Shortest day of cycling. The boys wanted to stop into Frenzy Waterpark.
We all had heaps of fun and laughter. It was more slippery than we expected, so there were many unexpected falls. Had a couple of twinges from my knee, so took it very carefully after that. We were the only customers, so the boys took full advantage and got the lifeguard involved.
Staying with Jules'(neighbour from Denmark ) Dad, Mick tonight who lives in Lumut. Another good reason to keep the day short.
When we got off the boat, we were all very hungry, so we stopped for some food. While we ate, a cat climbed up a pole and got stuck. I thought it was very funny! When it finally got down, it lay down for a nap.
The ride started a little differently today. We stayed in a small sleepy fishing town that is cut off from the north by a large river mouth. We wanted to continue north and thought we could get to the other side via a ferry. However, no ferry service, so we organised a fishing boat. For the full story of how that was organised see Julie’s post.
Once we got to the other side it was a good ride through some back roads to Marina Island. The two highlights were our best roti yet paid for by a friendly local and riding through a rubber plantation.
Once we got to Marina Island we caught our second boat for the day to Pulau Pangkor. Great ride to our accommodation, with a couple of very steep inclines, before ending in a great swimming pool to cool off.
Yesterday we arrived in the remote town of Bagan Datoh. It is an old town that was originally settled by Hindu’s from India. The people where friendly but they were very surprised to see tourists as the road stops at Bagan Datoh. It is a dead end town due to the Perak River. We had discussed with the kids all of the cycling options and they chose to cycle into Bagan Datoh and take the risk that we would not be able to get a boat across the river and would therefore have to cycle back 62 km to go around the only river crossing.
Allister spent 2 hours walking around asking about a boat with no luck. When he got back to the hotel he was hot and bothered and had reached a point were he was happy to cycle the extra 62 km. I on the other hand love cycling but hate backtracking. I convinced him to come out for another walk with me to see if we could find someone to help us. As we were walking along the fishermans road an old Chinese man called out to us, asking what we wanted. I walked over to him and asked about a boat across the river. At the time I could not have predicted how involved this process was going to be.
The Chinese man called out to a friend near by and explained to him what we wanted. The friend phoned anther man who must have jumped on his motorbike straight away because he turned up about 5 minutes later. He then called someone else and so on until we were in a group of about 6 old Chinese men all talking at each other. After about 30 minutes of discussions the original man asked us how much we were willing to pay. Allister offered half of what he and I had discussed earlier. We obviously offered way too much because the 6 men did not have good poker faces. They were delighted at the offer (~$70 AUS). We were told to meet them at their fishing shack at 8am the following morning to catch our boat.
Best adventure so far.
Bike being lifted on a fishing hoist.
Bike being lowered in the boatView from the fishing shack.
Once we reached the other side of the river we had a lovely cycle to Lumut. We then jumped on a much bigger boat for the 20 ride to the Island of Pangkor.
It was a long hot day, but we are all getting stronger and acclimatised to the conditions. No head aches or melt downs or I can’t go any further, which is a credit to everyone in such tough conditions.
We taught the boys 500 (card game) at the beginning of the cycling and they are becoming quite accomplished in their play and strategies. The highlight of the day was stopping at a small community (Kedai makan rashid) restaurant for a break just before noon. Nobody spoke English, but they were so welcoming and very positive. We played 500 for about half an hour and helped ourselves to the food on table (based on an honour system). When I went to pay we had eaten eight different things and it came to 2 RM ($0.67).
In the afternoon Robert and I went in search to organise a boat trip for tomorrow. We were unsuccessful in that, but our driver took us to a monument in the middle of nowhere, where their King takes a shower (where Robert’s right hand id pointing).
Another good day of cycling. Most of the time off the beaten path, but not so rough that we were bogged in sand or stuck in foot deep mud like yesterday.
While cycling along the coast we came across a couple of Belgium cyclists who had started in Phuket and were heading to Klang. Pity they were heading in the opposite direction, because it would have been good to share some of the ride.
We went rock Climbing, it was awesome ☺. Dad gave us the wrong level so we got the wrong time it was terrible, but the guy who was in control was nice and gave us free extra time he was very nice!
The day started out leaving from our first Warm Showers stay. Our hosts were very welcoming and showed us around on our rest day in Klang.
It was another hot day and by 10:00am we had ridden halfway, but needed a rest stop in shade. We came across a Buddhist temple on the side of the road that made a perfect spot to cool down and rest.
We made it to the coast by late morning and we found a road right on the beach. Luckily it was only too sandy right at the end, which made it a perfect spot to take a photo.
We had another adventure after lunch with a muddy track, but I will let Patrick tell the story.
The day started out like a normal cycling day. Up early and on the road by 7.30am . We waved goodbye to our Warm Showers host, Chung and headed out of Port Klang. The roads were not too busy being a Sunday but there were no clouds and the sun was beating down hard.
Using maps.me, we were able to travel on side roads most of the day. I was the lead for the first half of the day. This means that Robert and I are at the front and we are responsible for the directions. So, we cruised along quite nicely until I started to get a headache and Allister took the lead. The sun was really high in the sky and there was no shade so we chose to stay as close to the coast as possible with the hope of a sea breeze.
We did get a sea breeze but we also got gravel, sand patches, deep, deep black and smelly mud. We also had close encounters dogs, lizards, Komodo Dragons, snakes and a horde of monkeys. When I say horde, I’m talking around 30 of all different size monkeys crossing the path about 3 meters in front of us. Luckily all of the animals have been more scared of us than we are of them but I must admit that when I cycled within 10 cm of the snake I nearly did number 2’s in my knicks.
