K2K, Kuala Lumpur to Georgetown, Penang

25/07/17

Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur

It was hard saying see you later to all of our family, so much is going on for all of them at the moment, but we also need to keep our adventures happening. I am sure there will be a lot of messaging and hopefully some skypes. It is not difficult to stay in touch while in South East Asia.

CODDIWOMPLE, To travel in a purposeful manner,
towards a vague destination.

Ash took us and the bikes for an early morning van ride to the airport, where after checking in, Mary realised that Diego (the Tassie Devil who came with us to Indonesia) had ditched us.  So it was off to the duty free shop to see if some other poor stuffed toy would like to apply for the position of trip side kick. Enter ‘Katie the Kangaroo’, with her own sidekick, ‘Kirt the joey’.

So another seven hours of movies, reading, shifting uncomfortably in our seats and then it was off the plane and into the ridiculously long immigration queues. Finally we collected the bikes and hit the heat outside the terminal door. We got an Uber to take us into KL and our accommodation for the night, ‘Backhome’, a cool hostel that we discovered on our previous trip here.

We got the bikes put together and then headed out for something to eat and drink before we crashed into bed ready for a big day tomorrow.

26/07/17

KL to Klang

Bike/Motorbike path alongside the expressway

We weren’t really sure how far we wanted to ride today. We knew the heat was going to take its toll after the winter break we had just had in Adelaide. We knew we wanted to head towards the west coast though, so we used MapsMe to find a cycle friendly route out of KL in that direction. We thought Shah Alam would be far enough due to our late start, which was due to the yummy breakfast and coffee we had at Lokl, the café next door to Backhome.

Some factories we love

So off we went, happy to be turning the pedals once again. Our route had us on a bike path that followed the Klang river out of town. This was pretty cool, the river wasn’t nice to look at of course, but the bike path was a great, low stress way to head out of the city.  After that, we got onto a motorbike path alongside the freeway which took us all the way to Klang. We decided to kick on the extra ten k’s from Shah Alam as we were going well. But by this time, the heat was starting to hurt but we were kept busy looking at the scenery as we rode along. We passed through lots of greenery, flowers, trees and jungle, heard lots of birds and even saw two large lizards on the banks of the river, lots of large fish in the river, great architecture and glimpses of old temples blending in with the new, and Dave’s most pleasing sight of all was the Heineken factory but sadly no gate open to lead him to the beer.

Alongside and Under The Expressway

We found a cheap hotel in Klang, the ‘DreamGarden”.  Sounds nice right? It was ok, no windows, but clean and a hot shower and aircon.  So we freshened up and headed out for a walk.  Going out of reception, we asked for a good place to get coffee, and a lady who was sitting down in the lounge offered to show us. Violet, who was from Singapore, walked with us to a local restaurant where we never did get coffee. She introduced us to the local Roti and we had to try the local tea. It was still hard to get across that we didn’t want sugar, but it all turned out to be really nice. Violet then showed us some options for dinner before leaving us to have a look around, which didn’t take long.

Tiny Chinese Temple

Heading back to the hotel, we found a cool Chinese temple, very simple, but cool. They had lots of incense burning and some really large ones that we hadn’t seen before, that looked more like large fireworks, so we thought we better not light those ones.

Dinner was interesting. There was a large open air Chinese restaurant right next door to the hotel, so we just went there. The lady who ran the place sat down at our table to take our order, trying to understand what we wanted and then with her hand waving in the air allocated the job of taking our order to the cook, to some young kid before moving on to the next customer. So much theatrics took place in that restaurant.  In the end, we had a great meal, cold drinks and enough left over to leave something for the street dogs waiting outside.

27/07/17

Klang to Kuala Selangor.

A breakfast across the road from the hotel of “sort of boiled eggs” and toast, as well as “sort of coffee”, Mary was starting to worry about coping with the local food. The eggs came in large plastic containers that looked like enormous egg timers. And that is exactly what they were. Instead of releasing sand as a normal timer would do, these things slowly released the hot water and when the water was gone your egg was ready. Well not what we would call ready. You are meant to tip your very runny egg out onto your saucer and soak it up with the bread, so the man next to us demonstrated. This was just a warm raw egg and we really couldn’t do it so we asked the lovely girl if we could have another round of hot water for our eggs. This managed to only just cook them enough, only just!!!

We Always Manage To Find Some Dirt

 We rode out of town, using MapsMe again, but this time it took us to a dead end in a back blocks industrial area, not that you could tell the difference from the rest of town. So back to google maps to get us back on track. For a lot of the road today we were able to follow back roads and even a stretch of dirt along the muddy beach flats for quite a while. Here out in the middle of nowhere, along the coast stood one small building. Two guys were sitting on the deck enjoying the morning. At first we thought they may have been life guards, that sort of made sense as it was the beach but no this was a Police Station with two very friendly cops sitting outside. They waved and said hello and wished us a good day as we rode away a little bamboozled.

We stopped for an early lunch while we were on a main road stretch. This rather large Chinese restaurant had their own steamed bun factory out the back, so we chose Peanut steamed buns and a cold drink and had a great snack. Another lady out the front was chopping fresh vegetables and kept catching Mary’s eye. Before we knew it, the lady brought across a dish of the fresh vegetables which had been pickled in a light sweet chilli sauce, it was delicious.

As we continued on, the heat of the day started to rev up and once back out on the main road it started to melt us both. We found a tree and sat under it for a little rest and to get the body temperature down. It was amazing how much cooler it was under the tree with its own little natural air conditioner happening. With this little reprieve we pedalled on and got to our stay at De Palma Hotel, Kuala Selangor. This was a lovely hotel with bungalows set in a park like setting with lots of trees all around. The trees were full of very cheeky monkeys. As we went for a little walk around the area the monkeys were everywhere. There were monkeys playing in bushes, climbing up and down trees, swinging from branches, jumping and climbing all over people’s houses. Our walk followed the river and here there was jungle on both sides of the road. A lot of rubbish had been dumped on the edge of the jungle and the monkeys here were getting into it all. One little monkey was sitting up on a branch of a tree cleaning out a can of corn. He looked pretty happy with himself with what he had scored.  

 

28/07/17

Kuala Selangor to Sungai Besar

We were up at 7am and headed over to the restaurant for breakfast before heading off. We were on the bikes just after 8am and the start of our ride felt good but not before long the heat ramped up. We thought the ride was going to be mostly on the main highway but we found we could ride a lot of it on the back road. This was so much nicer as it followed a channel and there was jungle or farming land on either side of the road. It felt cooler out the back due to the trees and fresher air.

Mid morning came up pretty quickly and when we were forced back onto the highway due to our back road running out, we rode into a town and found a place to sit down and have a feed. I had Roti Naan with honey, and Dave had Roti Naan with egg and cheese. Both came with dipping sauces that were delicious. With a nice cold mixed juice we were soon fuelled up and ready to finish the days ride.

We rode into Sungai Besar, found our hotel and feeling really hot and sweaty, we were happy to book into our room and have a nice cool refreshing shower. Once all freshened up, we were itching to go for a walk and explore the town, but this didn’t last long as it was just too hot and humid out and about so we headed back into air-conditioning and rested up over the afternoon. Once dinner time came we set out again, found some dinner and then wandered over to where a very large soccer stadium was. Here we could see lots of cars entering the grounds so we thought we would take a look. There was no soccer being played but they had a large open air street food display on during this week. This was fun to have a look around at all the stalls but we didn’t end up buying anything as we had only just had dinner. Along with the food stalls came the clothing and the shoes and all the nick nacks. A quick look around and before too long we found ourselves heading out the gate and back to our hotel for an early night and good nights sleep.

29/07/17

Sungai Besar to Teluk Intan

 We had decided to try getting an earlier start to make the most of the cool morning. So we were up just after six, had a peanut butter sandwich and were on the road by seven.  It was only just light, so we put our lights on and rode off into the gloom.

Best Roti Canai Ever

Today was going to be a main road only day. The first twenty five ks were busy and the road was either falling apart or being repaired with road gangs funnelling the traffic into narrow single lanes that made for some close contact with the trucks. They were great though, very patient and often gave us a friendly toot, but most were much too shy for a thumbs up or a wave, but were obviously pleased when they got one from us. When we were only about 5k’s into the ride a truck passed us and must have got in the way of a bee’s path and sent him flying off course, which then hit Mary on the leg with a big thud and then painful sting. The sting went straight through her knicks and the little sac of poison was pumped into her leg pretty damn quickly. With no cause for alarm of a bad reaction just a little redness, swelling and pain, we continued on.  

We were getting pretty hungry as we came into a small town on the way and we stopped at the first corner restaurant we saw. The good ones seem to always be on a corner. Out the front was a guy with his big round hot plate making delicious looking Roti. This guy was an artist, he stretched the dough so thin you could see through it, then he would add egg, butter, cheese or just plain if you wanted. We ordered two plain Roti Chennai, this came with a curry dipping sauce that was very strong with turmeric and a massive dollop of fiery sambal in the middle of it. We worked our way around the Sambal, just in case. The coffee was a fizzer once again, but we did manage a nice cold juice.

The road improved after this, which made the last twenty k’s reasonably easy, but getting hot once again. The only real thing of note was when we passed a nursery that specialised in massive Bansai plants made out of Bougainvillea. These were up to three metres high with twisted gnarly trunks, often several varieties in the same plant, very cool.

We got into Teluk Intan about eleven, which was great, so we found a quite modern restaurant with an actual coffee machine and wifi, so we holed up in

there for a couple of hours before we could check in at our homestay.

Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan

We arrived at TNT Novelty House, yep, that’s what I said. It was actually a really nice guesthouse, quirky? Sure. But very clean, comfortable and run by a lovely lady called Lim who really looked after us. She couldn’t understand why we wanted to go walking out around town in the late afternoon. “No one walks in this town.” She said. And she made sure we had her number as she was sure we were going to need to be rescued and she would come and pick us up.

Need to Keep Your Drive Straight

We wanted to visit the leaning tower of Teluk Intan, and the surrounding markets, but first we needed to get some local cash out of an atm. There was a large street market after that with fresh fruits, some really nice street foods and the usual cheap clothes stalls. This was so much more authentic than the clinical version that we went to last night. Lots to choose from that we would happily eat. We then went to the leaning tower, which was actually really cool and was free to go up inside. Following this we found a little restaurant that Lim had recommended if we wanted a very good Laksa. This place was very local and very good. They actually had an indoor seating area with an al fresco area as well. The unusual thing was that the kitchen was actually outside in a van parked in the middle of the Al Fresco area. We had a great meal, and Mary even coped with the mild chilli.

So Lim was very surprised when we came back full to the brim on street food, laksa and fresh juices without needing to be rescued. “I was waiting for your call” she said. It was nice to have someone looking out for us as usual.

30/07/17

Teluk Intan to Kampar

Monkey Under The Tree

Another early start and on the road just before 7am allowed us to get the first couple of hours under our belt in the coolness of the morning. We headed out of town on the main road for the first couple of k’s where the roads were so quiet with hardly any traffic at all. Soon we were able to turn off onto a back road that took us for over 15km’s along a canal. This was beautiful and peaceful riding with no one around, through farming land and jungle. The sounds of the birds was just amazing. We had a few stops along the way to take in the sounds and the beauty of the scenery. We had a section of road to ride which had a wide verge but again not much traffic at all maybe because it was Sunday. We were starting to get hungry so we stopped on a newly mowed section of verge and had a good old vegemite sandwich, and an orange that we had bought from the market yesterday. The oranges were amazing and you would never guess it, they came from Australia!! Unbelievable, we bought 5 Aussie oranges for RM5, around 30 aussie cents.

Second Breakfast Stop

Before too much longer we were able to turn off onto another side track taking us through the middle of a very large Palm Oil Plantation. This was a dirt/gravel road that made for different riding. The surface slowed us down a little but that was ok as in return we received fresh air and bird songs. Perfect compromise.

Once back out on the main road we only had about 15k’s to go so we decided to not look out for a food stop and just kick on until we reached our destination. It wasn’t long before we were joined by quite a number of roadie riders. They were riding in a fun ride and as they rode past us took photos and videos of the crazy dudes on loaded fat bikes, gave us a wave and thumbs up and a smile and a bit of a laugh. It was fun to see them and they were on all sorts of bikes. As we approached our accommodation we realised that the fun ride started and finished right outside our hotel that we were staying in. Hundreds of bikes and riders filled the area outside the hotel all looking pretty happy that they completed their 68km Kampar Majesty Ride for 2017. The atmosphere was great with music playing, completion medals being handed out and riders entering the hotel for a well earned cold drink and lunch.

"I'd Rather Have One Of Those Fat Bikes"

Our accommodation tonight was at the Grand Kampar Hotel which was really very nice. Larry and Priscilla thought it was a bit special too as they were given a ride up to level two in the lift and were allowed to stay in a pretty fancy room for the night. The staff were so helpful and accommodating. We had arrived quite early, well before check in time. They were very apologetic that our room was not available as yet and allowed us to wait in the cool of the lobby. It wasn’t even ten minutes when they came over and said “your room is now ready sir”. We were just so grateful and appreciative of their great customer service. Our room was huge and so clean and modern. We even had a view out of an actual window. Larry and Priscilla found a great spot in the corner of the room under a large lamp.

Posh Bike Hotel

For dinner we went down to the hotel restaurant. This was an authentic Chinese restaurant and with discussions on what to order with the manager we had the most delicious meal. I had a vegetarian noodle dish which was so light and tasty, full of fresh and very thinly sliced vegetables and fine noodles. Dave had a buttered chicken dish which he thoroughly enjoyed. After our filling dinner, we went for a walk outside around the area which was just full of eating places and lots of people out enjoying their dinner.

31/07/17

Kampar to Gopeng

Before we packed up and took the bikes down the lift to the foyer we had a lovely filling breakfast in the hotel café. We seem to be having trouble finding good coffee, but that’s ok the food was pretty awesome. Once the bikes were collected from the second floor we were off to find a cave to explore. Gua Tempurung was just a short 15km ride down the main highway. The turnoff to the cave led us to the edge of the mountains and beautiful jungle. Suddenly we felt at peace and back with nature.

After The Caving, Nice Rainforest Ride

We got daring and booked the ‘Grand Wet Tour’, a complete walk through the 1.9km long cave and then return via the river that flows through the cave. The group we went with was fun, a guide with a sense of humour, four girls from the local uni, a French family with two young girls around 10-12, two funny Chinese guys and us two oldies lol. The first half of the cave was pretty easy going but with lots of steps taking us high up into the grand cavern of the cave. Steps then led down and then steps led us back up a few more times, apparently around 640 steps. It was spectacular, the formation of the rocks, the stalagmites and stalactites were really impressive. The second half of the tour was for the adventurous. Here we needed to use our head torches as there was no lighting in this section of the cave. This section we were thankful for our helmets too as we came in close contact with rocks overhead as we crawled through small tunnels, climbed under rocks, squeezed through sections of rock walls, slid down on our butts on large boulders and even climbed down holes in the rock. Not only did we do all of these challenging manoeuvres on dry rocks but also in water. The cave had a river running through it and to get to the exit of the cave we had to walk through water and attack each obstacle in our way in the water. Here we were on our bellies sliding in shallow water under low ledges, crawling on our hands and knees through gravel in the water and getting absolutely saturated and dirty. As we neared the exit of the cave we could see natural day light, smell fresh air and feel a little breeze. We stepped back outside into the world once again to an oasis of tropical plants, butterflies and sunshine. We had a relaxing rest here before venturing back into the cave for our return to the start. This time we followed the river all the way back to the entrance which gave us many of the same challenges as before plus more. The hardest challenge of all was having to carefully climb down a large boulder to a half way point and then slide on your butt the rest of the way down a very slippery section of rock that wasn’t exactly smooth as it had large bumps in the way and then land on your two feet. To help everyone get down safely, the guide got a couple of the guys to carefully go down first and they were then there at the bottom to catch you. Everyone made this challenge safely. We did notice a stretcher at the top of the boulder, luckily we didn’t have the need to use it. It was really a great fun adventure exploring this cave and challenging ourselves. Once out of the cave we were able to change into clean dry clothes and have a cold drink and something to eat.

Mary, Dave and our Airbnb Host Fabian

When we left the cave we took a dirt road for about 4k’s through jungle and a lovely quiet village. As we looked back we had an amazing view of the mountain range covered in natural jungle, such a beautiful sight. Then it was back to civilisation onto a busy highway for another 5km’s before reaching our quaint little Airbnb stay in Gopeng, a colonial Chinese house. We ventured off for an early dinner and found a great spot for some roti chennai plus some fried chicken for Dave before heading back to end our day.

1/08/17

Gopeng to Ipoh

Not far to go today so we had a little sleep in. Our phone went beep beep and it was an invitation from our host, Fabian, to ask us to join him for breakfast, unfortunately Lillian was off to work, a teacher at the local secondary school.

We happily accepted and jumped in the car with Fabian and Lillian, dropping Lillian off and then off to Fabian’s favourite breakfast hangout. An Indian run café, and I had a great Chapatti brekky and coffee, while Mary tried the ginger tea and tried Nasi Lemak, hold the anchovies.

We had a great chat with Fabian, with some interesting insights into life for an expat in Malaysia.

Kek Lok Tong

In the end, we had to move on, so we headed back to load up the bikes and said our goodbyes. We had a quick fifteen kilometres to go into the outskirts of Ipoh to the Kek Look Tong Cave Temple. On approach, we noticed several of the large jungle clad limestone cliffs being quarried for a very fine marble.

We were looking forward to this visit. As we rode into the car park the scene was quite dramatic, the jungle shrouding the very large entrance to a massive cavern. We parked the bikes with advice from the security guy that we shouldn’t leave anything loose on them as the monkeys can be quite a problem.

Tek Lok Tong, Main Cavern

With all our belongings tightly tucked away in our panniers and nothing left out for little monkeys to steal we headed in to the main entrance. Wow, what a sight. With the large entrance, there was a lot of natural light flowing in. The front cavern roof was probably around one hundred metres high. Another wide staircase leads up into the rear cavern which holds the main statues, including Buddha of course. The set up is quite modern, but we found it really quite tasteful. The rear cavern leads out into a wonderful Zen garden, lake and very large lotus pond, which was a bit past its best due to a current dry spell. There was a reflexology path that really encouraged mindful walking. There were a few people in the garden exercising, meditating and practising the art of Tai Chi.  We walked around the grounds and took the time to absorb the peaceful energy it offered. The reflexology path was amazing and very grounding. We sat on the lawn area for awhile and took the opportunity to sit quietly and have a stretching session. It really was a beautiful place to visit, very uplifting and energising.

Reflexology Path, Dave Struggled To Complete This

A busy final ten kilometres, the last few of which was a nice shady boulevard, found us arriving at The French Hotel, right in the centre of Ipoh, Malaysia’s third largest city. The lady on the check in desk spotted us and came out to meet us and offered for us to park the bikes at a garage at the rear of the property and indicated for us to ride around there. There was that moment when we asked ourselves if she was being really nice, or just didn’t want us smelly cyclists hanging around the front entrance.

Butter Candles

We checked in and got set up in our very nice room, by this time we were starving, so we had a quick shower and headed for the in house café. Immediately, we knew something was wrong. No other customers. We sat down, looked at the menu, and at the prices and realised why, really expensive, by Malaysian standards. We couldn’t wait, so we just ordered something, and Mary actually found they had ginger beer on the menu, so I ordered a Tiger, the cheapest beer. Much waiting happened before the waiter came back, delivered Mary’s drink and says, sir please wait, I am getting your Tiger. He bolts out the door, picking up his motorbike helmet on the way, oh oh. Twenty minutes later he comes tearing back in with a very hot bottle of Tiger and a glass of ice. Now by this time and with that price, I wasn’t going to be having a hot beer. I was really struggling to explain that you can’t pour the beer over ice, well, maybe you can but I wasn’t up for that. Of course, he had taken the top off, so I couldn’t send it back. Finally, we had the grand idea that he could get an ice bucket, which he did, and then I had to wait another ten minutes for it to be a bit less warm, which was ok as our lunch hadn’t arrived yet.  It was so Fawlty Towers, there were other cold beers in the fridge that he could have offered me, so I give him full marks for following through, the man wants a Tiger, the man gets a Tiger. The really funny thing was that they had a special on for five Tigers in an ice bucket, I wished I was going to be around to see those orders flowing in later, he only got one.

That was pretty much the end of the day, a little late rain kept us in for a while and then we went out to check out the local market and buy some fruit, unfortunately it had just closed up, oh well. We had a great skype with Lauren, Ash and Isla where lots of laughs were had.

2/08/17

Ipoh to Kuala Kangsar

We wanted to get an early start so we could see another cave temple on the way out towards Kuala Kangsar. We arrived with perfect timing, 7:55, five minutes before opening. The Perak Tong Cave Temple was quite different to yesterday, it was also a bit smaller.  This one, rather than having a rear exit, had numerous flights of steps leading up through the mountain to a lookout and Pagoda on the top that looked out over the valley that Ipoh sits in. But the difference was more than this, it seemed more real, more spiritual.

Perak Tong Temple Caves

Perak Tong Temple Cave

We decided to head for the top, check out the view and work our way back down through the temple and visit the various chambers as we went. The view was cool, but very hazy and quite industrial. On the way back down we met a local businessman, showing some international guests through the temple before starting work. He explained to us that this temple was ‘Taoist’ meaning that they worship various gods, not just Buddha, and was pleased to hear that we felt differently about this one compared to Kek Lok Tong.

We spent an hour looking at the various shrines and were very impressed, the temple from outside is very understated and unassuming.

We got back on the bikes while eying off a group of monkeys who were starting to look cheeky, but it turned out that the security guard was about to feed them, so the bikes were saved again.

We headed off and into a freshening Northerly, which sucked, but, as it was sweeping down off the highlands, it was keeping the temperature down, which was cool. We were going ok, but took turns in the front to help keep the energy up, something we hadn’t had to do so far this trip. Luckily we were effectively doing a loop around a mountain, so we were going to get a tail wind for the last half.

Yummy Fresh Fruit

At the top of the loop, we spotted a tiny fruit stall that had some nice looking bananas. We were hungry, so we stopped and bought a small bunch. The lady offered Mary a seat in the shade, so we could sit down and eat some. Then we noticed her cutting up some nice fresh watermelon, so we got some of that too. Shortly after that, a school bus pulled up in front of the stall and called out for his daily piece of fresh Papaya. The stall lady delivered it into the bus, the driver wasn’t planning on getting out, the ultimate fast food. Then the driver noticed us and asked us a few questions before asking if we had tried the Papaya. We said no, to which he called out to the lady who then delivered two large slices to us and indicated that the bus driver was paying and went to collect the money from him. What a great guy, and we let him know how grateful we were by demolishing the beautiful fruit and thanking him deeply. He drove off, no doubt feeling that he had done something very nice for a couple of visitors to his country, thank you again friend, whoever you were.

Two Papaya Please, Thanks Mate 

Travelling on, our direction change put the breeze to our backs, and the grade headed down slightly as we headed into the Perak River valley. We came across a closed bridge that we were meant to cross, but a quick check of the map showed a crossing further down the valley which didn’t cost us any time at all, but what’s more we had a blue painted bike lane all the way for the last ten ks, nice.

We rolled across quite a grand bridge with the large and muddy Perak River flowing quickly below us. We found our accommodation for the night called ‘The Shop’.  Chosen purely for their photo of a nice coffee on the Agoda site. They didn’t let us down.

We got a recommendation of a Chinese Restaurant for dinner and headed out early, with threatening skies, that once again amounted to not much. The restaurant was a very basic place but had a good feel about it, the family was sitting down to their own dinner before the evening rush.

The manager sat down and interviewed us before suggesting a meal, Mary had a really nice steamed Tofu, I had a sweet and sour chicken, and we shared stir fried vegetables and plain rice. This all went really well with a cold Tiger and a fresh apple juice for Mary. We waddled home very content and enjoyed a walk around the very nice town in the fading light. What a great day.

3/08/17

Kuala Kangsar to Taiping

We Stayed at The Shop

Early starts are agreeing with us.  But this morning there was bad news from home. Mary’s old pony Kristie wasn’t  doing very well, and it was decided between Mary and Lauren that it was time to call our local vet and have her put to sleep. Anyone who knows Mary and Lauren, knows how much they love animals, especially their horses and dogs. Kristie had lived to just a month short of thirty five years, which is astounding, and testament to the love and caring they both have for the animals in their lives.

As we left the lovely town of Kuala Kangsar, we were both reflecting on Kristie’s life. Mary bought her as a weanling, at 6 months of age and showed her as brood stock and as a ridden show pony, an astonishing career resplendent in many Championship ribbons. Perhaps most importantly though, Kristie went on to teach so many local young kids to ride, including later, our own. She was the epitome of the Welsh Mountain Pony breed, kind, well-mannered but clever enough to teach a young rider that they actually needed to ride. We have so many great memories of fun days at shows or just out in the home paddock. It’s sad to think that she won’t be there when we get home after this trip.

The rest of the day went by in a bit of a blur. We hadn’t slept well, no fault of the hotel. We only had about forty ks to do today to get to Taiping. We actually had some climbing and had to break the rain jackets out for the first time. Not much talking was done on the way today.

Lovely Park in Taiping

Arriving early at our guesthouse, Sojourn Beds and Café, we were greeted by Lim, and later Ken, the owner, who perked us up with his energy and his love of everything about Taiping. We couldn’t check in yet, so we got changed and got bustled out the door by Ken, with directions of where to eat and what to see, so off we went into the rising heat.

It was a bit of a fool’s errand, we just wandered a bit aimlessly, couldn’t make a decision about anything and ended up strolling through the very nice lake gardens before eating lunch at a place Ken had recommended.

Un-Named Grave

After lunch, we decided to go a little further up the road to the Taiping War Cemetery. This was a Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, and I was keen to take a look, having been to the Bomana Cemetery in PNG before hiking the Kokoda Track. This was much smaller, around eight hundred graves, and unlike Bomana which is mostly Australian graves, this one was soldiers from all over the Commonwealth, a large number of Indians, followed by British, Australian and four Malaysian.

Taiping War Cemetary

We were quite disturbed by the number of headstones, especially Australians that were un-named. Apparently this happened as a result of many field burials that couldn’t be removed to this site until many years after the war. I find these cemeteries to be a deeply moving experience. They are always immaculately kept and I am proud that we do such a respectful job of honoring these men’s and women’s final resting place. It is also a grim reminder, that war is a game played by fools who would never have the courage to pull on a pair of boots and a set of jungle greens themselves.

“Mateship, Courage, Endurance, Sacrifice.”

4/08/17

Taiping to Parit Buntar

The alarm came around quickly this morning and as we packed up and headed downstairs of the hostel trying really hard not to make any noise and wake others up, we met a French girl who was also making an early start. While making our breakfast we had a lovely chat with her, she was a volunteer on the orangutan island where they rehabilitate sick, injured and displaced orangutans. We left the hostel just after 7am and had a pretty easy ride out of the city. Once back on highway 1 it was just a matter of following the white line ahead so we had no need for the navigational system today until we reached the outskirts of Parit Buntar.

The rain came down on us again this morning just like yesterday. It started lightly but we weren’t going to be fooled so stopped and put the jackets on. We rode for a while in the rain but then again, just like yesterday, it got a bit ridiculous so we pulled over at a bus shelter and sat it out for about 20 minutes. Once it started to ease we headed back out and continued down the road.

Sometimes The Only Thing Worthy of a Photo

About 20km’s from our destination we saw a nice little ‘restoran’ on the side of the road and stopped to check it out hoping they were making roti. We were in luck so we sat down and had the best roti canai made by a very happy Indian man. He must have noticed that I was pushing away the chilly sauce that was in my dipping bowl and brought me out a bowl with no chilly sauce in it and said ‘not hot’ with a big smile. How nice was he. Dave enjoyed a good coffee and I had a great ginger tea and we were joined by the shop’s lovely cat.

We arrived at our very cheap hotel (59myr) just before 11am and were able to get an early check in. After a shower and a little rest, we headed out to check out the town. Not much to see other than lots of nothing shops, but we did find a nice place to sit and have a nice fresh juice and light lunch. We ventured back to the hotel where I ended up having a 3 hour granny nap while Dave started to do a little photo editing. After a nice dinner out, we were back in our room for an early night. Tomorrow we ride to Penang and have a few days break. We will have been on the bikes for 11 days straight now without a day off so it will be nice to chill for a few days.

5/08/17

Parit Buntar to Penang

We Love It When We Can Ride Straight To Our Room

We got out of our crazy cheap hotel without delay this morning, yes, we were keen to get to Georgetown and have a few days of sleep ins and being tourists, but mostly because the hotel sucked. Funnily, we do seem to have the best sleep in the worst hotels, what’s that about?

Zipping along quite nicely and not really taking too much notice of google maps on our route guidance, all of a sudden, we realised that we were being funnelled into the E3 expressway, oh oh.

A wide arc of toll gates loomed, but we knew that motorbikes got through for free, so we just followed them,, past the sign that said NO BISIKAL, we just went for it anyway, we’ll blame google maps right?

Going Down

Fast and Furious, luckily there was a good wide verge, but eleven ks later we were following onto the on ramp for the bridge over to Pulau Penang, past the next NO BISIKAL sign. Next minute, a loud voice from the fat controllers’ office had us pulled over and a “No, you can’t go over bridge, you must take ferry, turn around, go back. Where you from? Australia?” by now we were getting the idea, so we turned around and went back the wrong way, which I am sure was more dangerous than going over the bridge. When we passed his office on the other side he called out to us again, and gave us the thumbs up, haha. We were really looking forward to the ride over the causeway and very long bridge. Oh well.

So we rode around and eventually found the ferry terminal, bought our ticket, 1.40myr each and cued up with all the motorbikes. We got separated on the ferry, which really wasn’t a problem, except one old lady who talked to me on the way across was very disappointed to not meet my wife because she was sure that she would be very beautiful. I assured her, that she is.

The advantage of taking the ferry is that it delivers you right into the heart of Georgetown only one kilometre from where we were staying in Armenian Street. The ride in was crazy though, lots of tourists, lots to look at, and we got separated once again.

Penang Ferry, Mary Lost in the Crowd Back There.

Our friend Rachel, who we stayed with in Panyambungan in Sumatra, recommended this place called ‘Armenian House’ which was great. It’s right in the heart of all the action, food options galore as well as great coffee, beer, and plenty to see. So we checked in early, it was only around 10:30, and the lovely owner Kim, said the room was ready, so we could go straight up, which was totally awesome of her. We parked Larry and Priscilla under the front bar, so that they could make spectacles of themselves and meet all their adoring fans, while we were off doing boring shit like shopping, drinking coffee and eating great food.

More about our time in Padang, next blog.