Into Malaysia and on to Penang

Friday, December 6 - A wet road as the sun rises and we leave the Andaman Sea where we have spent the last night in Thailand.

From here it is through lush thick woodlands to the border with Malaysia.

Farewell to our Thai support crew on the Thai
side of the border - Ursula with 'Tick'

Rae on the Malaysian side of the border

 A few kilometres from the border, we're treated to a steep 3-km climb, fortunately accompanied by some good views and then followed by a lovely descent

We will spend the balance of this day plus the following two days riding to Penang where we will spend a rest day. Along the way is generally well-kept green countryside, roads in good repair, busy towns, and many friendly waves as we pass by...

tree-lined roads...

 

...occasional views of the shore...

...and coastal towns...

...and wetlands full of shore birds.

Both a surprise and a disappointment, considering how well-kept everything is, was the amount of garbage dumped at the side of the road... 

 ...and being burned openly... 

The rest day is in Georgetown on Penang island...

arriving at the ferry terminal, Penang island in background

As usual, we crowd the bikes on amongst cars and scooters

Georgetown has a colonial past, evident from these photos... 

clock tower with Fort Cornwallis behind at left

Saint Georges church, almost 200 years old, the oldest
Anglican church in Southeast Asia

City hall, presently under restoration

As a free port in its day, Georgetown attracted other ethnic communities - the Chinese community outnumbers the Malays and there is also a significant Indian presence.

Chinese signs prevail here

'Little India'

We had time to wander around a bit...

people of all appearances including this chap
who was in the grounds of a Hindu Temple

...and wouldn't this be a nice bicycle for this trip?

Just along from our hotel was the Eastern and Oriental Hotel, the first of the grand hotels built by the brothers who later built Raffles in Singapore. It's nicely situated on the water...

 

We had our evening meal here - Ursula with her glass of wine and dessert, the photo taken with a heavy downpour behind her over the water with the setting sun providing the yellow lighting.

Another day of rest behind us... only two more to go... Kuala Lumpur next... tomorrow is back on the ferry and back on the bikes - and when I say tomorrow, I really mean December 10th - when all of us cyclists arrive places en masse, we really put a peak load on their internet, so this isn't posted until later.

 

last full day in Thailand

Thursday, December 5th - The King of Thailand's birthday, and our last full day in Thailand. Unfortunately our last two days in Thailand have been wet ones.

Ursula riding in the rain yesterday

Ursula riding in the rain today

Long range forecasts suggest that we can expect more rain before reaching Singapore - after barely a drop of rain for the first two months of this ride, I suppose the law of averages has to catch up. Glad we're in hotels, not in tents. Even so, everything in our bags seems damp. They are probably used to it here. We notice that the stucco buildings, if not freshly painted, look very weathered as you can see in the sidewall and the two un-painted front walls in this photo... we wonder how long the 'new' look lasts or conversely how quickly the weathered look appears... certainly not tens of years.

 

Tomorrow we cross into Malaysia.

 

Southern Thai Peninsula

Wednesday, November 27 - The first of six riding days after a rest day at Hua Hin, six days that saw a mix of weather, a mix of scenery, a shift from the east side of the peninsula (the Gulf of Thailand side) to the west side, the Andaman Sea which is on the Bay of Bengal.

A nice day out of Hua Hin...

...a nice sunrise the next day...

...but later, storm clouds...

...and then a torrential shower for almost an hour. A few of us took shelter at the local ice supplier where we watched the lady at work with her youngster alongside...

One whack with the saw and she had a block to crush...

...in it goes while youngster is told to keep fingers clear

The daily routine is breakfast at 0600 and get on the road early to avoid the heat of the day. Doesn't matter how early we start, local merchants are ahead of us...

We don't always see the sun rise, but there is often nice lighting on the countryside...

A couple more kingfishers this week...

...and bee-eaters too...

...and a couple more whose identities I don't know...

On the how are we doing side of things this week, we are well, but we did have a mishap this week. Shortly after this photo was taken on the first day out of Hua Hin...

...Ursula inadvertently went off the pavement where there was no shoulder and fell on the gravel slope and got bad enough cuts to the inside of her right forearm that she needed some stitches. She's okay - she rode the next day but took the following one off since the roads were a bit rough and that was causing pain in the arm if she held onto the handlebar (and she needed to do that). She rode again the next day, only to have her chain break in the morning. We all know things come in threes... on the sixth riding day of the week, she had a puncture in the rear tyre. Rae had a puncture on one of the days in between.

When we weren't dodging weather or fixing the bikes or ourselves, here is a bit more of the world we passed through:

red peppers being dried in front of a house

we stayed in these cottages one night



businesses below, homes above

jungle

rubber trees with taps to drain the sap

shrimp farm - we've seen several of these with these
paddle apparatus things aerating the water

The King is popular here - it's his birthday on December 5th and many of the streets we've cycled are lined with flags and what look like review stands. It is 4 Dec as I prepare to post this blog, so we don't know exactly what tomorrow will bring but it is a holiday and businesses will be closed.

The week ended with a rest day at Ao Nang...


odd wildlife on the beach



Lots of beautiful cliffs in this area. Around the corner beyond the
point in this photo are resorts and white beaches that are only
accessible by these longboats

rest day at Ao Nang - our room is on the second floor above the
umbrella

With less than three weeks to go, we're all aware that the journey will soon end, and we're starting to ask each other which country we liked most, what we most enjoyed on a rest day, where do you wish you could have spent more time, which one all those things that make you contemplate why we do these things.

As I think through all of that, a few things come to mind, not necessarily directly related to each other:

• excursions like these are probably more a mental exercise than physical
• attitude and mental outlook are enormously influenced by physical health and by mechanical problems with the bike - especially thinking back to Africa, they can drag you down
• I can't tell you which country I like best because I am so saturated that I can barely remember Bangkok a week ago let alone China and Vietnam and Laos a month ago

This is now being written after riding the first of five riding days - tomorrow we'll see how the Thais celebrate the King's birthday, and the next day we enter Malaysia, and Sunday we arrive in Penang where we'll have Monday as a rest day.