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Bangkok-Singapore by bicycle
Report of a 20 day's trip
Part 2: Malaysia
Introduction
During any cycling tour, I always make a logbook. In the first place I need something to
ventilate my impressions (I always travel alone) and then, of course, I like others
to read it. That's why I try to make it compact and why I put photographs at the text.
In order to make an even more attractive page on the Web, I further reduced text and pictures.
This report starts halfway my trip, from the Thai-Malaysian border. If you
missed the first part and prefer to start at the beginning, you can
switch to the Thailand part first.
06.03 (Mon) Alor Setar km 1237
With a nice tailwind I left Hat Yai this morning, over a fine wide road. On both
sides of the road were many rubber plantations. Exactly at noon I crossed the
border and then I was in Malaysia. I kept the nice wide (4 lane) road until my
today's goal: Alor Setar. This afternoon I got my first flat tyre.
07.03 (Tue) Penang km 1397
Penang is an island and it is famous for its nature, its botanic gardens and fine
beaches. When I arrived in Butterworth at 3:00 p.m., with 100 kms recorded for
today, I took the ferry to Penang in order to see if Penang is really so special. I
thought: I'll make a little ride around the island, then I have seen everything.
When I see a good hotel on the beach, somewhere on the west coast, then I'll take
it. And for two nights, because I had already decided to take a rest-day. That
"little round" appeared to be no less then 80 kms and the hotels appeared to be
situated on the north coast, that was at 3/4 of the round. So, altogether I made
160 kms today. The east- and south coast of Penang are not nice, but filthy and
busy. On the other hand the west- and north coast are beautiful.
There was a lot of climbing involved.
The north coast of Penang. Mar. 7
09.03 (Thu) Road no. 1 km 1440
It is now Thursday morning and I have left Penang again. The rest-day was not a big
success. Now I am having coffee, but I have not found the correct formula yet for
ordering coffee. Now you can see that Malaysia has been a British colony. The tea-minded
English have no knowledge of a nice cup of coffee and they transferred this
no-knowledge to the local people. My first coffee, just across the border, was a cup
of mourne concentrated milk with little taste of coffee.
I learned the word for "black coffee", but then they served me awfully sweet black
coffee. Several times I have tried to explain that I wanted black coffee without
sugar, but always I got that terrible sweet black coffee again. I need to know how
to ask it exactly in Malaysian.
Along the west coast, the country was very flat. Mar. 10
09.03 (Thu) Pantai Remis km 1574
It was hard to find a hotel today. I thought I would find one in Beruas, but there
was nothing at all. The nearest accommodation: 25 kilometers away, in the wrong
direction. That was quite a disappointment, because I had already done 150 kms. And
it was also too late to go on further away, in the good direction. Now I am in a
filthy, noisy room without toilet nor shower in the only "hotel" of Pantai Remis.
And the price was much too high.
10.03 (Fri) Telok Anson km 1678
Today was a less successful day. The countryside was not nice and flat, with boring
straight roads with very few villages and I was very tired. I decided to stop in
Telok Anson, already after 104 kilometers, because it is the only town in this
region. When I saw a big building in the distance with a signboard "Hotel Anson", I
thought that would by the turn of tide. But it was false hope: everything that
functions in a normal hotel (the elevator, the telephone, the airco, etc.) was out
of order.
Jungle in Central Malaysia. Mar. 12
11.03 (Sat) Raub km 1884
This morning I left early, in order to reach Raub, if that would not be too
demanding. It is the first decent town on the route.
After Kuala Kubu Baharu I wanted to stop in the next village for coffee and for
filling my water bottles. But, there was no village. The road kept on climbing, the
countryside was wonderful (mountains covered with thick tropical rain forest), but
I ran out of drinking water. There came no end to the always ascending road. I
stopped people, asking for water, but nobody could help me. Somebody offered me to
take me in his van, but I decided that the situation was not yet desperate enough
for such an emergency action. Moments later I heard the sound of a waterfall and I
climbed with my water bottle through the jungle, towards the sound. The water was
bright and clear and it tasted marvelously. I took a shower as well. With a
refreshed feeling I went on climbing and on the top (800 m) was a hamlet with some
eating / drinking stalls. There I treated myself with watermelon and baked bananas.
Then: on to Raub. There was no alternative, because apart from the few houses on
top of the pass, Raub was the first place after 70 kilometers through the jungle.
Today, I recorded 206 kilometers.
(a more
comprehensive version of above story can be found in Dutch on a different web page).
12.03 (Sun) Jerantut km 1983
At 3:30 p.m. I stopped at hotel Sri Emas in Jerantut. I did 99 kms and it was an
easy job. I had thought that the heavy ride of yesterday would knock me down today,
but that was not the case. Also I had expected to ride in mountaineous land, but
also that turned out different. My altimeter showed elevations of not less than 80
and not more than 130 meters.
13.03 (Mon) Kuantan km 2152
The road to Kuantan looks more like a forest track than a through road, but in any
case, it is paved. Hardly any people live here and there is hardly any traffic.
I could have passed this town on my left and continue straight south along the coast,
but I longed for a good hotel in a big town.
14.03 (Tue) Pekan km 2208
Pekan is indicated on the map as reasonably big, but unfortunately, it is nothing.
There is no hotel; I am now in a "resthouse" You see those things in former English
colonies and they provided shelter to travelling Englishmen. I do believe that in
the old days resthouses like this provided adequate, high quality lodging, but since
the English have left Malaysia, nothing has been done on maintenance (in any case
in this resthouse). The building is made of wood and it is completely rotten.
Nothing is functioning well. The landlord gave me a room, but not very
enthusiastically, because I had disturbed him in his sleep. Later he produced a
deep sigh when I woke him up again for a towel. I searched the whole of
Pekan for a place to eat and I found 2 restaurants, apart
from the food-market. One restaurant did
not have any food, the other one served me a lousy plate.
You cannot say "this town left a bad impression on me",
because this wasn't a town. This was nothing.
on the way to Mersing, southern Malaysia, Mar. 15
16.03 (Thu) Mersing km 2363
The ride to Mersing (155 km) went first through a flat countryside with straight
roads, sometimes very close along the beach. A little stone, that I noticed too
late, made me have my second flat tyre. Just after I crossed the border of the
state of Johor, there were more hills and cycling became more pleasant.
In Mersing,
I found a hotel that actually was of lower standard that I wanted, but I was tired
and did not want to look further. I started to feel sick and I could scarcely drag
myself outside to buy water, but the rest of the evening I stayed in my room. I
threw up and had a terrible night. I decided to stay a day in Mersing to recover,
but definitely in a different hotel.
17.03 (Fri) Singapore km 2514
Singapore! The end. I made it. I was welcomed heartily by friends of mine and I am
looking forward to spent the weekend in a family atmosphere. The most remarkable
event of today was the fact that the last 8 kilometers, in Singapore, were ridden
in a pouring rain, the only rain I got during this trip!
***
