Onto Malaysia, where the weather is still incredibly hot and humid. While riding, the headwind and the wind I create is enough to keep me clear of sweat, but I dread even the slightest bit of climbing because it means I can wring out my clothes. At least the food is still cheap and great. Since so many Chinese and Indians live here (and are actually the majority over Malays in many places), Indian buffets have been the easiest and some of the best food to find. Two dollars for a huge plate of rice and my choice of meat, curry, and vegetables? Yes please. Also asking for tea gets you milk tea, which is fine with me. Almost everyone knows at least some English and many people are fluent, and friendly. Apparently I'm still blowing people's minds by telling them I'm biking to Singapore even though it's less than 1000km away.
As I imagined, the mosques are back in full force, though different than the ones in Turkey, and now it's called a Masjid instead of a Jami:
On my way to Georgetown I noticed that my rear tire was on the verge of an irreparable death:
I went to several shops but no one had a decent road tire the same width as that one, so I decided to switch both tires to 1.5inch since I wont be doing any more offroading anyway, and I'd rather not carry around separate sets of tubes for each tire. Oddly enough, wandering between shops I met with a cyclist I had first met in Batumi and I was able to give him the spare tubes from my old set of tires.
Aha! This shop should have everything I ... wait, no...
Georgetown still has a nice historic section, even of there are lots of skyscrapers in the newer parts
Chinese influence
Along the promenade with the city hall building
And Fort Cornwallis, which holds a 400 year old cannon:
In Ipoh, there were a few interesting things, such as a Chinese temple in a cave:
The train station:
And on the way out of town there was Tempurung Cave, which is massive:
And then it was on to Kuala Lumpur, home of the twin towers, and the Kuala Lumpur tower
Some neat looking building, many of which surround Merdeka (freedom square)
It has been interesting seeing WWII monuments pop up again, from the less talked about side of the war.
Interestingly, they ended a ~160km stage of the Tour de Langkawi right next to Merdeka square, where I happened to be wandering.
All the riders arrived within about 2 minutes of each other, going incredibly fast, and then promptly disappeared, but not before washing up (wish I had someone to do this for me after a day of riding in this weather):
I had never been to a distance bike race before, but I can now add it to my list of things that are way better to see on TV than live. There wasn't even much commentary. We had a 1km warning, then whoooosh and it was over.
As I imagined, the mosques are back in full force, though different than the ones in Turkey, and now it's called a Masjid instead of a Jami:
On my way to Georgetown I noticed that my rear tire was on the verge of an irreparable death:
I went to several shops but no one had a decent road tire the same width as that one, so I decided to switch both tires to 1.5inch since I wont be doing any more offroading anyway, and I'd rather not carry around separate sets of tubes for each tire. Oddly enough, wandering between shops I met with a cyclist I had first met in Batumi and I was able to give him the spare tubes from my old set of tires.
Aha! This shop should have everything I ... wait, no...
Georgetown still has a nice historic section, even of there are lots of skyscrapers in the newer parts
Chinese influence
Along the promenade with the city hall building
And Fort Cornwallis, which holds a 400 year old cannon:
In Ipoh, there were a few interesting things, such as a Chinese temple in a cave:
The train station:
And on the way out of town there was Tempurung Cave, which is massive:
And then it was on to Kuala Lumpur, home of the twin towers, and the Kuala Lumpur tower
Some neat looking building, many of which surround Merdeka (freedom square)
It has been interesting seeing WWII monuments pop up again, from the less talked about side of the war.
Interestingly, they ended a ~160km stage of the Tour de Langkawi right next to Merdeka square, where I happened to be wandering.
All the riders arrived within about 2 minutes of each other, going incredibly fast, and then promptly disappeared, but not before washing up (wish I had someone to do this for me after a day of riding in this weather):
I had never been to a distance bike race before, but I can now add it to my list of things that are way better to see on TV than live. There wasn't even much commentary. We had a 1km warning, then whoooosh and it was over.
No comments:
Post a Comment