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 mak...