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 On our cheapo 2 year out of date map from Singapore this didn't look too bad until we reached the huge mountainous lump of land we had to cycle over around midday...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.
