March 17, 2015
Notes on Malaysia: Malls, mosques and monkeys
They lasted six weeks. In my opinion that is pretty good going for five dollar shoes. To be honest I’d half been expecting them to fall apart by the end of the first day. But by now the sole of one of them had such a big rip across it that I had to put the shoe on in stages, and so when I saw a second hand shop packed with trainers I thought it best to stop. Malaysia, being quite developed, had lots of modern shopping malls packed with modern designer clothes, and I suppose in any country with such a level of consumerism there is always the potential for second hand clothes still of perfectly good quality to be available at reasonable prices to vagabonds like me. They had all sorts too, trainers from Nike and Adidas, Goretex hiking boots. “Are you sure these are real?” I quizzed the very friendly shop assistant, unable to believe, after such a long time in Asia, that such products were available at these prices and weren’t fake. He assured me that they were genuine, although rather disappointingly the only ones that would actually fit me were made by Puma, and yet this man was so nice that he kept lowering the price even after I’d stopped bargaining. I had new shoes once again.
That second hand shop was right opposite a magnificent mosque, which would have been worth snapping a photo of had it not been such a cumbersome effort to do so. There were mosques absolutely everywhere in the north of Malaysia, and I’d grown used to the sound of the call to prayer consistently piercing the air with a volume and frequency that I’d not really experienced anywhere since Turkey. With the exception of the night I spent in the mountains, I woke up to the sound of the early morning call every single day, and set my tent up to the sunset call each night. It was almost impossible to find anywhere that wasn’t within earshot of a mosque.
The next day I reached the coast, and found a surprisingly clean beach reminiscent of the beaches along the east coast of Thailand. I stopped to swim three times, and for brief periods of time I could cycle on quiet little roads right next to the beach, a teasing hint of paradise. Alas, these moments never lasted, and most of my day was spent on a busy main road slightly inland. From here the sea was out of sight, and the road stretched on ahead, long, straight, flat, and rather dull. It was soon to become a theme.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Such was the monotony of the road south that the days began to merge into one another. One of the only highlights on the 19th, for example, was taking a couple of hours off in a modern shopping mall in Terengganu to take advantage of the free wifi. Walking into these air conditioned buildings was a magnificent way to escape from the midday heat. By contrast, stepping back out into the sauna again two hours later was a moment of torture. No wonder whole families came here just to hang out – I visited one on a Friday when all of the shops were shut, and the mall was still packed with people who apparently just came to socialise, and perhaps enjoy the air con.
Back on the road I saw two monkeys having a spat on an electrical cable overhead. I wasn’t sure what the dispute was about, perhaps they were just heading in opposite directions and couldn’t get past one another. Whatever it was they hissed at each other, and puffed out their chests and threw little monkey punches. One was soon defeated, and leapt from the cable into the foliage below. There was no time for the alpha male to bask in the glory of his victory, however, for the loser’s leap sent the cable oscillating up and down, and the smile was quickly wiped from the winner’s face as he struggled desperately to keep his balance, failed, and with a look of embarrassment also tumbled downwards into the leaves.
17/03/15 – 82km
18/03/15 – 75km
19/03/15 – 103km
Today's ride: 260 km (161 miles)
Total: 39,435 km (24,489 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 6 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |