Day 8 - Tue 19 Nov: Hat Yai to George Town

Fine and cloudy in the morning 24 to 32 deg with 98% humidity. Just after lunch we had a nice refreshing storm which we sat out in a bus shelter.
Ride: 59 km (scheduled 70 km); total: 232km

Today we entered our second country, Malaysia. (A month or so over 50 years since I first entered Malaysia as an 18-year-old Infantry soldier with 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment.) Unfortunately, again there’s a fair amount of time on the bus but like I said before that’s unavoidable. Breakfast was at 7am with an 8am departure. Some lovely local dishes were on offer this morning, along with the English stuff. One very nice treat was sweet sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf.

We were mobile at the scheduled time and heading for the border. The actual processing took no time at all once our guide established where to go. Why they hadn’t done a recon beats me. Once through both the Thai and Malaysia sections it was on the bikes to a service station, where it took the guides about an hour to make up their minds if we were going to cycle or ride the bus. Here we go again!! What’s with these guys haven’t they put a plan together well in advance; maybe not.

Finally, we cycled a total of 59km, about 10km shorter than planned, which was ok. Not long after we stopped cycling the steady rain started and kept up all the way to the hotel just about. The final bus ride for the day took nearly two hours. It’s not that pleasant being curled up for that long after a nice ride, especially if you’re too tall for the seat. However, we all survived unscathed, checked in (just short of 9pm - long day) and got the chores out of the way just before dinner time.
 
9pm and we’re still waiting around for the guide to arrive to take us to dinner. A disorganised bunch of rabble if ever I saw one!

When I get really hungry, I don’t do patience very well at all, and for a bloke who normally eats dinner around 6pm, by 9pm I was very ready. And what a meal, Indian, lamb biriyani with all the trimmings and a mango yoghurt drink. As good as anything we got in India.

While the boys had a couple of beers, Dogan and I went for a wander around George Town. We were both very impressed, lovely architecture and clean as a whistle. I’m going to enjoy the two nights here.

Signature Hotel

Brekky

Crossing the border

Lunch venue

Lunch leftovers

Lunch venue

Waiting for the storm to pass

On the Penang ferry

Top deck of the ferry

East Indies Hotel, Penang (George Town)

My room


George Town




Lots of great Indian eateries

East Indies Hotel - anyone who displays old bikes in their hotel gets my vote






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