Those thoughtful people

The run from Hat Yai to the border was of little note despite what Lonely Planet says, which was by the way confirmed by our Thai acquaintances. Southern Thailand has a Muslim vs Buddhist issue; there are daily bodies. These frictions happen more in the very corner of South East Thailand; we were going to be travelling on the West of middle down to the border.

Getting out of Thailand was super quick and easy, only to be outdone by getting into Malaysia. The whole caboodle in less than an hour! And the Malaysians spoke English! We are really in a different sort of country now. Thai roads were good, but Malaysian are pristine. There is also none of this money changing lark at the borders either, as there are ATMs at the petrol stations and the petrol stations take cards anyway. This is a different Asia altogether! Although we had a full tank of petrol we needed money for the toll roads, or at least we thought we did. But motorcycles don't pay. Amusingly motorways have a cute sign next to bridges with an umbrella and a bike, indicating an area for bikes to shelter when it rains. How thoughtful!

                  

                  

Singapore, or more specifically, a container boat is calling. One that will undoubtedly change its sailing time but we cannot bank on that, so we have to rush through Malaysia. As we were making such good progress we decided to travel a bit further than previewed and headed to George Town on the island of Penang. We had heard of George Town, ie its name was in our heads for some reason, but we didn't know why. We still don't! The old town is UNESCO heritage; it looked like a good option to stop overnight.There were lots of more expensive hotels to choose from, but we went inexpensive with shared, external facilities. It was relatively cheap but did not really represent value. Glad we hadn't gone upmarket. George Town wasn't just quiet, it was comatose. Apparently its Festival started the weekend we arrived. And? OK there were quite a lot of run down 100yr old properties and it was quite interesting to see the superposition of Chinese, Malay, Indian and a smattering of European cultures all side by side in a cramped environment. But unless you like looking at blokes sat in the shopfront of their power tool stores, or moped repair shops, or shops selling the tops that go with saris then we wouldn't recommend it. Especially when it is very hot
indeed.
                                                                         
                                                                     

                  

 

George Town onwards to Kuala Lumpur. All this and hotel finding without Mr. Garmin as his maps ran out half way down Thailand. So which direction does the sun rise in? KL was smartness indeed and the Petronas Towers were a spectacle to see especially at dusk. We enjoyed ourselves walking around, that European thing again... 

                

                                                                                                                                                                     
                                         

 

Come all that way and all you get is a lousy...Well, due to space limitations we aren't even going for the T-shirts but just pin badges or patches, but the KL Harley dealer had neither in stock. Not quite so thoughtful.

                                                                       

No time to stop and onwards to the Malaysian Singapore border where the call of the container boat was getting louder. We met a couple of Singaporeans at a roadside cafe. They were interested in our travels. They had been to KL too but in a hired car, as they said it was easier. More in a later edition...Johor Bahru is another town with Frontier townitis and it is not somewhere one would stay a long time. But it was one up on Luang Nam Tha and Stung Treng and Zharkent.

So that was Malaysia? It's a real shame that we are just picking up kilometres at present but the two crucial links in the chain have always been about getting the bike from Singapore to Darwin, then Sydney to Los Angeles. We have now reached the first one of those links and hoping it's not a weak one. Singapore seems so close, the causeway is less than 2km long and we can see our next destination.

Another flag to stick on the top box very soon...

                       

Paul and Francoise