January 9, 2006
January 9, 2006
It has been six days since our last blog/journal entry and it feels like a month has passed. I am contemplating some format changes to help those with A.D.D. to scan without having to read the books that past entries have become and yet I have created another book for this entry.
Cherating: I decided to go boogie boarding but was unable to get out into the waves because of a really strong current that buffets the east coast of Malaysia and Thailand this time of year. When I waded out if felt like I was standing in a river and Jodi was afraid to go any deeper than her knees. We decided to stay another day (three days total) but in the morning I awoke with 26 mosquito bites on my face and that changed our minds. We noticed our air-conditioned bungalow wasn’t so “tight.” I tried bug repellant but during the night its effectiveness wore off and now I look like I have the measles. I called a “family” meeting and we agreed to have another western breakfast and make haste to the next town before any more blood loss.
Cukai/Kemaman: The ride was short, only 15km from Cherating but a world of difference. On the way we noticed a Club Med in passing. We stopped during one of the many downpours at a warung and tried some new food. Nasi Lemuk: coconut rice with anchovies, peanuts, pork rinds, vegetables, a small chicken wing and another small piece of fish. We ordered ours without anchovies since I made the mistake at another restaurant of adding them to my food, not knowing what they were and found out quickly that I did not like their taste. We continued on in the rain stopping here and there to seek shelter until we were both wet enough to say “oh well” and ride anyway. In town we immediately looked for a “Maybank” to get more money. While we were discussing where one might be, a guy overheard our conversation and provided us with directions. Jodi went inside but their “system was down” and another guy showed her to a bank six doors down. During the 1-1/2 hour wait I sat under a tent erected on the roadside. I have no idea what it was for, but it had a desk that I sat on with a Malay man watching it rain. He didn’t speak English but motioned that he liked that Jodi and I both donned sarongs over our bike shorts when we stopped to get off our bikes. When Jodi returned, I got an earful about how a bunch of people just cut in line right in front of her and treated her as if she didn’t exist. I have noticed I get better results when I ask for things than when she does and I am always served my food first at restaurants. It’s good to be the king and I am thinking about changing my name to Sultan Roberts.
Now that we had money, we needed accommodation and for the first time on this trip we picked the first place we saw. It was nothing special but it was comfortable, cheap and out of the rain. Best of all it was tight, meaning the favorite restaurant of mosquitoes (ME!) would be closed that evening.
Then we went shopping for breakfast to eat the next morning. We found some yogurt, peanut butter and Jacobs Energy Biscuits along with some apples and bananas that we purchased at the lovely fruit market down the street from the hotel. Jodi then said she was hungry (a condition that happens quite frequently). We found a Chinese restaurant where we ate two stuffed crabs and an order of steamed rice. One really great thing is they brought the jar of chili sauce instead of two tiny little saucers. I love the taste and I think we shocked them when we just poured the sauce from the jar onto our food instead of using the provided “micro” ladle.
We then walked around and were solicited for more pirated DVDs but we were over budget for the day and it didn’t seem appropriate to do some non-discretionary spending. Instead we walked around taking in the sites, looking at the river and the local mall (we checked to see if it had a grocery store in the basement, YIP!) and noted that some big time flooding had occurred recently.
We returned to the room where we tuned into VOA (Voice of America) on our short wave radio, which I later renamed to Voice of Bush since it lacked any substance or news but was more a PR station for the USA. I think I will stick with BBC.
Rantau Abang: The ride was 86km and was the one we were dreading the most because of its distance but it turned out the best of Malaysia so far. Just outside of town we missed the turn for highway 3 because we were following the signs to Terrengganu and ended up on the 131 heading north. It turned out to be a good mistake because there were some rather low grade hills that provided enough elevation that we could see some of the landscape around us. We were both surprised how pretty things were up high, rather than “riding in the bottom of the salad bowl” (sorry Ion but it seemed appropriate). Once down the hill, we rejoined the 3 and went through some varied conditions. Lonely Planet describes the area as a barren landscape (I suspect because they don’t want people visiting the place to notice that they didn’t actually visit either.) I found it very interesting. The first 30km was on a wide road with a wide shoulder where Jodi and I could ride side-by-side. Then when we left the state of Kemaman and entered Dungun the shoulder disappeared and the road narrowed. It was interesting to feel the boost the big trucks provide when I would get sucked into their wake. In another 20km the road widened to three lanes and a motorcycle lane. We entered the motorcycle lane where Jodi and I could ride side-by-side again discussing the things we had seen and solving the world’s problems. We noticed some really nice housing, a golf course and some office buildings for Petronas (the largest gas company here) and realized this area provided some good tax income because the road was magnificent. Next we entered an area with 6 oil refineries surrounding the road on all sides. I made up a song called “Petroleum” as we passed. “What’s the stuff that makes the road black…Petroleum, What’s the stuff that makes children cough and hack…Petroleum, What’s the stuff that becomes your grocery sack…Petroleum.” Jodi was kind enough to provide a verse… “What’s the stuff coming from Kirk’s crack…Petroleum.”
Dungun: The ride to Rantau Abang brought us through Dungun where we had a lovely lunch of fish curry and ice tea. They make the best brewed iced tea here with sweetened condensed milk and lots of ice. I love the stuff and usually order two because it provides a good caffeine and sugar buzz on the long rides. Across the street was the local Engineering College and it was amazing. It was by far the biggest campus we have seen and the buildings very modern and well kept. The road all but disappeared through town because of some rather annoying road construction that lead to some delays and some dusty clothes.
Dahimahs Guest House: We did not make Rantau Abang that day but stopped 1km short at a guesthouse run by an English Woman. She cut us a break on our lodging by 10RM and we rented a deluxe room overlooking the river and the ocean. It was a nice end to a great day. I did notice that the area must have been recently hit by a tropical storm because of some rather large debris scattered at the top of the dune along the entire beach.
Terengganu: The ride was about 80km (I am not totally sure since Jodi’s cycle computer wasn’t working). We awoke early and tried something we hadn’t tried during our travels. Instead of eating breakfast at the hotel, we decided to stop at one of the warungs along the way. A friend suggested we try Roti Canai (pronounced Rotee Chani), a fried flat bread with curry sauce. We happened upon a stand with an older man who spoke very good English and ordered two. To me the curry tasted good in the morning and kind of reminded me of green chili and tortillas, Yum! We ate quickly and ordered two more. The woman responsible for filling the man’s orders must have thought that we had enough for breakfast because she made our next order a “take away.” She laughed when we opened the bag and ate the order right there instead of riding off with the shopping bag hanging from our bikes. The next 70km was very lively with many accommodations lining the road, guest houses, hotels and “beach resorts” through several different villages. We eventually entered Marang, a “newish” looking place that LP indicates “was a nice place to visit until it underwent a modernization program.” I liked the clean looking town and was really impressed with the new Mosque they were building. The 10km between Marang and Terengganu the traffic picked up, the road was lined with many different beach guest houses, and it was mostly developed along the way. At one point we rounded a hill and started over a river causeway when Jodi pointed out a very good view of a river estuary. Not knowing where we were, which I found out later is the location of a rather impressive “floating” mosque. We stopped at the “beach resort” at the bottom of the causeway. Their accommodation was too expensive but they pointed us in the direction of the BBBR (Batu Buruk Beach Resort) that was running a special for the month of January. It was really nice and about $15USD per night. Again they must have had a really big recent storm because a barge was beached right in front of our room window. I didn’t mind the eyesore since the beach is currently life threatening due to strong currents and heavy storms out at sea.
We spent two days, almost three due to weather, in Terrengganu. I wish I could say we did so many things but it just wasn’t going to happen for us there. The east coast provinces unlike the west take Friday off instead of Sunday. We had planned a full day on Friday and when we awoke we found most of the businesses were closed and the streets empty due to the Sabbath. So we walked around the vacant town looking for an open internet café and a place to eat but “no dice.” One thing of special note is the “Pizza One” stall in the Batu Barak Food Court has a really good spaghetti.
Merang: We planned an easy ride from Terengganu to Merang. In the morning we awoke early hoping to get an early start so we could ride most of the distance with the sun low in the sky. We are both getting too tan and the skin on our faces is looking like shoe leather. All night I heard periods of rain and assumed that it was like all days but in the morning the wind was strong and the rain sideways, something neither of us was excited to ride in. We checked out anyway and sat in the lobby reading the paper waiting for the weather to subside. There were many children running about and much to our dislike way too noisy for that time in the morning. We were joined by a couple who spoke English and they told us the children were taking practice exams for the end of year tests for school. (I later learned that it is very important that a student do well in order to attend the government-funded boarding schools). Later we were joined by a couple of school teachers that saw our bicycles outside and wanted to ask us about touring. They did some touring around Malaysia and they wanted to know about our travels. We gave them our story and they seemed unimpressed with the pace of our trip because our daily average wasn’t that far.
Eventually the rain stopped and the wind settled down, so we decided to give it a go. Instead of riding Mr. Pumpy’s route up highway 3 we did a route up the coast that is popular with Dutch bicyclists. Unlike Mr. Pumpy’s route the coastal one has accommodation along the way and doesn’t require riding 163km in one day. The ride went well and we were able to stop for some Roti Canai in a small town outside of Terengganu. This time we learned it was possible to order them with egg cooked inside the bread and that tasted especially yummy. As we were leaving, I was approached by the guy who worked in the TV repair shop next door and he told me “a hello and safe journey.” Jodi suggested I have him look at her cycle computer to see if he could fix the wires where they had become pinched between her wheel and the brake caliper. He looked at it, grabbed his tape and wire cutters and went to work. Five minutes later he had it fixed and when I asked him how much he said “no charge” and wished us “safe journeys” again.
In Merang we found a very small village with a jetty that offered ferry transportation to the island resorts that are closed during the monsoon season (now). All but one of the accommodations in town was closed and we did not want to stay there because the room had a very small bathroom with a squat toilet (Jodi hates them). So we found a home stay that was closed but gladly opened to accept our ringets. The room was nothing spectacular but met our needs in spite of Roachzilla that greeted us during the night in the bathroom (I thought about putting a saddle on him and riding him the rest of the way).
During dinner that night we were joined by a gentleman who was educated in one of the all English schools and we had a very good time learning about Malaysia Politics from him. He first emphasized that Jodi and I were very safe and explained the politics behind the Bali bombings and the Malaysian connection. Basically he said the two Malaysians involved in the plot were “wackos” that not many Malaysians share their views. I asked why the Bali bombings occurred during Ramadan and he indicated the bombings were an attempt to destabilize the Indonesian government so a fundamentalist Islamic one could rise to power. We also talked about the Dr. Mahathir years and the jailing of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar. He suspected that now that Anwar has been pardoned by the current government that he will run for Prime Minister in 2008 with the support of many of the lesser political parties. I found all this fascinating due to the reading I had done in my LP (I guess it is good for something).
Kuala Besut: In the morning we departed Merang at 7:09am a new personal best for us. The riding was fantastic, good cloud cover, cool temperatures and a very rare wind from the south. It felt as if a tractor beam from Thailand was pulling us to its border. We averaged a very quick 25km/hr and covered the 74km in just over 3 hours. We debated on going all the way to Kota Barhu but decided to find some digs, drink some beer and enjoy an early arrival at our destination. We found a newly opened guest house that was lovely, everything worked and all the plumbing ran to the sewer instead of onto the floor and into a floor drain (Jodi was in heaven). We did some laundry and did some exploring around town. Kuala Besut is the staging place for visiting the Perhentian Islands. They are currently mostly closed due to the monsoon but some accommodations on long beach stay open for the travelers who venture over on the occasional ferries. We did not go because we are running behind schedule and we want to get to Thailand to enjoy something different. That night we had Tom Yam Soup (YUM!) and did not find any beer (Oh Heck!). We did run into a young Swiss guy who asked us for some beta on different cities on the east coast and we were able to get some beta about Thailand in return.
Kota Barhu: We had a choice of resuming Mr. Pumpy’s route on the 3 or taking the coastal roads to Cherang Ruku, which wasn’t far away but would provide more scenic riding along a quiet road. We were surprised to discover a newly constructed causeway (wasn’t shown in LP or our map) that allowed us to cross the waterway and continue up the coast to Bachok instead of heading inland to the 3. It was magnificent! The road was quiet smooth and went through some scenic small villages. The traffic moved along at an unhurried pace and the road meandered through farmland. It was a wonderful morning. To our surprise (as it wasn’t noted in LP) it had plenty of accommodations and a rider can follow the coast from Terengganu to Perupok (22km from Kota Barhu) and have several choices of places to stay and warungs to eat at.
I like Kota Barhu, it has a nice buzz and has an international feel due to all the travelers who use this city as their jumping off point for travels in Malaysia and Thailand. The food is great and the accommodation plentiful and cheap. I think we will spend two days here. We wanted to go to the Thai consulate to get our extended visa’s but tomorrow is a public holiday (good grief, it seems they have one every other day) so we will most likely just cross the border and hope we can get one along the way.
Thoughts:
After coming from magical Bali and having such a great time there, it tainted our expectations for Malaysia. We’ve found out they were just too high. It’s the monsoon season here and so the ocean is dangerous to swim in and the islands off the coast are closed this time of year. The rides have been longer and less interesting overall. The atmosphere is not as welcoming, is very conservative and sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable to stand out so much and not be able to blend in. We had to stop comparing the two places because we realized it was contributing to a poor outlook on this country, which is why in Cherating Jodi and I had decided to “B-line” it for Thailand (a place known to be more friendly to westerners). The strange thing is since then the further north we go the more we are enjoying Malaysia. The people seem friendlier, the accommodations are improving in price and quality, the rides are more enjoyable, and the food is better. Something I did not expect because of the more conservative theological governments in the north. If anyone reading this considers doing the same route, keep in mind that after Kuantan things improve dramatically. Tolerate the non-working flush toilets, the mosquitoes and the crappy rooms to get north because it does get better. Now all I need is to encounter an overturned beer truck in front of our nights accommodations so we can have the “drink-a-thon 2006” and our trip will be a smashing success. Beer is very expensive, about $2US a can and $3US a bottle and when I buy it I feel like I am buying pornography, but I love the Chinese for “breaking the rules” and selling it when no one else will (they rock!) I eat Chinese often and have some “sin” with my dinner.
Malaysians must love their privacy. I have several theories about why and they tend to remind me of a song called “Nasty Habits” by Oingo Boingo. I have noticed the rooms are like caves with little natural lighting and tiny windows with frosted glass. They offer a ton of privacy but after spending 2 years cooped up in an insulated box with cardboard over the windows, I want that natural light through big oceans of glass in the walls where I can see out and everyone can see me running naked inside. If I want privacy, I will pull the blinds, do my dirty deeds and open them again.
I equate traveling in Malaysia to traveling in Utah but without the annoying cops.
It has been six days since our last blog/journal entry and it feels like a month has passed. I am contemplating some format changes to help those with A.D.D. to scan without having to read the books that past entries have become and yet I have created another book for this entry.
Cherating: I decided to go boogie boarding but was unable to get out into the waves because of a really strong current that buffets the east coast of Malaysia and Thailand this time of year. When I waded out if felt like I was standing in a river and Jodi was afraid to go any deeper than her knees. We decided to stay another day (three days total) but in the morning I awoke with 26 mosquito bites on my face and that changed our minds. We noticed our air-conditioned bungalow wasn’t so “tight.” I tried bug repellant but during the night its effectiveness wore off and now I look like I have the measles. I called a “family” meeting and we agreed to have another western breakfast and make haste to the next town before any more blood loss.
Cukai/Kemaman: The ride was short, only 15km from Cherating but a world of difference. On the way we noticed a Club Med in passing. We stopped during one of the many downpours at a warung and tried some new food. Nasi Lemuk: coconut rice with anchovies, peanuts, pork rinds, vegetables, a small chicken wing and another small piece of fish. We ordered ours without anchovies since I made the mistake at another restaurant of adding them to my food, not knowing what they were and found out quickly that I did not like their taste. We continued on in the rain stopping here and there to seek shelter until we were both wet enough to say “oh well” and ride anyway. In town we immediately looked for a “Maybank” to get more money. While we were discussing where one might be, a guy overheard our conversation and provided us with directions. Jodi went inside but their “system was down” and another guy showed her to a bank six doors down. During the 1-1/2 hour wait I sat under a tent erected on the roadside. I have no idea what it was for, but it had a desk that I sat on with a Malay man watching it rain. He didn’t speak English but motioned that he liked that Jodi and I both donned sarongs over our bike shorts when we stopped to get off our bikes. When Jodi returned, I got an earful about how a bunch of people just cut in line right in front of her and treated her as if she didn’t exist. I have noticed I get better results when I ask for things than when she does and I am always served my food first at restaurants. It’s good to be the king and I am thinking about changing my name to Sultan Roberts.
Now that we had money, we needed accommodation and for the first time on this trip we picked the first place we saw. It was nothing special but it was comfortable, cheap and out of the rain. Best of all it was tight, meaning the favorite restaurant of mosquitoes (ME!) would be closed that evening.
Then we went shopping for breakfast to eat the next morning. We found some yogurt, peanut butter and Jacobs Energy Biscuits along with some apples and bananas that we purchased at the lovely fruit market down the street from the hotel. Jodi then said she was hungry (a condition that happens quite frequently). We found a Chinese restaurant where we ate two stuffed crabs and an order of steamed rice. One really great thing is they brought the jar of chili sauce instead of two tiny little saucers. I love the taste and I think we shocked them when we just poured the sauce from the jar onto our food instead of using the provided “micro” ladle.
We then walked around and were solicited for more pirated DVDs but we were over budget for the day and it didn’t seem appropriate to do some non-discretionary spending. Instead we walked around taking in the sites, looking at the river and the local mall (we checked to see if it had a grocery store in the basement, YIP!) and noted that some big time flooding had occurred recently.
We returned to the room where we tuned into VOA (Voice of America) on our short wave radio, which I later renamed to Voice of Bush since it lacked any substance or news but was more a PR station for the USA. I think I will stick with BBC.
Rantau Abang: The ride was 86km and was the one we were dreading the most because of its distance but it turned out the best of Malaysia so far. Just outside of town we missed the turn for highway 3 because we were following the signs to Terrengganu and ended up on the 131 heading north. It turned out to be a good mistake because there were some rather low grade hills that provided enough elevation that we could see some of the landscape around us. We were both surprised how pretty things were up high, rather than “riding in the bottom of the salad bowl” (sorry Ion but it seemed appropriate). Once down the hill, we rejoined the 3 and went through some varied conditions. Lonely Planet describes the area as a barren landscape (I suspect because they don’t want people visiting the place to notice that they didn’t actually visit either.) I found it very interesting. The first 30km was on a wide road with a wide shoulder where Jodi and I could ride side-by-side. Then when we left the state of Kemaman and entered Dungun the shoulder disappeared and the road narrowed. It was interesting to feel the boost the big trucks provide when I would get sucked into their wake. In another 20km the road widened to three lanes and a motorcycle lane. We entered the motorcycle lane where Jodi and I could ride side-by-side again discussing the things we had seen and solving the world’s problems. We noticed some really nice housing, a golf course and some office buildings for Petronas (the largest gas company here) and realized this area provided some good tax income because the road was magnificent. Next we entered an area with 6 oil refineries surrounding the road on all sides. I made up a song called “Petroleum” as we passed. “What’s the stuff that makes the road black…Petroleum, What’s the stuff that makes children cough and hack…Petroleum, What’s the stuff that becomes your grocery sack…Petroleum.” Jodi was kind enough to provide a verse… “What’s the stuff coming from Kirk’s crack…Petroleum.”
Dungun: The ride to Rantau Abang brought us through Dungun where we had a lovely lunch of fish curry and ice tea. They make the best brewed iced tea here with sweetened condensed milk and lots of ice. I love the stuff and usually order two because it provides a good caffeine and sugar buzz on the long rides. Across the street was the local Engineering College and it was amazing. It was by far the biggest campus we have seen and the buildings very modern and well kept. The road all but disappeared through town because of some rather annoying road construction that lead to some delays and some dusty clothes.
Dahimahs Guest House: We did not make Rantau Abang that day but stopped 1km short at a guesthouse run by an English Woman. She cut us a break on our lodging by 10RM and we rented a deluxe room overlooking the river and the ocean. It was a nice end to a great day. I did notice that the area must have been recently hit by a tropical storm because of some rather large debris scattered at the top of the dune along the entire beach.
Terengganu: The ride was about 80km (I am not totally sure since Jodi’s cycle computer wasn’t working). We awoke early and tried something we hadn’t tried during our travels. Instead of eating breakfast at the hotel, we decided to stop at one of the warungs along the way. A friend suggested we try Roti Canai (pronounced Rotee Chani), a fried flat bread with curry sauce. We happened upon a stand with an older man who spoke very good English and ordered two. To me the curry tasted good in the morning and kind of reminded me of green chili and tortillas, Yum! We ate quickly and ordered two more. The woman responsible for filling the man’s orders must have thought that we had enough for breakfast because she made our next order a “take away.” She laughed when we opened the bag and ate the order right there instead of riding off with the shopping bag hanging from our bikes. The next 70km was very lively with many accommodations lining the road, guest houses, hotels and “beach resorts” through several different villages. We eventually entered Marang, a “newish” looking place that LP indicates “was a nice place to visit until it underwent a modernization program.” I liked the clean looking town and was really impressed with the new Mosque they were building. The 10km between Marang and Terengganu the traffic picked up, the road was lined with many different beach guest houses, and it was mostly developed along the way. At one point we rounded a hill and started over a river causeway when Jodi pointed out a very good view of a river estuary. Not knowing where we were, which I found out later is the location of a rather impressive “floating” mosque. We stopped at the “beach resort” at the bottom of the causeway. Their accommodation was too expensive but they pointed us in the direction of the BBBR (Batu Buruk Beach Resort) that was running a special for the month of January. It was really nice and about $15USD per night. Again they must have had a really big recent storm because a barge was beached right in front of our room window. I didn’t mind the eyesore since the beach is currently life threatening due to strong currents and heavy storms out at sea.
We spent two days, almost three due to weather, in Terrengganu. I wish I could say we did so many things but it just wasn’t going to happen for us there. The east coast provinces unlike the west take Friday off instead of Sunday. We had planned a full day on Friday and when we awoke we found most of the businesses were closed and the streets empty due to the Sabbath. So we walked around the vacant town looking for an open internet café and a place to eat but “no dice.” One thing of special note is the “Pizza One” stall in the Batu Barak Food Court has a really good spaghetti.
Merang: We planned an easy ride from Terengganu to Merang. In the morning we awoke early hoping to get an early start so we could ride most of the distance with the sun low in the sky. We are both getting too tan and the skin on our faces is looking like shoe leather. All night I heard periods of rain and assumed that it was like all days but in the morning the wind was strong and the rain sideways, something neither of us was excited to ride in. We checked out anyway and sat in the lobby reading the paper waiting for the weather to subside. There were many children running about and much to our dislike way too noisy for that time in the morning. We were joined by a couple who spoke English and they told us the children were taking practice exams for the end of year tests for school. (I later learned that it is very important that a student do well in order to attend the government-funded boarding schools). Later we were joined by a couple of school teachers that saw our bicycles outside and wanted to ask us about touring. They did some touring around Malaysia and they wanted to know about our travels. We gave them our story and they seemed unimpressed with the pace of our trip because our daily average wasn’t that far.
Eventually the rain stopped and the wind settled down, so we decided to give it a go. Instead of riding Mr. Pumpy’s route up highway 3 we did a route up the coast that is popular with Dutch bicyclists. Unlike Mr. Pumpy’s route the coastal one has accommodation along the way and doesn’t require riding 163km in one day. The ride went well and we were able to stop for some Roti Canai in a small town outside of Terengganu. This time we learned it was possible to order them with egg cooked inside the bread and that tasted especially yummy. As we were leaving, I was approached by the guy who worked in the TV repair shop next door and he told me “a hello and safe journey.” Jodi suggested I have him look at her cycle computer to see if he could fix the wires where they had become pinched between her wheel and the brake caliper. He looked at it, grabbed his tape and wire cutters and went to work. Five minutes later he had it fixed and when I asked him how much he said “no charge” and wished us “safe journeys” again.
In Merang we found a very small village with a jetty that offered ferry transportation to the island resorts that are closed during the monsoon season (now). All but one of the accommodations in town was closed and we did not want to stay there because the room had a very small bathroom with a squat toilet (Jodi hates them). So we found a home stay that was closed but gladly opened to accept our ringets. The room was nothing spectacular but met our needs in spite of Roachzilla that greeted us during the night in the bathroom (I thought about putting a saddle on him and riding him the rest of the way).
During dinner that night we were joined by a gentleman who was educated in one of the all English schools and we had a very good time learning about Malaysia Politics from him. He first emphasized that Jodi and I were very safe and explained the politics behind the Bali bombings and the Malaysian connection. Basically he said the two Malaysians involved in the plot were “wackos” that not many Malaysians share their views. I asked why the Bali bombings occurred during Ramadan and he indicated the bombings were an attempt to destabilize the Indonesian government so a fundamentalist Islamic one could rise to power. We also talked about the Dr. Mahathir years and the jailing of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar. He suspected that now that Anwar has been pardoned by the current government that he will run for Prime Minister in 2008 with the support of many of the lesser political parties. I found all this fascinating due to the reading I had done in my LP (I guess it is good for something).
Kuala Besut: In the morning we departed Merang at 7:09am a new personal best for us. The riding was fantastic, good cloud cover, cool temperatures and a very rare wind from the south. It felt as if a tractor beam from Thailand was pulling us to its border. We averaged a very quick 25km/hr and covered the 74km in just over 3 hours. We debated on going all the way to Kota Barhu but decided to find some digs, drink some beer and enjoy an early arrival at our destination. We found a newly opened guest house that was lovely, everything worked and all the plumbing ran to the sewer instead of onto the floor and into a floor drain (Jodi was in heaven). We did some laundry and did some exploring around town. Kuala Besut is the staging place for visiting the Perhentian Islands. They are currently mostly closed due to the monsoon but some accommodations on long beach stay open for the travelers who venture over on the occasional ferries. We did not go because we are running behind schedule and we want to get to Thailand to enjoy something different. That night we had Tom Yam Soup (YUM!) and did not find any beer (Oh Heck!). We did run into a young Swiss guy who asked us for some beta on different cities on the east coast and we were able to get some beta about Thailand in return.
Kota Barhu: We had a choice of resuming Mr. Pumpy’s route on the 3 or taking the coastal roads to Cherang Ruku, which wasn’t far away but would provide more scenic riding along a quiet road. We were surprised to discover a newly constructed causeway (wasn’t shown in LP or our map) that allowed us to cross the waterway and continue up the coast to Bachok instead of heading inland to the 3. It was magnificent! The road was quiet smooth and went through some scenic small villages. The traffic moved along at an unhurried pace and the road meandered through farmland. It was a wonderful morning. To our surprise (as it wasn’t noted in LP) it had plenty of accommodations and a rider can follow the coast from Terengganu to Perupok (22km from Kota Barhu) and have several choices of places to stay and warungs to eat at.
I like Kota Barhu, it has a nice buzz and has an international feel due to all the travelers who use this city as their jumping off point for travels in Malaysia and Thailand. The food is great and the accommodation plentiful and cheap. I think we will spend two days here. We wanted to go to the Thai consulate to get our extended visa’s but tomorrow is a public holiday (good grief, it seems they have one every other day) so we will most likely just cross the border and hope we can get one along the way.
Thoughts:
After coming from magical Bali and having such a great time there, it tainted our expectations for Malaysia. We’ve found out they were just too high. It’s the monsoon season here and so the ocean is dangerous to swim in and the islands off the coast are closed this time of year. The rides have been longer and less interesting overall. The atmosphere is not as welcoming, is very conservative and sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable to stand out so much and not be able to blend in. We had to stop comparing the two places because we realized it was contributing to a poor outlook on this country, which is why in Cherating Jodi and I had decided to “B-line” it for Thailand (a place known to be more friendly to westerners). The strange thing is since then the further north we go the more we are enjoying Malaysia. The people seem friendlier, the accommodations are improving in price and quality, the rides are more enjoyable, and the food is better. Something I did not expect because of the more conservative theological governments in the north. If anyone reading this considers doing the same route, keep in mind that after Kuantan things improve dramatically. Tolerate the non-working flush toilets, the mosquitoes and the crappy rooms to get north because it does get better. Now all I need is to encounter an overturned beer truck in front of our nights accommodations so we can have the “drink-a-thon 2006” and our trip will be a smashing success. Beer is very expensive, about $2US a can and $3US a bottle and when I buy it I feel like I am buying pornography, but I love the Chinese for “breaking the rules” and selling it when no one else will (they rock!) I eat Chinese often and have some “sin” with my dinner.
Malaysians must love their privacy. I have several theories about why and they tend to remind me of a song called “Nasty Habits” by Oingo Boingo. I have noticed the rooms are like caves with little natural lighting and tiny windows with frosted glass. They offer a ton of privacy but after spending 2 years cooped up in an insulated box with cardboard over the windows, I want that natural light through big oceans of glass in the walls where I can see out and everyone can see me running naked inside. If I want privacy, I will pull the blinds, do my dirty deeds and open them again.
I equate traveling in Malaysia to traveling in Utah but without the annoying cops.
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 12:35 AM
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