Dedicated to a wonderful Mother Jean Noble 31/5/1929 - 20/8/2007 - may we never take our mothers for granted. - Goodbye Mum

MALAYSIA PAGE 8 0f 8 JUNE 2008.

The picture above is Mr Anwar Ibrahim, I have come to admire this man as I have learned of his courage and his humanity. His story can be seen Here, To me it epitomises a dark period in the “judicial” history of this beautiful country. I was in the “Transit Villa Guesthouse when this terrible injustice began to unfold. He is STILL (2008) being “dogged” by the “powers that be”, attempting new charges – to silence him.

The song “to know Malaysia is to love Malaysia” made famous by Sudirman Arshad, Sudirman has received standing ovations in my home country Australia, due to his beautiful voice. It was one song I heard a long time ago, having been here over 20 times. Its beautiful warm hearted people, means for a caring society. I (Mal) truly love this country. It is so “alive” and vibrant. Both of us look forward to cycling and seeing the people from the ground up.

I have a “Long Shot” request of any reader out there, I have lost touch with a dear friend, Rosie Lim, Rosie owned the Transit Villa Guesthouse in Jalan Chow Kit. During the 1980's - 90's and beyond. The place is now closed and despite asking lots of locals, no one seems to know where she is now. ANY information is most welcome.

We'll let you know how we find this country – good and bad :-)

June 20^th 2008 Sungai Petani to Alor Star
Approx. 60.54k's Average Speed 14.41kph Cycling time 4Hr(s) 20Min. Max speed. 42kph Max temp we recorded 38°C
Terrain: Hilly then dead flat Road Conditions: Good to excellent. Overnight Accommodation: $18.00

After a relatively late start. about 10:30am, we said our goodbye's to our lovely hosts at the hotel...

They thanked us for our stay and gave us a small gift for staying there, a very nice gesture indeed..

The gift (for those curious :-)), was a small towel, engraved with “Sungai Hotel Petani Inn” “(Kedah)”... now someone will think we pinched a towel – duh!!!. Actually it is small and light so we may keep it in new condition as a souvenir.

I don't know how much more I will get out of my tyres... I am through to a blue material now... I just have to say “Schwalbe Marathon Plus” are bullet proof!!

I do have tyres spare and we face few hills in the next few hundred k's – so I may run them a while yet... Biggest real danger is a blow-out at high speed... We were stopped, tooted, and waved at loads of times today.. As usual plenty of kids – nice kids.

We arrived late afternoon and found a reasonable hotel quite quickly, which was nice... and are now bedded down for the night... Catchya Later...

June 21^st 2008 Alor Star to Thailand
Approx. 53.48k's Average Speed 12.85kph Cycling time 4Hr(s) 10Min. Max speed. 39kph Max temp we recorded 37°C
Terrain: Undulating to Flat Road Conditions: Fair to good. Overnight Accommodation: $17.50

We left our hotel about 10am knowing we had only about 50 k's or so of flat travel... Our day started OK but, we ran out of road... Strange as it seems we could not find a road that was not (Freeway, Express way or Motorway) So we chose to use the freeway for our last 30k's, fortunately we were permitted to proceed.... Along the way we met nice people.. This guy studied in Yorkshire England, he shouted us a typical Malay drink/sweet... Thank you Suhaidi Hassan...

Further still during a rain-shower we happened upon a couple of young men that “riveted” a “pulled” rivet on Lee's bike... For Free!!!

About 4pm we finally reached the Thai border....

Thus began the hated bureaucracy, that we all face at borders (Outside Europe of course). Lee was denied entry on her Thai passport, VERY upsetting for Lee... I will not go into the intricacies of Thai immigration... It is outside the scope of our diary. Catchya Later....

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SUMMARY MALAYSIA

A remarkable country, that possesses some of the most caring people on the Planet. It would be both easy and unfair to “grade” a country... It would be so easy to put Malaysia as Number One... However this is too simplistic and we will not do that.

We will not forget Fook Leong Tang, who made possible our sojourn deep into the Jungle, to meet the Orang Asli. Nor will we forget the overwhelming generosity of the Malay People... Thousands of waves, “toots on the horn” the countless number of people that offered help and encouragement.. We cannot remember all your names but we thank each and every one of you, for your kindness.

For those considering visiting this lovely country and are concerned about “Islam”..... Don't be, we were NEVER once given anything other than normal service, warmth and kindness. We were both left with the impression that, “if the chips were down”, we would be offered every assistance.... We both hope we can visit again, SOON, in fact if time permits we may try to cycle the other coast (west) to our exit point in Singapore. We both were very sad to leave.

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