First Challenge is Breakfast

Breakfast attempt #1: No food left, just kopi (Malaysian coffee).

Breakfast attempt #2: A roti joint, fresh out of roti!

Breakfast attempt #3: We are welcomed to the cafe and sit down to order. No nasi lemak left (rice & egg, one of our usual breakfasts), they don’t make roti here, but they do have rice and chicken curry or meat curry. That’s it. We say we don’t eat chicken or meat, vegetarians. We get some kopi and chat a bit with the friendly locals, including a teacher. (Kopi is a mix of coffee and herbs and doesn’t taste great if you’re expecting real coffee, but it’s good once you get used to it. I order kopi, which means it comes with condensed milk and sugar. Dave gets kopi-o, which is just with sugar.) After a few minutes, the teacher, who speaks English pretty well, asks if we want rice and an egg, a hard-boiled egg. We say yes! We sit and drink our coffee a few more minutes, and out comes a dish with three hard-boiled eggs. Only when I go to crack the shell it gives easily and egg spills out. It is BARELY COOKED. In fact, only the edges are barely cooked, the middle is raw. Ugh.

We look at each other and start scraping out the cooked part of the egg with the wee spoons they’ve given us. Oh my. But soon they deliver plates with some rice. We mix the egg with the rice and force it down, trying to smile a little because we’re being watched. As soon as we manage to finish we get out of there. We want to quickly put that behind us and move on quickly.

Breakfast attempt #4: Success! We find a roadside cafe with a cheerful woman who lets us point to food and order exactly what we want. We order plain rice (nasi), FRIED eggs (telur GORENG), chili sauces (sambal and also plain chili), and cucumber. We finally felt full.

Rice, fried egg, chili sauce = nasi lemak. This one served up on a banana leaf.

The Hard Hilly Ride

Today we start climbing. And we climb, and climb. At first it’s rolling hills that we tackle, but then we just keep going up.

It was a hot day, and with breakfast #3 to get it started, well, I had problems. My stomach at first was just a little queasy, then in the afternoon it was downright nauseous. The grade was so steep that I was pushing at a pretty high intensity just to keep moving, and with the heat and everything, I just felt like puking. (Hey Kat, do you remember how we’d almost puke in the weight room sometimes while doing squats? Now THAT was fun, right?)

We had not tackled real climbing yet on this trip, so that was also a factor. And it was so hot and humid that I sometimes had to take off my sunglasses because they were too fogged up and the sweat was just dripping off of me. Seriously, I was not having fun. But you have to be prepared for the not-fun times if you want to experience the great fun of bike touring. So we pedal on. But, yes, I was grumpy.

All we needed to be able to stop for the day was water, enough to filter for drinking. We finally found it – a stream rushing down the side of the mountain. There was a sort of rest stop there, with bathrooms and a couple of picnic tables. I sat in the shade with my feet in the cool water while Dave scouted out a place to camp. He found a great spot just back a half kilometer or so, up a logging road to a cleared area, up that stream a ways. We had the privacy to bathe in the stream, then we washed out our clothes and filtered water.

Wild Animal!

We then went for a sunset walk up another branch of the logging road and enjoyed the evening sounds of birds and insects. While we were walking back we came around a corner and saw an animal walking up the road that came from the highway. It looked up for a half second before turning and galloping back down the road. I first thought “German shepherd” when I saw it, because it was dark, with what looked like a long snout and big ears, but it was too tall and big, and it didn’t run like a dog. We went down to look at the tracks (and Dave got a picture the next morning) and they were of a hoofed animal. Dave’s best guess is a tapir, but we’re just not sure after looking it up in the net. It was pretty exciting to see a large animal in the jungle, even if we don’t know what it was.

70 km

Boat ride to the Mainland

The boat ride was smooth as marmalade this morning as we left Pulau Perhentian for Kuala Besut. The boat came at 8:00 a.m. and we were stepping off at about 8:40. What a difference smooth seas make. It was fun! I was smiling! No arm stiffness or neck soreness was necessary. We got sprayed just a wee bit, and the breeze was cool on our faces. It was a lovely way to greet the day. Now we head West across the peninsula.

Not Our Crash

A few kilometers after Kuala Besut we stopped for breakfast #2 (I’d been so nervous I couldn’t do much more than a piece of toast and coffee before leaving the island) and while we were joking and smiling with the locals in the roadside cafe we heard a loud crunch. Dave said he immediately thought the bikes had been hit, but I’d turned around in time to see that a scooter had been hit. A young mother and her toddler were just slowing to pull into the cafe when they were hit from behind. The mother instinctively folded around her baby and rolled, coming away with only the back of her hand scraped. The child was fine, and in fact he didn’t even cry out loud.

We were curious to see if we’d finally see some police in action, as we see grand “Polis” buildings in every town but never see them out and about. But no, after maybe ten minutes the driver pulled away while talking on his cell phone. It was all no big deal, as the husband, whom we’d been joking with, laughed it off after a while, while the woman who’d been hit motioned to us laughingly that he’d been hit on the scooter TWICE already. Huh. Funny thing, this getting hit by a scooter. Ha ha, let’s all finish our coffee.

Dave and I have bar-end mirrors that we check constantly while riding, but especially through towns. There are little roadside cafes and food stands before, throughout, and after every town we go through. People pull off the road, or sometimes park in the far left lane to visit these places while traffic is supposed to veer around them. Add to that at least as many scooters as cars, plus bicycles all sharing the same lane and these situations get tricky. We’re very careful, and for the most part it works very well. The way I see it is that the cars slow or swerve to make room for scooters on their left. The scooters swerve or slow to get around the bikes. The bikes just need to make sure they don’t get “doored”, or hit by an opening door on the left, or run into pedestrians or cars inching out into the road.

Note to Jan (Mother Snowberg) and Grandma: please do not let this keep you up at night. We’ve gotten through a month and most of peninsular Malaysia alive and without even a close incident. It works very well, but we are also extremely diligent in watching the mirror and the road ahead and keep to the flow of things. It’s OK, but this was a wake-up to be even more careful.

Another Generous Malaysian, Yet Another Friend

Around 1:00 we stopped in some shade and were getting ready to pull out the food bag and have ourselves a hearty snack. Before we could, though, we were approached by a car. The driver got out and asked if everything was OK and if we needed help. He gave us his card: he’s Nik Mahadi Hassan, a journalist with TV3, one of the main stations of Malaysia. We chatted for a couple of minutes, and he asked us to come to his house for lunch instead. It was only a couple of km. back. We agreed, and followed him back to his house. He had us sit in his beautiful living room (our sweaty, dirty selves!) with a cool breeze from the ceiling fan blowing. He served cold juice and brought out oranges and bananas. He then brought beans and bread and butter.

We ate a great meal while we talked about the similarities and differences between our countries. We also got confirmation that we’d made the best choice in choosing to enter Thailand from the West side. He grew up in the border town where the main East side highway crosses into Thailand, and even he does not recommend going through there any more due to the Islamist militant insurgency that has been wreaking havoc since 2004. We enjoyed talking with Nik and meeting his wife and some of his seven children. And we so appreciated the respite from the intense sun and the lunch in his home. How many times can I say we are amazed at the generosity of the people we are meeting on this trip?

Pakistan, No. U.S.? Very Good Country

Down the road some more, this afternoon we stopped at a tiny store that had a cooler full of sodas. We grabbed our favorites (Coke for Dave, and 100 Plus for me–like gatorade only carbonated and tastes like Squirt), and ice cream bars from the freezer and sat on the front steps in the shade. A minute later a young man pulls up on a scooter. He approaches Dave first (always, men address Dave first, and usually include me later) and shakes his hand, touching his hand to his heart afterward in the Malaysian way. He then tentatively asks “From where?” and Dave answers, “United States.” The young man smiles, nods, and squats in front of us. He is a serious sort. He’s quietly looking at the map, then points and asks “To where?” and Dave answers. They proceed like this, a couple of words at a time, and finally I’m included as I also answer some of the questions. We are communicating a lot with few words, smiling and shrugging sometimes when neither of us can get a point across. His name is Ahtuh, and he’s from Pakistan, going to University in Malaysia to become a doctor. He will go back to Pakistan when he’s done, but he tells us Pakistan is not good right now. His one word explanation: “Al Quaida,” and he shakes his head. He looks up at Dave, “America. Very good.” Thumbs up. “Pakistan…” and he moves his hands in a flat motion.

Quiet again. He does not rush to fill in the silence, and neither do we. We are getting used to this way of communicating with few common words. This culture does not need to fill all the silent seconds, and we are slowing to the pace as well. Maybe it’s me who is slowing, because Dave I think has always been OK with it. It is comfortable when you realize there is not always something to say. Few words sometimes say more. When we stand up to go we exchange meaningful handshakes with Ahtuh, and I think we all feel the richness of this moment and we wish each other well all around.

Today we took the Jungle Trek to the other side of the island. We saw two kinds of monkeys, crazy huge ants, birds with very complex calls, monitor lizards, and lots of fish and coral while swimming. We trekked and swam, trekked more and swam again. It felt good to get some hiking in, and of course the swimming is amazing when there’s coral and so many fish, and so refreshing after working up a sweat.

On the way back we saw a new kind of monkey hanging out near a government building. We stopped to look at them and say hi, but when we did they hissed and one charged me, showing his fangs. I have to say, it was darn scary! I will give these monkeys their space next time. Yow.

Nice monkey!

Mean monkey!

Tonight we’re eating dinner (right now!) at the posh Perhentian Resort, a good walk along an up-and-down wooden walkway around the point. We heard there’s free wireless, and it’s true. So, after many days without a post, tonight is the night.

Tomorrow we will take the speed boat back to the coast at Kuala Besut. From there we will head west for three or four days maybe, up and over the middle part of the peninsula through the jungle and mountains to Pulau Pinang, another island. We will get to see how different the West coast is from the East, and visit a region many have told us we must not miss. The food is supposed to be terrific, and it is not the monsoon season there. I guess we should prepare for more heat from there on.

Eat, swim, read. Repeat.

My camera memory card crashed today and all pictures were lost from the last week. Very unfortunate.

The road from Kuala Terengganu yesterday to Kuala Besut today was a quiet coastal road recommended by Al–thanks Al for all the great advice so far! It really was great to get off of the busy highway and be able to look around more, and actually hear ourselves talk to each other. Riding this bike tour makes me appreciate what a special ride the Great Divide was. It was so remote and quiet most of the time, we could sometimes go hours without having to really watch for cars, all the time hearing the birds sing and the air whoosh through the pines. This is a different kind of tour, and after riding some highways, already I look forward to these quieter roads like today.

We arrived in Kuala Besut at about 12:40, and almost immediately were approached about a boat to the islands. The young man was very helpful with information, even offering to let us park our bikes in their office while we were at the island. There are no roads or paths to ride on the Perhentians, and taking a bike isn’t recommended. But it was all very fast and he was putting the pressure on big time, so Dave wanted to check around just a bit before we got on board. He found out that the kid was right, that’s the only boat going out today and the price was fair, though higher for the monsoon season. We decided to go with it, so we stashed our bikes, grabbed all our panniers and got on the boat.

The ride was insane, in my opinion, but Dave was laughing his way through it. He’s nuts. But he’s been on rougher boat rides while working in the Maldives. I had prepared myself for another ferry boat ride like we had to Pulau Tioman, which was slightly alarming, but not so bad once I relaxed. At the very end. This time we were faced with a speed boat ride in a much smaller, open boat. Yikes.

The ocean was rough from the monsoon winds. Even though it hadn’t been stormy in the full monsoon way, the winds still work the seas up into a choppy mess, and we crossed right over that choppy water, sometimes flying through the air and landing so hard I thought the boat would break. Dave says boats don’t break from that, but I don’t quite believe him. Yikes! The swells were big, but uneven. So we’d skip over the top of some of them, landing hard on the other side, and others we’d go up and down with the swell like a roller coaster. Dave had told me to keep my eye on the horizon to avoid getting sick, and it worked. Boy was I concentrating on that horizon.

I was sitting next to a bar, and I held on to that bar behind me so hard that my entire right side is stiff and sore, and the fingernails of my left hand are still numb from gripping the seat. Yes, I am over dramatic. No one else on that boat looked like they were gripping so hard, but I couldn’t help it. I sort of enjoyed little bits of the ride when we weren’t flying off the far side of a swell, the driver was obviously slowing and working through some of it so that we wouldn’t, but then he’d speed right up again and I’d tense right back up. All this stuff IS going to teach me to relax and go with the flow, right? I certainly hope so. I really do need to relax.

We checked out all the accommodations, four different places with different types of rooms, and as is our habit, we decided on the first one we had seen. We’re staying at the Reef, and the owner, Anuar, just arrived for the season yesterday, so we think we’re some of the first customers. He gave us a beautiful chalet for 50RM, a discount from the usual 80RM price because of the season. Anuar later gave us some great information about the island and some advice for where to swim and hike. He’s a very laid back, quiet man but very friendly. We really enjoy it here.

63 km

My shoulder has been aching a bit more the last couple of days, so we took a shorter day today and also followed the advice of Chris from the Crazy Guy on a Bike website, which was to stay at the Penarik Inn. Great advice, Chris. The owner greeted us immediately as we rode up, saying “Welcome! Welcome! You are welcome here!” and served us up some tea.

After drinking our tea and feeling a little refreshed, we checked out the chalet, and it was rustic and airy, with a nice bathroom attached. They charged 35RM for the 40RM room because it’s still the off season. They get a lot of cyclists here, especially Dutch cyclists, and they seemed happy to see us arrive on bikes.

We then changed our clothes and walked down to the beach to swim. Well, this still being the monsoon season, the water was quite rough and it was a steep beach. Dave decided to swim in the waves while I stood and watched. He found a styrofoam buoy with a rope attached, and he started slinging it into the surf and then swimming out after it. It was pretty fun to watch.

The owner’s son made us a delicious dinner of egg soup, fish with curry sauce, rice, and a sweet mung-bean dessert.

It stormed sometime in the night, and our breezy bungalow was cool and quiet.

79 km

We enjoyed our highly discounted room at the Mayong Sari Resort last night, but during high season we wouldn’t have been able to afford it. For those looking for advice, we might suggest riding through Dungun, because this morning we saw a few nice looking guest houses on the beach, a better beach, between 10-15 km into our ride. If you can make it that far, it might be a quieter and more enjoyable place to stay.

We rode into Kuala Terengganu in the afternoon to see many of the men dressed for prayer at mosque. When the prayer call came from the speakers of every mosque in the city, all the men made their way in, and the roads nearly were quiet.

We followed our Lonely Planet SE Asia guide to a T today and found a room at Ping Anchorage–a huge room with enough space for several bunks of travelers, though it was just us and our bikes–and we went to dinner at MD Curry House around the corner. Both were excellent choices. We especially enjoyed Uncle Chan’s welcome: he asked us if we were vegetarians and when we said yes, he told us to just sit down. He then brought out an entire meal, complete with oranges for dessert. It was delicious and plenty of food, since he kept refilling the rice and sauces.

We walked to and around China town and bought some tasty snacks, then got to bed for some good rest in our air conditioned room.

91 km

We got up at just past six and were out of the room just after seven. We ate a snack in the room so we could ride a ways before having breakfast. Nothing in Cherating looked open as we rode by anyway. It’s a sleepy town waiting for tourist season.

We had breakfast at a roadside cafe, Malaysian style. Dave had nasi lemak and I had a different kind of nasi (rice) that was yellow and had Indian-tasting spices. I also had and egg and a pinch of vegetables. It was so thickly humid that even in the cool morning air we were dripping with sweat. We went back to the table to look at the other treats the woman had out, more sweet goodies. In addition to one we’d had before (green gooey sweet thing), Dave also chose one that looked like a small pancake folded in half with yellow pudding inside. We couldn’t determine the exact flavor, but it was really tasty. The people here like their sweets.

Some of the day was through road construction again, but we had a bit more room. We went through areas of the jungle that were being cleared for what looked like preparation for big wide roads into the forest. They were cleaned to smooth sandy soil, with right angles and straight lines cut in the forest. I really don’t know what they were planning.

Other areas were beautiful and close enough to the ocean that we caught glimpses now and then and smelled salty air.

Late in the day we went through the Petronas gas refinery area (I think) with entire towns built around the largest power station I’ve ever seen. The land was cleared flat, you would never have guessed it was once forested, and tidy roads, houses, and other buildings were laid out for many kilometers. The traffic was fairly heavy, but we didn’t feel it too badly because the outside lane was designated just for motorcycles and scooters. An entire full-width lane! Besides that, there was a nice shoulder, so we really had plenty of room.

We landed in Dungun, another town waiting for the tourists. This time we finally got a good deal with a hotel (we’ve been trying to bargain, but no one seemed interested so far); we got a 120 RM room for 60 RM, but no breakfast included. “That’s fine, we’ll take it,” I say, because we have our own snacks and there are cafes everywhere along the road. The room is very nice, and we enjoy cooling off in the air conditioning.

This time of year we are riding into headwinds every day. We are nearing the end of the wet season on the east coast. There are very steady northeast winds that blow every day. I estimate we could probably travel almost 50% faster if we were traveling south instead of north. Although we are still in the wet season, it has barely rained at all. We have had hardly enough rain during any day to get us wet. An actual rainy day would feel very refreshing because of the heat. Instead, it is just humid.

So far, the most people we have seen riding on the same motor scooter is four. Usually it is a father, mother and two children all somehow riding the same tiny motor scooter. I am still waiting to see five people on one scooter, and I’m sure it is only a matter of time. I’m not sure what the minimum age is to drive a scooter, but it would seem to be about the time their legs are just long enough to reach the ground from the seat. We have seen some really young kids riding scooters. I am pleasantly surprised to see more people riding scooters with helmets than without. Yesterday we saw an old man driving a pink scooter with a helmet that looked like a cotton ball.

We had dinner one night at a restaurant with several Osama bin Laden posters on the wall. Michelle had not noticed the posters as she answered the very common question about where we are from with an, “United States”. It was hard to read the face of our waiter as he learned of our home country. He confirmed with an, “America”. It was not the quick acknowledgment and smile that was so common with most everyone else we had met. However, our dinner was fine, and the waiter was friendly and very accommodating to our meal requests. Although it was at times an uncomfortable experience for me, I think there was a positive exchange of understanding that occurred there. I believe we are all living together in a world of human folly where ignorance is dangerous and attempts at understanding can bring out the best of humanity.

Drivers in Malaysia actually stop at a red stoplight even if there is no cross traffic. However, lane boundaries are very fluid. There does not seem to be any police presence attempting to maintain order, but for some reason people still follow the basic rules. How strange. Maybe there is a stiff penalty for breaking a traffic law and this is enough to persuade people into following the rules with minimal enforcement. Similar to the Malaysian method of dealing with drug traffickers. Drug traffickers are hanged. Period. I am guessing it is not this severe for a traffic violation, but stiff enough for drivers to wait for a green light.

The drivers in Malaysia are generally very considerate and attentive. They are used to sharing the road with bicycles and scooters so it makes for a nice place for a bike tour, even when the traffic is heavy. We get many “hellos”, waves and thumbs-up from passing motorists and pedestrians. The local people have been very friendly and nice to us. This is a great place to ride a bike.