Day 26 (24th Feb 2013)

Day 26 / 24 th Feb

Teman Negara Perlis to Alos Star

It rained very heavily last night. Our dorm was surrounded by dense trees of the rain forest and we slept so sound that all three of us missed morning alarm. Got up at 8.30 Malaysia time which is 1 hour ahead of Thailand time ( GMT + 8.00 ) Dipankar's rear tire was flat, so had to repair that. Finally started at 9.45 which was a record late start of our trip. The forest was awake with the calls of monkeys. The calls were like whooping calls, very loud. We are not sure what type of monkeys they were. The size was about the same as rhesus macaque found in India, but the colour was black. Immediately the road started climbing. The climb was very steep but to our surprise it turned out shorter than expected - just 3 kms, there was a view point on top and the view was beautiful with mountains and a large lake. The ride down the other side was even steeper than the climb. It was Sunday today and we met many cyclists coming for a ride up to the Thailand border from a near by town which is 20 kms from the border. There is a lot of enthusiasm in Malaysia and there are cycling groups who cycle regularly. Many people talked with us about our ride. We stopped for coffee after climbing down the ghat. The shop owner was also interested and said we were the first Indian cyclists he has seen on this route. He had a white tabby cat and it kept following Dipankar everywhere. There was a man in the shop, he said it was a holiday and so the owner did not want to charge. We thanked the owner.

As it was Sunday, all the shops were closed and obviously all the banks too. So we could not get exchange, but luckily people were accepting Thai Bahts as we were near the border.

As we entered Malaysia again as if some one turned magic wand, many things changed. The people are stout and darker in skin. Language is Malay, roads are good, but not as good as they were in Thailand. The type of cars also changed as in Thailand most of the cars were multi utility trucks with double cabin as it's economy is agriculture based, whereas in Malaysia cars are sedans as it's economy is industry based. Gone are the plantations of rubber and palm, but there are vast open fields may be used as rice paddies, but not in this season.

We cycled to Alor Star which is a big city and decided to halt. There were big shopping malls around, so we were hopeful of getting sim cards for our phones and some exchange. Dipankar found one shop and got sim card. but we could not change the money. So we paid hotel bill by credit card. Hotel was good and after two days we enjoyed a hot shower and soft bed. We had met a couple of people in the evening who were also cyclists one of them actually dropped by to ask some specifics about our trip. We also bought a tube from a shop and the owner said he had visited Ludhiana for his business. He aslo told us not to buy 'Chinese' tubes and that even Thai brands were better :-)