Day 15 - Tue 26 Nov: Bahau to Segamat

Fine and partly cloudy 23 (feels like 26) to 33 deg, 94 % humidity
Ride: 75km; total: 695km
Walk: 3km

Up early (5:15am) and after my morning routine went for a walk around town. Not much to see, just a back-blocks Malaysian town with lots of shops full to the brim with Chinese junk.

Today we rode away from the hotel, another one that doesn’t serve breakfast. I suspect that there’s a lot of these places that are struggling so they’ve cut back on services. However, food is never far away here so we walked across the street to a Chinese restaurant and had noodles in a black bean sauce and wonton soup. Not our normal fair first up in the morning, but nutritious enough. A few of the guys skipped brekky altogether but I (as usual) was peckish so had some, washed down with a cup of black tea with milk.

Ended up riding away about 8:15am. Not a great deal to see today, palm oil and rubber plantations (again) but with more villages and towns; not as isolated as yesterday that’s for sure. The terrain was undulating, like a roller coaster ride but the uphills tended to be short and sweet. We ended up with three riders in the bus before the end; Sean has a rash, Kev had an upset tummy part way and Dogan rides to his limit each day, usually about 50 km. We finished the scheduled ride at 11:40am and then went for an early lunch at a small insignificant looking local restaurant near where we packed up the bikes. Had a fried cabbage dish, curried chicken drumsticks, curried fish with rice and poppadums. What an amazing meal, the best lunch yet, full of great tastes and flavour. Sometimes the simplest meals are the best. It was then into the bus for the transfer to our hotel. We were scheduled to visit a “castle” on the way but when we arrived at the gate it was all locked up (surprise, surprise) so we continued to the hotel, Icon Hotel. Immaculately clean and very pleasant.

I did the washing and unpacked what I needed to and then went walking. A huge shopping centre nearby in which I purchased a mango smoothie. However, I ended up with a cup of crushed ice with mango flavouring and a tablespoon of milk powder. I was expecting real fruit and milk. It was cold and wet, and I did enjoy it. Walked about 3km and then returned to my room for some rest.

Dinner was at a very clean and well-appointed Japanese restaurant 10 minutes’ walk away. I had a chicken and prawn bento box, delicious.

Even though I had a little nap this afternoon, I was ready to retire for the night.

Breakfast

Preparing for the day

Baz and Ken leading the bunch this morning

An old palm oil plantation being cleared to make way for new planting. The palms produce for 30-40 years.

Palm oil fruit

A fairly young palm oil palm

Lunch

My room

Our hotel

Dried small fish in the supermarket

Dinner - chicken and prawn Bento box


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 17 - Thu 28 Nov: Keluang to Johor Bahru

Image
Fine and mainly sunny in the morning with a thunderstorm mid-afternoon, while we were on the bus thank goodness. A little hotter than previous days, 24 to 34 deg, we are edging closer to the equator. Ride: 80km; total: 865km Walk: 3km A nice early morning walk started my day. Not a great deal to see in Keluang, a little smelly and although littered with rubbish the workers were out sweeping the streets clean. Even before dawn the street food stalls and restaurants were already filling up with customers on their way to work. The smells were stimulating my appetite for breakfast. Breakfast for us was in the hotel today for a change. Eggs, toast, rice, curried chicken, and some really good coffee. Drove away at 8am for about 20 minutes before stopping to get on the bikes. The road we got onto initially should have been far too busy and fast to ride on, so we were all glad we turned off it after about 10 nervous km. The drivers are much more patient than most Aussie drivers, but the bi...
Read more

Day 9 - Wed 20 Nov: George Town

Image
Fine and mainly sunny 24 to 32 deg with 100% humidity (I thought that meant rain). A late afternoon thunderstorm. Ride: 53km; total: 285km Slept well after the long day yesterday so was up before the sparrows. After my exercise routine and morning stuff headed out (5.20am) into a fine but still dark day. However, the lighting on the buildings made for some nice shots. I was on the waterfront before sunrise so that was fairly special. It’s funny but as a young soldier here in the late 60s early 70s I didn’t really appreciate how great Penang is. Too busy looking at the inside of bars I suppose. Brekky was served a bit late for me, 8am, but it was worth waiting for. You had different options, Indian, Malay, English or American. I went English as we’ve had our fair share of Asian food the last week. Not that I’m complaining as I love the flavours and the freshness. Today we explore Penang, 3 out the 8 elected to do that by bike and the others by foot. The bikies headed out in the vehic...
Read more

Day 2 - Wed 13 Nov: Phuket

Image
Fine and sunny, 25 to 32deg, very pleasant, not dissimilar to home really although the humidity is a bit higher. Walk: 7km Had a fairly relaxing day, wandering around the area getting my bearings. The beaches attract sun worshipers from all over the world evident by the many different languages you hear when walking past groups. A lot sound Russian, or Eastern European. Breakfast at the resort ($15) was so substantial that I didn’t eat again till mid-afternoon. Apart from the beaches there’s not a great deal else to see just around Surin. This afternoon I walked to Kamala Beach about 4 km south. Lots of tourists, and many flash resorts, restaurants, bars and shops. The favourite pastime seems to be sitting on a lounge chair on the beach, mostly under the shade of an umbrella and drinking and eating. I must be weird, rather “do something”. Exchanged some cash ($1 = 20TB) and had a nice seafood noodle soup and pineapple shake ($11) for lunch/dinner. The 100s of shops didn’t interest me...
Read more