July 29, 2017
Parit Buntar to George Town: Another ferry ride
We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel before hitting the road up to Butterworth at about a quarter to eight. We knew today was going to be an unpleasant ride but our expectations were almost exceeded. The first eighteen kilometers were particularly nasty but after that the traffic lessened and the road conditions improved.
A few kilometers before the ferry port, we spied four cycle tourists, a guy and three young women, coming from the opposite direction. We shouted to get their attention and then crossed over the busy street to have a chat with them. They were Basques (I think they put their point across that they weren't Spanish) and had cycled and bussed down from Bangkok, had just left George Town and were heading for their final destination of Kuala Lumpur. We exchanged information but forgot to get the usual photos before we parted ways.
The wait at the ferry was a bit longer than half an hour and the trip across to Georgetown less than half that.
On disembarking the first we sought out was a place to eat. We found a streetside eatery in Little India and enjoyed a plate of rice, curried chicken with spinach. Just what we needed at the time.
Then we went looking for a place to spend the night (or next few). It turned out to be a lot more difficult than we had expected. The few places we liked the look of were full, it being a Saturday, and the other few we looked at seemed more than grubby. In the one, next to the Armenian Street Heritage Hotel (which looked really nice and allowed us to use their WiFi to serach for a hotel), there was a naked boy or about four or five years old pissing in the lobby which was strewn with garbage. Eventually we gave up and headed back towards the harbour where we had seen a sign at the Hotel 19 advertising rooms for RM152 a night, more than we wanted to pay but it looked a helluva lot better than the RM80 places. In the end their RM152 rooms were all taken but for ten Ringgit more we got a king size luxury room with breakfast throw in. We're a bit out of the Old Town action, which may be a good thing, but we have a nice view over the harbour and a room that is a notch or two higher than usual.
Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 3,555 km (2,208 miles)
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