It was time to unburden "Chief" Keith's family (at least that's what I called him in my head) as we had definitely overstayed our 2-3 day Warmshowers host rule. Keith and his daughter drove us through the Singapore-Malaysia border, where we could take an inexpensive bus 4+ hours to Kuala Lampur. We initially had planned to cycle through all of Malaysia, but a month or so back we were informed that the air quality in both Singapore and Malaysia was abhorrent due to the seasonal burning of fields in Sumatra and Kalamantan, Indonesia. This, we were informed, was nothing that anyone would want to cycle through. In the recent days however, the air quality had improved greatly due to return of the monsoon season and the rains that usually follow. Hence, by the time we had arrived in Singapore the smoke and haze produced by the poor Indonesian farmers had abated greatly.
A small aside here: You know when your a Pacific North Westerner when...it rains after more than a month in "tropical paradise" with endless days of sun and heat and you finally are able to breath easy and a huge weight of anxiety is gone. Rain! Love you! Miss you! Rain that makes everything cool, fresh, and green.
Our departure was fairly routine, and we had a comfortable if not-particularly-exciting transit. Our arrival in KL was similarly easy, and though I was a complete nay-sayer about taking the metro from the bus station, Bruce's savvy ways prevailed again and we easily slung our bikes and bags on the train to our host Akmal's house. Akmal was our first taste of celebrity in Malaysia. Any time we mentioned his name to other cyclists they knew who he was, as he is considered one of the best bike mechanics in the country. He was a great host and we were able to stay on semi-luxury in a house that he is in the process of establishing as a free bike touring hostel of sorts. We were not sure of the particulars as he did not reside there but we had our own room, hot water shower, free wifi, use of kitchen and the words "stay as long as you like". We also were invited to spend some time at his shop repairing and cleaning our bikes using his tools and getting parts we needed at fairly cheap rates. We put new chains on our bikes and gave them a nice tune-up and now everything is running like new. We also took a few days to get our Thai visas sorted out. Apparently, if one uses a land border crossing you will get only a 15 day visa for the country. I'm not sure how fast y'all cycle, but we sure as hell are not getting where we need or want to in the huge-ass country of Thailand in only 15 days. So after a few days and $35 USD each we have 60 days to explore. Plenty of time we think.
With Akmal fixing up the bikes and the fs,is Petronas towers in KL
To say that leaving KL was difficult does no justice to the immense chaos that has been created in a place that seems to have tranformed from a town of cart and oxen to one of super highways overnight. It is a city that apparently has next to no secondary road options. In fact the only thing that resembles a straight and congruent path out of the city are the highways...and that is what we found ourselves riding to escape the twisting, winding and endless maze of local streets. And in case you were wondering, NO it was not fun. We eventually made our way far enough to be out of the heavy traffic and into the quieter towns and the plam oil plantations that make up most of southern and central Malaysia. A pleasant combination of flat, well-maintained roads, fairly gentle couteous traffic, and nice scenery has put Malaysia in a close race woth Taiwan as our favorite cycling destination. And to top it off, like clockwork, there is a rainshower every afternoon; when you are so hot and sticky you feel like your clothing is going to become one with your body, and you have soaked through every stitch of material with which to wipe your face, these wonderful transient storms roll through the region adding a breath of fresh, cool air to the mix and rejuvinating ones's spirit. This, we think, was one of the larget missing pieces to our time in Indonesia that led to our time being more challenging than expected. Oh and we haven't even mentioned the FOOD in Malaysia is wonderful! A multi-cultural country with Malays, Chinese, Thai, and Indians living in close proximity, and the food is a reflection of this symbiosis. It is savory, complex, multi-ethnic, and widely considered some of the best in the world, a point both of us agree upon. You can get Chinese chicken rice or Indian bread (Roti) with dhal for breakfast, spicy Thai tom-yam soup for lunch and Malay mee jawa (spicy noodles) for dinner and delicious coffees and teas all day. Often times without even leaving a single hawker stall complex! And the prices are on par with Indonesia, which means CHEAP. Oh and at night is when the real party as the tables and chairs get moved from under the sun and rain protection into the cool, rain washed air and the locals eat and drink and socialize unitl 10-11pm every night. Really a pleasureable place to travel.
We stayed overnight in Kuala Perlis, where there is a nice mountain park with a lot of monkeys. You can feed them. They will jump on you. The know where thier bread is buttered.
Malvsia is also the site of a small, burgeoning and very enthusiastic group of cycle tourers. We met Subki, a local out for a week long tour of the Cameron Highlands, on our way into Ipoh, an old colonial city halfway up the west coast. He put our picture up on Facebook, and soon his friend Sam tracked us down to make sure we had a place to stay and see if we wanted to ride the town and street art that night. He also intorduced us to Addams and Camee, the owners of a local bike rental shop and one of the cutest biking families you could imagine. They, in turn set us up the next day with a friend of theirs in the town of Taiping, who also escorted us, by night, through the city on a ride. Finally early the next morning we were whisked off, by another friend and folding bike tour enthusiast Jerol, to the best nasi lemak (traditional breakfast food for Malay people conisiting of rice and small side dishes of meat, egg, veg, etc) stall in Taiping. Shout out here to the Sojourn Hostel in Taiping. Though this little town is not on most backpacker agendas it should be a spot for those looking to cycle tour Malaysia. Quiet streets, beautiful parks, surrrounded by hills, amazing food options and the nicest little inexpensive hostel from which to ejoy your stay. The staff could not be nicer and the place could not be cleaner or cuter. We both highly recommend making the stop for the night. All these friendly folks combined with the natural beauty of the currounding hills looming in the backgrounds and the old colonial buildings that dot the "old town" streets of the picturesque cities has made Malaysia a place that Bruce and I have called a cycling paradise.
With Subki and Sam, there's a lot of great public art in Ipoh
With Cammee, Adamms, Sam at the bike shop
A beautiful mosque, a Chinese temple built into the rocks, and an Indian temple. There were some really cool building built into the rocks around Ipoh.
Moving north we were lucky to have been announced by Keiith's family in Singapore and we were hosted by two diffrent family members. His Auntie in Parit Buntar and an Uncle on Penang Island. We want to thank them and the rest of Keith's family for everything they have done to make our time on the peninsula enjoyable and filled with great food!
Keith's awesome aunt who took very good care of us.
Now to Penang Island and the famously well-preerved colonial city of Georgetown.
