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!
Now to Penang Island and the famously beautiful and well-preserved colonial city of Georgetown. We had been riding shorter distances (<80km or about 48miles/day) since we had started touring Malaysia. It felt like we had gotten a bit soft after our time spent in Singapore and KL. Though it had been only a bit over a week of downtime it appeared we were starting to feel every bit of the >5000 kms and almost 5 months pedaled thus far. The time also seems to have given us a renewed desire to explore, but it could have also be the return of the afternoon rains and the deliciously exotic new foods? Either way we found ourelves not minding the soreness or the relentless humidity. And arriving via a short ferry ride to Penang Island was quite exciting.
The second day we rode around the island perimeter (about an 80km trip). It was a beautifully scenic and enjoyable day. That is until I noticed a problem with Chiara's bike while changing a flat tire? It appeared that in KL when we were tuning up the bikes, I, in haste and dim light, had replaced the uniquely designed concentric bottom bracket BACKWARDS?!! For those that are not familiar with bikes this means that as one pedals forward you are actually unthreading and/or causing potential serious damage to the bike. Limping to the closest village we found a small local bike shop. The gentleman inside made it readily obvious to us from moment one that he had no interest in helping us. We tried, through a friendly local man interperting, to explain our situation and asked to use his tools to fix the bike. Completely out of character for any of the people we had met in Malaysia or any other of the Asian countries we visited, for that matter, the shop owner basically threw us out into the street with a bike in pieces and no other way to fix it. I was livid and Chiara was able to calm me and suggest we go to one of the ubiqitous the shops and ask to use their tools. We found one where the owner was excited to see us try to fix our bikes, bikes different from any other they had seen, with a hammer, hex wrenches and will. After just 15 minutes we had the bike back together and running like new. The shop owner, and all those whom stopped on the street to watch, smiled and refused to accept any money for the use of his tools. That is the Malaysia/ Asia that we have grown to know and love! And to top it off, afterwards we went to get a cold drink and the local interpreter from the bike shop came up to us saying that he had been looking for us for 30 minutes. He was going to put us in a van and take us to the next town to find a bike mechanic that would help us?! Bless these amazing people, so willing to go out of their way in order to help those in need. We thanked him immensely and then continued our journey around the island and back to our hosts home right as the evening rainstorms began.
The fine gentleman who helped fix the bike
A little note about Georgetown and Penang Island from me (Chiara). If you love restored and/or crumbling colonial architecture, Georgetown is a must-see. There are streets of beautiful buildings in various states of either repair or disrepair. Though there was a fair amount of tourists, Georgetown still didn't feel too touristy, and it was pretty easy to get off the beaten path. The ride around the island was awesome, low traffic when we got outside the city, the perfect mix of rural, villages, pretty landscape, and it was very easy to find a deserted piece of beach to jump in and take a swim in the warm ocean waters. I could have definitely spent a few more days in Georgetown, but...
We arose early the next morning, ate, wrote a Thank You letter to Keith's uncle, whom we hadn't seen since we arrived and made our way back towarrd the ferry. We enjoyed the architecture on our way and stopped for a bit of delicious Roti Cenai and Te Tarik (two of our favorite food items). Once we crossed back to the mainland we started north again toward our next host location.
Street scenes in Georgetown
Coming back from our private beach and our favorite run-down old Chinese school
Plenty of cool street art
