After spending some time in Melakka thinking about the final few weeks of our trip, we had booked our air tickets home and worked backwards to where to were now. We wanted to spend as long as possible traveling and seeing as much as possible before returning to the UK. We explored a few options and decided on crossing the width of Malaysia to the East coast – we had heard from books and people that it was so different to the West coast, so we wanted to see for ourselves.
On cycling out from Melakka prepping ourselves for a long day of riding ahead, after 20 miles the day changed dramatically; in a good way. We stopped at the traffic lights of a cross junction and saw 4 cyclists pull out and down the road we were going. They caught sight of us and were clearly just as much intrigued by us as we were them! We managed to catch them up and we cycled along for the best part of 10 miles in a peloton, chatting side by side. They were 4 Malays, who spoke perfect English out for their morning 70 mile ride to Melakka and back. They totally understood what we were doing and they cycle toured themselves. They offered to buy us drinks, so we stopped with them and enjoyed an ice cold lychee juice, ordered in Malay by our new friends. They then learnt that James needed new inner tubes and so insisted on coming to their local cycle shop that will help us out, so we agreed and they excitedly showed us the way. Unbelievably, as we approached the shop James’s tyre was flat – how about that for fate? The cycle shop could not have been more excited to see us and we were literally ordered to tell them where we have cycled while they changed James’s tube over and gave him spares in a flash. We had our pictures taken countless times! When our new friend Rashid asked us where we were going next, he advised us on which towns had hotels, and it turned out that the towns we had planned to get to each night were not good options. He advised that we rested for the night in a seaside village not far from where we were and then make it across the country in two longer days, and be guaranteed to find a place to stay for the one night. There’s no better advice than from a local so we agreed with him. He wanted to come and see us for dinner, so we swapped numbers and we went for lunch next door. We couldn’t believe that when we came to pay, we found that the cycle shop owner had already covered the bill for us – unbelievable hospitality. So on we cycled to Parit Jawa and found the guesthouse he recommended and when dinnertime came round, three of the four cyclists we met earlier zipped down on their motorbikes to meet us, also insisting on paying for us. This was when we learnt that Rashid is the founder of the largest motorcycle and bicycle touring website in Malaysia! They have 40,000 members apparently! Thanks for your help Rashid!
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| Rashid on my right |
The next morning we cycled the final leg to reach the coastal town of Mersing. This time not only did we have discrepancies in the mileage but whole roads either didn’t exist on the maps or they did on the maps and not on the land so we were a bit confused and ended up following road signs instead of the map, which got us there! We stopped in the middle of absolutely nowhere in this tiny café to have lunch of the few things they served up and it was the best meal I have had in a very long time; pineapple in tomato sauce with chicken and rice, and we got there just in time before a group of hungry farmers demolished the lot! Upon reaching Mersing we investigated how to get across to Tioman island. Interestingly, Malaysia has different monsoon seasons on the west and east coast and at present, it is the monsoon on the east coast, making the town much quieter than normal. Boat services normally run 5 times a day, but only once during the low season so we booked our tickets that night and negotiated the bikes. We then relaxed and had a little look at what there is to do on the island of Tioman.
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