Melaka to Penang

After a day off in Melaka which is about half way to Penang we set off again on our trip with our 5 am early morning starts. Trying to keep the the sea breezy coast as much as possible, we rode up from Melaka for Port Dickson (sounds like we're sailing - hmm, that's an idea for another trip). The route looked good but there appeared to be a strange part of the road that went round rather than straight and was quite wiggly. On our cheapo 2 year out of date map from Singapore this didn't look too bad until we reached the huge mountainous lump of land we had to cycle over around midday... managed to lose a few pounds in sweat getting up. Every time I reached what I thought was the summit, another bend showed that we still had some way to go... reminded me of cycling to brighton on that nasty hill at the end (those that have done that will know what I mean well). What goes up must come down though so the route down to Port Dicko was pretty good and we were rewarded near the end by a beach resort where we took in a few drinks before the final 20 odd kms to the town.

The next day we set off early as usual but weren't quite sure of the destination as there weren't many places in the distance we can manage (about 80/90km). Nat chose a place called Morib on the coast but being in small print on our map indicated that this might be too small for a hotel, but as it was on the coast, it may have a beach resort type hotel.. who knows!! We rode down some pretty seriously straight roads that make you want to look down at the road and keep thinking of something else so you can look up and relax a little knowing that you have only several more km to go (go where.. not sure but when you can't see the end of a long road you feel better :) ). After a good 90km of that we finally arrived in Morib and all along the coast rose we saw on the map, we hadn't managed to see the coast, not once! We were assured though by a coconut seller that Morib had hotels so not to worry.. phew! Entering Morib we noticed a lovely golf club with 5 star hotel.. great! Not for us though on our budget so closer into Morib we went.. and then.. out again! Where was MORIB? Oh dear... where are all these lovely budget hotels??? On speaking further to some locals we were assured there was a cheaper hotel near the golf course though so back to the area of the 5* hotel we went with a smile on our faces as we pulled into the drive for the hotel. Seemed very quiet though other than some builders... errrrr and the hotel? It was a gutted out building.. Only one thing for it now was the golf club 5*. Nat returning from the desk in the hotel has a huge smile on her face though and starting talking swimming pools and tv etc.. but Natty what is the price??? (even though we had not much choice).. 25 pounds!?? GREAT Lets go!! before long we were drinking and eating and swimming in the pool. We appeared to have the whole hotel to ourselves. Apparently the weather is really bad at the moment due to rain and clouds. No... SUPERB for cycling as sun will drain our energy so fast Nat is in the bus shelter on the side of the road before 11.00am

After a nice relaxing evening in Morib we set off for Klang outside KL for our next night. getting Into KL itself would be a bit of a nightmare on a bike and both of us have visited there before so we decided to save a few km and go to Klang (another bond place on our map so should have a hotel). We have found that Nat does very well when given Gatorade (energy drink) when she's flagging a bit so passing Tesco's we poped in to stock up. Really annoying though as before I left the UK I gave my clubcard to my mother and now I was being reminded to not forget my clubcard.. ahh think of all those points I missed out on. Klang itself was pretty disappointingly built up so an early start saw us leave our smelly smokey nightmare of a hotel.

On viewing the map closely, it looked like there was a 'resort' of some kind in Kuala Sengalor. Not just any kind of resort but a Firefly resort! Sounded cool so that is where we headed. On entering Kuala Senaglor we saw signs for the Firefly park and cycled the 7kms to the park. Park... notice I said park.. well that is because the Firefly Resort is back the way we cycled, 7kms and then another 15kms out north of the town.. oops!! my fault and with an angry Nat we managed to get there about another hot hour later. Although a bit over priced (a third more than the 5 star we had before), and basic (a hut on stilts in a mosquito infested pond), the stay was a good choice as in the evening we had a ride on an electric boat to see some fireflies on the bushes by the river and that was amazing. We missed out on Easter this year being where we were and not getting my usual choco egg with a mug designed to hold a bar of chocolate of some sort BUT, we had another Christmas tree with twinkling lights!! Really superb and something that we agreed we both have loved to see in the past but probably wouldn't have experienced had we not travelled on our bicycles.

The next day saw us ride up to Sabak Burnam another 70km which turned out to be the wettest day so far. Normally the rain seems to come in the evening and really pours down but today.. all day we had a shower.. a serious power on our bikes! Despite the rain though which is mostly warm, we had a good ride other than I started to get a weird tendon pain in my right ankle. After the ride i noticed it hurt quite a bit when walking to the point where I was concerned that I may have actually done some damage somewhere. We ended up taking another day off and relaxing, checking mails and also doing some good internet heath self diagnosis.. always a good thing.. who needs doctors?? (ok maybe not so good but in this case not too bad). it turning out after reviewing some video footage of myself cycling and checking some good cycling sites, I had been 'ankling'. it's a term used for when you dip your toe down when cyling and move your ankle too mich when peddaling. Some people have really hurt themselves doing this apparently and in the cause of trying tpo get performance. me? I was trying to dip my toes into the puddles so I could get some water through my sandles.. well.. it felt nice at the time!! :) Ok silly thing to do but proper peddaling, stretching and tiger balm saw that it didn't get worse. It was here in Sabak that we also discovered the largest joss sticks we had ever seen. They stood about 5 foot tall on top of their posts by a cool Chinese temple next to the river.

We set off for Lumut after our day of rest but the pain in my ankle didn't seem to have gone completely. On out map it looked as though there was a town about 40kms north that had a railway. We decided we would ride to the junction that spilt off to Lumut or Teluk Intan and make the choice there depending on my ankle pain as after that, if we chose Lumut we'd have to cycle all the way to penang as there wouldn't be a station for a choice. Seeing as our main destination fopr cycling is yet to come (Koprea/Japan) and we have to cycle far, we decided that although the pain hadn't gopt worse, we didn't see any point in maybe making a tendon problem worse by cycling 100km or so. We decided upon the extra 16km to Teluk Intan. We were pretty disappointed, well I was, Nat appeared to cheer up a a bit ;) Entering the town we enquired on the station but got some weird looks and surprised faces. it appeared the 2006 map we had must have been out of date and we had to cycle another 30kms to another town.. mm great!! Just what my ankle wanted.

Sure enough after 30 odd km we arrived in a very small railway town named Tapah Road. The station looked amazing though and all spankingly clean. Just hoped there was a train we could get to do the last 100km to Penang (although by this time we had cycled 70km in the wrong direction so might as well have stayed toward Penang!!!) Oh.. more surprised faces though as I entered the station platform and was ushered into the station masters office. If appeared that there was a train going to Butterworth but it wasn't for another 9 hrs and actually.. the station is not open yet and we couldn't buy tickets even. Although this was the case, as with all our experiences so far in Malaysia, people seem to very keen to help us and the 3 different sets of shifts that 9 hrs in the station were all extremely helpful and eventually, at 1120 pm we got on the train which was making a stop at the station to practise for when it's supposed to stop one day. In the 3 mins it stopped we got our bikes on the parcel carriage and were sitting in 0 degree air condition luxury. Well luxury for the first 30 mins and then I froze into a block of ice as I was sweaty and wearing shorts and sandals :) Nat is so small she curled into a small ball and covered herself up in a tiny shawl she had. Whilst we were in the station for 9 hrs we did find out some interesting information. The station in the town we had tried to get a train from earlier (Telok Intan), had closed it's doors and the track left for the jungle 18 years ago! No wonder people looked surprised when we asked where the train station was!!! Our 2006 map needed a bit of an update I think.

It took 6 hrs to do the 100km in the night (not sure where we went or what we did) but I was grateful that we had arrived in Butterworth for the ferry to Penang!! Yippeee!! another 20km saw us on the beach and drinking beer with 806km on the clock! No cycling for a few days so beer it was and mm red I got as I swam in the sea and lazed on the beach. As I type this I am covered in after sun cream but hopefully it'll all be over in a few days and I won't feel like I have some kind of lighter fluid over myself and set myself alight. Even with a lovely 'developing tan' (I don't usually get burnt honest and I usually don cream!), we have managed to swap our bikes for horse riding on the beach and in the jungle (well the horse let us sit on their backs for 1.5 hrs.. not sure if we were really in control and 'riding'), rented a scooter and toured Penang, visited a lovely butterfly farm, snake temple with venoumous Pit Vipers (only me as Nat is scared of snakes which is a good job as we are going to Australia we there aren't any, or is that Ireland?) and Nat has been paragliding (I have sunburn so decided to have a boat ride and take pics ;) ).

We leave tomorrow bound for Bangkok but leave Malaysia with a smile and a sad face as it's been a wonderful trip and everyone we have met have been lovely hosts. When in Bangkok we will purchase some small backpacks and camping equipment. Packs for backpack tours over the next few weeks and camping equipment for the next leg of the cycling.

Singapore noodles and two very wet cyclists

From our wonderful run down 1930's hotel in Calcutta we set off for the 20km cycle of hell to the airport so we could get on the Singapore airlines flight to Singapore. The traffic was pretty horrendous and with the sun beating down hard as we followed the GPS to the airport were both VERY happy to get into the air conditioned airport safe and sound. We got there with hours to spare but this gave us the time to relax and strip down the bikes and repack ready for the flight. Singapore Airlines give 20kg's for checked in baggage but we had nearly 60kgs for the both of us. We got ready to discuss how they would take the bikes completely unpacked and pay the excess baggage costs. Amazingly though the staff just helped me with the bikes and then just double checked the combined weight but said all was in order... without any excess! Yippee!! We had our boarding passes and all set for Singapore!

The shortish flight to Singapore landed us in Changi airport around 0630 and gave us plenty of time to relax, assemble the bikes and look at our tourist info map that I got at the airport to see how we would cycle to my friend HT's house in the centre of the city. I had her house 'GPS'd' of course but didn't have a road map at all. I kind of remembered the route slightly from my trip a few years ago when I rode around Singapore for hours without a map on my motorbike whilst trying to keep out the way of the police and expressway cameras (another story). Whilst assembling the bikes though an ex Singapore Airlines pilot expressed a great interest in our cycle trip and told us about a cycle path going from the airport right down the coast to the city. That sounded excellent.. the only thing we had to do was get down the expressway from the airport as quick as possible and try to avoid the expressway police cameras and of course not get flattened. It was only a couple of km's apparently. Oh and what a couple of km's it was... and why is it whenever I come here I seem to be trying to avoid police??!! All good though and with just an hours sleep on the plane in over 24hrs we managed to get down the expressway and find the AMAZING cycle path by the beach which was simply paradise for us. We didn't make it too far before finding a McDonalds and I threw myself into the sea and had a little swim.. mmm SUPERB!! I LOVE Singapore!

A few superb days in Singapore staying at HT's flat (thanks SO MUCH), we saw quite a few of the touristy things like the big lion and zoo etc and we had to tear ourselves away and plan our first days cycle. We set off early and then managed to stay in the food court until 10.00 with HT talking before we cycled to the border and entered Malaysia. Simple border to cross with a quick stamp of the passport and onwards we went straight to a ATM and fried chicken outlet to refuel. Before we managed to get back on the bikes it started to pour with rain... REALLY pour. Tough cyclists that we are, we set off in the rain (actually it's nice as it's cooler.. as we're not that tough really ;) ). We suddenly found ourselves cycling down the equivalent of the A1(M) on the hard shoulder which is not so nice. Checking the GPS and the map it was the right road though and we just prayed that it'd get a little smaller and quieter the further we went. It did fortunately and with the help of a kind chap who stopped and verified that the road we'd chosen to head to coast was ok to cycle down, we headed west. 8 Kms later and we managed to reach Pontian next to the coast. After a good nights sleep we set off again along the coast to Batu Pahat. ALong the way we met two Polish cyclists who had been cycling for nearly 2 years from Poland. We stopped to chat for a few mins and they mentioned a UK chap named Tim to look out for. It was all very exciting to see other cyclists even if they looked much fitter than us fatty oldies. Just coming into the town we got completely soaked but it was great.. like a power shower!!!.. I held my face the rain and wished I had my shampoo. A lovely chilled out evening in a small hotel and we thought all was going well. The next day we got up nice and early and set off for the 100km trek to Malaka. We saw English Tim along the way and discovered he was nearing the end of his 2 year cycle to Australia. With out short few months we couldn't hope to cycle all the way so it started to come to light that we'd have to use the train a bit as well as our bikes for some of the way. All was going great.... until we reached the 48km mark. This is where the hot sun must had got poor little Natty and she started to get tired. We ended up staying the night in a place called Muar and realised 100km might be a bit far too soon in this heat. In the air conditioned room I set about removing Nat's important cosmetics and some of her lothes. Her bags were just so heavy and wasn't helping at all. I moved a load of heavy stuff to my bike and threw some things away. Poor old Nat, but... she agreed it was a good idea. Now she had a nice light bike.. and mine? Well who know what it weighs now but the things reminds me more of my motorbike trip now.. without the engine! Well all good training to get rid of my belly I guess ;)

Well, a few great days eating durian by the road (that smelly fruit that Nat and I love so much), and a rest day here in Melaka and we're going to try and reach our destination of Penang for a couple of days holiday. May take a week but we're doing ok and the country is so friendly so far.

Varanasi to Kolkatta (Calcutta)

Written by Nat:

After we left Varanasi by train and I had a very exciting experience that night. We left Varanasi around 9 pm and fell asleep but woke up at 3 am as I saw some guy look very dodgy. He was standing around our area and at first I saw him staring at a Japanase tourist below Dave but then thought he must be a thief. I was not sure and it was happened quite quick and then he walked away. Then at 4 am an Indian guy who was sleeping below me turned the light on and started panicking and said someone stole his bag! He held the cut chain up in the air. Dave had always warned me about this issue on the train but this time I saw it myself. It was lucky as I was tempted to leave my bag under the seat below but Dave insisted we should sleep next to them. After 4 am I didn't sleep properly until we arrived at Kolkatta. On the train we slept on the bunk beds the top one which very close to the fan on the roof and it was very small just enough for my size. Poor Dave had to bend his knees for 13 hours journey even though he can straight his legs cross over to my side but it was very uncomfortable for us.

We cycled from Howrah station to Sudder street in Kolkatta where we hoped to find a hotel as it's the back packer area. It was very difficult like other cities in India but to add to the chaos we had the added bonus of the summer heat coming. Each time we stopped to buy fruit or work out where we were, we attracted a huge staring crowd. We were pretty messy by the time we arrived (with the GPS again!).

In the last couple days in Kolkatta we have enjoyed ourselves very much here. We went to see the Victoria Memorial which is amazing and I have learned more about the relationship between Britain and India history. It's great! The memorial was built in 1906 just 5 years after Queen Victoria died. It was very great place to visit and best place to avoid all the crazy stuff outside. The other good place we visited was the botanical garden which has the largest banyan tree in the world. It was very impressive and the whole garden looks like a jungle. We even saw a few Indian Kingfisher birds! That gave us a nice appetite for some beers in the evening. :-)

Tomorrow we have a flight booked to Singapore and we will make the trip by bicycle again which is around 13 km. We have a very itchy bums to start cycle properly from Singapore. We have enjoyed ourselves very much here in India but I feel it's time for us to CYCLE!!! Dave is looking forward to cycling with a coolie hat on I think.

ps. Dave says so far he hasn't had a repeat of what he got last time he came here (15 yrs ago). What's that? :-)

AGRA - VARANASI - BODH GAYA - VARANASI

From Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal, we headed east with our bikes but again using the train to cover the 600kms distance (13 hrs). It would have 6 days of dust, trucks and and a very unhappy wife had we gone by bicycle. Although it was not in the original plan to cycle in India, it was still tempting slightly as the hassle of putting the bikes on the train can be a bit much sometimes.
Varanasi is situated on the river Ganges and is a deeply religious place for Hindus. For us tourists it's a great place for pictures and the feeling of being surround by thousands and thousands of people. We arrived with the bikes all safe and sound and set the GPS up to head for the 'Dasashvamedh Ghat' (main one) where it all happens. This is where the Guest house I wanted to stay at was. The same one that I stated at 15 years ago when I was the closest I have ever been to being a hippie and came to India to find out where I'd gone wrong on my degree, but found out that I was just being lazy. On the way a chap beckoned us to follow him on his motorbike as he apparently worked in the Yogi lodge (the one I wanted to stay at). Were followed him suspiciously (always suspicious here in India ;) ), and along dusty tracks, alleys and roads we came to the Yogi Lodge. Or did we? Didn't look anything like I remember and sure enough the GPS suggest we still had a good 1.5 kms to go. We had just come to a fake Yogi Lodge! Mmm well.. we decided to head off and follow the GPS instead and within a few mins we were in the most busiest traffic jams ever .. after about 15 mins of going nowhere and Nat going mad due to horns and people asking here is she wanted a guest house, we decided to walk and go the wrong way up the other side of the road. After a short walk it all started to come back to me (not my degree but my memory of the area).
We walked down the tiny alleyway knocking all the people over with our panniers but along with other people and their motorbikes/cycles (when in Rome). Viola.. amongst the cows and their large pats, there was the Yogi Lodge I remember .. est. 1978. Nat was getting slightly worried about where I was taking her but after she saw the place and checked the room out.. all was well... PHEW for me! I don't know how I found this place with my cousin all those years ago. We had a couple of great days with seeing the evening Pooja (prayers) and sunrise by the Ganges for a nice morning bath. Not us though, but lots of other people as unfortunately we had already had a shower so felt we'd let everyone else go.

Our next destination was to be an equally religious place but this time for Buddhists and Nat being Buddhist, she was of course very excited about coming here. The place is Bodh Gaya and is where Lord Buddha found enlightenment under a banyan tree over 2500 years ago. The tree is the Bodhi Tree (of which we now have a few leaves :) ). There are also many temples built by the main Buddhist nations including Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Tibet (oh I called it a nation..better watch out when I go to China) and China. Shortly after arriving Nat was spoken to in Thai and soon wherever we looked, there were Thai tourists straight in by direct flight from Bangkok. With the Thai tourists come Thai restaurants and that makes Nat a very happy girl!

Leaving Bodh Gaya after one night we set off back to Varanasi on another 'Super fast express' train (4hrs to do 200kms - i.e average 50kph or 30mph). To avoid the hassle of taking our bikes for a short journey we left them at the Yogi Lodge in Varanasi. All was safe and sound when we got back 'home'. We have since been the cinema twice.. excellent first film about the Moguls in a great modern cinema.. and the second.. well we lasted an hour before we gave up on the macho slow and quite terrible film :) Sorry to say that that was the first film I have ever walked out on before it finished. If I was on my own though I would have probably watched it all the way through..even though it was terrible ;)

Tomorrow night we are booked on an overnight train to Calcutta . Apparently our 'cycles' are ok to go on that train so good luck to us!