Leaving
Australia was heartwrenchingly awful, and made worse thanks to our budget
airline choices. I knew we had to order meals in advance but it turns out there
was no food, and no entertainment, for 8 hours. Luckily I’d downloaded weeks
worth of Archers episodes which kept us busy for a while (it’s really good at the moment I think, except for Pip who is
horrendous in every way). The only food we had was 9 mini hot cross buns
which did not do the trick. I felt quite weak by the end.
We arrived in Singapore, ate some food and put
our bikes together. Looking at a map of Singapore was depressing stuff. Every
interchange had more legs than an octopus and there were so many roads
everywhere, with no indication as to whether they were quiet residential
streets or highways. We came to Singapore 12 years ago and I remember a lot of
space, and things being spread out. Any space now is filled with blocks and
blocks full of apartments. Mum was all for setting off with no idea which way
we where we were going, in the twilight, with not many Singapore dollars, but I
had a tantrum and we got a taxi. We went to stay with some warmshowers hosts,
who lived in one of these buildings.
We all went out to a super authentic Chinese
food hall type place where we were the only white people. 12 years ago we
stayed with Mum’s childhood chess friend (ha) Tim and I only remember English
people. This time I barely saw any. They
asked if we had any eating requirements and I mentioned my issue with fish, but
then every single dish they ordered had a seafood element… Luckily I’m very
grown up (and very hungry) these days. It was quite late when we got back and
the three hour time difference meant we were exhausted. We decided to get up at
6 and go to parkrun though (you can’t miss a parkrun). Although we knew the
vague area parkrun was in, when we got there we spent 15 minutes wondering
round a golf course before finally finding some wifi and it turns out it was
miles away and we’d missed it. After an hour and a half on the metro this was
pretty frustrating. By this point we were both feeling really awful, it had
been really hot all night and we were food/sleep deprived. We decided to take a
detour on the way back to the botanical gardens. This was a great decision as the
botanical gardens were fab! They come second in Phoebe and Harriet’s Ranking of
Botanical Gardens, above Wellington but not as good as Rio. We’ll obvs be
publishing the rankings on our return. (I think Ascension’s last place is guaranteed).
The best bit was the Evolution walk, which started with moss before moving on
to ferny type things and then evolving into beautiful flowerbeds. The gardens
had a healing garden which seemed to do the trick (or maybe it was the coffee
and cake) and we were feeling much more revived on our way back.
Our
warmshowers hosts very kindly cycled us to the ferry terminal. Local knowledge
really was a boon as we meandered round cycle lanes.
The ferry/border crossing
was surreal. Half of it was super high tech, with biometric visas (thumb prints
and retina scan), but the boat was called a “bum boat” and only left when there
were 12 people ready to go. The actual boat looked like it was falling apart,
with huge holes in the planking. Our bikes got some very strange looks. I slept
for the entire 70 minute journey but Mum claims there were some nice views of
the Islands inbetween Singapore and Malaysia. We arrived in Malaysia and the
contrast was bigger than any other border crossing we’ve done so far. Singapore
has nationwide wifi, contactless payments for everything, a metro that runs
every 4 minutes, automatic soap dispensing taps… Malaysia does not. We arrived
in a tiny village with only Singapore dollars, starving hungry. Luckily some
very nice people bought us some food (fish) and water, and told us it was 10k
to the next town with a hotel. 25km later, including a huge look round a
petroleum plant, we arrived in a town. The first hotel we came too looked very
expensive, but after a trip round town it was only marginally more expensive
than the others and infinitely nicer. For supper we bought “cheese pizza sticks”
which turned out to be sweet, who’d have thought it? Anyway they were delish,
in a very odd way. At least they didn’t involve fish…
The next
day we woke up to torrential rain. Seriously pouring. I’d double bin-bagged
everything in my non-waterproof panniers but I was still worried as the rain
was trying to drill holes in the ground. We pressed on, because after all, life’s
not about waiting for the storm to pass x. At lunchtime we got to this super
fancy resort full of people enjoying a nice relaxing holiday. Obviously we had
to keep going. Eventually we got to a town that the signposts had been getting
us excited about for miles. Australia had spoilt us because we were expecting a
town, and obviously it was not a town… There were a few cafés and we sat down
in one. The waiter came over and looked at us expectantly and we had absolutely
no idea what to order. Malaysia is a mix of Indian and Chinese culture and we
were in a café of the Indian variety, and there was a curry buffet behind us,
but it wasn’t lunchtime. We looked desperately around and eventually saw a man
eating some delish fried things. We pointed at him and the waiter got the
message and brought them over. They were deep fried naan bread type things. We
then spent hours cycling around trying to find an ATM, before asking somebody
and finding out the nearest ATM is 150km away! With no cash that was a worry.
We spent the entire afternoon cycling through palm oil fields. Malaysia really
is weird. With limited money we checked into to a budget hotel for the night which
turned out to be fine. The man even gave us free meals which were amazingly
fish free after I used my drama GCSE skills to act out my severe fish allergy.
It was clear we weren’t in touristy/expat/white Malaysia, but really in the
sticks. In some ways this is great because you’re getting an experience that
you wouldn’t if you weren’t cycling, but also it’s really hard.
The next
day was hot. My garmin peaked at 42 degrees and I felt all of them. We had lots
of 20p ice creams which probably saved me. We’re yet to find out what is our
food in Malaysia and keep trying weird experiments, like fried broad beans
(disgusting), and green pea crisps (delish). Our normal bread and cheese lunch
is so far away from being possible. We need buy some “Pro Chizz” (not joking),
which claimed to be cheddar but could easily have been sand. In the evening we
stumbled across a scout camp and joined in! Although they were all sleeping in
luxury chalets and we were the only ones in a tent. Mum got all proud of her
scout leader status but none of them even knew the promise. They were all very
excited by us and we had an exhausting evening of socialising. Honestly it’s
surprisingly hard to spend any time alone when cycle touring.
In the morning
the tent was absolutely baking and we had to leave as soon as poss. It was 32
degrees at 7 AM, in the shade. First
impressions of Malaysia are good. The people are all really friendly and
helpful, and almost every single car gives us a thumbs up. The downsides are
the constant oppressive heat. And it is really constant, just looking at my
sleeping bag makes me feel sick. Another downside is the literally constant
smell of rotting fish. It’s everywhere. This is bad for me, and even Mum
complains. I’d write some place names of where we’ve been but for some reason I’m
incapable of remembering any of them. At the moment we’re in Nenasi, at “Anglers
Paradise Motel” (seriously there’s no escaping).
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