Malaysia
Our first impressions of Malaysia were dampened - heavily dampened. We crossed the border from Thailand in one of the easiest crossings yet, and then rode onto Penang in the heaviest rain I've seen. The Malaysians are clearly accustomed to the frequent monsoonal downpours, but even the well engineered drainage systems on the freeway couldn't cope with the deluge and at points we were riding through 6 inches of water. Believe it or not, this was the first day we had ridden in the rain since days 1 and 2 of the trip in Germany. We had taken dry roads and clear visibility for granted, and the change in conditions took us a bit by shock and surprise.
Penang was more developed than we were expecting, particularly in Georgetown. We'd booked a place on the other side of the island in Batu Farringhi, which turned out to be a quieter part with great beaches and was adjacent to a national park.
We coincidently bumped into Flo and Jukka from the Myanmar crossing group and enjoyed a few beers on the beach with those guys.
Penang was more developed than we were expecting, particularly in Georgetown. We'd booked a place on the other side of the island in Batu Farringhi, which turned out to be a quieter part with great beaches and was adjacent to a national park.
We coincidently bumped into Flo and Jukka from the Myanmar crossing group and enjoyed a few beers on the beach with those guys.
We decided to explore the national park on foot and planned a circuit trail that took us to a couple of secluded beaches reachable only by foot or boat. The trail was great on the way in to the beaches, but the second part technically wasn't shown on the trail maps. It turned out that this part of the "trail" was disused and outrageously steep at points. We reached a point of no return and pressed on and by the time we reached the last kilometre of the loop we were bashing our way through waist high bracken ferns and face high spider webs. Through a series of "it's just over the next ridge" reassurances, I was able to coax Nat through the last and worst of it and we finished the day scratched, bruised and exhausted.
Beautiful beaches
It all went downhill after lunch....
From Penang we followed a recommendation to head to the Cameron Highlands. We escaped the heat by climbing to 1500m, but the price to pay was riding in the rain once again. The Cameron Highlands are known for undulating tea plantations and small villages holding markets for fresh strawberries and lavender. We spent a couple of days relaxing up there and exploring the local surrounds.
Amazing tea plantations
Robbo's Waterfall
We had originally planned to skip Kuala Lumpur, but after hearing a few good reports we shuffled the itinerary and checked into a hotel near the Petronas Towers for a couple of nights. We took the opportunity to get a new rear tyre fitted to the bike and spent a day wandering the sights of the city. We were impressed by its cleanliness and overall functionality - a welcome sight and in vast contrast to the previous 4 months of our travels.
The very impressive Petronas Towers
From KL we made our way to our final stop for the ride across Europe and Asia - KL International Airport. After much deliberation and research, we made the decision to freight the bike from KL to Perth, rather than pressing on through Indonesia. This was mainly due to a lack of shipping options out of Indonesia and East Timor. Although they exist, they proved to be either too slow or too expensive, so our final ride through Australia shifted from Darwin-Melbourne to Perth-Melbourne.
We spent 2 days cleaning the bike to clear Australian quarantine as we have heard reports of them being quite picky. Organising the bike freight was easier than expected. It was as simple as booking it in with MAScargo, rolling up on the day and following a few simple procedures such as weighing the bike. After just over an hour, we were saying goodbye to Tez - it was like leaving a child behind!
We spent 2 days cleaning the bike to clear Australian quarantine as we have heard reports of them being quite picky. Organising the bike freight was easier than expected. It was as simple as booking it in with MAScargo, rolling up on the day and following a few simple procedures such as weighing the bike. After just over an hour, we were saying goodbye to Tez - it was like leaving a child behind!
The cleanest the bike has ever been!
Ready to head to Perth...
After dropping the bike off, we had 24 hours to fill in before our flight and needed to get out of the hotel room! We were only 10 minutes away from the Sepang F1 International Circuit and there just so happened to be some motorbike racing on. We happily filled in 4 hours watching some extremely fast and powerful bikes before making our way to the airport quite excited to be returning to home soil 5 months after leaving Germany!
Chappo's kind of crowd!
