Tuesday, 19 November 2002

We are currently in Perth, western Australia. We have been on the road 196 days and covered 17 522 miles (28 035 kilometres).

After leaving the wet Cameron Highlands, we were fortunate to have good weather all the way down to Port Klang via Kuala Lumpur. We used the main freeway, which has tolls for all vehicles except motorcycles, which are allowed to go free. The narrow paths that bypass the tollbooths need a certain amount of concentration though!

We stopped off for fuel and were amazed at how technologically advanced Malaysia is. You have to pay inside first or by credit card at the pump before you receive fuel, only then can the fuel you have paid for be pumped. This is also a sign of the security measures these companies have to take due to the high crime rate.

We eventually found Port Klung (on the map there are 4 Klungs; one is an island, one is the nearest town to the port?) and our agents office. As it was Sunday the offices were closed but we found a central hotel nearby, Hotel Embassy, where we stayed for 4 nights. They allowed us to park our bikes inside the hotel lobby, as there was no suitable safe parking otherwise.

The little port town of Klung is not too bad. There are very few foreigners staying out here (about 60 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur) but there are decent restaurants (KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonalds) and comfortable accommodation available.

We caught a taxi into KL to do the tourist thing and visited the Petronas twin Towers, the highest building in the world so the Malaysians claim. They stand at some 460m and if you try to look up at them from the ground, you are sure to get a sore neck!
There is a free tour up to the 42nd floor where the bridge joins the 2 soaring towers together. We timed our visit to perfection as a monsoon storm was blowing in as we arrived. What was a bright, sunny day soon became a misty, gloomy, dark, rainy afternoon. The buildings that were visible around the CBD simply disappeared into the rain. Look at the photos to see a before and after of the view! Quite spectacular!
Dom and I were standing on the bridge as the storm approached and when the thunder, wind and lightening hit, you could feel the sway of the buildings quite violently. None of the other 30 visitors would venture onto the bridge but we thought it was spectacular entertainment! While we were standing on the bridge, the towers received 2 direct lightening strikes!

Due to the tremendous amount of rain coming down, we decided to catch a movie - our first cinema visit in 6 months! Wynona Ryder and Adam Sandler made our visit worthwhile in the comedy, Mr. Deeds. The shopping mall built under the towers is fantastic and with 4 floors of all the latest gadgets, restaurants and an ADSL Internet café, we spent some more time there before heading back to Klang. We used KL's very modern tube system, very similar to the Jubilee line in London, and then the train to find our way home. It takes around 1 hour from KL central station and runs very regularly.

We used Lucas Yap, the shipping agent recommended on Horizons Unlimited. His work is very professional and he is an extremely helpful guy. The details are below:

Freight Logistics Corporation
Suite 13-09
13th Floor
Crown House
217, Persiaran Raja Musa
42000 Port Klang
Selangor

Telephone: (603) 3165 5730 / 3730
Fax: (603) 3165 3731

Email: flc@myjaring.net or Lucas' email: lucasflc@myjaring.net
Mobile: (6012) 312 1325

Because so many people have been using him to ship their bikes recently, Lucas has put together a small costing website. Here is the address:

http://www.oocities.org/flcmy4bikers

There is some useful information on this including sailing schedule, various charges for Malaysian shipping and general information.

We spent about an hour sorting out the paperwork with Lucas and then a few days cleaning the bikes. Australia is very strict as far as cleanliness of vehicles entering and even fumigates all crates before they depart.

For the Saturday sailing, the bikes have to be ready for customs inspection on the previous Thursday. We spent a few hours crating them on the Wednesday as we were flying out early on the Thursday morning. We followed the carpenters from Lucas office down to the warehouse and within 3 hours the bikes were ready for shipment! The crate sizes had already been decided and are larger than our Nepal ones, but worked out to be 3.5 cubic metres, as shipping is charged by size rather than weight.

The total cost came to US$ 600 for both bikes and this includes the DHL cost of couriering our carnets and the shipping bill to Perth. You have the option of waiting for the customs inspection to take place but the ship bill is only produced after the ship has set sail. This meant we were going to be waiting around for at least 3 extra days.

On Thursday morning at 05:25 we caught the first train out of Port Klang and got to KL central at 06:30. The Malaysians have technology working for them in many ways, no more so than at KL central station. It is a pleasure to walk into this sparkling clean station with overland trains servicing most of Malaysia, brand new tubes serving the city and a TGV service covering the 50 kilometre journey from KL central to KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) in just 28 minutes. This technology we have not seen even in Europe! It's interesting to note the RM 500 (US$ 125) fine notices warning people not to eat, drink or smoke while using these services.

Our flight from KL went smoothly and, after hearing stories about how busy the flights were at this time of year, we were pleasantly surprised to have an empty Malaysian Airlines plane! Dom and I both had 4 seats to ourselves and enjoyed the comfort of catching up on a few movies, while enjoying 1st class service - and a few beers!

Immigration was no problem on arrival in Perth, something we had prepped ourselves for just in case (we only had 1 way tickets). We had acquired our 6-month tourist visas a few months earlier in London and had heard some stories that without a return ticket we would run into problems at the Perth immigration terminal.

It was a breath of fresh air to arrive in Australia, the "first world ness" immediately apparent! Families with children are taken out of the queue to be fast tracked, sniffer dogs are employed to sift out any drugs and the general feeling you get is that of a well-organised government department.
The quarantine laws are also really pushed home with TV screens telling what you can and can't bring in, or what you should declare to the customs officials.

Rulan, Dom's sister, met us with wide smile! The last time we'd seen her was some 6 months ago out of our rear view mirrors back in London on a cold, rainy morning! We have been kindly offered a place to stay with her and Andy, her husband in South Perth. They have recently moved down here after spending some time in Darwin and London.

We have been in Australia for 5 days now and the time has flown by! We have been treated to the wonderful relaxed lifestyle that Perth has to offer. The weekend was spent on the beach and in the rather chilly sea. The summer is just starting and, although it was 38 degrees centigrade on our arrival, it's been in the late 20's and early 30's over the past few days. Perth reminds us a bit of Cape Town; it is quite a windy city but the relaxed atmosphere also reminds us that it is just a big town really!

We have the rest of this week to chill out and be real tourists before our bikes arrive here next Monday, the 25th and we can once again become adventure motorcyclists!
It feels a bit strange having to catch busses, taxi's and trains to get around when all we've become used to over the last few months is jumping on our bikes and heading off with ease…

On Monday we visited Perth for the first time and it's amazing how US like it is! The huge shopping malls, roads in the city are wide with everything modern and well kept.
We visited some dive shops and may sample the local diving around Perth, perhaps Rottnest Island or Rockingham, over the next few days.

Itinerary of the past few days:

Sunday, 10 November
Tana Rata, Cameron Highlands to Port Klang, distance 157 miles.

No other riding apart from a few miles down to the warehouse to crate the bikes.

Sunday, 11 November 2002

We are currently in the Cameron Highlands, central Malaysia. We have been on the road 187 days and covered 17 365 miles (27 784 kilometres).

We have been in Malaysia for 11 days now and to put it plainly; it's nothing like Thailand! The surprise was on entering we were not required to show any paperwork for our bikes, let alone any of the stuff we are carrying! The border we crossed at, Betong, is not the main post but still has a steady flow of traffic through it. The passport control took about 15 minutes and then customs simply asked us what we had and waved us on! The simplest country to enter since departure from London and the border guards said, "We are trying to promote tourism here in Malaysia". So in less than half an hour we were in Malaysia and we noticed a few sudden changes from Thailand:

1. Muslim culture is very apparent, women with heads covered and mosques in every town;
2. Road quality has deteriorated somewhat. Roads are narrower, with many more cars and scooters on them;
3. Drivers are dangerous, almost like from India (perhaps they are also relying on Allah to keep them alive!) They overtake on blind rises, on corners and when you least expect them to! The scooters all ride on the left side of the road making it very difficult for big bikes to do the same. Then they don't expect you to overtake on the right as all the scooters overtake on the left so you have to keep your wits about you;
4. Food has different names here though similar to Thai food, we have had to learn Malay food but, as Indian is also very popular, we managed to eat for the first few days!
5. Things have got more expensive as there are 1st world signs here: big department stores, some decent shopping malls, telecom towers to match any in Europe, internet cafes with ADSL!, etc.

We stayed at Alor Setar for 2 days and tried, without success, to get our bikes and ourselves to the islands of Langkawi. There are no car ferries to this island so you have to check your bike/car in as cargo. The ships sail every night and you collect your bike/car on Langkawi the following day. However, we weren't happy about leaving our bikes for someone else to ride on and off the ship so we decided against going altogether.

Alor Setar is not very touristy so we got a good taste of "real" Malaysia. It does boast having the only ADSL Internet café (in the Pacific centre, 4th floor) we have come across on our trip and the 169 metre Menara telecom tower. It has the closest port to Langkawi but mainly the passenger boats, unless you send your bike/car the cargo route. There are some good cheap hotels but also some really expensive ones around. We stayed at the basic Miramar hotel for MR 35 (£6) and found a good western restaurant close by, the Regency Hotel.

After the Langkawi let down, we rode down to Penang, an island linked to the mainland by a 4 lane, 13-kilometre bridge. The beaches the Lonely Planet raves about are in the north of the island so we rode through Georgetown, the main city on the island, to Batu Ferringi where we stayed at Baba's guest house for 3 nights. The beaches are nothing to get excited about, dirty water with jet skiers, para sailing and a few fishing boats make it unsuitable for swimming.

There are quite a few restaurants aimed at the tourist trade so you are not short on choice! There is also a Nando's close by (a South African chicken franchise) so we felt right at home for a few days!

We did one ride around the island on the western side and it's quite a pretty place. There is a dam and quite a few rural fishing villages on the west, a complete change to the east side that is busy with roads, traffic and a busy city, Georgetown.

We had our first theft of the trip while in Penang, quite a disappointment really. The 2 10 litre bags, which fit onto the side of our bikes, were cut off Gary's bike. They were locked but still some valuable clothes (wet gear, jacket and pants) have made riding in rain since then quite uncomfortable. They are also difficult to replace so be warned, even if your bike is under cover and locked, they are still vulnerable!

After 3 days in Penang, we decided to head up to the Cameron Highlands, a green tea growing region high up above the coast at some 2000 metres. We have been here for 4 days now and been staying at Twin Pines backpackers hostel. It's basic but has hot water and there are loads of travellers coming and going daily so it's quite a happening place! This region is not green without reason; it's rained every day since we've been here but mainly in the afternoons, monsoon season!

We have managed to get out on the bikes to sample the lovely winding roads in the dry and visited the local tea factory, plantations and the highest road in Peninsula Malaysia above the tea estates. Things seem different here to other parts of Malaysia we've visited as this area used to be British and so it's more relaxed up here. The many Landrovers and pubs are signs the British were here!

We've caught up on world news, read many motorbike magazines, watched a few movies/sport during the rainy spells as the satellite TV and VCD player offer you something to do indoors!

Yesterday we spent most of the day cleaning the bikes, preparation for sending them to Australia. The customs guys in Australia are quite strict so all mud has to be cleaned off the bikes and they even fumigate them before they leave Malaysia to be 100 % sure no foreign virus/species enters their soil!

Today we ride down to Port Klung, via Kuala Lumpur (KL) to arrange the shipment of our bikes to Perth on Sunday, 17 November. The bikes have to be checked in through customs the Wednesday before, so we'll spend some time getting wooden crates made up and doing some packing before flying out to Perth ourselves on Thursday, 14th. The bikes only arrive a week later so we'll be in Perth staying with Rulan and Andy, Dominic's sister and her husband, until the bikes are ready for clearance.

Itinerary of the past few days:

Thursday, 31 October
Bang Lang dam to Alor Setar, distance 233 miles;

Friday, 1 November
Short ride around Alor Setar to ferry port for Langkawi, distance 23 miles;

Saturday, 2 November
Alor Setar to Penang, distance 112 miles;

Monday, 4 November
Day trip around Penang, distance 64 miles;

Tuesday, 5 November
Penang to Tahna Rata, distance 178 miles;

Wednesday, 6 and Thursday 7 November
No rides worth a mention, to Brinchang and back;

Friday, 8 November
Daytrip around the tea plantations, distance 47 miles.

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