July 8, 2017
Batu Pahat to Muar: An easy ride with some great food along the way
We woke up rather late this morning. First thing was to find some breakfast. We went back to the Chinese restaurant where we ate last night and had a some steamed pork buns. Then we tried to find some pisang goreng with no luck. After a lot of cycling around we decided to hit the road and soon found a stall selling roti so we ordered a couple of egg and onion rotis with curry sauce. It was too hot to eat so we cycled on for about ten kilometers and had second breakfast in a bus shelter. It must have rained heavily in the early hours of the morning because there were massive pools of water everywhere. The first bus shelter we stopped at was too wet for us to use.
If we thought yesterday's route was flat, today's was even flatter. However it was very busy and we made a few attempts to get off route 5 without any success. Eventually about sixteen kilometers from our destination we found a side road that would lead us to Muar. It was quieter and had a three meter wide motorcycle lane - much more relaxing. We picked up a few nice birds along this route - Lesser Adjutant and a pale raptor we still need to ID (Leigh managed to get some video footage so we have something with which to work). Adjutants are the Asian equivalent of Africa's Marabou Storks - large, filthy omnivores that are as happy eating anything that moves to anything that has been rotting for days.
EDIT: Looks like the raptor was a Crested Honey-Buzzard, a bird we have seen a number of times before.
When looking for food, the golden rule is "the longer the queue, the more worthwhile the wait" so we always look for busy restaurants where possible. With about eight kilometers to go and with midday upon us (South East Asians tend to have lunch before midday) we found a great open air curry shop that had one spare table and lots of folk picking up take aways. We had a plate of rice each with a great chicken curry (kari ayam) for the grand total of MYR8.00 - that's less than US$2.00 !
We're really enjoying the food in Malaysia.
Before supper we went for a cycle through the area next to the river. Lots of beautiful mosques were to be found. The riverside was laid out very attractively and was full of families out walking or playing with their kids.
Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 2,690 km (1,670 miles)
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