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The great thing about cycling around the World is crossing from one country into another and seeing the differences emerge as you leave behind the bureaucracy of the borders. This couldn't be more evident as you travel from Thailand into Malaysia, where you suddenly find yourself situated amongst predominantly Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnicities who each bring their separate cultures to this amazing country, and with it, a fusion of delicious foods which are absolutely to die for.
My first main stop was George Town on the island of Penang, where the streets are adorned with the most amazing street art and old colonial buildings rise up in all 4 corners of the UNESCO Heritage site. This blog mainly features photos depicting street art which was absolutely amazing!
After travelling in Thailand for nearly 4 months it was great to have a good old fashioned Indian curry again and in my personal opinion the Indian food in Malaysia is far superior to that which I experienced on the Indian sub-continent. The Indian population's ancestors in Malaysia are predominantly from the Tamil Nadu area of India and whence the food is heavily coconut based....yummy!
Walking through 'Little India' in
George Town I felt like I had been transported back to India as I watched beautiful Indian ladies strolling through the streets with their colourful sarees. In other streets nearby lanterns lit up the pavements as we walked through a Chinese populated area. The hugest ethnicity are of course the Malay people. For my Iranian partner Noushin it was strange to see the muslim women wearing hijabs alongside other women in short skirts, but here all religions are tolerated, which is refreshing to see.
In George Town, I met up again with my German cyclist friends Barbara and Sebastian and the 3 of us departed together on our bicycles to cycle south towards the Cameron Highlands.
A hill station from the days of the British, the Cameron Highlands offered relief from the heat, as well as fresh strawberries in chocolate sauce and climbing up the 60 Km highway to reach the top was worth every ounce of sweat. Although very touristy, the tea plantations were spectacular offering wonderful views across the hills and valleys.
On our way up to the Highlands I was fortunate enough to hear the cry of gibbons emanating from the jungle as well
as seeing other wild monkeys, snakes, monitor lizards, spiders and other creepy crawlies. Malaysia's 'Taman Negara' relatively close to the Cameron Highlands is the oldest rainforest on earth and with it comes every wildlife imaginable.
Unfortunately, further days spent in the saddle sweating profusely caused me to have another two abscesses, which subsequently forced me to take the bus for the final part of the trip into Kuala Lumpa.
Once in KL I was fortunate to be hosted by the wonderful Warm Shower host Akmal who incidentally has a great bike shop near Bangsar, offering great services and offering parts such as Rohloff and Schwalbe tyres as well as other touring bits and bobs.
From KL, I returned to Bangkok to meet up with my partner Noushin who had returned from Iran and the two of us spent the next 3 weeks completing a southern tour of Thailand visiting the islands of Koh Samed, Koh Tao and Koh Phangan before we crossed back over into Malaysia and headed to KL to once again resume our bike ride to Singapore.
Whilst in KL, we were very fortunate to be hosted by one of our Iranian friends Baback
in his 'Teppan Tomato' restaurant where we sampled delicious food prepared by his staff and enjoyed a great social evening catching up on the past few months. As well as meeting up with friends we also took the opportunity to see the famous Patronas Twin Towers.
Having submitted our Chilean visa application, Noushin and I set off from KL, and headed south where we stumbled upon the city of Putrajaya, where the Malaysian Government is located. Stunning architecture adorned the skyline as we transited this beautiful city. The Government was only relocated here from KL in 1999 due to the capital being too congested, so everything is nice, new and shiny.
Continuing south and looking for accommodation we ended up in the town of Pasir Panjang where we met the wonderful 'Sky' who allowed us to sleep on his 1968 London Double Decker bus in his front yard. A "British memorabilia' enthusiast he also had a British telephone box and post box in his house.
From here we continued to the famous city of Malacca where we were hosted by the most welcoming and generous Warm Shower host Tan, who looked after us for 4 days and
took us out to several restaurants in the city. Here we enjoyed Baba Nyonya food for the very first time. It stems from the time that the Chinese traders came to Malacca and intermingled with the Malay population. The influence of the two cultures mixing together produced this food which I have to say was the best food I had sampled in the whole of south-east asia.
Malacca was formerly administered by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British and as such has a fabulous history with a mixture of old buildings on show. Jonker Street is the famous street with an outdoor market which opens on the weekend. It is here that you can witness the cycle rickshaws drivers with their colourful bicycle taxis, complete with fitted loudspeaker systems touting for business whilst blasting out anything from classical to dance music.
As we continued further south to the town of Muar, we bumped into another cycle enthusiast 'Acid' who kindly paid our overnight accommodation for us. The following day as we stopped off for Coconut Ice cream shakes, the Malay vendor refused to charge us even though we had double helpings and finally in another town, a pub
manager gave us a round of Guinness and a glass of beer on the house.
And so we finally arrived in Johur Bahru, the border city with Singapore, where we settled for the night before crossing over the causeway into Singapore the following day. As we entered the Malaysian Passport Control Centre we unfortunately found ourselves in the wrong lane meant for cars. We had our Passports stamped, but then another Policeman turned up and told us that we had committed an offence. We told him that it was our first time crossing the border and he told us to follow him to the motorcycle lane. He drove us down a tunnel where he stopped us and started talking about big fines. We told him that we would go back to the centre and pay any fines. He took us a little further and demanded to see both of our passports before he started rambling on again about extortionate fines. We stood our ground and finally he released us without a fine. We were relieved and so we continued over to Singapore where we faced a new round of passport checks. The cycle journey continues...........................................
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I love reading your updates...
and the memories they bring back...I went to high school in the Cameron Highlands.