It was around 7pm by the time we stepped off the bus in Tanah Rata. We had a brief moment to figure out where the hell we were before something strange happened - we all collectively felt cold for the first time on the trip. The long bus ride had introduced us to the colder mountain air, quite the contrast from the heat and humidity of the coastal areas we were more used to. If you're reading this back home in New Zealand, I apologise. Complaining about 20 degrees as opposed to 30 must seem ridiculous, but it’s just what we've become accustomed to! As the light faded and other tourists looked on in bewilderment, we hurriedly reassembled our bikes and made the short ride to Daniel’s Lodge. We felt a slight sense of guilt as we arrived, looking like we might’ve just casually cycled over mountains, not a hint of sweat on us or shortness of breath.
After booking two rooms, we headed back down into the town and met our new Belgian friends for a quick dinner, before heading back into the warmth of the hostel bar. We sat on soft couches, drinking a few beers and playing cards til late. Feeling like a normal tourist, even for only a day, seemed all too easy.
The next day our freshly formed group headed to the tea plantations, however being on a budget we all decided to skip the easy, guided tour and make our own way there. This at first started out with us hitchhiking to the butterfly farm. Somehow we inadvertently all walked in without paying, and saw all all kinds of lizards, snakes, insects, butterflies the size of small birds and even a pair of racoons.
100s of butterflies twice the size of sparrows
We then began the long, winding road around the hills and down to the plantation. The road was so narrow that traffic was backed up each way for long stretches, making walking seem like the far better choice. Strolling past full cars, we took in the sweeping views of hills covered in tea plants. Strange to think all these leaves would one day be going to be put into someone’s mug and drunk, maybe with a ginger nut biscuit or three.
Boh Tea Plantation, we tried it! (we didn't actually but you know, lol)
After about 4km, the winding road had taken us down passed all the tea plants to the plantation buildings, the hot sun glistening off the millions of leaves around us. Oddly, there really wasn't much on offer there, save for a crowded, overpriced and bustling cafe; a rather typically tame souvenir shop, and a few old photos on the walls next to a small section of a factory. Somewhat underwhelmed, we set back off what now seemed like a very long, steep road back into town. With hunger setting in, we were making fairly slow and reluctant progress up the hill, this time cars passing us. Until one packed Toyota Hilux stopped, and after some deliberation, the 11 Malaysian tourists welcomed us aboard. If there was ever an ad to show the capacity of a Hilux, this would've been it. Picture the sight of three Belgians, three kiwis, and 13 Malaysians perched, squeezed and packed into and onto the back of the pickup as it crawled and wound its way back up the bumpy country road, passed green hills of tea. The relief and happiness on our faces doing its bit to dispel any language barrier issues until the end of the road.
"Chuck em in the ute!" the driver said, "Heaps of space in there"
Following the effort of getting to and from the plantations in the hot sun, we collectively did not feel any obligation to do much, instead idling away the rest of the day playing cards and enjoying a cold beer.
The next morning our departure from Cameron Highlands started slightly later than most ride days, a reluctance to say goodbye to our new Belgian friends slowing our movements, aided also from a slight fogginess from a few beers nursed late into the night previous. It had been enjoyable to spend time with them, especially considering we spend so much of our time on this trip in somewhat of an isolated bubble together, the three of us often in some random hotel room in some random town that most tourists would never hear of, let alone consider visiting.
Looking back towards the top of the descent, thank goodness we weren't cycling up it.
There was a bit of a climb for us to get to the top of the highlands, not helped by a slight headwind. Starting off in the cooler mountain air was certainly refreshing, and made the slowish uphills not quite so demanding. The wind that pushed at us as we went up, also slowed the pace of the long, winding downhill out of the mountains. It was a tiring descent through the green jungle, but no way near as tiring as what climbing up it would have been. Thank goodness we hadn't chosen to do that! As we left the mountains, the conditions drastically changed, and we found ourselves in hot, dry flats just outside of Ipoh. An extremely cheap lunch ($4 for 3 very full plates) followed by finding very cheap accomodation in Ipoh all added to what was an eventful ride day.
The end of the 40km long descent from the Cameron Highlands
The next day of riding brought us to Taiping. The roads along the western side of Malaysia all of a sudden reminded us of the days back in Indonesia - longish straights on bumpy roads, trucks and scooters blaring past us, and not a whole lot to see. At this point we were very happy with our decision to initially cross over to the east coast to see what it had to offer.
The first of two punctures for Fred. We discovered a small staple poking through, the evident culprit of both incidents
From Taiping we had another similar day on hot, humid and hazy roads to get to Butterworth. With some difficulty we navigated our way through the city to the Ferry, relaxing for a moment on the 2km journey before finding ourselves in George Town’s Little India for lunch. After a bit of a mission to find accomodation, we locked the bikes up and caught our breath for a moment. Hunger, as it always does, crept in and before much longer we were out on the streets, soaking in the hustle and bustle of the stalls and restaurants, enjoying the local flavours before having one too many beers on Love Lane - the local bar scene.
For us at this point, even just a few beers hits us quite dramatically, and the next day in George Town was tackled at a slow pace. Late in the morning we made an effort to be tourists and see a few things, but in the end we spent most of our day relaxing and idling away time in a nice little cafe, accompanied by cats and mango lassis.
The cafe where we spent a fair amount of our downtime in in George Town
The second day in George Town was approached with more vigour. We rented scooters off a madman, happy to pay him and get away before any more attention was brought to us. Our first stop was the well reviewed Snake Temple, to the south of the island. However we walked out of there extremely disappointed, happy that we hadn't had to pay. There weren't that many snakes, and the ones there seemed poorly treated, only there really to try coax some money out of tourists. As I walked out I was even more dismayed at the stalls on the outside, full of useless junk not remotely related to the temple. Do tourists really need to come to places like these temples and then buy an iPhone cover with a Starbucks logo on the back? Or a bouncy ball that lights up? All seems completely pointless to me, and only adds to the rubbish and pollution issue they have in these parts of the world.
Following the failure of the Snake Temple we found our way to the Penang War Museum, an interesting and sobering experience. However, being the usual target for mosquitos, I was getting absolutely ravaged in what seemed like the perfect mosquito habitat, and by the end of the walk around the site I was more than happy to move on. Its fair to say I would not have lasted long if I had been sent to the Pacific Theatre in the war.
Peering down alleyways on the Chew Jetty, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Penang
After heading back into Little India for lunch, where we had a delicious Banana leaf curry plate, we tested the scooters out by doing a trip around the whole island, which was bigger than we thought. We passed through city, along coastline, through mountains and jungle, before finding ourselves back on the fringes of the city staring up at a huge Buddhist temple on a hill. Unfortunately it was closed, but we managed to sneak a view from the back of it after taking the scooters off the beaten path. We then headed back to the same spot in Little India for dinner, and ended up having what we all agreed might’ve been the best meal of our lives! The Thali special was about $4 each, and came with 9 different small bowls of vegetables, curries and sauces, rice and popadom. It was incredibly good, but once the plates were scraped clean we were well and truely finished for the night.
All smiles in George Town
Having to change hotels to stay for one extra day, our last full day in George Town was spent mostly relaxing at the cafe, soaking in the atmosphere one last time and, you'll all be happy to know, finally doing a full load of washing. Having a full set of clean clothes is quite remarkable, and did wonders for the smell of the hotel room. We had one cold beer that night to commemorate our time in George Town, and the rest of Malaysia, before heading back to the hot and stuffy room to try get a decent sleep.
This guy served up some pretty tasty Char Kway Teow (he was fast too)
An anonymous scooter driver, taking a moment on the early morning ferry back to the mainland
