Allister

Day 20 – Balik Pulau to George Town

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Had another great Warm Showers stay, this time at Adrian’s place Titi Teras Village House. The other cycle touring guests were very welcoming, friendly and informative. Below is Mateo,cyclist from Italy, saying goodbye.

We headed back up the hill we rode down  a couple of days earlier with some trepidation. However, riding back didn’t seem as bad. Maybe because we knew what we were in for or because we hadn’t spent six hours climbing ropes beforehand. 

After descending from the mountain we called in to a Butterfly Theme Park. It was world class and so much more than butterflies. The below butterfly was enjoying my thick layer of sweat, built up from the riding over the mountain. 


Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/838757970/

Julie

Long time no WiFi.

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There has been a few days gap between posts because of the poor Internet where we were staying. 

We spent two nights in Georgetown because of the beautiful accommodation that we booked.  We planned on only staying one night but we had a 4 bedroom apartment with pool, sauna, spa and bathtub all to ourselves for $70aud so we stayed another night. 

Allister and Robert met a lovely chinese couple on our second day and we ended up going out to dinner with them.  They took us to their favorite restaurant where they ordered garlic pork soup for us. It was good but a little too fatty for my taste. 

We cycled on the next day, heading to the other side of Penang Island.  If you have ever been there you would know how mountainous it is.  We had a 10km uphill during the 40km day. It was hard work but really beautiful.  On the way to the other side of the Island we discovered an adventure park called Escape.  It was a high ropes park with all sorts of activities to do. We decided to give it a go. We expected to spend about 3 hours there but in the end we were there for 5 hours. It was great fun but exhausting. 

 

In a place called Titi Teris we stayed in a ‘warm showers’ house.  There were 3 other cyclists staying so we had the opportunity to socialize with like-minded people who didn’t think we were crazy.  

We left there this morning and have just completed the 10km uphill to get over the mountain again. We stopped along the way to see the butterfly park. It was the best butterfly park I have ever been to.  It was really amazing and informative.  We were allowed to glue the crysalids onto the hatching poles with the breeding program staff. The kids really enjoyed it.  Science class covered again.

Allister

Day 19 – George Town to Balik Pulau

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We broke the day into two halves. First half was leaving George Town via the northern coastal road. Once we got past the built up area the coastal road was very scenic, winding around the bays. We stopped at an adventure theme park called ‘Escape’, just after turning in land. Thought we would spend a couple of hours to lunch, but had so much fun six hours later thought we better complete the second half of our journey. 

The second half was one big hill. It was our first significant climb of the tour. Basically up hill for 8km, then down hill for 7km. An amazing ride through jungle mountain pass that I would recommend to any touring cyclists. 

After having 10 very active hours we were all scattered when we arrived at our accommodation. 

Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/836942928/

Julie

We had a cycling first today.

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As we were cycling through a tiny town called Penanti we noticed smoke stacks rising into the sky from a factory. It was a warm day with high humidity and we were suddenly hit with a wall of odour so thick that none of us could breath. Robert was nearly crying from the smell and we were all cycling as hard as we could to get through the odourous fog. Patrick decided to do a test breath through his nose rather than through his mouth. The smell was so bad he vomited between his legs onto his drink bottle.  I started laughing so hard I could hardly cycle.  It was one of those horrible situation where you either laugh or cry. Patrick was laughing too. 

We tried to describe the smell and I thought it smelt like milo and rotting meat. The boys said it had a touch of vomit smell as well but I think that came from Patrick.  

Later on in the day we boarded the ferry to Penang. 

Robert

The Underpasses!

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As we were riding along the side of a train line. The GPS told us we needed to cross it but the underpasses was a drain full of water, gross water. So we had to turn around and go back. On the way back we saw a little track. Dad said we should see if it is a short cut. As we went down the tiny track, it amazingly turned out to lead to a underpasses.

Allister

Day 17 – Simpang to Kulim

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Longest day so far. Started early from Simpang and weaved our way through the suburbs with the mountains as a scenic backdrop.



Another hot day with us taking shelter at a bus stop while so local workers looked on in bemusement. 

The afternoon was hilly and cooler, with the clouds slowly building until they released their rain. This time we took shelter from the rain under a bus stop. 

Robert really came into his own today. After a stern talking to from Julie about only doing the bare minimum, he really pulled his finger out. For the first time today their tandem was the first up hills. Consequently, we have a shot of Patrick and I climbing a hill.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/833723883/

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Epic day

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87km

 I don’t know how we did it but we did. 

It all started this morning from Simpang. We left after an interrupted nights sleep. Two men were sitting in the reception area having a loud conversation.  Our room was just down the hall and their voices echoed down to our room. At 3am I lost my cool and yelled at them. I had to yell at them 4 times and go out into the corridor and stare at them before they stopped talking. The most annoying part was that the two men talking were the hotel night staff. 

We hit the road and had a good ride to the next town of Selama. When we arrived we realised that it was not really a town, more like a collection of building with the highlight being a 7/11. We found a Chinese restaurant were the waitress spoke pretty good English.  We had a nice lunch of mee ayam sup and orange juice ice. 

At lunch we checked out the hotel situation on Google.  The hotel situation was not good. We started looking further afield for a place to stay the night. We talked it out with the boys and it was decided that we would venture on to the next town of Kulim, 30km away. We broke the cycle up into 10km chunks and at around the 19km mark it started raining.  It was lovely and cool.  None of us cared that we were getting covered in mud and grit. There was one beautiful hill that we had to cycle up along the way.  It was so steep and remote, the jungle was beautiful and there was a clean babbling brook flowing along the road side. 

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Another storm. 

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After a fairly easy 50km cycle we arrived at the Potato Hotel. We don’t know why it is called Potato but it was the cleanest we could find in the area. We showered and relaxed for a while until the kids started to revolt.  They wanted out of the hotel room and were bursting with energy. (I’m beginning to think 50km is not long enough to wear out the kids) We checked out TripAdvisor to see what there was to do around the area. Mini golf won out over the charcoal factor, coffee factory or the local zoo. 

The mini golf was 5km away from our hotel so we decided to get back on our bikes and ride there.  As we left the hotel and headed east we saw dark ominous clouds over the highlands. About half way there, large drops started to fall. Lightning and thunder followed. Luckily for us we were just going under a freeway.  We stopped to shelter from the rain. Amazingly there was a large roadside food stall under the freeway. We ordered drinks and the kids joined in a bizarre game of cricket with the local kids involving a piece of 4×2 and rocks. 

After an hour the rain stopped and we all decided to head back to the hotel and not worry about playing mini golf.