I continued heading North, as I edged near the end of Phuket I passed sombre signs "Death Body Container", "Thai Victims Identification Centre". Still a lot of rebuilding be done on the coasts. The more popular resorts are up and running but place like Ao Bang Tan still look like a building site. I think most of the places in my guide book, were washed away.
Over the bridge and back on to the mainland, I rode into Thai Muang. As I was idling through the streets looking for a hotel, a motorbike pulled along beside me. He said there was rooms on the beach at a restaurant if I wanted, so he gave me directions. I continued along and the guy, Santos, was at the restaurant. So I checked in and had a chat with Santos. He is a teacher here, and offered to show me about. I had a quick tour on his motorbike of the start of another National Park, passing a destroyed shrimp farm. He said that even if it was repaired the problem would be that nobody would want to stay here. Then along past some forested white ground, salt residue, killing any undergrowth between the trees.
He showed me the school where he was teaching. He is planning to build a catamaran, I had a look at the plans, very futuristic looking! A group of students were boat-building apply goopy lucking molten plastic to the boat, and smoothing other areas down. Japan had donated a couple of small motors for the longtails, certainly looked tidier than the boats I saw on Ko Phi Phi, I think those used discarded bus engines!
Santos dropped me back off at the room, and then later I went out for some food. As I was walking along I bumped into him again. There only is 2 other foreigners in Thai Muang, so you stand out. I had dinner with Santos. Interesting guy, he had cycled from Italy to Spain. He is a Sicilian. One of these annoyng people. who speaks this language and that. I asked him how may languages does he speak. Seven! Oh and a good bit of Thai. Also does a good human beatbox on the karoke!
Next stop was at Khao Lak. Seemed to be pretty deserted. Rained a bit. Ate pizza. Lots of diving shops here, just a quick stop and then continue North to Takua Pa. I was wondering if was good to find a hotel here, but after asking around, there was one behind the petrol station. I was glad I stopped here, if only because the next days ride was hard! It was one of those roads thats just seems to keep on climbing, around each corner you hope it will finallyfall away downhill, but no! Will okay eventually the downhill came about 7km from Khao Sok National Park. I barely had to pedal from the summit of the hill to the guesthouse.
Khao Sok
I got there about mid afternoon, and it barely stopped raining when I left. Okay it's a rainforest, what should I expect? I got some food at the guesthouse, and went for a look about not too busy here either. I stopped off at a bar and chatted with Lex, he used to work in England, so at least we could undertand each other, a couple of Austrians who were on holiday joined us later on.
The next day more rain, it abated after lunch and I decided to head into the park proper and put in a quick trek. The rain soon started again. The trail was wide, road-lik and muddy. After accepting the fact I wasn't going to stay dry, I happily trudged through the puddles. A couple of the routes were closed due to the weather, so I stuck to the easy ones. No fjording rivers, for me! The two treks follow the main path for the first 3km and then split up, supposedly to two waterfalls. The falls were really more like just tumbling over rocks, rather than anything majestic. Quite slippy near and on the rocks. I traipsed back, as my shoes were squelchy and being dry was appealing. I stopped off at the shop where two other trekkers were mildly dripping blood from there legs. I guess the rocks were slippy, maybe they tried the hard trails. Inside my room, all my clothes seem damp. My bags got a soaking from a thundershower on the way over. Not some much from the downpour as I managed to duck into a shelter, but from the surface water sprayed from my wheels onto the underside of the bags. After climbing over that big mountain, I had plan to go back the way I came and continue up the West coast, but a quick change of plan sees me continuing over to the East coast before heading north. Now I somewhere close to Phanom. The middle of nowhere basically! A nice ride flat ride through the limestone karts, I stopped at the top of a hill for a vaguely refreshing swig from my water bottle. I glance back over my shoulder, very dark and grey. I quickly zipped into a roadside shelter, and sure enough within five minutes it was puring down, again.Tomorrow I should hit the East coast and hopefully get my smelly clothes washed!
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Monday, August 08, 2005
Phuket
Phuket
Phuket Town
After cycling round in circles I decided to ask somebody where I was. I'd skirted past where I wanted to be and had ended up a few kilometres away. So heading back I finally homed in on my guesthouse after circling in ever decreasing circles through some one-way streets.
Not too much to see in Phuket Town itself. Although there seemed to be a lot of artists close to the guesthouse, sitting outside on the pavement painting away. Mostly reprodution from photographs. I managed to eventually find a bike shop to get my wheels trued and broken spokes fixed. After fixing the front wheel, the guy replaced the wheel. Then while working on the rear wheel, there was a POP and a PSSSSSssssss as the front wheel mysteriously exploded whilst sitting unattended on the upside down bike. Strange, but if your gonna get a flat tyre, the best place is a bike shop!
That night I happened upon a nice little cafe, with only a few tables. There was a small stage where a guitarist was playing music so I popped in to listen. He was pretty good, and started on some accoustic blues. Nice change from the squeaky Thai pop that you hear and definitely better than the noises coming out the karoke bars! After a while a guy who looked like an Asian Jimmy Page joined him, playing flurries of jazz runs. After a few songs Jimmy Page left and another guitarist started playing more bluesy accompaniments. He was supposed to finish at 12 o'clock by law, but ended up playing till 1. Turns out the guitarist owned the cafe and was from Singapore. Me and an American, who was calling out requests half the night, chatted away with him for a while afterwards.
Ao Bang Tao
I then headed across the island to the West coast to a beach called Ao Bang Tao. Nice enough but nothing special. A bit cheaper than the beaches to the south, although when I asked the hotel staff how much a room was I got the reply "One Million Baht!!", hmmm.
As luck would have it there was a Halal food festival event on when I was there. Usually I find out info like this the day after I leave! I headed along at night and ate strange food. First up was something akin to a burger, but in a deep fried crispy roll, very healthy! Not sure what the meat was. Washed down with some apple juices from small apples, tasted not as sweet. Also some mangosteen on a stick, a strange pancake with what looked like a quail egg and ketchup and some fried chicken. I had a go at a game where you get 12 darts and you have to burst six balloons in a row to win a prize. Sounds easy, right, well two of my "darts" bounced off the "balloons". Very suspect!! Darts don't bounce off balloons, they go pop.
Hat Nai Yang
After going up and down a some big hills I got to the next beach. Supposed to be a national park around here, but there are a few private guesthouses and hotels. Quite pricey here, so I only stayed one night. I found a room, which seemed to be the cheapest I was going to get, although actually a nice room and a bit cheaper than the crummy room at the hotel on the beach and for a bit less.
As I walked out to have a look around I felt a jabbing pain in the bottom of my foot I keeled over and picked a big nail out of my shoe. Somehow it had gone straight in perpendicular to the the ground. Any longer and I would of had a real sore foot, as it was it just pierced the skin and no more. Then I managed to whack my ankle off the wooden bed, ouch ouch ouch! After that I hobbled off for some dinner.
Down at the beach lots of people appeared at the tables. The place had looked empty during the day. I opted for sweet & sour fish. I got a bit of a suprise when it turned up. A huge plate, with a giant fish appeared on my table after a rather lengthy wait. They charge by weight, 35bt/100g, so I think they ran around till they found the biggest fish to give to the tourist!
I valiantly battled to eat the whole fish (well except the head, eugh) but I couldn't quite polish him off. Still it certainly filled me up. Then again a kilo of fish will do that to you. Yep, the fish actually weighed in at a kilo!
I staggered back to the hotel to sleep it off.
Phuket Town
After cycling round in circles I decided to ask somebody where I was. I'd skirted past where I wanted to be and had ended up a few kilometres away. So heading back I finally homed in on my guesthouse after circling in ever decreasing circles through some one-way streets.
Not too much to see in Phuket Town itself. Although there seemed to be a lot of artists close to the guesthouse, sitting outside on the pavement painting away. Mostly reprodution from photographs. I managed to eventually find a bike shop to get my wheels trued and broken spokes fixed. After fixing the front wheel, the guy replaced the wheel. Then while working on the rear wheel, there was a POP and a PSSSSSssssss as the front wheel mysteriously exploded whilst sitting unattended on the upside down bike. Strange, but if your gonna get a flat tyre, the best place is a bike shop!
That night I happened upon a nice little cafe, with only a few tables. There was a small stage where a guitarist was playing music so I popped in to listen. He was pretty good, and started on some accoustic blues. Nice change from the squeaky Thai pop that you hear and definitely better than the noises coming out the karoke bars! After a while a guy who looked like an Asian Jimmy Page joined him, playing flurries of jazz runs. After a few songs Jimmy Page left and another guitarist started playing more bluesy accompaniments. He was supposed to finish at 12 o'clock by law, but ended up playing till 1. Turns out the guitarist owned the cafe and was from Singapore. Me and an American, who was calling out requests half the night, chatted away with him for a while afterwards.
Ao Bang Tao
I then headed across the island to the West coast to a beach called Ao Bang Tao. Nice enough but nothing special. A bit cheaper than the beaches to the south, although when I asked the hotel staff how much a room was I got the reply "One Million Baht!!", hmmm.
As luck would have it there was a Halal food festival event on when I was there. Usually I find out info like this the day after I leave! I headed along at night and ate strange food. First up was something akin to a burger, but in a deep fried crispy roll, very healthy! Not sure what the meat was. Washed down with some apple juices from small apples, tasted not as sweet. Also some mangosteen on a stick, a strange pancake with what looked like a quail egg and ketchup and some fried chicken. I had a go at a game where you get 12 darts and you have to burst six balloons in a row to win a prize. Sounds easy, right, well two of my "darts" bounced off the "balloons". Very suspect!! Darts don't bounce off balloons, they go pop.
Hat Nai Yang
After going up and down a some big hills I got to the next beach. Supposed to be a national park around here, but there are a few private guesthouses and hotels. Quite pricey here, so I only stayed one night. I found a room, which seemed to be the cheapest I was going to get, although actually a nice room and a bit cheaper than the crummy room at the hotel on the beach and for a bit less.
As I walked out to have a look around I felt a jabbing pain in the bottom of my foot I keeled over and picked a big nail out of my shoe. Somehow it had gone straight in perpendicular to the the ground. Any longer and I would of had a real sore foot, as it was it just pierced the skin and no more. Then I managed to whack my ankle off the wooden bed, ouch ouch ouch! After that I hobbled off for some dinner.
Down at the beach lots of people appeared at the tables. The place had looked empty during the day. I opted for sweet & sour fish. I got a bit of a suprise when it turned up. A huge plate, with a giant fish appeared on my table after a rather lengthy wait. They charge by weight, 35bt/100g, so I think they ran around till they found the biggest fish to give to the tourist!
I valiantly battled to eat the whole fish (well except the head, eugh) but I couldn't quite polish him off. Still it certainly filled me up. Then again a kilo of fish will do that to you. Yep, the fish actually weighed in at a kilo!
I staggered back to the hotel to sleep it off.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Ko Phi Phi
I lugged my bike and luggage off the boat from Krabi. I had to chase after the bus in Krabi to find the right port. Not fair, the bus was a lot quicker than me, but at least I caught up enough to see where it went round the corners.
After getting alternately cooked and soaked on the boat over, I started looking for a bed. I trundled around on my bike, and somebody called me over, their room was a bit pricy, but pointed me across the room to a cheaper room. As I walked through the building site of the bottom floor I was a bit dubious but the room was okay. Later I realised that the top half of the building was missing. Tsunami damage, a lot still visible and evident in Ko Phi Phi.
I had a look around the beach, nice white sand, aquamarine water. I read my lengthy book for a while. Apparently there was a tsunami alert that day, but I didn't hear it, not very re-assuring.
That night I went along to a reggae bar to watch the Muay Thai (Thai Boxing), after all where else would you see the sport except a reggae bar. They had a full boxing ring up and after a long time with a guy outside ringing a bell trying to bring in customers, they combatants entered.
After some more premilinaries, such as bowing/praying in the 4 corners, and then more stretching/praying/warming up routines they were ready. The referee did a big sweeping hand movement like a chequered flag waver and they were off.
Standing pretty much toe to toe they traded a few hooks, mostly blocked. Then one thump pushed the received off balance and then a kick on the head knocked him down. Soon he dusted himself off and got back to business. The fight mostly continued on this route of punching, kicking trading blows. Then one would lost a bit of balance and the other attack. One attacker got the other guy to retreat and charged after him, but he deftly dodged to the side and the attacked ended up flying over the ropes out of the ring. Another time they were blocking blows, as one guy blocked a kick to his head he ready himself to send a kick, but the attacked continued with a roundhouse and flattened him, before he had a chance to react. He got back up but soon the fight was stopped as he got bashed again. It was quite interesting to watch though.
Another night I was walking past a restaurant and an Old Firm game was on the TV so I went in and watched it, 2-0 to Rangers! I then started talking to a guy, turns out he was from Clydebank. Had spent a year in Brisbane studying and now heading back to Scotland to fininsh his studies. He too was wondering why there was an Old Firm game on the TV! After some beer and some pool headed off and had a lie in the next day as the ferry to Phuket wasn't till 14.30.
After getting alternately cooked and soaked on the boat over, I started looking for a bed. I trundled around on my bike, and somebody called me over, their room was a bit pricy, but pointed me across the room to a cheaper room. As I walked through the building site of the bottom floor I was a bit dubious but the room was okay. Later I realised that the top half of the building was missing. Tsunami damage, a lot still visible and evident in Ko Phi Phi.
I had a look around the beach, nice white sand, aquamarine water. I read my lengthy book for a while. Apparently there was a tsunami alert that day, but I didn't hear it, not very re-assuring.
That night I went along to a reggae bar to watch the Muay Thai (Thai Boxing), after all where else would you see the sport except a reggae bar. They had a full boxing ring up and after a long time with a guy outside ringing a bell trying to bring in customers, they combatants entered.
After some more premilinaries, such as bowing/praying in the 4 corners, and then more stretching/praying/warming up routines they were ready. The referee did a big sweeping hand movement like a chequered flag waver and they were off.
Standing pretty much toe to toe they traded a few hooks, mostly blocked. Then one thump pushed the received off balance and then a kick on the head knocked him down. Soon he dusted himself off and got back to business. The fight mostly continued on this route of punching, kicking trading blows. Then one would lost a bit of balance and the other attack. One attacker got the other guy to retreat and charged after him, but he deftly dodged to the side and the attacked ended up flying over the ropes out of the ring. Another time they were blocking blows, as one guy blocked a kick to his head he ready himself to send a kick, but the attacked continued with a roundhouse and flattened him, before he had a chance to react. He got back up but soon the fight was stopped as he got bashed again. It was quite interesting to watch though.
Another night I was walking past a restaurant and an Old Firm game was on the TV so I went in and watched it, 2-0 to Rangers! I then started talking to a guy, turns out he was from Clydebank. Had spent a year in Brisbane studying and now heading back to Scotland to fininsh his studies. He too was wondering why there was an Old Firm game on the TV! After some beer and some pool headed off and had a lie in the next day as the ferry to Phuket wasn't till 14.30.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Krabi
I spent a couple of days in Trang and then headed on North. Nice enough town, but really seems to be a transit point. I headed off to the night market and picked out some food. I got some chicken rice/salad thing, because I knew what it was! And then a kinda of sweet rice pizza/pancake munchie. It was quite nice, only with your eyes did you know it was rice, it tasted sweet with a crunchy exterior where it had been fried. Suprisingly filling, it had been cut up into six slices like a pizza.
I then moved onto to Pak Meng down at the beach, not much of a beach to be honest kinda dull looking sand. I had a wander around, not many tourists around these bits, certainly not just now anyway. The next day I set off for Khlong Thom, somewhere thats not even mentioned in my guide book. Luckily they had a hotel, well one hotel, so that's where I stayed. Get people kinda staring at you more when your out in the sticks, not exactly a tourist destination, but a stop 40km before Krabi.
The weather is a bit mixed, quite grey somedays, heavy rain appears and disappears, some ducking in and out of shelter. But othertimes just light rain, which makes it hard to decided whether to continue, hoping it will go away, or hide somewhere in a shelter.
Next day headed over to Krabi, the landscape started jutting out from the ground more and more forming these strange sheer sided limestone sculptures. After taking a rest day, it rained most of the day anyway, I headed off 8km to a buddhist wat situated at the top of ones of these pinacles. Lots of steps! No, really lots of steps! 1273 said the sign, I didn't count them. So I started off slowly and got slower, but although overcast still warm and humid and soon dripping in sweat. I guzzled my bottle of water. Eventually with quite a few stops I got to the top and it was at least a great view back over the landscape. After taking in the view and have a nosy round the various buddha statues I had to go back down. By the time I reached the bottom, for the second time time in Krabi, I could barely control my legs (The other time was Chang-related!)
Ouch, spent the past few days hobbling about, the back of my calfs are sore when I move my feet, like when I try and walk. I was supposed to be off to Ko Phi Phi today, I was ready to head off on the 10.30am ferry, till I found it is the 9.30am ferry. Oh well, another day in Krabi. Try again tomorrow.
I then moved onto to Pak Meng down at the beach, not much of a beach to be honest kinda dull looking sand. I had a wander around, not many tourists around these bits, certainly not just now anyway. The next day I set off for Khlong Thom, somewhere thats not even mentioned in my guide book. Luckily they had a hotel, well one hotel, so that's where I stayed. Get people kinda staring at you more when your out in the sticks, not exactly a tourist destination, but a stop 40km before Krabi.
The weather is a bit mixed, quite grey somedays, heavy rain appears and disappears, some ducking in and out of shelter. But othertimes just light rain, which makes it hard to decided whether to continue, hoping it will go away, or hide somewhere in a shelter.
Next day headed over to Krabi, the landscape started jutting out from the ground more and more forming these strange sheer sided limestone sculptures. After taking a rest day, it rained most of the day anyway, I headed off 8km to a buddhist wat situated at the top of ones of these pinacles. Lots of steps! No, really lots of steps! 1273 said the sign, I didn't count them. So I started off slowly and got slower, but although overcast still warm and humid and soon dripping in sweat. I guzzled my bottle of water. Eventually with quite a few stops I got to the top and it was at least a great view back over the landscape. After taking in the view and have a nosy round the various buddha statues I had to go back down. By the time I reached the bottom, for the second time time in Krabi, I could barely control my legs (The other time was Chang-related!)
Ouch, spent the past few days hobbling about, the back of my calfs are sore when I move my feet, like when I try and walk. I was supposed to be off to Ko Phi Phi today, I was ready to head off on the 10.30am ferry, till I found it is the 9.30am ferry. Oh well, another day in Krabi. Try again tomorrow.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Into Thailand
Sawat Dii!
I'm now in a small town called Trang. I got the boat back over from Langkawi and cycled into the small state captial of Perlis, Kangar. After a bit of search round for a place to stay I had to settle for a overpriced dump! Nothing much in Kangar but a necessary stop, as the next stop was close to the border. The next day I headed off in the searing sun to get to the Perlis State Park. After pushing my bike up a really steep hill with far too many hairpin bends, it got a bit cloudy. Typical, here I am trundling up the hill getting cooked and when I reach the top the sun disappears. After coasting down the other side I finally got to Wang Kelian, a border town. I found the park easy enough as it's on the main road, only about 1km from Thailand. I turned out to be the only person staying there in the whole park, the accommodation is pushed inwards 1.2km from the road, so you feel you are in really in the middle of a rainforest. But rainforests being rainforests, it rained. Later on it dried up and I went for a quick trek along on of the trails till I reached a cave, but I didn't bother exploring any further and took the trail back up and down many stairs. I shouldn't of watched that bad horror film in Langkawi, Wrong Turn, about people who go into the woods only to be murdered by crazed inbreds (Yes, it was a poor Deliverance rip-off!) There was eight bed dorms, each housing eight people, and nine chalets, but just me there, spooky!!
Still nobody came charging through the door with an axe and the next morning I set off across the border. I passed through the Malaysian Deperatures with a small hiccup I had lost my disembarkation card. The stern man behind the counter groaned. I had to fill out another one. I asked for a pen, and he rolled his eyes. Then that pen stopped working. He slammed down another pen. The sign beside said "Service with a smile!". Yeah, right. Anyway after that was done, I saw a restaurant somewhat bizarrely situated after Malaysian Departures but before Thailand Immigration. So, I settled down to my last Mee Goreng in No Mans Land.
After lunch I rolled into Thailand. I hadn't been able to find a moneychanger in Kangar and the one at the border seemed permantely shut, so I decided I would almost loop back to Satun, which can be reached from Langkawi. I saw a sign in Thai and English for Satun, so I jotted down the Thai symbols, just in case. I was glad I had despite not getting lost the only indication I was heading towards Satun was the roadside markers ticking down the kilometres, but only in Thai. Not too far from Satun I ducked under a shopfront as the rain came on for a short while. I got a grilled lobster snack (crisps!) with my Malaysian Ringgot. Then I continue onto Satun. I found the hotel I was looking for with a good dose of luck, I looked up and I was outside it! I headed out to change my money, so set off for a bank. The teller told me that as they were a bank their rates weren't that good and I should go to the hotel round the corner and gave my the thumbs up! Okay, nice way of getting rid of customers!
The next day it was heading North to Pak Bara on the coast. I planned to stay in the inland town of Langu? as the detour to the coast added a roundtrip of another 20km on, but I couldn't find a hotel there. I headed off to the Pak Bara and found a nice guesthouse. I had a look into the travel agents to see what the deal with travelling to the islands is. After a bit of miscommunication, I found out the boat goes "sometimes", hmmm. Pretty much most of Pak Bara seemed closed. Most of the travel shops and such that lined the streets are shut for the low season. So not many boats during the monsoon season either. Yes, the monsoon has certainly arrived!
The next day I sure found that out! I ducked into a convient roadside shelter, as I looked ahead and saw the upcoming hill shiny with water. Just in time too, it pelted down for 30 minutes. I set on my way again, and after about ten minutes, the storm seemed to swirl round and the wind changed direction and caught up with me! This time it really unleashed. I ducked under another shopfront and watched as the roads become red rivers, the dust addding the colour. After another long time sitting watching, the rain eased. And I cycled off again, I was soon soaked from the surface water spray as much as from the remnants of the rain. I had hoped to find a hotel another 8km at the town of Palian. Turns out it not quite on the main road, 3km off to the side. I didn't see any hotels which was pretty disappointing as I was knackered and wet! Still as I cycled past a building site, I got the usual "Hello" ring out, followed by a "Where are you from?", so I stopped and found a guy that spoke English (he was a guide in Phuket during high season). He pointed me along to Tong Star Cape Resort. Said it was a bit more than I was wanting to pay but at this point I was really caring. After a rather bumpy road ride I got there and it was like the Mary Celeste! I had a look around, it was recently deserted, food in the fridge etc. I shouted out "Hello!" as loud as I could a few time, but the stillness was unbroken and the silence gave no token. I thought I would just hang about till somebody came along, half an hour later I was still waiting. It was going to get dark soon, so I went down to the nearest person and asked about the hotel, they jumped on their bike and motioned me to follow back to the hotel. More miscommunication, but they were off. They showed my the hotel, and then they started shouting "Hello" I explained I'd done this, and then he zoomed off again and brought back somebody with keys. So I managed to get a bed for the night. I nipped down to a restaurant and got some halting English questions asked from a "Learn English" type book. "What is your name, how old are you?" I had a look at the book and it contained useful phrases such as "Waiter, there is a fly in my soup!". Later on I switched on the TV and they had some sort of English lesson thing. The outcome seemed to be this sentence - People always believe the authorities have skeletons in their closets. So there you have it!
Next day I set off to Trang for a fairly uneventfull ride. The amount of people shouting out Hello is definitely greater than Malaysia. I stopped off at a restaurant and pointed at some food to see what I get. Not exactly mastered the language (That's Thai I'm talking about, not English cheeky!)
I'm now in a small town called Trang. I got the boat back over from Langkawi and cycled into the small state captial of Perlis, Kangar. After a bit of search round for a place to stay I had to settle for a overpriced dump! Nothing much in Kangar but a necessary stop, as the next stop was close to the border. The next day I headed off in the searing sun to get to the Perlis State Park. After pushing my bike up a really steep hill with far too many hairpin bends, it got a bit cloudy. Typical, here I am trundling up the hill getting cooked and when I reach the top the sun disappears. After coasting down the other side I finally got to Wang Kelian, a border town. I found the park easy enough as it's on the main road, only about 1km from Thailand. I turned out to be the only person staying there in the whole park, the accommodation is pushed inwards 1.2km from the road, so you feel you are in really in the middle of a rainforest. But rainforests being rainforests, it rained. Later on it dried up and I went for a quick trek along on of the trails till I reached a cave, but I didn't bother exploring any further and took the trail back up and down many stairs. I shouldn't of watched that bad horror film in Langkawi, Wrong Turn, about people who go into the woods only to be murdered by crazed inbreds (Yes, it was a poor Deliverance rip-off!) There was eight bed dorms, each housing eight people, and nine chalets, but just me there, spooky!!
Still nobody came charging through the door with an axe and the next morning I set off across the border. I passed through the Malaysian Deperatures with a small hiccup I had lost my disembarkation card. The stern man behind the counter groaned. I had to fill out another one. I asked for a pen, and he rolled his eyes. Then that pen stopped working. He slammed down another pen. The sign beside said "Service with a smile!". Yeah, right. Anyway after that was done, I saw a restaurant somewhat bizarrely situated after Malaysian Departures but before Thailand Immigration. So, I settled down to my last Mee Goreng in No Mans Land.
After lunch I rolled into Thailand. I hadn't been able to find a moneychanger in Kangar and the one at the border seemed permantely shut, so I decided I would almost loop back to Satun, which can be reached from Langkawi. I saw a sign in Thai and English for Satun, so I jotted down the Thai symbols, just in case. I was glad I had despite not getting lost the only indication I was heading towards Satun was the roadside markers ticking down the kilometres, but only in Thai. Not too far from Satun I ducked under a shopfront as the rain came on for a short while. I got a grilled lobster snack (crisps!) with my Malaysian Ringgot. Then I continue onto Satun. I found the hotel I was looking for with a good dose of luck, I looked up and I was outside it! I headed out to change my money, so set off for a bank. The teller told me that as they were a bank their rates weren't that good and I should go to the hotel round the corner and gave my the thumbs up! Okay, nice way of getting rid of customers!
The next day it was heading North to Pak Bara on the coast. I planned to stay in the inland town of Langu? as the detour to the coast added a roundtrip of another 20km on, but I couldn't find a hotel there. I headed off to the Pak Bara and found a nice guesthouse. I had a look into the travel agents to see what the deal with travelling to the islands is. After a bit of miscommunication, I found out the boat goes "sometimes", hmmm. Pretty much most of Pak Bara seemed closed. Most of the travel shops and such that lined the streets are shut for the low season. So not many boats during the monsoon season either. Yes, the monsoon has certainly arrived!
The next day I sure found that out! I ducked into a convient roadside shelter, as I looked ahead and saw the upcoming hill shiny with water. Just in time too, it pelted down for 30 minutes. I set on my way again, and after about ten minutes, the storm seemed to swirl round and the wind changed direction and caught up with me! This time it really unleashed. I ducked under another shopfront and watched as the roads become red rivers, the dust addding the colour. After another long time sitting watching, the rain eased. And I cycled off again, I was soon soaked from the surface water spray as much as from the remnants of the rain. I had hoped to find a hotel another 8km at the town of Palian. Turns out it not quite on the main road, 3km off to the side. I didn't see any hotels which was pretty disappointing as I was knackered and wet! Still as I cycled past a building site, I got the usual "Hello" ring out, followed by a "Where are you from?", so I stopped and found a guy that spoke English (he was a guide in Phuket during high season). He pointed me along to Tong Star Cape Resort. Said it was a bit more than I was wanting to pay but at this point I was really caring. After a rather bumpy road ride I got there and it was like the Mary Celeste! I had a look around, it was recently deserted, food in the fridge etc. I shouted out "Hello!" as loud as I could a few time, but the stillness was unbroken and the silence gave no token. I thought I would just hang about till somebody came along, half an hour later I was still waiting. It was going to get dark soon, so I went down to the nearest person and asked about the hotel, they jumped on their bike and motioned me to follow back to the hotel. More miscommunication, but they were off. They showed my the hotel, and then they started shouting "Hello" I explained I'd done this, and then he zoomed off again and brought back somebody with keys. So I managed to get a bed for the night. I nipped down to a restaurant and got some halting English questions asked from a "Learn English" type book. "What is your name, how old are you?" I had a look at the book and it contained useful phrases such as "Waiter, there is a fly in my soup!". Later on I switched on the TV and they had some sort of English lesson thing. The outcome seemed to be this sentence - People always believe the authorities have skeletons in their closets. So there you have it!
Next day I set off to Trang for a fairly uneventfull ride. The amount of people shouting out Hello is definitely greater than Malaysia. I stopped off at a restaurant and pointed at some food to see what I get. Not exactly mastered the language (That's Thai I'm talking about, not English cheeky!)
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Langkawi
After KL I grabbed a guide book & map for Thailand and jump on the first bus back up to Penang. After about six hours I arrived and stayed the night, getting a ticket for the early morning ferry to Langkawi. With not much sleep I arrived at Langkawi and had to cycle across the island to get to the budget accomodation, thankfully only 20km. Lately my sleep pattern has been a bit crazy, not helped by watching the Confederations Cup in the middle of the night. However when I arrived in Langkawi I made up for some sleep. I dozed off at 5pm woke up a couple of hours later considering dinner, but couldn't be bothered so went back to sleep and woke up the next day at noon, feeling much refreshed!
Langkawi is a curious mixture of fancy posh hotels and cheap duty free. There is only a handful of budget accomodations on the island, the majority is geared towards the high-end. Like the food, instead of fried rice, there is lobster thermidore on the menu, fresh from the dinnerside tank. A bit different from normal anwyay. I had some nice tomato soup with a hunk of fresh brown bread. Tasted very exotic!
I took a stroll down to Underwater World, a comparatively pricey aquarium, still I'll left them off as they had some penguins as well. After trying to take some photos of their fish and seahorses, I went back to the hostel and had a beer. The beer is only 3rm here! In fact in the shops a can of coke and a can of beer is the same price.
Another day I went for a cycle round the island, stopping off at a nice square for a spot to drink and then onto the crocodile farm. Luckily my timing was good and there was a small show starting in 5 minutes. This involved three guys dragging crocodiles about, sitting on them and sticking an arm in his mouth. Then there was somebody feeding the crocodiles. A big bucket of fish didn't last long, the trainer would throw 6 tied together and it would go straight down. A big fat one beside him pestered him for some more, and he got it as he was less than a couple of metres away.
The beaches and water aren't as nice as the islands on the east coast of Malaysia. Bit better after some heavy rain cleared the beach of stuff though. Strangely enough some of the Malaysian guys were watching Bo Selecta back at the hostel. I had a tuna salad makes a nice change from rice or noodles, I even found the olives edible!
Langkawi is a curious mixture of fancy posh hotels and cheap duty free. There is only a handful of budget accomodations on the island, the majority is geared towards the high-end. Like the food, instead of fried rice, there is lobster thermidore on the menu, fresh from the dinnerside tank. A bit different from normal anwyay. I had some nice tomato soup with a hunk of fresh brown bread. Tasted very exotic!
I took a stroll down to Underwater World, a comparatively pricey aquarium, still I'll left them off as they had some penguins as well. After trying to take some photos of their fish and seahorses, I went back to the hostel and had a beer. The beer is only 3rm here! In fact in the shops a can of coke and a can of beer is the same price.
Another day I went for a cycle round the island, stopping off at a nice square for a spot to drink and then onto the crocodile farm. Luckily my timing was good and there was a small show starting in 5 minutes. This involved three guys dragging crocodiles about, sitting on them and sticking an arm in his mouth. Then there was somebody feeding the crocodiles. A big bucket of fish didn't last long, the trainer would throw 6 tied together and it would go straight down. A big fat one beside him pestered him for some more, and he got it as he was less than a couple of metres away.
The beaches and water aren't as nice as the islands on the east coast of Malaysia. Bit better after some heavy rain cleared the beach of stuff though. Strangely enough some of the Malaysian guys were watching Bo Selecta back at the hostel. I had a tuna salad makes a nice change from rice or noodles, I even found the olives edible!
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Kuala Lumpur
Groan, PC crashed while I was typing this, so once again...
I arrived in KL via the sleeper train, thought it was going to be quiet but, a group of guys arrived after a few stops celbrating one of their birthdays. Actually they piped down around midnight but still didn't get much sleep. Arrived in KL and headed out the train station on to the monorail and jumped off at Bukit Bintang, close to the city centre. Stopped off for some breakfast at a roadside restaurant, travelling with just one bag is a breeze, with another bag and the bike left at the hotel in Penang. Found a hostel and asked about the ticketing situation for the Petronas twin towers, turned out I better get a move on if I wanted a ticket. I arrived around 9am, behind a couple of hundred other tourists. After 45 minutes I got a ticket for the 10.15 viewing so I hung around for a hald an hour first. Once up there you get ten minutes to wander around the sky bridge, which is about half away up to the top, tourists aren't allowed any higher. Good views off into the distance, at that height people and cars are just dots. Well the view was worth the price, it cost nothing! (except time)
Next stop was the Batu Caves, lucky a bus passed by me with the sign for the caves on the front, so I jumped aboard. A few hundred steps later, I reached the huge mouth of the caves. I entered and then more stairs up and down before coming to a shaft which reaches right up to the top of the cave, letting in light. Here stands a few temples, the caves are pakced on certain religious dates by Hindu devotees, but just the tourists and the monkeys today. When I had my fill of the main cave, I was walking down and noticed the dark cave, so I went for a quick nosy. I ended up talking to a Swiss-Malay fellow who was working there, turned out he's starting his own company. Started talking about how his 4 ton tensile strength harness is great value at only 1ringot/metre, he'd been in the caves since 82, never mentioned if he got let out at all. After that I headed back to the hostel and starting chatting with some aussies, Tim & Nathan, and then went for a beer. We couldn't find the pub recommended by the hostel staff, but eneded up in the Cruise Club, full of crazy dancing Indian guys.
Next night we went along to the Hard Rock Cafe and watched a band play, quite good, but just cover songs. And the beer was pricy at 18rm/mug. Wandered back to the hostel and chatted to Jane & Simon till the early hours, Simon wandered off to get some food, one of the advantages of being in a big city, 24hr food.
Next day went to the bird park and took lots of photos of weird and colorful birds.
Interesting, I like the small black birds with the bright red eyes. Look like something out of a horror flick. Went for dinner with Jane & Simon, had some crispy noodle fishy soup with a few bits of beef. It was okay, nothing special. Simon bought some durian fruit to taste. I had another taste, and it still taste horrible. Simon brilliantly described it as tasting "of hate & regret". I guess he wasn't a fan.
After a few more beers that night, I rose the next day early (well before lunch, ahem) and headed off to pickup and guide book and map for Thailand, something I hadn't managed to get round to in the previous three days. Then I jumped on the bus to Penang. I asked the driver if I needed a ticket beforehand and he says no, then the conductor comes round and asks for my ticket, he rolls his eyes and shakes his head when I say I have none. He takes 27rm, five of which is slipped in the pocket.
But I think that is the smae price for a booking at the travel agent. Get back in Penang late, grab some 'Famous Hainanese Chicken Rice' and try and get some sleep, because I need to get up at 7am for the ferry to Langkawi.
I arrived in KL via the sleeper train, thought it was going to be quiet but, a group of guys arrived after a few stops celbrating one of their birthdays. Actually they piped down around midnight but still didn't get much sleep. Arrived in KL and headed out the train station on to the monorail and jumped off at Bukit Bintang, close to the city centre. Stopped off for some breakfast at a roadside restaurant, travelling with just one bag is a breeze, with another bag and the bike left at the hotel in Penang. Found a hostel and asked about the ticketing situation for the Petronas twin towers, turned out I better get a move on if I wanted a ticket. I arrived around 9am, behind a couple of hundred other tourists. After 45 minutes I got a ticket for the 10.15 viewing so I hung around for a hald an hour first. Once up there you get ten minutes to wander around the sky bridge, which is about half away up to the top, tourists aren't allowed any higher. Good views off into the distance, at that height people and cars are just dots. Well the view was worth the price, it cost nothing! (except time)
Next stop was the Batu Caves, lucky a bus passed by me with the sign for the caves on the front, so I jumped aboard. A few hundred steps later, I reached the huge mouth of the caves. I entered and then more stairs up and down before coming to a shaft which reaches right up to the top of the cave, letting in light. Here stands a few temples, the caves are pakced on certain religious dates by Hindu devotees, but just the tourists and the monkeys today. When I had my fill of the main cave, I was walking down and noticed the dark cave, so I went for a quick nosy. I ended up talking to a Swiss-Malay fellow who was working there, turned out he's starting his own company. Started talking about how his 4 ton tensile strength harness is great value at only 1ringot/metre, he'd been in the caves since 82, never mentioned if he got let out at all. After that I headed back to the hostel and starting chatting with some aussies, Tim & Nathan, and then went for a beer. We couldn't find the pub recommended by the hostel staff, but eneded up in the Cruise Club, full of crazy dancing Indian guys.
Next night we went along to the Hard Rock Cafe and watched a band play, quite good, but just cover songs. And the beer was pricy at 18rm/mug. Wandered back to the hostel and chatted to Jane & Simon till the early hours, Simon wandered off to get some food, one of the advantages of being in a big city, 24hr food.
Next day went to the bird park and took lots of photos of weird and colorful birds.
Interesting, I like the small black birds with the bright red eyes. Look like something out of a horror flick. Went for dinner with Jane & Simon, had some crispy noodle fishy soup with a few bits of beef. It was okay, nothing special. Simon bought some durian fruit to taste. I had another taste, and it still taste horrible. Simon brilliantly described it as tasting "of hate & regret". I guess he wasn't a fan.
After a few more beers that night, I rose the next day early (well before lunch, ahem) and headed off to pickup and guide book and map for Thailand, something I hadn't managed to get round to in the previous three days. Then I jumped on the bus to Penang. I asked the driver if I needed a ticket beforehand and he says no, then the conductor comes round and asks for my ticket, he rolls his eyes and shakes his head when I say I have none. He takes 27rm, five of which is slipped in the pocket.
But I think that is the smae price for a booking at the travel agent. Get back in Penang late, grab some 'Famous Hainanese Chicken Rice' and try and get some sleep, because I need to get up at 7am for the ferry to Langkawi.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Penang
A bit of sightseeing
Once I arrived I went for a walk around Georgetown to try and orientate myself. I walked along past a church, with a man praying in front of the altar. Around and around, I passed the clock tower, Fort Cornwallis and along the esplanade, with people fishing in the sea. Through a bit of Chinatown and down to Little India, where sari shops mix with corner stalls selling necklaces of flowers and fruit.
Old shops mingle with the new, never quite sure if the shops that are shut will ever open again. In the reflection of a new glass building stands the Komtar building with 60+ floors, the tallest building in Penang. Nearby the chicken vendors are serving up their meals, not far from the pavements which consists of covered walkways usually with obstructing motorbikes. A man passes with an overladen bicycle, and I thought I had a lot of luggage! In Campbell street the shops are posher, full of gold and jewellery, even the lamposts are fancy! Here is a photo of something shiny!
On past shops full of mysterious jars of unknowns. Sometimes the walls are brightly coloured and for some reason I end up taking a photo! Passing rickshaw drivers lounging about in the sun, and some vacant rickshaws. Maybe the driver has went for a coffee, like me. The coffee here is apparently fried beans rather than roasted, tasty pretty good anyway.
By some sort of miracle, I woke early. Actually, maybe it was because my room was above the main street, where motorbikes revved up and down all day and all night. I changed hotel. Anyway, as I was up early I took a walk down Carnarvon St. which in the morning is transformed into a market. I whipped out my camera and strolled down the street snapping away as I walked past many stalls. Stalls selling durian fruit, spiky fruit (like lychee), fish, vegetables, meat, chicken, coconuts, some shrimps,
sweets, mushrooms, strange meals in polystrene containers, huge jackfruit, eggs, crabs, dried fish?, more chicken, greens, white things!, fresh colourful fruit, more veg, and mee goreng.
In a corner of the meatshed a cat gets a scrap, next door chickens in the cage get their throats slit and thrown into a large barrel and then a machine defeathers them and they are packaged up ready to eat (that chicken in the bag above)
Along the streets stall holders descale and cut the fish and generally hack them apart till they are ready to buy.
Meanwhile people weigh their prospective purchases (and wonder why people are taking pictures of them!). But mostly they ignore tourist with their cameras and get on with their daily life of chopping things up!
I finally got round to having a shave, after much thoughtful pondering. I had to get a new razor before the job was finished, and with just the moustache I looked like a crazed ringmaster escaped from the circus! Now smooth-chinned, I took a long walk down to the toy museum. Stopping off at many points for a drink, it was warm day and not much in the way of shade. Eventually I got to my destination, passing a giant painted flag on the motorway wall. It was advertised as "Malayasia's Largest and Only Toy Museum!". By that logic, it is also the smallest... Anyway, I had a nosy about, not really much different from a toy shop with crammed shelves, except it cost you 10rm to get in! Wandered past Hellraiser, Golem, the Alien, Spiderman, a Gremlin thing and that bad geezer out of Star Wars.
I went along to the Penang museum for a quick nosy at the exhibitions about the history and the culture behind Penang, quite interesting and only cost a ringgot. I had picked up a walking tour leaflet from the tourist centre, so one day I followed this around having a look at the different heritage buildings. There seems to be a lot of Chinese clan houses (Khongsi) around Penang. Some are very decorative and come complete with colourful dragons on the roof. I went for a look at Yap Kongsi close to the mosque. Stone carvings on the pillars outside, and inside the main hall was a large bowl full of ash, from previous burnings of incense sticks. Ornate golden covered walls and wax candles were dotted around, but strangest was the array of tea cups spread on a table. Drinks for the Gods?? Some old dusty flags in the corner, seemed to represent days goneby. Historical there was a lot of rivalry between the clans, with some clans joining one side against the others. Eventually there was a riot, but the police/army sorted it out. Back outside I looked up at a chinese lantern, looks different from down here.
Continuing on the heritage trail I walked past a nice blue house, which apparently was Syed Atlas Mansion, a rich Achehnese merchant, which has been restorated. It was closed, as the guy was going off on a prayer break. I headed on round to the Khoo Khongsi another fancy house/temple. Walking past a lampost, which the entrace stickers had covered. It had burned down in the early part of the twentieth century but been rebuilt. I think this must the clan sign, lets rock! After passing the entrance with expensive looking intricacies, you come across painted stone carvings and pearl chairs. Round the back there was some detailed large drawings, lots more gold and black chinese letters sculpted eagles , flowing curtains and stone lions! I final look back as I left.
Walking down Chulia street in Georgetown you see many different shops bunched together, sometime a road leading off has decorations. Walked past a welder, looked like he was attacking the pavement!
Another day I took a bus trip outside Georgetown to see Kek Lok Si, which I had heard described as a Buddhist Disneyland. They seem to be continuing to build on every spare piece of land here. More fancy temples, pagodas and decorated roofs. As you enter you walk past the liberation pond where many turtles are released. After many years, there are a lot of turtles, so not quite sure how the turtles feel about being liberated into an overcrowded pond, but I guess it beats getting flushed down the loo! Along the way an army of statues are found with a view back across Penang. But the highlight is the giant buddha. Standing mighty high and looking quite serene. Here a guy in a blue t-shirt approaches the petal base you can see just how high the buddha is here.
Reading a sign they have plans to cover the giant budha with a roof supported on octaganol pillars and flanked by a thousand six foot warriors! Nearby there was a quiet pond with lively fish.
I came across some strangely sculpted animals on a temple wall, but looking at my photos they didn't show the depth, so I've taken them from another angle as well. First the lion and from a different angle then the spitting head and from a different angle.
I also popped down to the south of the island to take in the War Musuem. It was interesting as it was a former British fort, which they abandoned when the Japanese invaded. So the museum is housed in what used to be the barracks, cooks quarters and such buildings. Also still present are the compounds used for firing cannons, explosive storage. The explosive storage bunker is housed underground in very thick walls to minimise any damage should an explosion occur. There is a small chimney-shaft type corridor with a ladder which I climbed up, the escape route. Quite claustrophobic! Outside there was a giant swivel gun. Later on there is a another tunnel which you have to crouch to get through, it leads off into complete darkness. I cheated and used my camera LCD to guide me through as I couldn't see my hand in front of me. In any event it loops round and you come back out on the other side, directly opposite the entrance.
Some of the exhibitions were pretty grim. I headed off out the museum and one of the guys gave me a lift along to the bus stop, and I got back to the hotel eventually after nipping in to an Indian restaurant for a Masala Thosia (Dosa?). I had left at 13.30 and didn't get back till after 21.00, yet I only spent a couple of hours in the musuem. Very mysterious! Though I did spend ages waiting for the bus, I found the right number parked at the bus station, but no driver, so I hung around waiting some more, eventually the driver turned up and told me I needed to get another bus. Waited some more, then the bus turned up and I jumped on. The bus went nowhere. Waited some more. The bus went about 2km, then stopped at another bus station. Waited some more. Eventually I got to the museum, I should of taken my bike, it would of been a lot quicker!
I went along to a restored house, it had been bought cheaply but the owners had spent millions doing it up in the correct fashion. Inside the had painted iron pillars apparently from MacFarlanes of Glasgow. Then I got told you're not allowed to take photos inside so that's all my readers get to see, one pillar. You'll just have to go to Penang yourselves. Back outside, a wall! And the exterior of the house looked like this, blue.
Later on at night I walked past a lit up mosque
I also popped down to the snake temple. A few snakes lazing about on the branches, looking like they had been placed there. They did have a good breakfast of eggs and fruit for them though. Continuing on, there is a garden where snakes are rumoured to be, but with continued development in the surrounding areas, the snakes have pretty much up and went somewhere quiter. However there is a guy who will place the (posinous!) snakes on your head and snap your photo. Oh, okay then!
Back at another swanky house, with what must be called purple drapes. They were set up for a wedding tonight. Big high ceiling and chandielers. In another room there was a display of traditional clothes and the ornate bed and table. Also the chairs had inlaid designs. The centre of the house was an open balcony with rooms leading off. More ornemental art was found around the house, such as the birds and the red designs. Also present was a small altar with various pictures and things. As I headed back to the hotel I passed a chinese temple. More fancy 3D artwork as well as this guy with the big tache
Football Frenzy
I went along to the City Stadium to see Penang play against Perak. The previous week Penang had been tanked by Perak 6-0 in the cup. They lost their home game 2-1 in the 2nd leg, I was going to go and see this game, but kinda pointless trying to overturn a six goal deficit! They then played each other again in the league with Penang in 3rd place a point ahead.
I arrived bought a ticket for 10rm and took a seat. Note to self, find out what colours the home team wears before entering the stadium. There seemed to be a lot of yellow shirts about, but that turned out to be the away team. I took a seat in the mixed crowd on the steps running alongside the pitch, opposite the posh seated area.
Turns out that like all the best teams, Penang play in blue. However it didn't help them much tonight. The kick-off wasn't until 20:45. Before the match started some nut dressed in a sequenced tassled outfits was running around the crowd shouting and joking in Malaysian. I guessed he was the equivalent of a cheerleader trying to rouse the crowd. The footy seemed to attract another couple of headcases. One with a scarf wrapped round his face like a desert tribesman, persisted through the whole match to shake the fence and shout, but I think he was just drunk. Meanwhile another big fat guy was dancing about, alongside the pitch to the drums, drenched in sweat.
But back to the action. Overall the standard was good, playing possesion football, a lot less scrappy than some of the SPL games! Penang probed in the first five minutes, generally holding on to the ball, while not causing any problems for the Perak defence. Then Perak ran up the park and scored in the first attack, shredding the Penang defence with some sharp passing and powerful running ending with a move, slotting the ball past the keeper. The crowd erupted, but then the Penang supporters noted the offside flag, and howls of derisions began.
Still that was just a taster of things to come. Perak looking much more dangerous on the counter attack, and so they scored around the 35 minute mark. Shortly after the break, they scored again. Penang looked toothless up front, with a lone Russian striker (not Shevchenko) being ineffective. Around the 70min mark, the game was sealed as the lively strikers of Perak combined and then 25yards out thumped in a shot which left the goalie stranded as it ruffled the net. Oh well, I don't think I'll get an invite back, I didn't prove very lucky.
I headed back into Georgetown and noticed a sign up, for the Confederation cup semi-final Brazil vs. Germany, so I watched that as well. Didn't kick off till midnight though. Brazil won 3-2, to set up the final against Argentina (which I also watched play Mexico, not much of a game). Now I can't get up in the mornings! The Argentina-Mexico matched went on to about 03.00 in the morning. Still a coupe of places on Lebuh Chulia selling food though. Off to watch the 3rd place match and final tonight. Final doesn't start till 03.00 though. Don't envisage an early morning tomorrow.
Cuisine Munch
Back on the main street at night a good selection of food is available in Penang, pretty much everything really. I had some of this and some of that, and some roasted chicken! Erm, lets see... What did I have? Barbecued ribs, although it tasted like stew. It came with iced green tea and undeciperable herbal black soup. Tasted of something I couldn't quite place, somewhere close to liquorice, very odd. Today I had some Taiwan beef noodle soup, quite nice. Noodles I can handle, chopsticks I can just about handle, but putting them together is just a recipe for disaster. Also splurged out on a steak (3quid!) but it wasn't that great, quite fatty. I had some dragonfruit from a stall, its kind of like the cucumber of fruits, not much taste. Some curry noodles, which was pretty tasty, though not that keen on the things from clams that looked like mushrooms but tasted like seafood. Also had some laksa which is just a bundle of different tastes. First time asam laksa at a stall, another time nonya laksa in a restaurant. No chilis the second time, but not much other difference. First pizza in eight months, I opted for tuna & pineapple with a hint of lime. Fans of the Fast Show will also be delighted to know that Cheesy Peas are alive and well in Malaysia, having purchased a packet of the "Cheese flavoured pea snack" I'm not sure the international audience is ready for such audicity. Anyway, the food is good! You even get strange drinks, like Flash Fruitade in the shops, or fresh carrot juice & milk from a stall if your feeling particularly healthy.
I bought some soup off this old couple, looked like they had been with their stall for some years. The whole stall is on a bike which can be cycled away, the bicycle pump doubles as bellows for the stove below. A great selection of cheap food on sticks in available. Simple take what you want and dip inside the boiling water, pay at the end with the colour of the sticks. Onto Chinatown where my camera is a bit shaky. Many of the streets had lights strung across like a celebration. Finally past the art gallery before heading off to bed.
Once I arrived I went for a walk around Georgetown to try and orientate myself. I walked along past a church, with a man praying in front of the altar. Around and around, I passed the clock tower, Fort Cornwallis and along the esplanade, with people fishing in the sea. Through a bit of Chinatown and down to Little India, where sari shops mix with corner stalls selling necklaces of flowers and fruit.
Old shops mingle with the new, never quite sure if the shops that are shut will ever open again. In the reflection of a new glass building stands the Komtar building with 60+ floors, the tallest building in Penang. Nearby the chicken vendors are serving up their meals, not far from the pavements which consists of covered walkways usually with obstructing motorbikes. A man passes with an overladen bicycle, and I thought I had a lot of luggage! In Campbell street the shops are posher, full of gold and jewellery, even the lamposts are fancy! Here is a photo of something shiny!
On past shops full of mysterious jars of unknowns. Sometimes the walls are brightly coloured and for some reason I end up taking a photo! Passing rickshaw drivers lounging about in the sun, and some vacant rickshaws. Maybe the driver has went for a coffee, like me. The coffee here is apparently fried beans rather than roasted, tasty pretty good anyway.
By some sort of miracle, I woke early. Actually, maybe it was because my room was above the main street, where motorbikes revved up and down all day and all night. I changed hotel. Anyway, as I was up early I took a walk down Carnarvon St. which in the morning is transformed into a market. I whipped out my camera and strolled down the street snapping away as I walked past many stalls. Stalls selling durian fruit, spiky fruit (like lychee), fish, vegetables, meat, chicken, coconuts, some shrimps,
sweets, mushrooms, strange meals in polystrene containers, huge jackfruit, eggs, crabs, dried fish?, more chicken, greens, white things!, fresh colourful fruit, more veg, and mee goreng.
In a corner of the meatshed a cat gets a scrap, next door chickens in the cage get their throats slit and thrown into a large barrel and then a machine defeathers them and they are packaged up ready to eat (that chicken in the bag above)
Along the streets stall holders descale and cut the fish and generally hack them apart till they are ready to buy.
Meanwhile people weigh their prospective purchases (and wonder why people are taking pictures of them!). But mostly they ignore tourist with their cameras and get on with their daily life of chopping things up!
I finally got round to having a shave, after much thoughtful pondering. I had to get a new razor before the job was finished, and with just the moustache I looked like a crazed ringmaster escaped from the circus! Now smooth-chinned, I took a long walk down to the toy museum. Stopping off at many points for a drink, it was warm day and not much in the way of shade. Eventually I got to my destination, passing a giant painted flag on the motorway wall. It was advertised as "Malayasia's Largest and Only Toy Museum!". By that logic, it is also the smallest... Anyway, I had a nosy about, not really much different from a toy shop with crammed shelves, except it cost you 10rm to get in! Wandered past Hellraiser, Golem, the Alien, Spiderman, a Gremlin thing and that bad geezer out of Star Wars.
I went along to the Penang museum for a quick nosy at the exhibitions about the history and the culture behind Penang, quite interesting and only cost a ringgot. I had picked up a walking tour leaflet from the tourist centre, so one day I followed this around having a look at the different heritage buildings. There seems to be a lot of Chinese clan houses (Khongsi) around Penang. Some are very decorative and come complete with colourful dragons on the roof. I went for a look at Yap Kongsi close to the mosque. Stone carvings on the pillars outside, and inside the main hall was a large bowl full of ash, from previous burnings of incense sticks. Ornate golden covered walls and wax candles were dotted around, but strangest was the array of tea cups spread on a table. Drinks for the Gods?? Some old dusty flags in the corner, seemed to represent days goneby. Historical there was a lot of rivalry between the clans, with some clans joining one side against the others. Eventually there was a riot, but the police/army sorted it out. Back outside I looked up at a chinese lantern, looks different from down here.
Continuing on the heritage trail I walked past a nice blue house, which apparently was Syed Atlas Mansion, a rich Achehnese merchant, which has been restorated. It was closed, as the guy was going off on a prayer break. I headed on round to the Khoo Khongsi another fancy house/temple. Walking past a lampost, which the entrace stickers had covered. It had burned down in the early part of the twentieth century but been rebuilt. I think this must the clan sign, lets rock! After passing the entrance with expensive looking intricacies, you come across painted stone carvings and pearl chairs. Round the back there was some detailed large drawings, lots more gold and black chinese letters sculpted eagles , flowing curtains and stone lions! I final look back as I left.
Walking down Chulia street in Georgetown you see many different shops bunched together, sometime a road leading off has decorations. Walked past a welder, looked like he was attacking the pavement!
Another day I took a bus trip outside Georgetown to see Kek Lok Si, which I had heard described as a Buddhist Disneyland. They seem to be continuing to build on every spare piece of land here. More fancy temples, pagodas and decorated roofs. As you enter you walk past the liberation pond where many turtles are released. After many years, there are a lot of turtles, so not quite sure how the turtles feel about being liberated into an overcrowded pond, but I guess it beats getting flushed down the loo! Along the way an army of statues are found with a view back across Penang. But the highlight is the giant buddha. Standing mighty high and looking quite serene. Here a guy in a blue t-shirt approaches the petal base you can see just how high the buddha is here.
Reading a sign they have plans to cover the giant budha with a roof supported on octaganol pillars and flanked by a thousand six foot warriors! Nearby there was a quiet pond with lively fish.
I came across some strangely sculpted animals on a temple wall, but looking at my photos they didn't show the depth, so I've taken them from another angle as well. First the lion and from a different angle then the spitting head and from a different angle.
I also popped down to the south of the island to take in the War Musuem. It was interesting as it was a former British fort, which they abandoned when the Japanese invaded. So the museum is housed in what used to be the barracks, cooks quarters and such buildings. Also still present are the compounds used for firing cannons, explosive storage. The explosive storage bunker is housed underground in very thick walls to minimise any damage should an explosion occur. There is a small chimney-shaft type corridor with a ladder which I climbed up, the escape route. Quite claustrophobic! Outside there was a giant swivel gun. Later on there is a another tunnel which you have to crouch to get through, it leads off into complete darkness. I cheated and used my camera LCD to guide me through as I couldn't see my hand in front of me. In any event it loops round and you come back out on the other side, directly opposite the entrance.
Some of the exhibitions were pretty grim. I headed off out the museum and one of the guys gave me a lift along to the bus stop, and I got back to the hotel eventually after nipping in to an Indian restaurant for a Masala Thosia (Dosa?). I had left at 13.30 and didn't get back till after 21.00, yet I only spent a couple of hours in the musuem. Very mysterious! Though I did spend ages waiting for the bus, I found the right number parked at the bus station, but no driver, so I hung around waiting some more, eventually the driver turned up and told me I needed to get another bus. Waited some more, then the bus turned up and I jumped on. The bus went nowhere. Waited some more. The bus went about 2km, then stopped at another bus station. Waited some more. Eventually I got to the museum, I should of taken my bike, it would of been a lot quicker!
I went along to a restored house, it had been bought cheaply but the owners had spent millions doing it up in the correct fashion. Inside the had painted iron pillars apparently from MacFarlanes of Glasgow. Then I got told you're not allowed to take photos inside so that's all my readers get to see, one pillar. You'll just have to go to Penang yourselves. Back outside, a wall! And the exterior of the house looked like this, blue.
Later on at night I walked past a lit up mosque
I also popped down to the snake temple. A few snakes lazing about on the branches, looking like they had been placed there. They did have a good breakfast of eggs and fruit for them though. Continuing on, there is a garden where snakes are rumoured to be, but with continued development in the surrounding areas, the snakes have pretty much up and went somewhere quiter. However there is a guy who will place the (posinous!) snakes on your head and snap your photo. Oh, okay then!
Back at another swanky house, with what must be called purple drapes. They were set up for a wedding tonight. Big high ceiling and chandielers. In another room there was a display of traditional clothes and the ornate bed and table. Also the chairs had inlaid designs. The centre of the house was an open balcony with rooms leading off. More ornemental art was found around the house, such as the birds and the red designs. Also present was a small altar with various pictures and things. As I headed back to the hotel I passed a chinese temple. More fancy 3D artwork as well as this guy with the big tache
Football Frenzy
I went along to the City Stadium to see Penang play against Perak. The previous week Penang had been tanked by Perak 6-0 in the cup. They lost their home game 2-1 in the 2nd leg, I was going to go and see this game, but kinda pointless trying to overturn a six goal deficit! They then played each other again in the league with Penang in 3rd place a point ahead.
I arrived bought a ticket for 10rm and took a seat. Note to self, find out what colours the home team wears before entering the stadium. There seemed to be a lot of yellow shirts about, but that turned out to be the away team. I took a seat in the mixed crowd on the steps running alongside the pitch, opposite the posh seated area.
Turns out that like all the best teams, Penang play in blue. However it didn't help them much tonight. The kick-off wasn't until 20:45. Before the match started some nut dressed in a sequenced tassled outfits was running around the crowd shouting and joking in Malaysian. I guessed he was the equivalent of a cheerleader trying to rouse the crowd. The footy seemed to attract another couple of headcases. One with a scarf wrapped round his face like a desert tribesman, persisted through the whole match to shake the fence and shout, but I think he was just drunk. Meanwhile another big fat guy was dancing about, alongside the pitch to the drums, drenched in sweat.
But back to the action. Overall the standard was good, playing possesion football, a lot less scrappy than some of the SPL games! Penang probed in the first five minutes, generally holding on to the ball, while not causing any problems for the Perak defence. Then Perak ran up the park and scored in the first attack, shredding the Penang defence with some sharp passing and powerful running ending with a move, slotting the ball past the keeper. The crowd erupted, but then the Penang supporters noted the offside flag, and howls of derisions began.
Still that was just a taster of things to come. Perak looking much more dangerous on the counter attack, and so they scored around the 35 minute mark. Shortly after the break, they scored again. Penang looked toothless up front, with a lone Russian striker (not Shevchenko) being ineffective. Around the 70min mark, the game was sealed as the lively strikers of Perak combined and then 25yards out thumped in a shot which left the goalie stranded as it ruffled the net. Oh well, I don't think I'll get an invite back, I didn't prove very lucky.
I headed back into Georgetown and noticed a sign up, for the Confederation cup semi-final Brazil vs. Germany, so I watched that as well. Didn't kick off till midnight though. Brazil won 3-2, to set up the final against Argentina (which I also watched play Mexico, not much of a game). Now I can't get up in the mornings! The Argentina-Mexico matched went on to about 03.00 in the morning. Still a coupe of places on Lebuh Chulia selling food though. Off to watch the 3rd place match and final tonight. Final doesn't start till 03.00 though. Don't envisage an early morning tomorrow.
Cuisine Munch
Back on the main street at night a good selection of food is available in Penang, pretty much everything really. I had some of this and some of that, and some roasted chicken! Erm, lets see... What did I have? Barbecued ribs, although it tasted like stew. It came with iced green tea and undeciperable herbal black soup. Tasted of something I couldn't quite place, somewhere close to liquorice, very odd. Today I had some Taiwan beef noodle soup, quite nice. Noodles I can handle, chopsticks I can just about handle, but putting them together is just a recipe for disaster. Also splurged out on a steak (3quid!) but it wasn't that great, quite fatty. I had some dragonfruit from a stall, its kind of like the cucumber of fruits, not much taste. Some curry noodles, which was pretty tasty, though not that keen on the things from clams that looked like mushrooms but tasted like seafood. Also had some laksa which is just a bundle of different tastes. First time asam laksa at a stall, another time nonya laksa in a restaurant. No chilis the second time, but not much other difference. First pizza in eight months, I opted for tuna & pineapple with a hint of lime. Fans of the Fast Show will also be delighted to know that Cheesy Peas are alive and well in Malaysia, having purchased a packet of the "Cheese flavoured pea snack" I'm not sure the international audience is ready for such audicity. Anyway, the food is good! You even get strange drinks, like Flash Fruitade in the shops, or fresh carrot juice & milk from a stall if your feeling particularly healthy.
I bought some soup off this old couple, looked like they had been with their stall for some years. The whole stall is on a bike which can be cycled away, the bicycle pump doubles as bellows for the stove below. A great selection of cheap food on sticks in available. Simple take what you want and dip inside the boiling water, pay at the end with the colour of the sticks. Onto Chinatown where my camera is a bit shaky. Many of the streets had lights strung across like a celebration. Finally past the art gallery before heading off to bed.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Cycling the East West highway
East West highway
I decided to cycle over the mountains to Penang from Kota Bharu. This path would take me along the east west highway, route 4. Starting off from Kota Bharu I headed to my first stop, Tanah Merah (57km). So far so good, no hills as I first had to head south. There are two road running parallel to Tanah Merah, either side of a river, I never did find out which one I was on, but no matter I arrived. I saw a sign for a lodge which looked newly built on the road out of town towards Jeli but it was full, so I headed back into town. I tried another chalet place but that was also full. I stopped off for an orange juice, and to ask for any other hotels. It was a Friday and the town seemed quiet.
I was given a plate of food. It took me a while to realise the woman was speaking English when she pointed at the food and said "Yams!", also I had a coloured glass of what I assumed was my orange juice, but in fact it was water. Shortly a boy reappeared with a bag of oranges. He had obviously been sent to the shop to replinish their supplies!
After quenching my thirst, I asked for a hotel. They pointed my off to the centre off town and sure enough a hotel was found. A couple of guys were hanging around the entrace. I dithered about as I wanted to leave my bike and run upstairs to check if they had a room, and I wanted to wait till they had gone. However, one came over and advised against leaving my bike about! I didn't exactly point out that was what I was thinking.
I settled in there for the night, and opted for some junk food from KFC. I have to say though, that the chicken you get in the street side restaurants tastes a lot better!
Heading off the next morning to a place called Jeli (49km). On my way out of Tanah Merah it seemed busier than the Friday. On the way I encountered my first hills, takes a bit of getting used to after trundling up the coast, which is rather obviously at sea-level and hence flat. I got to Jeli, scrapping within mere kilometres of the Thai border, and saw a sign for a chalet and followed it, but again the chalet disappeared. Maybe I'm not very good at following signs. I coasted round town and spotted a sign saying "Rumah Rehat", Malaysian for resthouse. Set back for the road was a few rooms on stilts which I would of missed if not for the sign. A very useful piece of Malay to know!
I had planned to head off early the next morning for what I expected to be the toughest stage of the ride, 85km to Banding, involving a lot of climbing. I had found a cycling blog earlier and they had taken a break after the climb and pitched there tents. I had no such luxury and would have to push two of the cycling days together. However that night, heavy rain brought out the noisy frog chorus and insects singing all night, and a few birds chirping not to mention the two 5 foot monitor lizards under the eaves of my roof who were fighting/making baby lizards, whose whipping tails on the tin roof made a fair racket!
After waking up I decided I didn't feel like a punishing day, so I took a rest day in Jeli. I didn't do very much, hey it was a rest day! I found an internet cafe just as they were closing, and I watched some football, the asian qualifiers between South Korea and something-stan. Then read a book called Tramping on Life by Harry Kemp.
The next day I sprang out of bed before dawn (okay, staggered off to the shower with my eyes closed)
I was underway before 07:00. A record early start, but I surmised that my climbing speed is probably around 10km/hr. Well that day I learned that I push my bike uphill at around 6km/hr!
The first 14km was fairly level, no big ups or down. Heading off early gave a spectular views at dawn of the forest-clad mist covered mountains. Soon I passed a curious limestone peak sharply climbing out the ground. After that the climbing started and didn't let up till the top of the peak. At 30km I spotted a sign for chalets, I didn't know about this! I headed down for a look, you can hire a boat to take you across the lake to the chalet(60rm). I considered breaking my journey here, but it wasn't even 10:00am so I headed back up onto the main road with weary legs. A couple more kilometres further on, I saw a sign for a lodge on the right hand side, leading off down a red dirt track. I'm not sure if the guesthouse was still in business, I only had a quick noisy before pushing on to the restaurant. A small plant nursery was being tended to next to the restaurant. Unfortunately somebody had eaten all the chicken when I got there, so I had to settle for Nasi Lemak with a fried egg thrown in, along with a Milo Ais (Hot chocolate with ice, suprisingly good if a bit strange, hot at the bottom cold at the top, requires much stirring)
After lunch I pushed on and came to the peak of the mountain with thick forest stretches endlessly in the distance but another restaurant await. A few tourists in cars, come out and have a nosy about, check out the view. I grabbed a cool can of coke and some chewy sweets. Mmmm sugar! The viewpoint at 1100m (3400ft) is just inside the state of Kelantan. As you head down the other side you slip into Perak. And whoosh a long, long descent. Eventually things level out and then more undulating hills and troughs continue all the way to Banding, although more downhills than uphills. Banding is situated around 400m (1200ft) above sea-level and I was going to stop here, but the rooms are quite pricy (85rm for the cheapest). So if a fit of madness, I decided to push on to Gerik (Grik). As I left Banding I crossed another bridge, I had forget that it is actually an island and thought I had somehow looped round and was crossing the original bridge backwards. With traffic I couldn't turn round until I got to the other side, and then back across to see if the jeti was on the right hand side. Nope, no jeti a different bridge. I was going the right way after all, sigh. Oh well third time lucky, eh?
After that it was back to the climbing, groan. I was wondering about the wiseness of my rather rash decision to head on by this point. But I just pushed on further, I should get there eventually, even if I had to push my bike, which on the steep hills I did. With signs for elepants crossing on the road, I passed by some elephant dung, and later on I thought I saw a trunk between the trees, maybe my overactive imagination, but there was something trampling about for I could hear it. I came across another restaurant about 20km outside Grik and got some more liquid and an ice-cream, aaaaah. And yet more liquid!
I was no hurry to set out again and had a little rest there, the sun was still beating down. It had been a beautiful sunny day, I wanted a cloudy day!
A policeman saw me ask somebody for the time, and came over to enquire what I wanted. I had a chat and asked him what the road into Grik was like, he said it was level. It was better than that, it was downhill for much of the 20km, thankfully. At around 17:30 I rolled into town, I had popped into a few dwellings of civilization before Grik but no places to stay. I spotted a digital thermometer besides the traffic lights, 40C (104F) it read, eek! I wondered what the temperature at 15:00 had been, when I been climbing??
The next day I continued on to perhaps Baling or Pengkalan Hulu, where the road signs pointed, but it wasn't on my map. I had planned an early start but upon waking I kept on thinking, maybe one more hour in bed. I got underway at 11:00. Yesterdays monster ride had deaden my legs though. Not so much sore, as just nothing in them, feeling empty. The first 20km went okay and I stopped off for some lunch. They only had Mee Rebus, so that's what I had, surrounded by lots of flies as well. The next 10km was up and down, and then the worst bit, a steep seemingly never ending hill winding its way continually upwards. I got off and pushed. Then got tired and jumped back on cycling in the lowest gear. And then off again for more pushing, periodically flopping on the grass besides the road. Phew, real tough going. Even the downhills seemed hard! But as they say what goes up must come down, and when I finally reached the top, it was helter-skelter to the bottom! I maxed out an impressive 61km/hr.
Slowly the kilometres passed by and into Pengkalan Hulu I trundled, bereft of energy. Got a hotel at the second time of asking, 20rm vs 65rm. Time for some resting, at dusk a lizard pauses on my hotel window.
So, I had a rest day in Pengakalan Hulu, I heard that you burn up carbohydrates while cycling so to ensure a full supply I had to drink a big bottle of Tiger beer! I had some fish and chips at a Chinese restaurant, not a bad attempt, but not quite the same as from the chippy. So onto the next day, I had planned an early start again, but a bit slow to get underway. I headed off and I was flying downhill for the first 15km to Baling. After that it was undulating up and down, not too many long uphills, but it was getting hot. I stopped off at a cafe, and had some chicken curry for breakfast. A large bit of tasty chicken breast, with lots of rice and another chicken leg with different spices. I was hungry! Mistaken for an American today, I've been variously mistaken as Dutch, English, Arab and Muslim (maybe I should have a shave) and probably a few others I've forgotten. After my breakfast it was hard to get going again, but slowly the kilometres ticked down and into Sungai Petani I rolled. A fairly large town, you can tell it's a bit bigger than other places because it has a mall. Actually most places on this route have been bigger than I imagined, it seems that ATM's have spread everywhere.
The next day is was finally onto Penang. A fairly straightforward route, nothing much to report except for passing a guy with a fridge on the back of his motorbike. When I got to Butterworth I hunted around for the bridge over to Penang, but could only find a bridge with workmen and JCB's not the right route. I ended up getting on to the ferry, and another cyclist told me that you aren't allowed across the bridge on a bike anyway. The other cyclist was living in Penang will being with the military, he led me to the main street with accommodation and saved me some hassle. So I'm now in Penang, I must say that I enjoyed the cycling across the country, but some of it was really hard work. Going to spend a few days (at least) off the bike, and give my tired legs a well-deserved rest.
I decided to cycle over the mountains to Penang from Kota Bharu. This path would take me along the east west highway, route 4. Starting off from Kota Bharu I headed to my first stop, Tanah Merah (57km). So far so good, no hills as I first had to head south. There are two road running parallel to Tanah Merah, either side of a river, I never did find out which one I was on, but no matter I arrived. I saw a sign for a lodge which looked newly built on the road out of town towards Jeli but it was full, so I headed back into town. I tried another chalet place but that was also full. I stopped off for an orange juice, and to ask for any other hotels. It was a Friday and the town seemed quiet.
I was given a plate of food. It took me a while to realise the woman was speaking English when she pointed at the food and said "Yams!", also I had a coloured glass of what I assumed was my orange juice, but in fact it was water. Shortly a boy reappeared with a bag of oranges. He had obviously been sent to the shop to replinish their supplies!
After quenching my thirst, I asked for a hotel. They pointed my off to the centre off town and sure enough a hotel was found. A couple of guys were hanging around the entrace. I dithered about as I wanted to leave my bike and run upstairs to check if they had a room, and I wanted to wait till they had gone. However, one came over and advised against leaving my bike about! I didn't exactly point out that was what I was thinking.
I settled in there for the night, and opted for some junk food from KFC. I have to say though, that the chicken you get in the street side restaurants tastes a lot better!
Heading off the next morning to a place called Jeli (49km). On my way out of Tanah Merah it seemed busier than the Friday. On the way I encountered my first hills, takes a bit of getting used to after trundling up the coast, which is rather obviously at sea-level and hence flat. I got to Jeli, scrapping within mere kilometres of the Thai border, and saw a sign for a chalet and followed it, but again the chalet disappeared. Maybe I'm not very good at following signs. I coasted round town and spotted a sign saying "Rumah Rehat", Malaysian for resthouse. Set back for the road was a few rooms on stilts which I would of missed if not for the sign. A very useful piece of Malay to know!
I had planned to head off early the next morning for what I expected to be the toughest stage of the ride, 85km to Banding, involving a lot of climbing. I had found a cycling blog earlier and they had taken a break after the climb and pitched there tents. I had no such luxury and would have to push two of the cycling days together. However that night, heavy rain brought out the noisy frog chorus and insects singing all night, and a few birds chirping not to mention the two 5 foot monitor lizards under the eaves of my roof who were fighting/making baby lizards, whose whipping tails on the tin roof made a fair racket!
After waking up I decided I didn't feel like a punishing day, so I took a rest day in Jeli. I didn't do very much, hey it was a rest day! I found an internet cafe just as they were closing, and I watched some football, the asian qualifiers between South Korea and something-stan. Then read a book called Tramping on Life by Harry Kemp.
The next day I sprang out of bed before dawn (okay, staggered off to the shower with my eyes closed)
I was underway before 07:00. A record early start, but I surmised that my climbing speed is probably around 10km/hr. Well that day I learned that I push my bike uphill at around 6km/hr!
The first 14km was fairly level, no big ups or down. Heading off early gave a spectular views at dawn of the forest-clad mist covered mountains. Soon I passed a curious limestone peak sharply climbing out the ground. After that the climbing started and didn't let up till the top of the peak. At 30km I spotted a sign for chalets, I didn't know about this! I headed down for a look, you can hire a boat to take you across the lake to the chalet(60rm). I considered breaking my journey here, but it wasn't even 10:00am so I headed back up onto the main road with weary legs. A couple more kilometres further on, I saw a sign for a lodge on the right hand side, leading off down a red dirt track. I'm not sure if the guesthouse was still in business, I only had a quick noisy before pushing on to the restaurant. A small plant nursery was being tended to next to the restaurant. Unfortunately somebody had eaten all the chicken when I got there, so I had to settle for Nasi Lemak with a fried egg thrown in, along with a Milo Ais (Hot chocolate with ice, suprisingly good if a bit strange, hot at the bottom cold at the top, requires much stirring)
After lunch I pushed on and came to the peak of the mountain with thick forest stretches endlessly in the distance but another restaurant await. A few tourists in cars, come out and have a nosy about, check out the view. I grabbed a cool can of coke and some chewy sweets. Mmmm sugar! The viewpoint at 1100m (3400ft) is just inside the state of Kelantan. As you head down the other side you slip into Perak. And whoosh a long, long descent. Eventually things level out and then more undulating hills and troughs continue all the way to Banding, although more downhills than uphills. Banding is situated around 400m (1200ft) above sea-level and I was going to stop here, but the rooms are quite pricy (85rm for the cheapest). So if a fit of madness, I decided to push on to Gerik (Grik). As I left Banding I crossed another bridge, I had forget that it is actually an island and thought I had somehow looped round and was crossing the original bridge backwards. With traffic I couldn't turn round until I got to the other side, and then back across to see if the jeti was on the right hand side. Nope, no jeti a different bridge. I was going the right way after all, sigh. Oh well third time lucky, eh?
After that it was back to the climbing, groan. I was wondering about the wiseness of my rather rash decision to head on by this point. But I just pushed on further, I should get there eventually, even if I had to push my bike, which on the steep hills I did. With signs for elepants crossing on the road, I passed by some elephant dung, and later on I thought I saw a trunk between the trees, maybe my overactive imagination, but there was something trampling about for I could hear it. I came across another restaurant about 20km outside Grik and got some more liquid and an ice-cream, aaaaah. And yet more liquid!
I was no hurry to set out again and had a little rest there, the sun was still beating down. It had been a beautiful sunny day, I wanted a cloudy day!
A policeman saw me ask somebody for the time, and came over to enquire what I wanted. I had a chat and asked him what the road into Grik was like, he said it was level. It was better than that, it was downhill for much of the 20km, thankfully. At around 17:30 I rolled into town, I had popped into a few dwellings of civilization before Grik but no places to stay. I spotted a digital thermometer besides the traffic lights, 40C (104F) it read, eek! I wondered what the temperature at 15:00 had been, when I been climbing??
The next day I continued on to perhaps Baling or Pengkalan Hulu, where the road signs pointed, but it wasn't on my map. I had planned an early start but upon waking I kept on thinking, maybe one more hour in bed. I got underway at 11:00. Yesterdays monster ride had deaden my legs though. Not so much sore, as just nothing in them, feeling empty. The first 20km went okay and I stopped off for some lunch. They only had Mee Rebus, so that's what I had, surrounded by lots of flies as well. The next 10km was up and down, and then the worst bit, a steep seemingly never ending hill winding its way continually upwards. I got off and pushed. Then got tired and jumped back on cycling in the lowest gear. And then off again for more pushing, periodically flopping on the grass besides the road. Phew, real tough going. Even the downhills seemed hard! But as they say what goes up must come down, and when I finally reached the top, it was helter-skelter to the bottom! I maxed out an impressive 61km/hr.
Slowly the kilometres passed by and into Pengkalan Hulu I trundled, bereft of energy. Got a hotel at the second time of asking, 20rm vs 65rm. Time for some resting, at dusk a lizard pauses on my hotel window.
So, I had a rest day in Pengakalan Hulu, I heard that you burn up carbohydrates while cycling so to ensure a full supply I had to drink a big bottle of Tiger beer! I had some fish and chips at a Chinese restaurant, not a bad attempt, but not quite the same as from the chippy. So onto the next day, I had planned an early start again, but a bit slow to get underway. I headed off and I was flying downhill for the first 15km to Baling. After that it was undulating up and down, not too many long uphills, but it was getting hot. I stopped off at a cafe, and had some chicken curry for breakfast. A large bit of tasty chicken breast, with lots of rice and another chicken leg with different spices. I was hungry! Mistaken for an American today, I've been variously mistaken as Dutch, English, Arab and Muslim (maybe I should have a shave) and probably a few others I've forgotten. After my breakfast it was hard to get going again, but slowly the kilometres ticked down and into Sungai Petani I rolled. A fairly large town, you can tell it's a bit bigger than other places because it has a mall. Actually most places on this route have been bigger than I imagined, it seems that ATM's have spread everywhere.
The next day is was finally onto Penang. A fairly straightforward route, nothing much to report except for passing a guy with a fridge on the back of his motorbike. When I got to Butterworth I hunted around for the bridge over to Penang, but could only find a bridge with workmen and JCB's not the right route. I ended up getting on to the ferry, and another cyclist told me that you aren't allowed across the bridge on a bike anyway. The other cyclist was living in Penang will being with the military, he led me to the main street with accommodation and saved me some hassle. So I'm now in Penang, I must say that I enjoyed the cycling across the country, but some of it was really hard work. Going to spend a few days (at least) off the bike, and give my tired legs a well-deserved rest.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Kota Bharu
I finally made it up the East coast to Kota Bharu, my destination when I left Singapore. I was trying to stick to the coast as I had been told that there was a path running alongside the beach. I headed out along some of these small paths, but invariably was pushed back onto the highway. One time I headed towards the sea, pu the path started looping back, so I had a look at the beach, it was flat and the the tide was receding. So, I pushed my bike onto the damp sand and started pedalling along the sand. Steering is kinda hard before you get used to just leaning into any turn rather than turning the handlebars! After about 5km a river appeared, I had to drag my fully loaded bike through the soft sand, where it sank into all too easily. It was hard work! My bike wheel was in desparate need of repair and I had been informed that a good bike shop lay a couple of kilometres outside the city. I headed off and found Razani's Pro Bike Shop. Unfortunately Razani was not there just now but if I came back in a couple of hours, he could see what could be done.
Thankfully it was all sorted out. As seems to be the habits in bike shops the all work at a hundred miles per hour. He whipped off the wheel, pulled of the tyre, strips the inner tube, wrenches off the gears, gives a few quick snips with a pair of wirecutters and takes out the other spokes whose holders had been mangled by yours truly. He fits in four new spokes and balances the wheel. It is round again!
The next day I headed off to the cultural centre and watched a traditional Malay drumming group. They had husks of coconuts with the top removed and a plank of wood fixed above the hole. So when the plank was struck by a padded stick the coconut resonates to produce the sound. They bashed away for a bit, making quite a racket! Then we were invited to join in, so I'm now an expert on playing the coconuts, ahem.
Next there was a traditional game of keepie-ups using something similar to a shuttlecock, a small piece of circular wood bent round into a rough ellipse, this gave it a bit of spring when kicked, and attached were chicken feathers. The tourists were invited to join in, although the locals were obviously the best.
I went to cycle back to the guesthouse, but my tyre was now flat! So I pushed it back instead. I tried to fix the puncture and it seemed to work, but five minutes later it was flat, so I used my spare inner tube. I popped back over to Razani as I wanted to pick up a pair of gloves as my fingers have been getting pins and needles after riding. He again whipped off the wheel and added a plastic ring round the inside of the wheel to protect the inner tube from any spokes sticking through. He invited me along to ride with his group tomorrow, but they average around 30km/hr compared to me leisurely 17km/hr, so I politely declined. Razani is Malaysian number one triathlete, so I think I may just be ever so slightly out my depth trying to keep up with him! They were off for a 'short' 55km ride on Friday as a prelude to their 160km ride on Saturday. Gulp.
Thankfully it was all sorted out. As seems to be the habits in bike shops the all work at a hundred miles per hour. He whipped off the wheel, pulled of the tyre, strips the inner tube, wrenches off the gears, gives a few quick snips with a pair of wirecutters and takes out the other spokes whose holders had been mangled by yours truly. He fits in four new spokes and balances the wheel. It is round again!
The next day I headed off to the cultural centre and watched a traditional Malay drumming group. They had husks of coconuts with the top removed and a plank of wood fixed above the hole. So when the plank was struck by a padded stick the coconut resonates to produce the sound. They bashed away for a bit, making quite a racket! Then we were invited to join in, so I'm now an expert on playing the coconuts, ahem.
Next there was a traditional game of keepie-ups using something similar to a shuttlecock, a small piece of circular wood bent round into a rough ellipse, this gave it a bit of spring when kicked, and attached were chicken feathers. The tourists were invited to join in, although the locals were obviously the best.
I went to cycle back to the guesthouse, but my tyre was now flat! So I pushed it back instead. I tried to fix the puncture and it seemed to work, but five minutes later it was flat, so I used my spare inner tube. I popped back over to Razani as I wanted to pick up a pair of gloves as my fingers have been getting pins and needles after riding. He again whipped off the wheel and added a plastic ring round the inside of the wheel to protect the inner tube from any spokes sticking through. He invited me along to ride with his group tomorrow, but they average around 30km/hr compared to me leisurely 17km/hr, so I politely declined. Razani is Malaysian number one triathlete, so I think I may just be ever so slightly out my depth trying to keep up with him! They were off for a 'short' 55km ride on Friday as a prelude to their 160km ride on Saturday. Gulp.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Perhentians
Arriving at Kuala Besut I was besieged by people trying to sell me tickets to the islands. Well maybe not besieged, but this was the first time in Malaysia I'd seen people actively trying to sell me something. I got a ticket and left my bike in the travel agents, after whipping off the front tyre and padlocking it up to stop somebody riding off in to the sunset with my bike!
After whizzing along in a speedboat, the last 20m you transfer to a small water taxi who takes you onto the beach. I found somewhere to stay and settled in. The next day I checked the footy and Rangers had somehow won the league! I celebrated with a few beers and probably bored the ears off some English guy about how they had snatched the league in the last few minutes :)
Nice white sandy beach and clear water in the Perhentians, with the ubiqutous sunshades slowly engulfing the beach, as opposed to the traditional palm tree shade. In the morning it is quiet.
I decided to go on the snorkelling trip but could never get up early enough for it, after spending half the night trying to swat a moquito who had found his way inside my net. Eventually on my last day there I managed to rise at 10:00 ready for the trip. We jumped in the boat and zoomed off to the first spot and I slinked into the water with mask, snorkel, fins & lifejacket. A few bits of bread had been thrown in and there were fish everywhere! Occasionaly having a nibble of people. After a while it was back on the boat and off to another place. A couple of people spotted sharks, but the rest of us missed it. Oh well, at the next spot we saw a giant turtle munching away on the ocean floor. It looked massive! We stopped off for lunch at a fishing village and then a couple more snorkeling spots afterwards. Really glad I managed to get out of bed to do it, it was excellent. The visibility seemed excellent with the water very clear. You could see a long distance away, but the optics underwater are weird. When you extend your hand away it still looks big and close, like you have large stumpy arms! Also saw a baracuda? with it's long snout jaw open being cleaned by another fish, some sea-cucumber on the floor as well as many unknown colorful fish and a huge variety of corals. Also interesting was a large shoal of small fish glinting in the light, as you swam towards them they parted and then regrouped, never allowing you to get that close.
Heading off on the bike again tomorrow, I've heard it's a nice ride along the beach most of the way to Kota Bharu so looking forward to that, if I can find the right road.
-- postscript
Change of plans, got a dose of the flu or something, people on the islands were sniffling away. Thanks! Spent a few days in Kuala Besut sleeping, which is about as exciting as Kuala Besut gets, being merely a stop-off point to the islands. Oh well, though I did watch people fishing (they caught nothing) and people flying kites!
After whizzing along in a speedboat, the last 20m you transfer to a small water taxi who takes you onto the beach. I found somewhere to stay and settled in. The next day I checked the footy and Rangers had somehow won the league! I celebrated with a few beers and probably bored the ears off some English guy about how they had snatched the league in the last few minutes :)
Nice white sandy beach and clear water in the Perhentians, with the ubiqutous sunshades slowly engulfing the beach, as opposed to the traditional palm tree shade. In the morning it is quiet.
I decided to go on the snorkelling trip but could never get up early enough for it, after spending half the night trying to swat a moquito who had found his way inside my net. Eventually on my last day there I managed to rise at 10:00 ready for the trip. We jumped in the boat and zoomed off to the first spot and I slinked into the water with mask, snorkel, fins & lifejacket. A few bits of bread had been thrown in and there were fish everywhere! Occasionaly having a nibble of people. After a while it was back on the boat and off to another place. A couple of people spotted sharks, but the rest of us missed it. Oh well, at the next spot we saw a giant turtle munching away on the ocean floor. It looked massive! We stopped off for lunch at a fishing village and then a couple more snorkeling spots afterwards. Really glad I managed to get out of bed to do it, it was excellent. The visibility seemed excellent with the water very clear. You could see a long distance away, but the optics underwater are weird. When you extend your hand away it still looks big and close, like you have large stumpy arms! Also saw a baracuda? with it's long snout jaw open being cleaned by another fish, some sea-cucumber on the floor as well as many unknown colorful fish and a huge variety of corals. Also interesting was a large shoal of small fish glinting in the light, as you swam towards them they parted and then regrouped, never allowing you to get that close.
Heading off on the bike again tomorrow, I've heard it's a nice ride along the beach most of the way to Kota Bharu so looking forward to that, if I can find the right road.
-- postscript
Change of plans, got a dose of the flu or something, people on the islands were sniffling away. Thanks! Spent a few days in Kuala Besut sleeping, which is about as exciting as Kuala Besut gets, being merely a stop-off point to the islands. Oh well, though I did watch people fishing (they caught nothing) and people flying kites!
Kuala Terengannu
After arriving in Palau Duyong, I cycled around for a bit before finding my accommodation Ali's Yellow House, which is no longer yellow. Situated in a fishing village, the other main industry here is boat building, Awi showed me his almost finished yacht, built from scratch. At the guesthouse I had some interesting conversations with a few Malaysians. Also I met a Swiss couple on their way to Singapore who, a year ago, had started cycling from Mongolia through China and South East Asia on a recumbent tandem with a trailer. A very peculiar looking machine about 2m long. They definitely most of got a lot of stares!
I tried to find the museum one day but couldn't locate it. The next day I had better success. I chained it up next to tank in the carpark and headed inside. Your not allowed any photos inside though, so I deposited my camera in a locker. It is a huge museum with various sections, such as Historic, Royal, Handicrafts, Natural, Islamic etc. I spent a few hours wandering about. It didn't seem particularly popular as I rarely bumped into anybody else, but apparently busloads of tourists arrive at the weekends. In the natural section they had vats of formaldehyde storing various creatures from the deep. Like a big fish over 200kg caught off the coast, and a large 12ft sea snake/eel crammed into a jar.
Palau Duyong was a quiet place, but come Friday the market arrives. The main street is suddenly clogged with hawkers selling there wares. I had an "apam balik" a kind of peanut pancake, some satay sticks and fried chicken leg before bumping into a guy from the guesthouse and going for a beer.
Later I tried to sort out my wheel as with the missing spoke it was almost rubbing against the brake pad. A few tweaks of the spokes later and I 'fixed' it. Although now it was worse! I also managed to mangle the spoke holders as they seem to be made of soft metal and so reversing the damage proved elusive. Thankfully with the help of the Swiss couple I managed to get it at least ridable. I have the details of a bike shop up in Kota Bharu, so hopefully I can get it properly fixed there.
I left heading towards Kuala Besut, the port for the Perhentians. I stopped off for lunch, but they didn't have any food and sent me back a kilometre to another cafe. Why a restaurant had no food I'm not sure. Still I got something to eat. I saw a sign saying 'Nasi Lauk' and I hadn't seen that before so I ordered that, turned out to be plain rice! So I got some sauce and chicken to go with it, washed down with iced orange juice. I was ready to hit the road again, I'd seen a sign that they were budget chalets a few km's along, but it most of been on the other branch of the road for the never materialised. I continued onwards and passed by a large numbers of people fishing with large rods. I asked somebody what was going on, turned out to be a competition, he also gave me a bottle of water beofre I continued onwards getting off the highway back on to the favoured beach roads. Often there is a path running alongside the sea, which only the occasional motorbikes use, great for cycling. Here I stumbled across a small inn, which also housed a conservation project for Coral Cay, almost on the beach with a small picnic table. I stopped here and the owner invited us all for tea, as one of the members was soon leaving after six months. The project seem to involve survey work recording animals numbers and natural fauna etc. It had previously surveyed the Perhentians and may go to Taman Negara next. Interesting to talk to the participants and one of these things I would never of stumbled across if I hadn't been on my bike.
I tried to find the museum one day but couldn't locate it. The next day I had better success. I chained it up next to tank in the carpark and headed inside. Your not allowed any photos inside though, so I deposited my camera in a locker. It is a huge museum with various sections, such as Historic, Royal, Handicrafts, Natural, Islamic etc. I spent a few hours wandering about. It didn't seem particularly popular as I rarely bumped into anybody else, but apparently busloads of tourists arrive at the weekends. In the natural section they had vats of formaldehyde storing various creatures from the deep. Like a big fish over 200kg caught off the coast, and a large 12ft sea snake/eel crammed into a jar.
Palau Duyong was a quiet place, but come Friday the market arrives. The main street is suddenly clogged with hawkers selling there wares. I had an "apam balik" a kind of peanut pancake, some satay sticks and fried chicken leg before bumping into a guy from the guesthouse and going for a beer.
Later I tried to sort out my wheel as with the missing spoke it was almost rubbing against the brake pad. A few tweaks of the spokes later and I 'fixed' it. Although now it was worse! I also managed to mangle the spoke holders as they seem to be made of soft metal and so reversing the damage proved elusive. Thankfully with the help of the Swiss couple I managed to get it at least ridable. I have the details of a bike shop up in Kota Bharu, so hopefully I can get it properly fixed there.
I left heading towards Kuala Besut, the port for the Perhentians. I stopped off for lunch, but they didn't have any food and sent me back a kilometre to another cafe. Why a restaurant had no food I'm not sure. Still I got something to eat. I saw a sign saying 'Nasi Lauk' and I hadn't seen that before so I ordered that, turned out to be plain rice! So I got some sauce and chicken to go with it, washed down with iced orange juice. I was ready to hit the road again, I'd seen a sign that they were budget chalets a few km's along, but it most of been on the other branch of the road for the never materialised. I continued onwards and passed by a large numbers of people fishing with large rods. I asked somebody what was going on, turned out to be a competition, he also gave me a bottle of water beofre I continued onwards getting off the highway back on to the favoured beach roads. Often there is a path running alongside the sea, which only the occasional motorbikes use, great for cycling. Here I stumbled across a small inn, which also housed a conservation project for Coral Cay, almost on the beach with a small picnic table. I stopped here and the owner invited us all for tea, as one of the members was soon leaving after six months. The project seem to involve survey work recording animals numbers and natural fauna etc. It had previously surveyed the Perhentians and may go to Taman Negara next. Interesting to talk to the participants and one of these things I would never of stumbled across if I hadn't been on my bike.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Kapas
I arrived at the jetty to questioning looks. "You want to take your bicycle to Kapas?" Yep, I didn't fancy leaving it on the mainland. I would come back to an empty space. Dude! Where's my bike??
So, I dragged it down the beach to The Lighthouse. Stuck at the end of the beach, The Lighthouse is a longhouse raised on sticks. A friendly little place, where the pace of life threatens to grind entirely to a halt. The next night a Swedish guy, Johan, and his girlfriend were leaving after the Lighthouse after three months! The free booze flowed freely, and the owner, Dean, demonstrated his ability to dance like a rubberband on the bar. It was good to be at a place with decent music for a change!
Kapas is just a small island with a series of coves, connected by bridges over rocky outcrops. About 15 minutes walk from one end to the other. Somewhat strangely there are no real shops, just restaurants that sell odds and ends. Still the only people that live here run the restaurants or guesthouses. I headed into the jungle interior and began following a trail which was signposted, but after not long I'd lost the signs and ended up lost in the the jungle. Luckily I have my S3$ watch compass! So I beat my way due West with a big stick, with the exception of coming across a large yellow striped spider whom I gave a wide berth. Eventually I returned to the track and retraced my steps, but not before going down the wrong path and wondering what that gentle humming noise was. As I got closer I saw a flowering tree, where the sounds got louder & louder, I soon realised it was the buzzing of hundreds of bees around the flowers. Retreat! Retreat! I made it back our dripping in sweat, as the jungle humidity is intense. I also got lots of insect bits for free. Another route was along the coast and up along a ridge, here the path dwindled out into lots of plants. Back down at beach level, a snail posed for a photo, also the rocks were kind enough not to move for their photo, just like the leaves also!
On my last night there was a barbeque of fish, squid, chicken, pork chops & mint sauce, salad & chips. A Malaysian guy with the energy of a kid's TV presenter, appeared named John. He kept proclaiming he didn't know how to dance followed by a forward somersault and the splits. hmmm. "Come on people, let's dance!", he enthused to five BBQ bloated people slouching lazily in their chairs.
That night it was thunder & lighting & heavy rain. Given that the longhouse has a tin roof, not a quiet night. The storm moved closer, so that the thunder was no longer rumbling in the distance, but loud, make you jump, ripping, crunching thunder that made the room shake barely prededed by bliding flashes of light. Eek!
I also had a few games of badminton on the beach, just a knock around as there was no net, and not many people!
The next day it was off for a quick hours cycle north to Pulau Duyong in Kuala Terengannu.
So, I dragged it down the beach to The Lighthouse. Stuck at the end of the beach, The Lighthouse is a longhouse raised on sticks. A friendly little place, where the pace of life threatens to grind entirely to a halt. The next night a Swedish guy, Johan, and his girlfriend were leaving after the Lighthouse after three months! The free booze flowed freely, and the owner, Dean, demonstrated his ability to dance like a rubberband on the bar. It was good to be at a place with decent music for a change!
Kapas is just a small island with a series of coves, connected by bridges over rocky outcrops. About 15 minutes walk from one end to the other. Somewhat strangely there are no real shops, just restaurants that sell odds and ends. Still the only people that live here run the restaurants or guesthouses. I headed into the jungle interior and began following a trail which was signposted, but after not long I'd lost the signs and ended up lost in the the jungle. Luckily I have my S3$ watch compass! So I beat my way due West with a big stick, with the exception of coming across a large yellow striped spider whom I gave a wide berth. Eventually I returned to the track and retraced my steps, but not before going down the wrong path and wondering what that gentle humming noise was. As I got closer I saw a flowering tree, where the sounds got louder & louder, I soon realised it was the buzzing of hundreds of bees around the flowers. Retreat! Retreat! I made it back our dripping in sweat, as the jungle humidity is intense. I also got lots of insect bits for free. Another route was along the coast and up along a ridge, here the path dwindled out into lots of plants. Back down at beach level, a snail posed for a photo, also the rocks were kind enough not to move for their photo, just like the leaves also!
On my last night there was a barbeque of fish, squid, chicken, pork chops & mint sauce, salad & chips. A Malaysian guy with the energy of a kid's TV presenter, appeared named John. He kept proclaiming he didn't know how to dance followed by a forward somersault and the splits. hmmm. "Come on people, let's dance!", he enthused to five BBQ bloated people slouching lazily in their chairs.
That night it was thunder & lighting & heavy rain. Given that the longhouse has a tin roof, not a quiet night. The storm moved closer, so that the thunder was no longer rumbling in the distance, but loud, make you jump, ripping, crunching thunder that made the room shake barely prededed by bliding flashes of light. Eek!
I also had a few games of badminton on the beach, just a knock around as there was no net, and not many people!
The next day it was off for a quick hours cycle north to Pulau Duyong in Kuala Terengannu.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Cherating & Dungun
After returning to Kuantan, I headed further up the East Coast to Cherating, about halfway up. I found a place to stay and had a wander around. Seems quite a small place, a few guesthouses, a few restaurants. Big flat beach 5 minutes from the guesthouse. As I went for a lookabout, the guesthouse owner waved me over and gave me a coconut to drink. I'd picked this one as I'd heard it was friendly, seems they were right. The next day they cooked a Malay meal for me and another guest for free. Some chicken curry, fish & salad with the omnipresent rice. I met a woman from Edinburgh who had visited here six years ago and stayed for a month, now with her husband, a chef, she runs a restaraunt & travel shop here. There was a cultural display on, but when I popped along nothing seem to be happening. Oh well, and it advertised something like Monkey Climbing Coconut but not today it seemed.
Seems to be one of these places that people come to do nothing! I can do that :)
I headed up the coast on my bike to the next place, Kijal, I had a quick look around and decided I wouldn't be likely to find accommodation here. The only place I'd seen had it's own golf course. I got onto a path besides the beach and headed North again, but soon the path ran out and I was forced back onto the highway, well almost. The path led up to the barrier at the side of the highway. While I was wondering if I could lift my bike over the barrier without taking off the bags, an old woman shouted 'Hello' to me and pointed me off down a dirt path. Right enough eventually the dirt path connected back to the highway with no barriers. I had set off early at 07.30 as I rightly suspected it might the case that I wouldn't find anywhere to stay in Kijal so the next stop was onto the strangely named Dungun.
About 11.30 while cycling along through the strange mechinal landscape of metal towers, containers, distant pilot flams & pylons that make up a massive BP refinery I realised it was ravenous. Five minutes later I was in a road side restaraunt tucking into a big plate of rice covered in a ladelful of mysterious sauce and a couple of lovely fried chicken legs. Food definitely tastes better when you work up an appetite! After about 10km of roadworks prefacing Dungun I made it into town. I cycled down the main road and found a hotel. Seems like there is only two main roads here connecting at a T-Junction. No doubt referred to as the town centre.
I tried a couple of bike shops to try and fix my spoke again, which had broke less than 1km from my hotel, typical eh? My bad had slipped down and hit the wheel again breaking the spoke, I'll have to make sure I tie them better in future or I'll end up cycling on square wheels. No luck at the shops in Dungun, I'll have to get it fixed in Kuala Terrenganu about 80km further on, but first I'm heading off to Kapas a tiny island floating in the South China Sea. I was going to set off today but I couldn't be bothered getting out of bed, feeling tired, by the time I got up the sun was shining down fiercely having driven away the torrential downpours of late yesterday afternoon(thankfully I was cycling in that). So a quick rest day and set off early tomorrow. I headed down to a food court to get some lunch with my little book of Malay to decode the menu. I prompted for Tom Yam Campur. A big bowl of spicy soup with veg & chicken floating around. The waiter asked spicy or normal, I opted for normal but sitll had to choke back a cough after a sip, and guzzle my orange juice. I later found the culprit a mashed up red pepper lurking at the bottom, I must of slurped up the seeds.
Seems to be one of these places that people come to do nothing! I can do that :)
I headed up the coast on my bike to the next place, Kijal, I had a quick look around and decided I wouldn't be likely to find accommodation here. The only place I'd seen had it's own golf course. I got onto a path besides the beach and headed North again, but soon the path ran out and I was forced back onto the highway, well almost. The path led up to the barrier at the side of the highway. While I was wondering if I could lift my bike over the barrier without taking off the bags, an old woman shouted 'Hello' to me and pointed me off down a dirt path. Right enough eventually the dirt path connected back to the highway with no barriers. I had set off early at 07.30 as I rightly suspected it might the case that I wouldn't find anywhere to stay in Kijal so the next stop was onto the strangely named Dungun.
About 11.30 while cycling along through the strange mechinal landscape of metal towers, containers, distant pilot flams & pylons that make up a massive BP refinery I realised it was ravenous. Five minutes later I was in a road side restaraunt tucking into a big plate of rice covered in a ladelful of mysterious sauce and a couple of lovely fried chicken legs. Food definitely tastes better when you work up an appetite! After about 10km of roadworks prefacing Dungun I made it into town. I cycled down the main road and found a hotel. Seems like there is only two main roads here connecting at a T-Junction. No doubt referred to as the town centre.
I tried a couple of bike shops to try and fix my spoke again, which had broke less than 1km from my hotel, typical eh? My bad had slipped down and hit the wheel again breaking the spoke, I'll have to make sure I tie them better in future or I'll end up cycling on square wheels. No luck at the shops in Dungun, I'll have to get it fixed in Kuala Terrenganu about 80km further on, but first I'm heading off to Kapas a tiny island floating in the South China Sea. I was going to set off today but I couldn't be bothered getting out of bed, feeling tired, by the time I got up the sun was shining down fiercely having driven away the torrential downpours of late yesterday afternoon(thankfully I was cycling in that). So a quick rest day and set off early tomorrow. I headed down to a food court to get some lunch with my little book of Malay to decode the menu. I prompted for Tom Yam Campur. A big bowl of spicy soup with veg & chicken floating around. The waiter asked spicy or normal, I opted for normal but sitll had to choke back a cough after a sip, and guzzle my orange juice. I later found the culprit a mashed up red pepper lurking at the bottom, I must of slurped up the seeds.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Taman Negara
After Tioman I returned on the ferry back to Mersing, from here I cycled onwards to Rompin for a night, then Pekan the next day and Kuantan next. This was my first big town in Malaysia and traffic was heavier, but I still had the inside lane mostly to myself. After cycling around town I found a hotel, more expensive than I wanted but I was feeling tired after cycling over 200km in the past 3 days. Besides I was going to be leaving my bicycle at the hotel for a few days and I wanted it to be there when I came back! Having a look around Kuantan, I came across this shop, yeah well same to you, buddy. With minarets popping out above the skyline, the mosque is one of the focal points of the town.
I walked down to the bus station and tried to find out when the bus left. One man suggested I would get the bus if I turned up at 07:00. I took that as him meaning he didn't know when the bus left! I manged to ask a driver and he said 09:00 much better. So I headed off to Jerantut on the bus the next day, from here I caught a 3 hour boat ride down Sungai Tembeling to Taman Negara (literally National Park). On the way down we passed the occasional building, who built this??. Some people going in the other direction whizz past. Later on some water buffalo cool off in the midday sun.
After more wandering about with my bags, not so easy with two daysacks compared with a single backpack, I came across a hostel. The manager, Professor Halam was certainly a character. It turned out that he lives in the jungle for three months of the year with the local tribal people and is a mediator between them and the government. On the other hand he spent his time talking about how all new TV's have webcameras in them so 'they' can watch you, and how they force people to upgrade by switching off analogue transmissions in the near future, whilst animatedly waving his arms about and then laughing his crazy chuckle. Then he was off starting on world politics and he had some interesting ideas, seemed well informed but mad as a mongoose.
I lent him my book one afternoon as I went out and he'd read a fair portion by the time he came back, then he gave me a photocopy of an essay about "Who runs the world? - An overview of what's really behind the 'New World Order' ", Anyway, back to reality I was sharing a dorm with Sarah, who was also cyling about Malaysia and had previously cycled from Bangkok to Singapore which was interesting. The other person was Hamish, yep he was from Scotland, only eighteen.
The three of us headed off to go on the canopy walk in the park. The canopy is the longest in the world. Although I knew this once I was high up there in the trees it did indeed seem a very long way down. Don't look down, don't look down! Not to be done if you are very afraid of heights as it is a long way off the ground on a swinging rope bridge with a quite narrow couple of planks of wood to walk across. At each section there is a small platform attached to a tree, linking the bridges together. Then at a couple of points there is a ladder to climb even higher onto the next bridge. It is 400m in all. I was pretty glad to get back down, my legs were a bit shaky as I'm not that keen on heights, but glad I done it. In the meantime Hamish obviously has no fear of heights as h stomped across the planks confidently, while I was behind gripping the hand rope with white knuckles wishing the bridge would stop swinging.
After that we went along to a water hole, past a campsite with lots of signs, where some people went for a swim and I took some close-up photographs of butterflies, apparently drinking the water, but I was still suprised they didn't all fly away with a big lens in their faces! Tried to take some photos of the canopy, but it just a lot of leaves.
Later that night we headed out to a rather posh hotel, Woodlands Resort. It was the only place in town where you can get a beer :)
As it was Sarah & Hamish's last night we had a few beers and games of pool, then we headed downstairs and found a small room with a few people singing karoke. A couple of enhustic Malayasians were singing away happily and a tourist who thought he was Elvis. The hotel ran out of lager, so we ended up drinking cans of Guiness, most be an acquired taste. Bit like my singing :)
Evnetually headed back to the hostel where poor Hamish had to get up to get the bus in three hours, haha.
The next day I set out into the rainforest and headed for a cave. After crossing the river I looked for the signs towards the cave and didn't see any I asked somebody and the told it was on the other side of the river. Turns out to be a Y junction, so I had to cross back to the village and then cross over the river again from there. Eventually I was underway, I walked up steep down steep hills for what seemed like half an hour and then found another signpost. Hmmm, I had only gone 600m from the jetty and I was dripping with sweat. At least the cave was only 2km further on and over much flater ground. On the way to the cave, there was some vicious looking branches, and an absolutely huge tree. Also some strange things floating in front of the path, some sort of wormy thingy. The branches are sometime really twisted, almost like a prison!
I got to the entrance and sat on the bench and gulped my water. I was a bit apprehensive about going into the cave myself. Then three other people turned up Cliff, Cecilia and David. Cliff and Cecila were from Singapore and had met David when he was working there ten years ago. They were showing David the cave they had previously been to. So I tagged along with them. They were better prepared with a powerful torch. We clambered over the rocks into the dark, damp interior and then through a few passages where we came to a chamber with bats hanging upside down sleeping quietly, cue horror photo! Further in the bats were awake and flying all around as we clambered onwards. After about fifeteen minutes we looped around and came back out an exit. It was an interesting experience, my first time spelunking! Thankfully there was no where too claustrophobic it was more a series of linked chambers with the occasional short small passage to squeeze between, and made it out for the entrance photo.
The others offered me a lift back on their boat as they had a spare seat, saving me the walk back over the hills. We had a bit of time and so we nipped into a tribal village where the Orang Asli live in the forest. A large group of tourists turned up and they demonstrated how they made fire. The guy stood on a bit of wood and pulled a vine back and forth, not particularly fast with a small travel, but I thinking he was pulling hard to create the friction. Then the vine broke and a boy picked up the wood and tipped embers into shaving and picked up the whole thing into his hands and blew repeatedly to start the fire. He got the smoke in his eyes and the other villagers were laughing at him. The camp itself was mostly full of shacks and discarded plastic and rubbish. They move every three months or so for fresh hunting. Not exactly isolated from the western world as the boy was wearing his Converse T-Shirt and using a Swiss Army knife!
Later they demonstrated a blow dart made from bamboo. The mouth piece is made from sap and the darts are dipped in a poision from a plant.
The tail of the dart was created from a soft white wood carved into a cone shape. then heated gently by the fire. The shaft was whittled down from a stick and then they skewered the tail onto the shaft. He then heated a leaf in the embers to dry it out and polished the tail, with the sandpaper leaf, to make it smooth.
They pipe is a length of bamboo with a sphere of sap to make an airtight seal between the pipe and the lips.
He demonstrated by firing a dart at a polystrene dart board about 20m away. Although he just missed with the first he got a good shot the second time.
We hopped on the boat and I arranged to meet up with Cliff & co later. Back to the hotel for some more beer! We had some food at the hotel we may have been some of the first peope to eat there. The hotel looked very new. The others took care of the ordering by writing down what to get, no need for menus! We had chicken, fish, rice, noodles and salad. A tasty feast, washed down with a few beers.
I found out that we were all leaving tomorrow going back to Kuantan. Cliff, Cecelia and David were on a different boat. I got to the jetty and waited for them but they didn't turn up. It turned out that they got stuck, the driver was keeping quiet about what the problem was. Another boat was sent back up river to resuce them. Turned out they had run out of petrol! We got some lunch at Jerantut and then headed on the bus for a 3-4 ride to Kuantan. Later that night we met up for a drink. I offered to pay for the drinks but Cliff just smiled and said I was too late as he had already paid. They were embarassingly generous saying I was their guest. Thankyou, I had a great time! After a few more buckets of beer and pool we said our goodbyes. I hadn't slept that well the previous night, shouldn't of had that coffee! But I made up for it by zonking out till noon. So much for the early start for the cycling, I decided I would stay another day in Kuantan and get an early night.
I walked down to the bus station and tried to find out when the bus left. One man suggested I would get the bus if I turned up at 07:00. I took that as him meaning he didn't know when the bus left! I manged to ask a driver and he said 09:00 much better. So I headed off to Jerantut on the bus the next day, from here I caught a 3 hour boat ride down Sungai Tembeling to Taman Negara (literally National Park). On the way down we passed the occasional building, who built this??. Some people going in the other direction whizz past. Later on some water buffalo cool off in the midday sun.
After more wandering about with my bags, not so easy with two daysacks compared with a single backpack, I came across a hostel. The manager, Professor Halam was certainly a character. It turned out that he lives in the jungle for three months of the year with the local tribal people and is a mediator between them and the government. On the other hand he spent his time talking about how all new TV's have webcameras in them so 'they' can watch you, and how they force people to upgrade by switching off analogue transmissions in the near future, whilst animatedly waving his arms about and then laughing his crazy chuckle. Then he was off starting on world politics and he had some interesting ideas, seemed well informed but mad as a mongoose.
I lent him my book one afternoon as I went out and he'd read a fair portion by the time he came back, then he gave me a photocopy of an essay about "Who runs the world? - An overview of what's really behind the 'New World Order' ", Anyway, back to reality I was sharing a dorm with Sarah, who was also cyling about Malaysia and had previously cycled from Bangkok to Singapore which was interesting. The other person was Hamish, yep he was from Scotland, only eighteen.
The three of us headed off to go on the canopy walk in the park. The canopy is the longest in the world. Although I knew this once I was high up there in the trees it did indeed seem a very long way down. Don't look down, don't look down! Not to be done if you are very afraid of heights as it is a long way off the ground on a swinging rope bridge with a quite narrow couple of planks of wood to walk across. At each section there is a small platform attached to a tree, linking the bridges together. Then at a couple of points there is a ladder to climb even higher onto the next bridge. It is 400m in all. I was pretty glad to get back down, my legs were a bit shaky as I'm not that keen on heights, but glad I done it. In the meantime Hamish obviously has no fear of heights as h stomped across the planks confidently, while I was behind gripping the hand rope with white knuckles wishing the bridge would stop swinging.
After that we went along to a water hole, past a campsite with lots of signs, where some people went for a swim and I took some close-up photographs of butterflies, apparently drinking the water, but I was still suprised they didn't all fly away with a big lens in their faces! Tried to take some photos of the canopy, but it just a lot of leaves.
Later that night we headed out to a rather posh hotel, Woodlands Resort. It was the only place in town where you can get a beer :)
As it was Sarah & Hamish's last night we had a few beers and games of pool, then we headed downstairs and found a small room with a few people singing karoke. A couple of enhustic Malayasians were singing away happily and a tourist who thought he was Elvis. The hotel ran out of lager, so we ended up drinking cans of Guiness, most be an acquired taste. Bit like my singing :)
Evnetually headed back to the hostel where poor Hamish had to get up to get the bus in three hours, haha.
The next day I set out into the rainforest and headed for a cave. After crossing the river I looked for the signs towards the cave and didn't see any I asked somebody and the told it was on the other side of the river. Turns out to be a Y junction, so I had to cross back to the village and then cross over the river again from there. Eventually I was underway, I walked up steep down steep hills for what seemed like half an hour and then found another signpost. Hmmm, I had only gone 600m from the jetty and I was dripping with sweat. At least the cave was only 2km further on and over much flater ground. On the way to the cave, there was some vicious looking branches, and an absolutely huge tree. Also some strange things floating in front of the path, some sort of wormy thingy. The branches are sometime really twisted, almost like a prison!
I got to the entrance and sat on the bench and gulped my water. I was a bit apprehensive about going into the cave myself. Then three other people turned up Cliff, Cecilia and David. Cliff and Cecila were from Singapore and had met David when he was working there ten years ago. They were showing David the cave they had previously been to. So I tagged along with them. They were better prepared with a powerful torch. We clambered over the rocks into the dark, damp interior and then through a few passages where we came to a chamber with bats hanging upside down sleeping quietly, cue horror photo! Further in the bats were awake and flying all around as we clambered onwards. After about fifeteen minutes we looped around and came back out an exit. It was an interesting experience, my first time spelunking! Thankfully there was no where too claustrophobic it was more a series of linked chambers with the occasional short small passage to squeeze between, and made it out for the entrance photo.
The others offered me a lift back on their boat as they had a spare seat, saving me the walk back over the hills. We had a bit of time and so we nipped into a tribal village where the Orang Asli live in the forest. A large group of tourists turned up and they demonstrated how they made fire. The guy stood on a bit of wood and pulled a vine back and forth, not particularly fast with a small travel, but I thinking he was pulling hard to create the friction. Then the vine broke and a boy picked up the wood and tipped embers into shaving and picked up the whole thing into his hands and blew repeatedly to start the fire. He got the smoke in his eyes and the other villagers were laughing at him. The camp itself was mostly full of shacks and discarded plastic and rubbish. They move every three months or so for fresh hunting. Not exactly isolated from the western world as the boy was wearing his Converse T-Shirt and using a Swiss Army knife!
Later they demonstrated a blow dart made from bamboo. The mouth piece is made from sap and the darts are dipped in a poision from a plant.
The tail of the dart was created from a soft white wood carved into a cone shape. then heated gently by the fire. The shaft was whittled down from a stick and then they skewered the tail onto the shaft. He then heated a leaf in the embers to dry it out and polished the tail, with the sandpaper leaf, to make it smooth.
They pipe is a length of bamboo with a sphere of sap to make an airtight seal between the pipe and the lips.
He demonstrated by firing a dart at a polystrene dart board about 20m away. Although he just missed with the first he got a good shot the second time.
We hopped on the boat and I arranged to meet up with Cliff & co later. Back to the hotel for some more beer! We had some food at the hotel we may have been some of the first peope to eat there. The hotel looked very new. The others took care of the ordering by writing down what to get, no need for menus! We had chicken, fish, rice, noodles and salad. A tasty feast, washed down with a few beers.
I found out that we were all leaving tomorrow going back to Kuantan. Cliff, Cecelia and David were on a different boat. I got to the jetty and waited for them but they didn't turn up. It turned out that they got stuck, the driver was keeping quiet about what the problem was. Another boat was sent back up river to resuce them. Turned out they had run out of petrol! We got some lunch at Jerantut and then headed on the bus for a 3-4 ride to Kuantan. Later that night we met up for a drink. I offered to pay for the drinks but Cliff just smiled and said I was too late as he had already paid. They were embarassingly generous saying I was their guest. Thankyou, I had a great time! After a few more buckets of beer and pool we said our goodbyes. I hadn't slept that well the previous night, shouldn't of had that coffee! But I made up for it by zonking out till noon. So much for the early start for the cycling, I decided I would stay another day in Kuantan and get an early night.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Tioman
As the sun set on Tioman I sipped a beer and pondered the sign at the jetty, it read that Muslims are fined 5000RMs and or 3 months imprison and not more than six lashes of the whip for buying alcohol. Nearby Muslim girls are splashing around in the water fully clothed including headscarf.
As the sun sinks into the ocean day becomes night and the big lizards (upto 4ft) continue to prowl the paths and hunt for bird eggs, tongue darting in and out sniffing out their prey as they lumber through the scrub, sometime visible only by their extended tails pointing out.
Motorcycles with old trailers as sidecars skillfully navigate the narrow path running behind the beach, carrying goods and people from one end of the beach to the other.
I rented out a snorkel, mask and life jacket and donned the equipment and headed into the blue sea. I probably inhaled a good portion of the south china sea up my nose, but still isn't salt water good for cleaning out your sinuses. Once I had the mask better adjusted and a bit more used to it, although I still flapped about on my back like an upturned turtle, I managed to see some fish! Not even sure what half of them were, but once I got a bit deeper into the coral reef there was many varieties, a shoal of 2ft silver shark-shaped fish swam past me, very colourful angelfish pecked at the coral, amongst the forest of branch coral an occasional fish lurked in and out of view. Large annenomes protruded from the ocean floor, freaking me out as I wasn't quite sure if they were close or further away than they looked. Very black and very spiky. Also down there were many fish I had seen in the shops, all black with white dots just below the dorals, yellow tailed blue tinged fish, all sorts, it was just like being inside a good marine fishtank! Shame I couldn't take any pictures. One angry fish kept appearing in front of me and staring into my mask, then if I stood still he would come and bite me legs! I tried to punch him, but he had water supremacy and fins.
A system of buoys keeps snorkellers from drifting off out to the sea, and when I got close to them I turned back and headed for shore, checking direction often as I would find myself splashing off the wrong way somehow rotated in the swell. I have even less sense of direction underwater than above! Slowly I made it back to shore and planted my landlubbing feet back on terra firma.
Another day I tried to go on a trek to Monkey Bay through the forest, I set off with a big bottle of water, but in this humidity amidst the oppresive jungle heat, I just oozed sweat from every pore even whilst standing still. Sometimes you feel like your being watched, sometimes you are. It didn't take along to abandon the planned 3-4 hour trek and head back to the cafes for a nice and very welcome cold coke. However on the way I passed a large monitor lizard flicking his tongue in and out, and got this picture postcard perfect shot of Tioman. Still no to be outdone after my brief scurry into the forest, I decided to retry and be better prepared with more water and some sugar! Again I set off this time across the island to the other side. The path slowly rose up into the jungle, steps climbing steeply, after climbing for a while it twisted and turned until I had lost my sense of direction, suddenly a concrete path appeared, basically a road, leading back down the hill and into the village on the east coast. Whilst traipsing along this, suddenly a bright green snake appeared from the side of the road, nearly underneath my foot, I leapt in the air and the snake (the green line!) recoiled into the edge of the woods. We had both got a fright! But I took a few more photos anyway. Along the way down, I didn't encounter anymore snakes(yet!) but just some dried leaves whose arty black and white photos (1,2,3) should surely win me the turner prizer this year. Onwards past some bamboo trees whose trunks always grow together like this or this. (if you like B&W!). Eventually I descended the rest of the road and got to the jetty at the other side of Tioman. Nice clean beach and beautiful clear water. After a bite to eat and much liquid and a good rest I turned around and headed back into the forest. Soon I came across another snake! This time with a strange red tail, I think it was dead but I didn't get too close.
As the sun sinks into the ocean day becomes night and the big lizards (upto 4ft) continue to prowl the paths and hunt for bird eggs, tongue darting in and out sniffing out their prey as they lumber through the scrub, sometime visible only by their extended tails pointing out.
Motorcycles with old trailers as sidecars skillfully navigate the narrow path running behind the beach, carrying goods and people from one end of the beach to the other.
I rented out a snorkel, mask and life jacket and donned the equipment and headed into the blue sea. I probably inhaled a good portion of the south china sea up my nose, but still isn't salt water good for cleaning out your sinuses. Once I had the mask better adjusted and a bit more used to it, although I still flapped about on my back like an upturned turtle, I managed to see some fish! Not even sure what half of them were, but once I got a bit deeper into the coral reef there was many varieties, a shoal of 2ft silver shark-shaped fish swam past me, very colourful angelfish pecked at the coral, amongst the forest of branch coral an occasional fish lurked in and out of view. Large annenomes protruded from the ocean floor, freaking me out as I wasn't quite sure if they were close or further away than they looked. Very black and very spiky. Also down there were many fish I had seen in the shops, all black with white dots just below the dorals, yellow tailed blue tinged fish, all sorts, it was just like being inside a good marine fishtank! Shame I couldn't take any pictures. One angry fish kept appearing in front of me and staring into my mask, then if I stood still he would come and bite me legs! I tried to punch him, but he had water supremacy and fins.
A system of buoys keeps snorkellers from drifting off out to the sea, and when I got close to them I turned back and headed for shore, checking direction often as I would find myself splashing off the wrong way somehow rotated in the swell. I have even less sense of direction underwater than above! Slowly I made it back to shore and planted my landlubbing feet back on terra firma.
Another day I tried to go on a trek to Monkey Bay through the forest, I set off with a big bottle of water, but in this humidity amidst the oppresive jungle heat, I just oozed sweat from every pore even whilst standing still. Sometimes you feel like your being watched, sometimes you are. It didn't take along to abandon the planned 3-4 hour trek and head back to the cafes for a nice and very welcome cold coke. However on the way I passed a large monitor lizard flicking his tongue in and out, and got this picture postcard perfect shot of Tioman. Still no to be outdone after my brief scurry into the forest, I decided to retry and be better prepared with more water and some sugar! Again I set off this time across the island to the other side. The path slowly rose up into the jungle, steps climbing steeply, after climbing for a while it twisted and turned until I had lost my sense of direction, suddenly a concrete path appeared, basically a road, leading back down the hill and into the village on the east coast. Whilst traipsing along this, suddenly a bright green snake appeared from the side of the road, nearly underneath my foot, I leapt in the air and the snake (the green line!) recoiled into the edge of the woods. We had both got a fright! But I took a few more photos anyway. Along the way down, I didn't encounter anymore snakes(yet!) but just some dried leaves whose arty black and white photos (1,2,3) should surely win me the turner prizer this year. Onwards past some bamboo trees whose trunks always grow together like this or this. (if you like B&W!). Eventually I descended the rest of the road and got to the jetty at the other side of Tioman. Nice clean beach and beautiful clear water. After a bite to eat and much liquid and a good rest I turned around and headed back into the forest. Soon I came across another snake! This time with a strange red tail, I think it was dead but I didn't get too close.
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