

The chores: Sorting out our laundry..

.. cooking dinner

There’s this cute little town called North Pole, and they’ve got a resident Santa!

Dear Santa,

Enjoying the vast view from the University of Alaska

Flowers galore

Daisy basking in the morning sunshine

Beautiful beautiful sunset.. at 1am.

Enjoying a clear warm summer day

and hy’s here!

Endless road

Vantage point. (=

We have about 8 days left to our expedition.. everything’s been wonderful so far, except that the weather can be a little erratic; and cycling hasn’t always been easy; and the food isnt always my favourite. Everyone is taking turns to fall sick, but we’re still having good fun an dreading the end of the trip.

My mum asked if I’ve forgotten about Singapore. I think in this country and with these people, it’s quite easy to do that.

Alright, I’ll try to do a more decent blog post compared to the previous one.

Alaska’s beautiful! But the weather isnt being very kind to us. Of all the days that we’ve been here, I think we’ve only experienced 3 days of sun that is fit for a summer day; the rest of the days are cloudy; gloomy and sometimes rainy. It snowed at one point today! Imagine snowing in summer.. that’s Alaska for you.

In the land of the midnight sun, well, the sun doesnt set. It can be 1am and the sky looks like it’s at 6pm in Singapore.

Cycling here is really different from our trainings. The cold winds are a mighty big challenge, especially on down slopes. And the hills.. oh my god. If Desaru was bad, this place is probably 10 times worse.

Living out of the backpack with these people have been so much fun. We do laundry together, so we’re all pretty familiar with everyone else’s undies and bras; we smell each other’s farts so much that it has become quite a normality; we scold vulgarities at each other; and some of the guys are like brothers to me, teasing me like i’m their little sister.

So this is where we’ve living for the last few days..

Campsites..

Our freak-ass good North Face tents

living in the wilderness.

at some campsites, we have to use this water pump to pump water! How primitive! But it’s all good fun.

Making use of the campsite as much as possible.

RV Parks..

James just waking up

Our food crate! Groceries are pretty scarce here, and very expensive. So we’ve been stocking up on canned food as much as possible.

And here’s what we see when we’re cycling..

Marvelous mountain views

This was a particularly cold morning.. here’s me and bestie feeling a little miserable

and.. it was raining..

Halfway into the ride

Another day’s ride, the weather was so much better

Here’s me climbing up a hill

Rest and Relax

Kayaking at Byer’s Lake

Absorbing sceneries

Crazy walking through the cold river to get onto the rock in the middle

Of course, not forgetting the cam-whoring sessions

Endless roads; blue skies; white fluffy clouds - Perfect summer day

Fireweed

They have a moose dropping festival at Talkeetna; and even their “road closed” sign has moose antlers!

The hood of the car says “Pooper Duty”

Having an animal of a time

Denali National Park
Weather was seriously shit. It was a cold, wet and cloudy day. We couldnt see any mountains at all. But.. we paid for the bus tour, so we had to go for it.

Here’s probably the best view of the day. Still, it didnt fail to take my breath away.

Up in the cold cold lookout of Mount Eielson

and… it started snowing!!!!!!! Snowing in summer!!

Pretty water crystals on the flowers

Us in the bus, waiting for the guide to point out some wildlife

Eating good food

This is one of the best place that we’ve eaten. They have the best food all round; down to their chocolate chip cookies!

Their Mooster Burger with some Mediterranean veg soup

This place is called Salmon Bake, which is near where we’re staying now, and it’s the place we’ve been visiting most often. Their food is pretty damn good too.

This is their Denali Burger. It’s meeaaann stuff man.

OKay folks, updates soon. =D

Day trip to Seward

It was the third day, and we decided to head down to Seward to check out the wilderness; and also to visit the Exit Glacier.

First stop: Mount Aleyska. It was a hike up to the snowy top

After an hour od steep climbing, we finally saw some snow at last.

Snow!! The guys decided to go topless

Northface keeps us warm

After lunch, nice shot with Jasbir baby

Hanging out at Summit Lake

Exit Glacier!

Wispy stream running through the trail

Elation!

Crossing the glacial streams to get closer to the glacier

Then it was on to Seward town for dinner

We’ve started riding!!

Starting off from Anchorage

Kim, with her children Jonathan and Joy, who has helped us in any way they can.

Ride ride ride

I was in the safety vehicle for the day

First flat!!

Poor Yukina got dirt sprayed all over her face

We’ve reached Wasilla

Then on to Rocky Lake campsite

The guys set up the tent..

and girls cooked

warm warm fire

Dinner!

All of us warming up by the fire

Alright, this is what Day2 is about.
Do bear in mind that the first 4 days is to get used to Alaska, that’s why we’ve not startung cycling yet but just enjoying to our hearts’ content.

Anyway, thanks my dearest ngia and baos for your compliments!! Ngia, thanks for being such a fan!! It’s so heartwarming when i read that msg. (=

Our room! 6 bunk beds, 9 people. So 2 have to sleep on the floor. But it’s all good fun. Look at the amount of laptop adaptor wires we have on the floor.. proud students of smu indeed..

Mr Daren Hansen, this gentleman who used to work at SMU arranged for us to visit some businesses in Anchorage.

Alaska Seafood and Sausage. They specialise in smoking fishes and making sausages. Even reindeer and moose sausage!

We have to wear these overalls and paper hats. Taking some silly photos while waiting for the person in charge to get off the phone.

Sharma Traffic Control. They do… some traffic related jobs.

Alaskans do bring their dogs to work.

Artic Roadrunner Hanburger Joint. We’re supposed to meet the owner, but he wasnt around, but we ate there anyway. Their burgers were MEGA awesome.

Alaska’s Airmen Association

There’re alot of these kinda seaplanes around the lake

Random shots..

The team!!!!

Back at the hostel, where we began to fix our bikes

And.. I cooked dinner! Spaghetti with moose sausage (yah, real moose) in tomato cream sauce

Alright, it’s Day 2 now, but I’m too tired to upload more than the photos from Day 0 & 1. So.. more to come!

Team shot at the airport

First stop: Narita airport

Second stop: Seattle airport

We’re crossing nights and days like nobody’s business, and in the sky, we lost all sense of time

Finally: Ted Stevens International Airport, Anchorage, Alaska!!!!! (25 hours later)

The big red ford that’s gonna be our safety vehicle. How are we gonna get 8 adults, 8 bikes and ALL the equipments into it?

s-q-u-e-e-z-e!!

Home for the next 4 days - Spenerd International Hostel

The cosy comon area in the hostel

with the greedy Skeeter, who’s attracted to be by the only fact that i was holding a piece of pizza

Pizza dinner with Kim, Dave, Jonathan and Joy (Jasbir’s friends)

Joy!

Group shot outside the hostel