Typical Thai street, with frequent small storefronts

We were slow to get organized in the morning, and did a short ride to Phang-nga. Becky is having some stomach issues – likely related to the change in diet rather than anything specific. It will definitely slow us down a little, so we decided a short day was in order.

A Wat in Phang Nga (and some impressive hills behind)

When we set out, we were expecting the ride to only be 39 km, but soon discovered that the town was not exactly where we expected it to be. With a little exploration, we found the town and stumbled upon a temple and a fellow Canadian Tourist. We had a brief conversation with Stephen and he pointed us in the correct direction for the Phang-nga Inn.

We have decided to spend two nights in Phang-nga. The Phang-nga Inn is a nice house-based inn. Our room is clean although a little small, and the bed is comfortable. We will also use the extra day to do some much needed bike maintenance. Our shifters are not working as well as we would like, and Becky’s front brake cable needs replacing. Our chains were last cleaned in Turkey, so perhaps we should do something about that as well!

The maps for Thailand are still posing a challenge for us. We are finding that the towns are not where they say they are, and the roads are often labeled different than our map. Google and Yahoo disagree on where some of the roads are! Scott has found a different GPS map which will hopefully prove to be more accurate than the previous one.

Download GPS Track in GPX format

It was nice to relax, but we have been frustrated by the lack of Internet here. We have a great signal to our room, but have been unable to get an IP address, and no-one has been able to fix it. Wi-Fi in the lobby and various other places has been spotty and slow. This meant we were unable to finish a bunch of the Internet stuff we had planned for during our time here, but we did manage to finish a couple of books, which will lighten our load a little.

We are off to Thailand tomorrow. We looked into the Tigerline Travel island hopping ferry, but it appears that it no longer runs to Langkawi, and the speedboat connection to Koh Lipe isn’t practical for bikes (and is expensive). So, back to almost plan A – ferry to Satun and bus to Krabi (rather than Phang-nga). Hopefully by leaving tomorrow we’ll miss the busy Songkram traffic, at least for the first few days.

We were up early and arrived at the ferry company to buy our tickets to Langkawi more than an hour before departure. The folks at our hotel said they did not take bikes, so we were a little concerned; however, we need not have been. The receptionist at the ferry company told us we would need to pay a 15 MYR per bike handling fee a the dock, but otherwise no problem. We were placed on the second sailing (8:30) because the Captain of the 8:15 did not want the bikes.

Since we were so early, we had plenty of time to head back to Little India and find breakfast. We had a wonderful Roti Canai and a brief discussion with a vacationing long bearded Aussie who lives in rural Indonesia and teaches Islam.

When we arrived at the ferry, we were immediately charged the handling fee for the bikes. Once they were paid, there was a little bit of confusion. The two captains negotiated, and we ended up being moved to the 8:15 sailing – which was better for us, as it was the direct boat and got us into Langkawi sooner.

The bikes were loaded with the rest of the luggage and we were sent downstairs to find a seat. Passengers are not permitted to sit up top with the luggage. The boat is a high speed (about 21 knots) tube. It felt pretty much like being in an airplane, but with a view of water rather than clouds.

Unloading the bikes from our High-speed ferry

We were not in a rush to find a place, so we surveyed many different resorts. The prices ranges from 20 MYR a night for a shared room in a hostel to 600 MYR for a villa at a resort. We checked a bunch of places on the Tengah beach and south end of the Cenang beach, but nothing on the north end. After three hours of touring, we still had visited fewer than half of the options – lots of choice!

For cyclists, we have three recommendations based upon your budget and preferences:

• Cheapest, starting at 20 MYR per person per night, the Zackry Guesthouse. If you want a room with AC, call in advance. When we arrived they were almost fully booked. We were offered a shared room (three twin beds) with shared bath for 20 MYR per person. If you are looking for a hostel experience, this place was booming with activity.
• Midrange, starting at 80 MYR per night but negotiable with discounts for longer stays, the Kedawang Beach Inn. The receptionist was very friendly and really wanted us to stay, but we really wanted a pool or beachfront and this place did not have either. The rooms were exceptionally clean and you had 24-hour access to a shared kitchen. They are close to the beach and snuggled between the Sunset resort and some stores. No Internet, but an Internet café is at the street out front.
• Higher mid-range, listing at 150 MYR but we got a discount to 130 MYR, the Langkawi Boutique Resort. We love the natural setting pool. The first room we saw was a little musty – all rooms have carpet. We asked to see a couple more rooms and found one that was perfect. Rooms have AC, minifridge, and TV, and they are huge so no need to trip over our bikes. There is free Internet at the lobby, and Internet by coupon (10 MYR per 24-hours) in the rooms, although for most of our visit the in-room Internet wasn’t working {frown}.

We checked out a few of the higher-end resorts as well, and were surprised to find several were either full or mostly full. It seems the package-tour business is still going strong, at least at the top end. (Lee, we tried to get a tour of the rooms at the Pelangi Resort (1000 MYR – 3000 MYR per night at the desk – much cheaper on the Internet), but they were full. Too bad. We’re betting their spa doesn’t have a snow room or a salt room, like the Cappadocia Cave Resort though!)

Download GPS Track in GPX format

We had a delightful meal with fresh squeezed Orange juice (they never add sugar), spaghetti, a croissant with rendang (yummy) and homemade Tiramisu and chocolate mousse cake (double yummy).

Sandra, Tigun and Zee

As white tourists, and especially tourists riding very strange bikes, we have been insulated from all this, but it helps to explain why people are always asking how much our bicycles cost. We have been saying that they start at 3000 MYR (about 800 USD), which, while an accurate starting price for a recumbent, is much less than ours cost. Even at that, people were surprised at the price – it’s about the price of a scooter here. We wonder what they would think if we told them the actual cost?

Tigun also has a complete set of bike tools and he is happy to provide advice and road recommendations. So if you are in town, stop by and say hi to Sandra, Tigun, and little Zee. Tell them, Scott and Becky (the Canucks with the ‘bents) say Hi.

Our fatigue yesterday clearly showed this morning, when we sauntered down to breakfast at 9 am. We managed to get packed up and on our bikes for 11 am – a really late start to the day. We knew we only had a short ride to the ferry that would bring us to Georgetown on Pulau Penang.

First view of Georgetown from the ferry

We followed the signs to the ferry, and were quickly let to a large elevated roadway that had a “no bicycles sign”. Given that we did not see any other clear option, we followed the loop road, and stuck to the scooter and motorcycle lane. This brought us to the ticket booth with no troubles. We stayed with the scooters, and paid the 1.4 RG fee to take the ferry to the island. It was a remarkably painless experience and with 20 minutes we were cycling along the streets of Georgetown.

Our first impressions of the town are that is it pretty neat. There is lots of colonial architecture – not all of it nicely restored. We did not feel the immediate chaos that others reported but that might be because we arrived on a Saturday afternoon just in time for a lot of shops to close for siesta. (Or it might be because we’re used to Malaysian city traffic by now, it’s really not too bad…)

Riding through old Georgetown

We are staying at the Cathay Hotel. It is a basic upper level budget hotel with huge rooms (great for cycle tourists). We are on the main floor, so we did not need to bring our bikes up any stairs, which is another nice bonus. For 75 RG a night (about $25 CAD), there are many cheaper budget places in town, but they are generally tiny windowless boxes, and we like having some natural light and plenty of room for the bikes.

We will chill here for a couple of days – do some sight-seeing, get our laundry done, and rest up a bit before heading to Langkawi for a little beach time!

Download GPS Track in GPX format

By the end of today, we were beat! We did not get as much sleep as we would have liked last night – Scott likely because of the coffee he had when we arrived at 5:30, and both of us because of a loud clock that sang a tune and chimed every hour. Oh well, the rain continued until 2:30 am, so we were glad for the cover, and with the heat, it was nice to not require the fly on our tent.

This morning Mohammad-Shafiq (the café manager) and his mother (the excellent cook) gave us a wonderful breakfast. It was an interesting mix of western and Malay specialties: Rendang (yes Saille, we love it too), fried eggs and toast with kaya (coconut jam). It was absolutely wonderful and exactly what we need fuel us for the climb to come.

The ride today was mostly uneventful, with a brief 3-4 km climb to warm us up. After that it was mostly downhill or undulating hills. Still, it felt like the longest 80 km we have ridden in ages. We pretty much rode straight through, wanting to get to the hotel where we could get ungrimed, dry, and cool.

We’re back in the land of palm plantations and rolling hills, which means shade was a very rare thing. Just as we were ready to sneak under a gate to rest among some of the larger trees, a fruit stand appeared. We picked up some nice cold water, and a huge watermelon. The smallest one we could find which looked good was over 4 kg, but between the two of us, we pretty much finished it off. Yummy!

We used the GPS to find the Seri Malaysia hotel in Kulim. It brought us on a side road off of highway 67, which was a nice diversion. At one point, we saw a whole bunch of white birds standing majestically in a tree and on the ground. Then when we looked closer and noticed it wasn’t the ground they were standing on, it was a herd of water buffalo in a muddy pond! Scott stopped to get out his camera, and Becky slowed down cursing that she had put hers away. As we approached, one of the buffalo got unsettled and then the whole herd climbed out of the water and started moving threateningly toward Scott. He decided his photo wasn’t that important, and started riding again. The herd paced him for a while, like a stampede on the other side of the road. Fortunately, once we got far enough away, they stopped and just glared balefully at us. Once we got further away, we were able to stop take a picture of the herd – neat, but not as impressive as earlier.

Following the GPS directions led us along some other interesting roads, through housing estates and the Kulim High Tech Park. At one point, Becky was wondering where Scott was leading us, especially when the road ended in a ramp down to a pedestrian bridge. Scott confidently led us across (having the map sure helps), and we arrived in the parking lot of the Seri Malaysia Kulim.

The Seri Malaysia in Kulim was once a nice hotel, but is showing its age. Carpeted floors also meant that we noticed a hint of cigarette smoke, despite a thorough cleaning. That being said, we were exhausted when we arrived, and were not about to search any further. Our room is clean and ant free – probably a first for all our time in Malaysia, and with a decent restaurant and wireless Internet we don’t need to venture anywhere tonight.

Road Notes:
The Baling-Gerik highway had no services for the first 14 km today, then occasional food stalls and small stores appeared regularly until we reached Highway 67 (26 km). Highway 67 also has very few services, but towns appear regularly, so services should be available with a few km detour.
Given the lack of services on the Baling-Gerik highway, it may be a better choice to take Highway 76 up to Pengkalan Hulu or Baling, then go straight through to Butterworth or Georgetown. Highway 76 looked much busier though, with traffic heading for Thailand.

Download GPS Track in GPX format

After a nice rest day we headed off Pulau Banding; fortified after a big breakfast at the resort. We knew we would have some more climbing today, so were mentally prepared. The first big hill hit right after the bridge and we spent the first 10 km (9.9 km to be exact) climbing. The promised 15 km downhill wasn’t really as downhill as we had hoped – but it did make for a faster 15 km.

We arrived at the Indian restaurant recommended by Kat and Mike (at the intersection of highway 76 and Baling-Gerik Highway) and enjoyed a wonderful lunch. The selection of food was great and everyone was very friendly. We hung around there for a couple of hours waiting for the temperature to cool a little, which turned out to be a good choice. Shortly after Becky got up from a 30 minute nap, the heavens opened up and anything not under cover was soaked.

We were hoping that the rain would cool things off a bit, but in the end all it did was raise the humidity levels. We headed onto the uncharted (by blogging cyclists and Google Maps anyway) Baling-Gerik Highway at 2:30. The sun beat down on us as we climbed the hills, and with no wind and high humidity we began to fry. We were soon too hot and needed to seek shelter under our tarp. We sat there for half an hour until the sun went behind a cloud bank. Much more pleasant!

The road turned into one long 10 km climb that was pretty brutal at times. It was nothing when you compare it to the 38 km climb two days ago, but there were a few pretty steep pitches and we were mentally prepared for rolling hills not long climbs. Fortunately, the long climb changed into a long descent as we began searching for a place to camp for the night.

Shortly after 5 pm, we happened across a logging camp, with what appeared to be a small restaurant. The weather was looking rather threatening and we could hear thunder every few minutes, so we decided to stop and check it out. As we arrived at the stall, Mohamed-Shafiq came talk to us, and offered to check with the camp supervisor if we could camp here. Just after we got approval to set up our tent at the restaurant, the heavens opened. We raced back to the shelter of the restaurant, and Mohamed-Shafiq and his mother prepared a wonderful dinner – meat soup, fried noodles (mee goreng), Milo (hot chocolate) and a coffee for Scott.

The cover of the restaurant roof, a clean toilet and a dry concrete pad made for a much more comfortable night than we had planned. Not quite the muddy jungle floor we had been prepared for. The rain continued until almost 3 am, and Scott unfortunately stayed awake with it. Perhaps it was the traffic on the nearby highway or the rain, but most likely it was the coffee he drank. No more coffee for Scott after noon!

Download GPS Track in GPX format

The resort was quite empty, seemingly with more staff than visitors at times. There was a group of six or seven journalists from Northern Europe, and we talked briefly to one of them. Daniel was from Sweden, and in Malaysia to report on the Formula 1 race for a Swedish racing magazine. He asked us whether we were planning to do any trekking while we were here, and was quite disappointed to learn that we were not. The resort specializes in jungle treks into the forest reserves and state parks in the area, which look quite interesting. This area was the centre of a communist insurgency until 1989, so much of the area remains old-growth forest, with very little human impact.

We knew we needed to pick up supplies for our next day, since there’s nothing between the resort and Gerik. We asked about a store, and one of the staff at the resort offered to take us back to the only store in the area. Becky went on a quick trip with one of the guys from the resort. Because Scott wasn’t coming, Eilia, one of the girls from reception, came with us – it would be improper for a female to travel alone in a vehicle with a strange man.

The store turned out to be at the back of a floating restaurant in a small marina, just off the island to the east. We would never have found it on our own. Walking out to the store was challenging, as the docks were narrow and bounced with each footstep – with three people navigating the dock at the same time, the bounces almost caused Becky to get wet! When we arrived, the store was closed. The store owner was in the restaurant and happily opened up so that she could get what I needed, and closed again immediately after we finished. Sadly, she had a pet baby monkey on a leash just outside the store. It was neat the way the leash allowed the monkey to climb, but it was sad seeing the poor thing tied up.

We started the day by continuing the climb. We climbed and climbed and climbed. A few km after we started, there was a resort advertised with restaurant and chalets. We pulled in to discover the place still under construction. It seems that the signs for resorts go up well before the actual resort is open. We did not notice any “coming soon” or “opening date” indication, but that may just be a language barrier issue. Either way we were pretty disappointed.

Just before the Perak border, we stopped at the restaurant where Wayne and Kris stayed back in 2005. When we arrived at 9 am, they had no food, and not much in the way of drinks. We were able to get a coffee with no milk and way too much sugar, which did help fuel us for a while. We filled an empty 1.5L water bottle with some of their “filtered water”, but the filter looked a little dodgy, so we decided to use it only as a last resort.

At least every 2-3 minutes, we are passed by trucks either going up or down the hills. There are logging trucks, fuel trucks, and various other trucks carrying freight. Becky was surprised that they did not have any “run-away” lanes for them – so if their brakes fail on the way down, their only choice is to crash into the jungle. The trucks occasionally stop at roadside streams to get water to pour over the brakes to cool them down. Several times today, you could see Becky by the roadside pouring water over her head to cool her down too!

After 3 hours of climbing and 26 km, we arrived at the summit starving and pretty close to out of water. (Yes Moms, we were carrying emergency food, and did have the dodgy water which we could have filtered – don’t worry) Fortunately, at the summit there is a restaurant and a little convenience store. The restaurant had one of the best varieties of Malaysia steam tray that we have enjoyed – this may be related to us arriving at noon, just in time for the best selection.

Once we refueled ourselves and refilled our water bottles, we hopped back on the bikes. The glorious decent we were hoping for eluded us for a few km. We expected it immediately (or at least Becky did), but found ourselves climbing again; however, the hills did not last long. We say a sign for a 10% grade down and knew we were in for some fun. For almost 20 km and 45 minutes, we screamed down the hill.

Unfortunately, the Resort we were seeking was another 10 km along. After the giant decent we found ourselves climbing again. Fortunately, the climbs were offset by some downs which were usually longer than the ups. So, tired and sweaty we arrived at the Belum Rainforest Resort in Pulau Banding (http://www.belumresort.com/). A bit more upscale than our usual accommodation, but we’ve decided that we deserve it after all the work)

Further research shows that we are in for some more hills before we reach the coast. We have decided to spend a second night here and enjoy the resort whilst allowing our muscles to recover at least a little before we tackle two more days of hills (although none as bad as the 38 km ascent we did over the last two days) to bring us to Penang.

Road notes:

1. 5 km – R&R Rest stop
2. 7 km – Restaurant with no food
3. 26 km – Restaurant at the peak
4. 55 km – Small floating store and restaurant
5. 58 km – Belum Rainforest Resort

Download GPS Track in GPX format

The great thing about taking a route only a week after someone else, is that you can learn about great places to stay along the way. With that in mind, we had planned to stay at the R&R Resthouse just outside of Jeli. Unfortunately, when we arrived, it was closed. A nice girl at one of the restaurants phoned them, only to be told that it is a public holiday so they will not be open.

So much for a short 43 km day prior to the hills. We had to make another plan, so pulled out the computer and looked up what others had done. Based on our research, we found others had found no reasonable hotels in Jeli proper; however, Michelle and Dave had found a spot to camp (with water) at about the 75 km mark from Tanah Merah, and we figured we could make that. It had the added bonus of ensuring we did not have to do the entire climb in one day – we could do part of it today and the remainder tomorrow. And with the money we saved free camping tonight, we could splurge on a room at the resort on Pulau Banding if we felt like it {grin}.

Scott spent a bit of time correlating the reports from Wayne and Kristina , Michelle and Dave , and Kat and Mike, and from that, we thought we had a pretty good idea of what to expect. From the R&R Resthouse:

1. 7 km to Jeli
2. 20 km to a town with roadside stalls for food
3. 33 km to an abandoned rest area with a stream, and Michelle and Dave’s campsite
4. 39 km to the “Restaurant 70”
5. 59 km to another restaurant at the top

The reports we had led us to expect all 59 km would be up hill, starting from Jeli (or R&R Resthouse). Unfortunately, the first 20 km lulled us into a sense of complacency. Nice rolling hills, making good time, lots of time until sunset, things were going very well. We stopped at the south turnoff to Batu Melintang, at the 20 km mark, to grab dinner. Prior to the town, there were many roadside stalls selling food and drinks (at least one every 2 km). Fortunately, we stopped where we did, because there was absolutely nothing except steep climbs afterwards.

It was here that the hills began in earnest. We started climb and climb and climb. It was pretty slow going, and we started to worry about losing the daylight. Just at dusk, we pulled into the old rest area. We had climbed almost 400 meters since our dinner stop – our first real climbing in months!

The rest stop had a few roofed tables and platforms, a nice clean stream, and a whole lot of garbage. We setup camp just outside the main building – originally built as a Surau (place for prayers, but smaller than a mosque). At one time it had working toilets and running water, but those days were long gone. Unfortunately, although we searched for Dave and Michelle’s magic camping spot we couldn’t find it before full dark. Never mind – we had a nice cool stream for washing and a spot to set up the tent. What more could we need?

Download GPS Track in GPX format

It felt like a long ride today, as the distance was long, but we were moving pretty fast throughout the day. Even after entering some small rolling hills (not much really), we still maintained our almost 20 km/hr average. For us this is pretty good.

The riding itself was pretty uneventful. We decided to take the shorter highway route, which was a likely less interesting than the coast route, but saved us 7 km. Given the state we were in when we arrived, it was the right decision.

We left the province of Terengganu today – one of the more conservative Muslim provinces in Malaysia. One of the things we noticed about Terengganu was a distinct lack of Malaysian Chinese. It appears to us that there are fewer of both the minority groups in Malaysia present in Terengganu.

Shortly after entering the province of Kelantan, we pulled over at what looked like a fruit stand. In the end, they had very little fruit and the things Becky thought were mangos turned out to be raw chickens (she must have been pretty tired at that point!). One of the customers asked us if she could help, and we asked if there were oranges. She thought we were asking for orange juice and said there was none, but we could get some at a store up the road. We got back on our bikes and soon discovered that they had hopped into a van and drove ahead of us. They bought a couple of Tropicana Twister Orange drinks and presented them to us when we caught up to them. It was such a kind gesture we had to drink them up immediately (BTW, Tropicana Twister doesn’t have much orange juice in it, but this was at least fortified with pulp). We were very touched by her kindness to these strangers on funny looking bicycles.

We are staying at the Medina Hotel in Tanah Merah. We tried to find the Muy Jaya hotel that Kat and Mike stayed at, with no luck. The first room we took had good working AC and enough space, but had mould on the ceiling and the walls of the bathroom. We also saw mouse (or other rodent) droppings on the headboard of the bed. After trying to nap and listening to Becky coughing due to the mould, Scott suggested we look at other options. Becky checked out the other hotel we could find in town – the Tanah Merah, but was not too impressed, so we asked to see another room at our hotel. They have a second section that is further down the building and the room was in much better condition – so we moved to it. It seems to be much better.

When looking at the Tanah Merah Hotel, one of the issues Becky noticed was the smell. It was situated right next to a building being used for swallow nesting, and the rooms they had available were indoor courtyard – which opened onto the swallow building leaving the area smelling just a little off. Tanah Merah seems to have several buildings in the downtown core where the upper floors are used for swallow nesting. The swallow nests are used for birds-nest soup, and are quite valuable. Still, it is very odd to see this form of “agriculture” right in the middle of the town. We notice a slightly unpleasant smell, and the sounds of hundreds of chirping swallows, whenever we get close to a nesting building. Strange!

A huge swallow nesting operation in the upper floors of the first two blocks of this new building.

We also saw a larger Malaysian Chinese presence here than we’ve seen in a few days, with several stores containing small shrines, and a Chinese restaurant. We ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant – a nice change from the Malay food we’ve been eating the past few days. We also experienced our first gender-separated check-out line at the grocery store. Each check-out had a picture of either a woman with tudung (head scarf) or man with Muslim hat. We just went to the closest one without issue. This is apparently a legal requirement now in Kelantan, which has been ruled by the conservative Islamist PAS party for many years. We still saw some women wearing a tudung with tight jeans and a shirt or sweater, and women continue to smile and wave – even in this province Muslim attitudes seem much more relaxed than we experienced in the Middle East.

Download GPS Track in GPX format

Today began with a crash! As we were riding into Kuala Terangganu we heard a collision in the traffic right behind us. We immediately slowed down and pulled over. We could see someone’s side mirror in the middle of the road, and Scott saw the van belonging to the mirror, with a big crease in the side, but still driving. Shortly thereafter we heard another crash up ahead. We can only guess that the cause was someone staring at us and not watching the traffic. We continue to be popular attractions with both drivers and passengers – it’s especially entertaining to watch scooter drivers try to mimic our pedaling.

The road was quite busy at the time, and we were very glad for the shoulder, despite the cars frequently parked in it. After taking a deep breath and we started riding again, we got a better view of the three vehicles involved. They were a little dented, with a pile of glass on the road, but nothing too major and no one appeared injured. We were both a little rattled, so we quickly turned off the highway and found a spot to have second breakfast.

After breakfast, we jumped back on the bikes and were soon crossing the long bridge across the Terengganu River. We first noticed a couple of very pretty mosques, so we stopped to take a photo. As we progressed along the bridge, we discovered that it wasn’t two mosques, but three, no four .. at least six that we could distinguish, each with different architecture. Becky thought maybe this was the place where Mosque builders stored their templates, and as it turns out, she wasn’t too far off. According to our map, this is the “Scaled Model Mosques Complex”. It turns out this is actually the Islamic Civilisation Park with scale models of 21 famous Muslim buildings.

We continue to enjoy looking at the mosques we pass. Becky reflected that in Rome the churches are all fascinating on the inside, but often not that exciting from the outside. Mosques are the opposite, often really cool from the outside, but the inside architecture is almost always simple and clean.

We spent most of the day on the coastal road, rather than the main highway, but since it was Saturday, even the coastal road was fairly busy. When we could, we made detours today onto less busy roads. The first detour was very peaceful, and we were joined by some kids on bikes for a portion of the ride. The second one qualified as “the road less travelled” when it turned into a dirt track and then a sand and dirt track. The soft sandy bits were a little challenging, but we survived. Scott defended his directions by saying “The GPS said it was a road, it didn’t say anything about the surface!”

We are staying at the Penarik Inn, which is not an Inn at all, rather a bunch of chalets. We opted for the mid-range chalet, as the least expensive one (40 RG) would have been too small for the bikes and had a squat toilet. We chose a slightly larger chalet instead. It fit our bikes, and has a nice bathroom with two showers (cold and hot) for 70 RG. It is also brand new (we are only the second people to stay in it). The room does not have AC, rather it has a fan. This is our first experiment with ocean side accommodation without AC. Hopefully the cooling ocean breeze will mean we sleep OK. We definitely enjoyed our swim at the end of the day – just what Becky always imagined Malaysia was like!

Download GPS Track in GPX format

We planned today as a rest day, but also as a day to make our plans for SE Asia in light of the latest changes with the freighter. The operating company’s agent (NSB) insists that we require a business visa to board the ship in Shanghai. In addition, they have no way to issue the necessary letter in order to get a business visa.

This is very frustrating, especially since other freighter companies don’t seem to have any problem boarding passengers from Shanghai with a standard tourist visa. Fred, our travel agent, has been exceedingly helpful through all this, but if this were our first freighter voyage, we probably would have given up and asked for our money back (or switched to a different freighter company) by now. As it is, we’re sticking with NSB and the Hanjin Madrid. Unfortunately, we’ve broken the cardinal rule of freighter travel: “Be flexible about timing”. A few days either way still don’t matter to us, but we want as much time as possible in Asia and to get back in time for Becky’s high school reunion in Kitamat. There appear to be no other ships with timing as good as the Hanjin Madrid.

Although we might be able to board in Shanghai with a tourist visa, in order to prevent possible problems, we have decided to embark in Pusan, South Korea instead. This has the benefit of allowing us to ride across South Korea before getting on the ship for a week and a half, and add one more country to our cycling itinerary.

This means less time in Thailand than we had hoped for, so we’re having to make some choices. Thanks to Freidel and Andrew, Bill Weir, Chris Wee, and a bunch of trip journals we’ve read, we know what other cycle tourists consider the high points, and will try to skip some of the less exciting areas. This is turning out to be much more a cursory survey of Asia than we had originally thought, but hopefully it will give us a flavour, and help us decide where we’d like to go when we come back for a longer visit.

For now our schedule looks roughly like this:

• 28 Mar – 5 Apr: Finish cycling the east coast of Malaysia, cross over to Penang and take a ferry from Penang to Lankawi.
• 6 Apr – 13 Apr: Bus and cycle the southwest coast of Thailand (bus Satun to Phang-nga, ride to Chumphon via west coast)
• 14 – 16 Apr: Train into Bangkok, visit Bangkok
  ** We will be playing this by ear due to the Thai Songkram (New Year) holiday
• 17 – 27 Apr: Ride Bangkok to Chiang Mai
• 28 Apr – 1 May: Ride Cheng Mai to Lao border (Chiang Khong) – if anything before this is late, we’ll bus this portion to get back on schedule.
• 2 – 7 May: Ride Ban Houayxay Laos to Ban Bortin (sp?) at the Laos-China border
• 8 – 12 May: Ride Mohan to Simao (Yunnan province China)
• 13 May: Bus Simao to Kunming
• 16 -18 May: Train Kunming to Beijing
• 20 May: Bus to Tianjin
• 21-22 May: Ferry Tianjin, China to Incheon, South Korea
• 23 May – 1 Jun: Ride Incheon to Pusan
• 3 Jun: Board ship Pusan to Seattle

The very colourful girls

On Friday afternoon a school group arrived. Tourism in this area declined drastically after 2001. As a result, the resorts that are able to stay in business are those that cater to the different school groups. So, at about 4 pm on Thursday a bunch of teenagers in school uniform arrived. The girls uniforms made them all look like nuns to us – it is not surprising that the origins of the Islamic headscarf are the same as those of Christian nuns. Once the girls changed out of the uniforms, they became a beautiful sea of colour. Their non-uniform dresses make them look like they are dressed for a formal outing – not an afternoon at the beach! Interestingly enough, after a few hellos from the boys, they pretty much disappeared. It seems that even from a young age, the girls in Malaysia are much more social.

We planned to make a shorter ride today and splurge a little tonight – on a hotel with a pool, which turned out to be a good thing, since neither of us slept particularly well last night. We had a room that only had an inside window, and the hallway light was on all night. We’ll know better for next time.

Since our distance wasn’t long, we made a couple of short detours off of the highway. We were quickly reminded why we like riding on the small side roads, when we saw some people working a small piece of farm land. We rounded a corner and our way was blocked by a herd of cows taking advantage of the shade on a tree. With a quick whistle from somewhere, the cows moved over just enough to allow us to pass by.

Further along down the road, we noticed some giant spiders on the telephone poles. They were quite beautiful, but Becky would hate to encounter one whilst stopping for a pee break or inside our hotel room! They were at least the size of a hand.

Shortly after rejoining the main highway, the Kelulut Beach appeared. Scott noticed a beachside road, so we hopped on. It turned out not to last long, but we were well rewarded for the detour. Scott stopped to take a picture of Kapas Island, and Becky paused in the shade. Just as she stopped, she noticed and odd bird … a horn-bill of some kind. It was quite spectacular and not too shy, so we were able to get a couple of photos before moving on.

Our original plan was to stay at the Hotel Seri Malaysia in Marang; however, the beach was looking quite fabulous and we kept seeing signs for the Angullia Beach Resort. We decided to check it out and discovered a small piece of paradise that would cost us less than the Hotel. When we found out they had Internet, we were sold. We quickly got settled in our beachside chalet and jumped into the ocean for a swim. The shallow water is so warm it might as well be a hot tub! We waded in, and the deeper water was a little cooler and refreshing after a few hours on the bikes. We definitely could get used to this!

We were originally planning to take a boat out to Pulau Perhentian once we got further north for some quality beach time and snorkelling, but our week in KL has left us feeling some time pressure. Instead, we may spend another day here, then head directly across to the west coast, without an island break.

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We awoke early and were doing yoga when we were reminded that we are Terengganu, one of the most strongly Muslim provinces of Malaysia. The muezzin here are much louder and more prominent than we have heard elsewhere in Malaysia. In other provinces, we have only noticed the noon prayers being called, not the other four. It didn’t help that there was a mosque right behind our hotel. Fortunately, we were already awake when the call began at 5:45, and we enjoy the poetry and music of the call to prayer.

The highway was much busier today, starting as soon as we left the hotel. With cars bumper-to-bumper and scooters and motorcycles zipping around us, it felt like rush hour in a major city. We guess that the refineries and industrial plants along this coast do a shift change between 0800 and 0900, so everyone was on the road with us at 0730. Fortunately our GPS map highlighted an alternate route (highway 145) not on our paper map, and it had much less traffic. By the time we rejoined highway 3 north of Kijal it was after 0830, and the road was much quieter.

We found this section of the coast was quite industrial, including a huge Petronas refinery complex. The towns nearby were much bigger, and included many more facilities, including the first McDonalds we’ve seen outside KL. Scott found the refinery complex quite fascinating, and would have stopped to take photos, but the prominent “No Photographs” signs along the highway deterred him. Gas flames on top of flare stacks can look very pretty if you forget about the environmental impact.

One of the things we are finding interesting is the variety in architecture for mosques in Malaysia. Some are similar to those in the Middle East, but others have shorter rounder minarets, and some look very similar to churches with only a single minaret to indicate a mosque.

We took it easy and tried not to strain, as Becky’s knee was still a little sore. Before 11 am, the sun went behind a cloud and remained there for a couple of hours. It was a nice break from the heat, as the temperature dropped from 38 degrees down to 33. It did not get really hot until after we got to town and were searching for hotels.

We chose the Hotel Sri Gate on the main street in Dungun – off the highway. They only had an interior room left for 65 RG, which was adequate for us, especially since they had a place we could store the bikes on the main floor underneath the stairs. The room was not big enough to fit us and bikes. The hotel IPM on the highway had slightly bigger rooms, but they were carpeted and more expensive. This place was clean and it wasn’t too close to a mosque, just in case we want to sleep in tomorrow {grin}.

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After a great visit with Jon, Chin Chuin and family, we left KL and returned to Kuantan, a bit later than we had hoped. Unfortunately, our selection of bus turned out not to be ideal. The bus did get us where we wanted to go, it was just 30 minutes late leaving and the seats were not as well designed as many of the other buses that we saw leaving on time! Oops. Yew Kong picked us up again at the bus station, and took us on a quick tour of Kuantan, including the State Mosque, the largest mosque on the East Coast. It was quite spectacular at night.

Masjid Negeri (State Mosque) at night

In the morning, after a wonderful breakfast with Yew Kong (thanks again!) we packed up and hopped on our bikes. We were surprised to see that despite slow packing and breakfast, we still left before 9 am (yay). That meant that by 12:30, we had arrived at our planned destination.

The roads were OK, with good shoulders but more traffic, and our ride was fast for the first 45 km – so fast that we did not take any pictures. The road followed the coastline, and we saw an interesting mix of beach resorts, small villages, and heavy industry – sometimes all at the same time. The industry included a small container and bulk cargo port, a biodiesel plant and a fuel storage facility among others. This is much more industrial than we’ve seen previously on the East Coast.

We stopped for a brief rest in Cherating, a town filled with many beach resorts and what looks like a beautiful sand beach. We were happy to not feel at all affected by the rise in temperature. Most of our ride in the morning was at around 32 degrees, but by the time we stopped for lunch the thermometer was hovering around 40 in the sun. Cherating is a beach hangout on the backpacker circuit, but was pretty deserted when we arrived. Neither of us were particularly tempted by the long list of activities or the opportunity for beach lounging though.

Just after returning to the bikes, Becky discovered that her knee was sore. It is a different kind of sore than she has experienced before, and we suspect it was a mal-adjusted cleat (she lost a cleat screw on our afternoon ride into Pekan, and after replacing the screw we haven’t managed to get the cleat back into the ideal spot yet). Scott made a minor adjustment, and with a night of ice and advil (ibuprofen) hopefully the knee will settle down.

We are staying at the Tiara Hotel in Chukai for 50 RG a night ($18 CAD) – our usual one-star (or zero-star) style. The folks running the reception are Muslim women, which is a little different from our previous hotels, where reception was run by Chinese men – very similar facilities though. It is one of the many budget hotels near the river, and the best of the few we looked at. The air conditioning works and the room is clean, so we are happy.

Yew Kong testing out Becky's bike

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Here are some pictures with names and brief descriptions for some of the yummy treats:

Our first successful stop was at Saint Mary’s Anglican Cathedral. Our initial reaction upon entering the church was that it felt very colonial. The plain design reminded Scott of some of the less elaborate Anglican churches in Canada. It was certainly nothing like the elaborate Roman Catholic churches we visited in Italy! The colonial theme continued for us – going out to High Tea at the former home of the British High Commissioner was the high point.

On our trip out to pick up our passports from the USA consulate, we stopped in at a Buddhist temple near the Petronas towers. It looked all shiny and new with a large gold seated Buddha at the entrance. We learned later that it had recently been renovated. There were many books on Buddhism available, published by the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, and according to those books, this was the Dharma Realm Guanyin Sagely Monastery (formerly the Deng Bi An Temple). We picked up several books in English and Chinese on Buddhism, only to later realize that DRBA is based out of the U.S. with a few monasteries in Canada – no need to have travelled so far!

Among our many other trips, Nancy drove us out to the famous Batu Caves. Scott had been there once before about 10 years ago, and noticed that it is much more built up now. There are several different Hindu shrines in and around the caves, but Becky did not feel it to be very spiritual, instead she found it rather Disneified (like it belonged in Disney World). There were a few Hindu worshippers receiving blessings from the priests at the various shrines, but most of the visitors were tourists. Had we arrived during the Thaipusam festival, with more than 500 000 pilgrims, her reaction would likely have been different though.

Batu Caves entrance

At the top of the interior cave stairwell, there were many monkeys, which turned out to be rather aggressive if you had any plastic bags or food. At one point, Becky was taking a picture of some of the monkeys, and another one snuck up behind her and started to tug at her pant leg. She screamed and the monkey hissed at her, baring its teeth. When she tried to walk away, it followed. She was shrieking and the many people around her were staring and laughing at her. Scott was nowhere in sight – he was taking photos of one of the shrines – so he missed all the action.

We made a brief visit to the Hindu temple in downtown KL, and did not find it to be particularly interesting. Becky really likes the ornate roof statues on the temples, but the downtown KL temple was being renovated, so much of the outside was covered with scaffolding.

We also visited two Chinese Taoist temples in downtown KL, one dedicated to the God of Success (and a favourite of businessmen) and the other to the Goddess of Mercy. Before the temple visit, Becky had not made a connection between Taoism and Chinese mysticism. At the Taoist temples there were many calendars indicating the various Chinese years (e.g. Year of the Bull), and you could have your fortune read. The temple was preparing for the upcoming “All Souls Day”, on April 6, where people visit and clean the graves of their ancestors. They also burn paper money and other items made of paper (TVs, cars, etc) which are then thought to be sent to the ancestors in the place they go to after death.

For more photos

Between embassy visits, we snuck in a visit to the Petronas Towers Skybridge. The Skybridge hovers at the 41st floor between the two towers, providing an additional emergency exit for the towers and allows employees in the towers to move across without having to go all the way to the bottom. The Skybridge tour is free, but you must go in the morning to get a ticket, for a show sometime during the day. One person can collect as many as five tickets, so Nancy acquired our tickets while we were going through the visa process at the USA embassy.

The tour begins with a 7-minute video presentation about Petronas and the towers. The video uses polarized 3D technology, which is poorly done. The video would be much better if they gave up on the 3D and just did a reasonable quality production. It also was mostly an advertisement for Petronas, and only contained a short bit about the construction of the tower.

The view from the sky bridge is pretty decent. It struck us that Kuala Lumpur is a city where the various sky scrapers are rather spread out. It does not seem nearly as built up as Singapore. One observation is that the sky scrapers vary in shape and design, which makes the skyline much more interesting than many western cities.

We also enjoyed many great meals. Our hosts like to show us the different food options available in Malaysia, so we are experiencing and loving a great variety of food – more on that later!

We woke up to rain, so turned over and went back to sleep. We had only a short ride into Kuantan planned for today, so we didn’t feel any urgency to move. After yesterday, we were happy for the extra time to relax. On our short ride, it rained on and off. The riding was really nice when it wasn’t raining – the rain kept the temperature down, so even riding during the hottest part of the day, we were not too hot.

We are staying with Yew Kong, whom connected with through Couchsurfing. When we got to Kuantan, we called him, and he came to pick us up, which was very nice. Fortunately, he has a small pick-up truck, so we were able to fit the bikes in the back. Unfortunately, Scott also needed to ride in the back, and just as we started driving, the heavens opened up again. Scott has never been more quickly drenched than during that 10 minute ride!

The rain which started as we drove to the house did not stop for more than 12 hours. Apparently, this much rain is common during the monsoon season, but not at all common at this time of year. Now, the weather should be hot and humid. Becky isn’t sure which she prefers, she hates riding in the rain, but the heat was doing nasty things to her skin. Scott is firmly in favour of the rain, even after the deluge he was in!

It is wonderful to get a taste of how real people in Malaysia live. In addition to staying with Yew Kong in Kuantan, we will be staying with Jon’s family in KL (Jon and Scott were roommates during university). Another advantage to staying with locals is that you can get many of your questions answered. For example, we were wondering what the multistory cement buildings with little windows were. These buildings were broadcasting a horrible bird sound – we thought maybe the sound was to scare something away. It turns out the sound was to attract swallows. The buildings are used to farm swallow’s nests, which are used to make the delicacy bird’s nest soup.

Our current plan is to leave our bikes and most of our stuff with Yew Kong for a few days and take a bus to Kuala Lumpur. We hope to get our USA Visas figured out in KL, and maybe even get our Chinese visas.

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With the help of a tailwind and a temperature of only 22 degrees C, we moved along quickly for the first 43 km to Nenasi, where we stopped for our second breakfast and to pick up a couple of cans of cold beverages (one soya milk and one 100 Plus for each of us).

A side note on our beverage choices: soya milk and 100 Plus (an electrolye replacement drink like Gatorade) both come in three types of container – plastic bottle, tetra pack, and can. We debated which was the most environmentally friendly option and decided on cans. We see plastic bottles and tetra packs thrown on the ground along the sides of the road, but rarely see cans. Cans may not have a deposit, but they are still actively recycled. Aluminum is actually cheaper to recycle than it is to make, so it is always good business to recycle pop cans. Even when we toss our cans in the garbage, it is likely that someone will collect them for recycling. We hope that is the case anyway.

It's a bright, sunshiny day - thank goodness for shade!

Shortly before noon, we met our second set of touring cyclists within 24 hours. This time it was Tim and Shannon from Singapore, doing a “short” tour (575-600 km) from Kota Bharu down the East Coast to Mersing. They told us that highway 3 north of Kuantan gets quite a bit busier, so we’ll keep an eye out for ways to detour off, and onto some quieter roads. We were the first touring cyclists they’ve seen, so it seems there aren’t too many cyclists out here at this time of year.

We arrived at Pekan at 12:45 with a temperature of 42 degrees in the sun. The temperature really climbed after 10:30 am. Unfortunately, the Chief’s Rest House, where we had planned to stay was full. We checked at another Inn in town, and it too was full. There might have been rooms at the two cheap hotels in town, but both places appeared to be dives without air conditioning. (The Lonely Planet said not to stay at one of them, and the other was right next door looking the same – we also had recommendations against them from several other cycle tourists). We decided to hop back on our bikes and seek out something further along. Pekan is only 40 km outside of Kuantan, a rather large city, so we hoped for more options along the way.

Cows visiting the Melati Inn

We are using a free GPS map for Malaysia and Singapore from http://www.malsingmaps.com, and it has proved very helpful at times, but never more so than in our search for lodging today. A quick search for waypoints of type “lodging”, and we found “The Indrapura Lake Resort” only 5 km up the road from Pekan. Their roadside signs were tiny, and we likely would have missed the place without the GPS. Our plan was to try for a room first, and if it was under 300 RG and it looked good we would splurge. If they did not have a room but they had a pool, we would ask to use it and hang out for a few hours until the temperature dropped a little, then ride on. The temperature was reading 44 degrees as we left Pekan – toasty!

Fortunately, they had a room available for 110 RG (weekend rate, the weekday rate was only 60 RG). It was clean and had A/C, so we grabbed it. We never did figure out what made it a “Resort”, since it had no pool or restaurant, and no swimming was allowed in the “lake” (which we would call a pond). It seems like a hotel to us, but that’s all we need. We were hot and tired after the early morning and long hot ride and with everything full in Pekan, we did not want to pass up an available room. There were two big grocery stores and several food stalls within walking distance, so we didn’t starve.

We has hoped to meet up with Kat and Mike again tonight, but with the Chief’s Rest House full, our plans of meeting fell apart. We hope they found a cool clean place for the night.

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Today’s post is about some of the food we have been enjoying. We can’t give you names for much of it, as we are only slowly learning what things are called in Malay. Malaysia’s population is made up of roughly 50% Malay people, 33% Chinese, and 9% Indian. These are the three largest ethnic groups, and the food stalls are strongly influenced by each of them.

We have had several Malaysian Chinese meals – mostly dinners and one breakfast. Our experience with our limited sampling of Chinese food places is that the food is expensive and the quality is not great. The meals are reminiscent of American Chinese food rather than the yummy food found in Hong Kong or mainland China. Scott has memories of great Chinese food in KL, so we remain hopeful.

Most of our meals have been Malaysian or Indian. These meals have come in two types: the steam tray and a-la-carte. With the steam tray, you get a plate of rice and add your choice of items from the steam trays. These are usually help yourself places, and we seem to be charged based on the number of items we choose, not the quantity of each item. The cost has been around 5 RG ($3 CAD) per plate.

At the a-la-carte places you need to know what to order; however, there is often someone around who speaks enough English for you to suggest some options for you. For breakfast we have discovered a great Malay dish of coconut rice, with fried egg, or fried fish, and salty crispy minnows “Nasi Lemak Telur” or “Nasi Lemak Ikan”. This provides excellent fuel for cycling. Roti Telur, a piece of flat dough fried with an egg in the middle is another yummy breakfast. They sometimes call Roti a pancake. Breakfast at a Malay restaurant costs about 7 RG for the two of us, including our coffees.

Drinks are often sold by a separate vendor, but can sometimes be ordered through the same waiter. Sometimes you pay separately for drinks, and sometimes the drinks are included in your bill. So you always need to check. Compared to food, drinks are expensive, at 1.50 to 3 RG each. Our favourites are iced coffee and fresh orange juice. Even Scott enjoys the coffee! (If we wanted to drink more cheaply, regular coffee is usually 1 RG or less).

Mike and Kat at dinner

After lunch today, we came back to our hotel, to discover two other touring bicycles being unloaded. We were stunned to discover not just a pair of touring cyclists, but a pair of Canadian touring cyclists! Mike and Kat left Winnipeg in September, and have been touring in Utah, Colorado, New Zealand and Australia. They arrived in Singapore a few days after we did, and will be following roughly the same route we are, until China, where they plan to turn west and try to cycle through Tibet and Nepal. We spent the afternoon and evening comparing notes and sharing stories, as well as enjoying some more great food. Good thing we stayed the extra day here, or we likely would have never met them.

Monkey Crossing!

We awoke at 5 am to the sound of crying baby, but soon went back to sleep. When the baby started wailing again at 5:30, we gave in and got up to start our day. Our alarm was set for 5:45, so this was only 15 minutes earlier than we had planned. Today we changed our morning routine to do yoga and pack everything up before breakfast. We hoped that eating breakfast out would move us along quicker. In the end, we were on the road 30 minutes earlier than yesterday – but we were also awake 30 minutes earlier than yesterday. Not quite a grand success.

The morning riding was beautiful. We are contemplating how to make an earlier start. We will try eating a light snack in the morning and stopping for breakfast after 1-2 hours of riding. Perhaps that will allow us to get to our destination before noon and the worst of the days heat.

The ride from Mersing to Endau was uneventful. We took highway 3 until the turn off to Mawar and Resang, which allowed us to follow the coast a little closer – it turned out to be about a 10 km detour, but brought us through some small villages which were much more interesting than the shoulder of the highway. At one point we rode by a Muslim school with all the children out playing during their morning break. We could feel the rush of excitement in the children as we passed, with a wave of waves, grins, screaming hellos, and lots of giggles as each group of children noticed us. The responses we get from people here in Malaysia always make us smile.

We stopped for lunch in Endau at a Muslim café. We have found that Malay Chinese restaurants are much more expensive than the Malay Muslim restaurants. We paid 42 RG for dinner without beer at a Chinese food place (albeit we had some seafood) and only 12 RG at the Malay place. This price difference was emphasized at breakfast, where the Malay breakfast runs us about 4-6 RG and the equivalent Chinese breakfast is 12 RG. In the grand scheme of things, both are pretty cheap, but we are counting our pennies, so we’ll stick to Malay when we have the choice, and save the Chinese for special occasions.

When we hit the road right after lunch, the temperature had soared from 35 deg to 40 deg, so rather than riding the 26 km to our evening destination, we decided to seek shelter until the cooling of the late afternoon. Scott saw a sign for the Seri Malaysia Rompin – a hotel chain, and thought they might have air conditioning, a pool and Internet. Becky just hoped for a pool and wanted to look into getting a room for a few hours. Unfortunately, all the rooms were booked, but they did have free Internet, air conditioning in their café, and a pool. Once we received permission from the hotel manager, we found a comfortable spot in the café, drank some great fresh orange juice, and spent a few hours on the Internet.

Before getting back on the bikes, we hopped in the pool for a brief cool down. The water was pretty warm, but it was still nice to start the ride off while we were cool and a little damp from our swim. The thermometer on Becky’s bike read 38 degrees at 3:50 pm, but within 20 minutes, the temperature had dropped to 32 degrees.

We were back on Highway 3, and at Endau we had lost the nice paved shoulder. Fortunately, there was not much traffic, and the little traffic was happy enough to give us plenty of room when passing. It was a quick ride into Kuala Rompin.

We checked out the Hotel Kenkana but found it to be rundown. The room first room Becky was shown only had a fan, and the second room had an air conditioner but it was in very poor condition. Air conditioning and cleanliness are our two main requirements. So, we went down the street to Hotel Sri Rompin. There we got a basic but very clean room on the third floor with good air conditioning for only 40 RG (with a “Shower of Happiness”). The foam on the beds was a little thin, so Becky added her thermarest under the mattress to make it softer. A nice bonus was the hotel had a reception on the ground floor, and a room behind the reception to store our bikes – so we did not need to lug them up the three extra long flights of stairs.

Shower of Happiness

By the end of the ride, Becky’s heat rash had gotten bad again. The rash is on the front of her thighs, below her cycling shorts, and above her knees. We do wonder if the fact that we are riding recumbent contributes to the heat rash – the location of the rash is definitely related to riding ‘bent, as the fronts of our legs get the full force of the sun while riding, and with our legs in front of us, gravity doesn’t help to wick sweat away as well as the vertical position on a diamond frame. This “Prickly Heat” or proper name “Milaria” is a problem for many visitors (not to be confused with Malaria, the mosquito-born illness). We have decided to take a rest day here tomorrow and give her skin a chance to heal.

While on the Internet this afternoon, we learned that our freighter from Shanghai to Seattle is running into complications. The company that manages the ship, NSB, will not take us if we do not have a USA Visa. We have talked to the embassy in Singapore who gave us a letter and our travel agent has gotten letters from Homeland Security specifying that we do not need a visa; however, a few years ago NSB had a ship delayed in Seattle because they had a Canadian on board with a Visa issue, so they are firm in their requirement that we get a USA Visa.

So, with the combination of heat rash and the need for a USA Visa, we plan make our side trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL) a week earlier than originally planned. We have two more days of riding to get to Kuantan. In Kuantan, we will store our bikes and take a bus to KL. While in KL we will try to get ourselves Visas for both USA and China; and the time off the bikes and away from the most strenuous of exercise should allow Becky’s heat rash to clear up completely (we hope).

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We awoke to a nice clear day, with only the wetness of the ground and our clothes to remind us of all the rain of yesterday. We both got up with the alarm at 6 am, since we knew we had a long day ahead. Unfortunately, it took time to cook breakfast, pack up our still-wet clothing and do yoga, so we didn’t start riding until after 8.

We stopped for ice coffees (Kopi Ais) after 15 km in Sedili Besar, and saw several places to eat along the route until Sedili Besar, but weren’t hungry after our big breakfast of scrambled eggs and oatmeal.

One big advantage to the rain is that it keeps the temperature down. For most of our ride yesterday the temperature was in the mid to high 20s. With the sun shining full force today, we saw temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s all day.

The ride today was mostly through palm plantations. There were times when all we could see were hills covered in palm trees. Once we passed Sedili Besar, we saw nothing but plantations for 23 km, until we reached the turnoff to Tanjung Leban. After that, more services appeared, but the roads continued to be really quiet until we intersected with highway 3. From other reports, we were afraid that it might be a horrible experience riding on the 3, but it turned out to be rather pleasant. For the most part there was a large paved shoulder, so the traffic was not bothered by us or us by it.

We are still working on the idea of an afternoon siesta. We stopped at 1:30 pm for 45 minutes in a covered bus shelter and took a short nap. With a little breeze, it was a nice break; however, we really should have stopped for longer. We now know that the hottest part of the day is 1 pm – 3:30 pm.

We are really enjoying all the cheers and waves from the people as we ride by. Often a car or truck passes us and a hand or head appeares – smiles, waves or a “thumbs-up” are common. When we pass houses in small villages, the women and sometimes the children wave and shout “hello”.

Becky continues to be surprised at how outgoing the women are here. It is a dramatic change from the Middle East where we found women were quiet, reserved and often invisible. Here, we regularly see Muslim women running restaurants and driving scooters to and fro. Both of us find the Malaysian attitudes and friendliness very refreshing.

We arrived in Mersing at 6 pm, exhausted, hot, and with heat rash and sunburn. Fortunately, the first hotel we checked had a large room on the first floor (one story up) for 65 Ringgit (about $20 CAD). We were too tired to bargain, but since Mersing is a tourist town, we likely wouldn’t have gotten very far anyway.

We have decided that tomorrow will be a rest day, as we could use a day to recuperate and catch up on things. Mersing is the first “city” we have been in since leaving Singapore. Until now, we have ridden through small villages and resort areas, but nothing big enough to have a pharmacy, mobile phone store, or Internet café. So we will spend tomorrow catching up on various errands and letting our bodies recover from too much heat. When we get back on the bikes, we plan to start earlier to avoid long days and riding between 1 and 3:30 pm.

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We got off to a reasonable start, 8 am. Not as early as we hoped, but pretty good for us. After 10 km and a half hour, we stopped under a bus shelter for a snack and to allow the rain shower we could see pass over us. Our timing was perfect, within a minute of entering the shelter, the rain started in force. Fortunately, this was just a quick storm that passed by within 15 minutes.

Back on the road again, we saw our first Malaysian wildlife, monkeys. At first we only saw a couple in the trees, but then we notices a group of about 20 of them prancing about on the road in front of us. For the next hour, we frequently noticed the trees moving and saw monkeys in the branches.

As we approached Desaru (a place full of resorts, with no town we found) shortly after 11 am, thunder and lightning were threatening, so we stopped at the Pulai Beach Hotel for lunch. We thought it looked very nice, and they had a weekday special for rooms, 120 RG, so we considered it, but decided it would leave us at a distance that was either too short or too long for the next day’s ride. It rained while we ate lunch, but then cleared up in time for us to continue riding.

Unfortunately, the nice weather did not last long. Light rain began within 10 minutes. At first, we found the rain rather pleasant, as it was warm and it kept the temperature down. However, the rain just kept coming, heavily at times. After 2 hours of rain, we were soggy and still 15 km from anything that might resemble a place to stay. After leaving the hotels at Desru, we did not see another place to stay until we reached Sedili Kechil.

The first resort/chalet place we stopped at appeared to be closed for the season. The second place we stopped (Mutiara Motor Resort) looked nice, but was full! We are not sure what was going on, but we guess there was some special event like a wedding or conference filled it up. Fortunately, there was a third place in town (Sedili Country Resorts) that had chalets available. We found the cost to be a little much at 80 Ringgit, but it was dry and we were very soggy. We had been riding in the rain for about three hours. The next opportunity for a place to stay was at the Tanjung Sutera Resort in Kuala Sedili Besar, a further 10 km down the road, but we were not able to reach them on our cell phone. We did not want to risk them being closed or full, so we took the chalet here at Sedili Country Resort. We had heard good things about it from Chris and others. Unfortunately for us, Jackie the Malaysian Princess was nowhere to be seen, so we did not receive the same level of hospitality as Michelle and Dave.

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We are on the road again. It seems like forever since the last time we were really riding, and yet once we were on the bikes, it felt like only yesterday we were crossing southern Italy. It is definitely hotter here, and much more humid, but so far we are surviving the heat.

We were glad to have scoped out the path out to Changi Village, as we were able to find a route that involved much less traffic (both pedestrian and car). At one point on the cycling path, we ran into Raymond on his tadpole trike again. We had met him when we were out riding on Thursday, but this time we actually introduced ourselves. His first comment was “you guys are still here?” Most cycling tourists don’t stay in Singapore for more than two to three days, and Raymond thought we were leaving when we met him the last time.

It took us less than 2 hours to ride the 33 km out to the ferry. There were so many tents and people at Changi Beach that Becky did not even recognize that we had arrived!

The ferry we took over to Pengerang is called a “bumboat”. Upon arrival at the ferry terminal, we told the receptionist that we wanted the boat to Pengerang. Once enough people arrive (12 people) the boat leaves. We waited an hour and it was not looking promising, but the boat left anyways with only 4 passengers. There were many people waiting at Pengerang, so the boat needed to make the run regardless of the number of passengers in Singapore.

The boat was pretty small (about 35 feet long). We were a little nervous about Scott’s bike, as it was just place lying down on the stern. Becky’s bike was placed inside the cabin, so there were no worries about it. It turned out to not be an issue, as even when the boat rocked over the wake of other passing boats, the bike did not budge.

When we arrived in Malaysia (after about an hour long boat ride), we were greeted by a female customs officer wearing hijab. She was very friendly and welcoming. Becky was immediately concerned about the skimpiness of her clothing (cycling shorts and short sleeve T-shirt).

Once out of customs, we ran into a large group of cyclists from Singapore. Becky was happy to see several female cyclists in standard cycling garb (lycra shorts and short sleeve cycling jerseys). She was afraid that she would have to adjust her riding outfit. That being said, it appears that the heat and sun will encourage her to wear long sleeve shirts and capris that protect the tops of her thighs from the sun.

One difference we immediately noticed between Malaysia and the Middle East was the number of women driving scooters. More specifically, the number of women wearing hijab and riding scooters. We also noticed that the women were quite outgoing and waved and smiled at us as we rode by. We also notice many people greeting us with “hello” as we rode by various small houses – amusingly it was often the adults shouting rather than the kids!

So far, we have found the Malaysians to be very friendly. People here are much less likely to speak English than Singapore, and we have found restaurants that do not have menus – something that will pose a challenge for us as our journey continues. For tonight, we were happy to find a nice seafood restaurant. The owners seemed to be of Chinese ancestry, and the food was close to what we would consider Chinese. We enjoyed a wonderful meal of steamed prawns, fried baby squid (the whole squid – eyeballs and all), veggies, and rice. We think we paid a “tourist rate” as the meal was more expensive than we anticipated and likely more than many locals could afford, but we quite enjoyed it. (Even with the tourist tax, it was still under $30 CAD – much cheaper than an equivalent meal in Singapore). Overall, we had a great first day in Malaysia, and are both very happy to be back on the bikes after our long hiatus.

Download GPS Track in GPX format