Day 27 (25th Feb 2013)

Day 27 / 25th Feb

Alor Star to George Town

Started at 7.45, took Road 1 to Butterworth, this road goes almost parallel to E1 express way, two wheelers not permitted on it. We were desperately looking for a bank to change USD to Ringgits, after a few hits came to know that foreign currency was exchanged only in May Bank. Most of the shops open around 10.30. When a 'May Bank' was located the lady very sweetly said go to the main branch at central square :-(

Finally we located one Hassan Exchange at central square, he did not ask for any documents and very promptly exchanged USD, Thai Baht, me n Kedar got ourselves new sim cards also. We were searching for the ferry and it started raining a bit, we had stopped in the shade of a building, one man approached us and enquired about who...where....etc in good english. He was also a cycling enthusiast and taught english at girls convent by profession, he had an Indian origin but didn't know when his ancestors came to Malaysia. Mr. Nandakumar Arokiam. He suggested that we should not only go to Georgetown which is just across Butterworth about 25 minutes by ferry but also stay there for a couple of days in the very least. He said we must take a round trip around island which is a bout 90 kms and is a beautiful ride that every cyclist will surely enjoy. So with this input we went and took a ferry. Ferry here is a fancy thing with two decks and mechanized jetty to adjust the level as per the tide. The cost for cycle was 1.40 Ringget.

We reached Georgetown, searched and found a hotel near an area called Little India. The name of the hotel was Star Hotel and the lane in which it was situated was Love lane. It was no way near any star hotel nor the lane was anything to do with the love, at least that we know of.

Freshened up washed a lot of clothes and headed out for dinner.