Exiting Malaysia and Entering Singapore

I started out from Johor Bahru after a good breakfast for Singapore at about 9.30am with a plan to get to RAM Racing Engineering for crating the bike by about 1pm. I literally only had to travel less than 40 kms, with an estimated drive time of around 45 minutes, but this failed to take into account any potential stops due to the carnet and the Australian motorcycle. I knew it would not take 45 minutes, but I didn't expect it to take as long as it did.

Buddhist temple

I chose to head across the Johor Bahru - Woodlands checkpoint and the Causeway, which is the primary surface transport transit point between Singapore and Malaysia. The previous day, I had undertaken a bus trip across and back to sort my insurance and driving permit with the Automobile Association of Singapore, which took me about three hours, including using the MRT and busses to get myself around.

Finding the correct lanes at the checkpoint out of Malaysia ended up being relatively easy with the icons for trucks, cars and motorcycles. The difference of lane size was also a giveaway. Approaching the causeway, I took the closest window to stamp my passport and asked where the customs place was to get the carnet stamped. Although this took about an hour, the chap in charge simply accepted I knew what I was doing and agreed to follow my instructions, even though he claimed he had never seen anything like it. He even offered me a chocolate while I waited.

Once stopped, I found it difficult to get myself back out into the motorcycle traffic passing through the checkpoint and I would be wary of wider bikes or bikes that were lower to the ground. I scraped the base of my BMW GS650 on the large speed bumps on my way out. At about 11.30am, I joined the other motorcyclists in a steady stream across the bridge.

The trip across the causeway only took about five minutes, crossing the Johor Strait. It is certainly nowhere near as pretty as the Tuas-Johor checkpoint crossing, which is a graceful bridge and took quite some time to cross. At first there were motorcycle only lanes on the far left of the road, but about half way these lanes merge into the common traffic. Or I should say, the common traffic lanes merge into the motorcycle lane. A short distance later, the motorcycle lane starts again on entry into the Woodlands Checkpoint.

Singapore's bay

Here, I found complete madness when I expected Singapore authorities to be far more organised and less officious. How wrong I was!

It started with my autopass card failing at the immigration point, which caused no end of grief. Then I found out I needed to fill out a card on entry because I was not Malaysian. I should have remembered this because exactly the same thing happened to me the previous day when I entered on foot.

Meanwhile, a steadily growing irate line of Malaysian and Singaporean motorcyclists were patiently waiting for me to move on as I had effectively blocked the first bay. As the line grew, I started to block all the bays and no one could move. That is when they started to yell at me from behind and I cannot blame them. I would probably have yelled at the stupid foreigner who had caused such trouble.

Once all my cards had been completed and I had it explained to me where I needed to go to find an official to correct my autopass card failure, the chap who was talking to me was replaced by another guy who needed a brief on what I was doing. This took another fifteen minutes as handover took place and computer logins were re-established. The line behind me grew angry.

Finally, I had a green light to go and I put my helmet back on. I turned to the guys behind me to apologise for the delay, but they yelled at me, "Just go!". I checked my watch - nearly 1pm.

Then I had to stop at customs to declare the bike and sort out the Carnet. After all this time and effort, the sweat dripping off me and sure I had lost a few kilos in the heat of the transit across the causeway, a Singaporean customs officer escorted me into a very well air conditioned office where a rough gentleman knew exactly what a carnet was and finalised it within a few minutes. The other fellows who were being detained were nowhere near as friendly and it dawned on me that some of these guys might have legitimate reasons to have been detained by Singapore Customs.

Singapore's bay

I spent half an hour sorting my autopass card out with various phone calls to relevant authorities to confirm my identity and I was glad I had done everything legitimately. Finally, I was cautioned about driving on the expressway without an In-Vehicle Unit (IVU) because I would be charged significantly if I passed a charge boom.

Waved out of the customs bay my bike had been parked in, the road to RAM Racing Engineering stood only 100 meters beyond a green light and a dozen cars. Approached by one Singaporean police officer, he asked me if I had been seen by Singaporean Customs, which I answered in the positive. I felt relieved that English was common here.

The 100 meters became 50 meters and suddenly, surrounding me, were a dozen Singaporean police, waving me into a car sized garage at the right of the exit road. They asked me to disembark and turn the bike off, which I obeyed. A garage door closed behind me with a clang. They quizzed me on where I had come from and my destination.  Then we walked around the bike as interrogated me about what each section held. After writing all my responses down, they demanded I open all my panniers, and bags, undo my tarpaulin covered backpack and pull all my gear out onto the floor of the garage, filthy clothes and all.

Satisfied I had no contraband, they lightened up and started making jokes as I packed it all back up. I didn't feel particularly friendly after being violated in such a manner, but at least I didn't get a rubber glove and I was under no illusion they could have requested a cavity search if they had a reason. The elderly gentleman in charge, interested in the bike, asked me what speed I had got it up to in Malaysia. My response, "I did not exceed the speed limit" raised some eyebrows and even got some laughs. They wished me all the best on my trip and opened the garage door, stopping the traffic to give me clear passage out to the green light and the freedom of Singapore.

My GPS gave me directions along the freeway and although I had been warned of the cost I might incur if I were to travel down the freeway without appropriate vehicle mounted systems, I chose to take the risk. I was fairly sure, given it was now after 2pm, that I would not be going under any of the operational gangways. It took about another thirty minutes to make the haven of RAM Racing Engineering, where I was welcomed and given food and drink and wonderful company.

I had finally made it to Singapore. The 45 minute trip had taken me about five hours and I felt wrecked.

Toy Museum - Penang

A place that claimed to be the largest toy museum in the world caught my eye on the tourist maps while I tried to identify places I would visit while I stayed on Penang in George Town. I think the place has moved since many of the tourist maps were printed as I managed to get myself to the exact location depicted on the maps and described by various tourist publications only to find that the giant Ninja Turtle expected to be welcoming me had been removed.

The local swimming club guys were nice enough to give me fresh directions for another 10-15kms north. An adventure followed with many loops before I managed to find it only 30 minutes before it closed, through Batu Feringgi to the village of Teluk Bahang. If you get to the Telok Bahang Dam, you have gone too far, although the drive is wonderful. The museum is roughly a few hundred meters east of the mosque near the school, but up a dirt driveway and behind some buildings. It was not easy to find, but well worth it.

On arrival, a school group were departing, so I had a bunch of munchkins flocking around for a few minutes while I purchased my ticket. On seeing the Australian number plate, the managers told me they were staying open an extra half an hour to let me view the display. Take photos, the told me. So, I did. Here are just a few of the life-sized statues housed in perspex display cases - walls and walls and walls of them.

It looked to me as if the place had been transported from an original location and remained in the shipping crates. On discussion with one of the staff, it seems I could have been correct as some of these were going to be removed and set up around the place. They even had plans to allow people to be able to play with some of the toys once they were set up. If it wasn't already heaven for a geek like me, that would have sold it.

Not only were there life-sized statues of many icons of comics and games, but there were many shelves with heaps of different toys from various themes and television shows. Some I had never even dreamed could exist, like Mars Attacks or Nightmare Before Christmas toys. There were racks and racks of Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, and other collections. Here is a very small taste of what I found.

George Town

The drive from Kuala Lumpur to the Island of Pinang took me past the incredible landscape and mountains of Ipoh, with a plan to get into the Cameron Highlands at some point. I only saw Ipoh from a distance as the highway swept around the city and continued northward.

Kota (Fort) Cornwallis entrance, George Town, Penang

I passed through dozens of toll plaza while driving but had only needed to pay a toll for the motorcycle as I entered Malaysia from Singapore at the Tuas-Johor checkpoint. However, pulling across to the left as I started onto the Jambatan Pulau Pinang bridge across to George Town, I needed to pay my second toll using my little card.

Fort Cornwallis, cannon facing North East toward the Malaysian Peninsula

Due to the size of my motorcycle (and the panniers making the rear width larger than my handlebars) I have often remained out of the motorcycle lanes because they were too difficult to navigate and the car lanes provided much more space for me... more comfort and safety. On the bridge across to Pinang Island, the traffic edged forward, bumper to bumper.

Fort Cornwallis, main cannon facing roughly North into the Malacca Strait

A friend had warned me about the traffic on the bridge, but I had underestimated the length of the bridge and the amount of traffic, filling all the lanes for as far as I could see. The massive spires in the centre of the bridge were cloaked in the haze of distance, curving off to my right.

Fort Cornwallis and Wren, taken from a gun emplacement

Although the speed limit on the bridge remained at 80kph, the motorcycle lane travelled the fastest, at times reaching 60kph. There were some occasional tight squeezes as I pushed past fat trucks with my fat motorcycle. I even had locals on motorcycles and scooters overtake me, pushing me up against the edge of the bridge to get around me in gaps in the traffic or taking advantage of thin cars. Even at this speed, it took about 45 minutes to get across the bridge and must have taken the cars more than an hour and probably two to make the crossing. Note that this was around midday, so I can't imagine what it would be like during peak hours.

Roundabout on the South-East corner of Fort Cornwallis

As soon as I arrived at my hotel, with the approaching storm clouds building the oppressive humidity, I took the opportunity to grab lunch and head out to see some of the sights. The Char Kway Teo in George Town is the best I have ever eaten. In fact, the food in George Town is the best I ate on my entire trip, except perhaps for Lau Pa Sat in Singapore. I managed to get myself lost in Little India and wondered around Fort Cornwallis for a few hours as the temperature hit 36 degrees.

Johor Bahru

I came through Johor Bahru a number of times on my trip. The first after I accidentally came over the Tuas Checkpoint into Malaysia (failing to get my carnet stamped on entry) and stopped at a 7-Eleven to get some directions through driving rain to Mersing. The second, the next day, I came back from Mersing to Johor Bahru to the Malaysian Customs complex to get my carnet stamped as required.

Unfortunately, I got myself very lost in Johor Bahru and unable to get to any of the sights I had intended, like the Sultan Abu Bakar Museum and the Arulmigu Sri Rajakaliamman Glass Temple, among other temples in the area. I had also intended to get a look at the South China Sea, but the chaos and my poor navigation left little time in my day before I had to get to Melaka, so I got to wonder in amazement at the city, stopping only to turn around or ask for directions.

I stopped at Johor Bahru for a few days toward the end of my trip before heading north again to Penang as I waited for a contract to come through that would have seen me in Singapore and back to Australia promptly, but it didn't come through that week (or, indeed, the next). This time, while I waited, I took some time to travel out to Desaru Beach after being told it would only be 20 minutes drive. Even on my maps before I left it looked more like an our and a half, but I am in it for the ride as well, so an hour and a half did not daunt me. The weather tried to.

Desaru Beach, Johor - looking North West

The drive to Desaru Beach, interrupted only by toll plaza and a stop for fuel, took just over an hour but the brown signposts were easy to follow. The bridge across the Sungai Johor (Johor River) is impressive and rose up from the plantations a good distance before it towered over me across some of the cleanest water I had seen in Malaysia. The small road out to the beach itself had a fair amount of traffic on it - almost as much as the highway, and the Public Beach was difficult to find among the private resort beaches, but my MYR$1 handed to the parking security was well spent - my motorcycle was there when I got back.

Desaru Beach, Johor - looking North East

While I walked up and down the beach, a young man carrying a small round faced little girl talked to me. He is in the photo above on the right. A local from Bandar Penawar, he had been in the area all his life and spoke with a lisp, which made his stilted English very difficult to understand. He offered me a meal with his family and although I gracefully refused initially, he insisted and so I sat down with a family of about a dozen from grandparent to babies for a talk. No one else in the group seemed to speak English, so the young man tried to translate with his speech impediment making the entire experience surreal and quite challenging at times.

Desaru Beach, Johor - looking South East

The grandmother gave me a bowl of something that I think was a local laksa - a fishy broth with noodles and other things that were unrecognisable and did not translate. It tasted great, if a little hot, but I ate every mouthful to the joy of the family who asked me many questions about myself, my trip and Australia. We even spoke of politics in the local area briefly before the grandmother explained that talking politics in Malaysia was like undressing in front of a stranger - an interesting analogy, but I didn't push it any further.

They also pointed out to me that I was the only white guy on the beach, which I had not even noticed, but they were correct. The young man told me that it was an honour for his family to have hosted a foreigner and that many of the other local families were jealous of them. They would not accept any reimbursement for lunch. The trip back, much faster as I knew the roads and pushed the speed up a little more into the 130kph, I was stopped briefly by a police roadblock but waived through when they saw I was Australian.

I came back later when I was heading home to Australia and tried to get to the museum (which was under renovations and inaccessible to tourists) and the glass temple (which I tried to navigate to for several hours, but finally gave up only to see it on the opposite side of the road with no way to turn around). I will have to make another attempt to see these the next time I pass through, perhaps in October.

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is a cyberpunk city, mixing incredible clusters of buildings with affluence and massive infrastructure that creaks under the strain while ramshackle buildings lean against each other in the shadows of impressive architecture, like the Petronis Twin Towers.

Night skyline showing Petronis Twin Towers

I first drove in to Kuala Lumpur from Kuantan and could see the smog and haze as I approached, obscuring the city skyline until I came quite close, but then out from the grey familiar landmarks appeared. Even before I arrived in the city, I recognised the towers.

An example of a good day with minimal haze

On my way into Kuala Lumpur, I stopped at one of the rest stops to stretch my legs and found myself the object of a bus-load of Chinese tourists who decided I was amazing and crazy to be doing my trip. They all lined up to take individual photos with me by the motorcycle, and all wanted me to put my arm around them and give a "thumbs up" signal. I joked later on my Facebook page that because I had not shaved, they might have mistaken me for Charley Boorman.

Amazing architecture with background landmarks

This comment led to talking to him two days later after being introduced to Maznah Zolkifni, an intelligent and dynamic young Malaysian actress who had also just spoken to Charley while he was in Kuala Lumpur filming his next documentary. I managed to get contact details for is producer and director and, although there had been some discussion (when I had been mistaken as a local journalist) that I might meet him, a massive downpour of rain that he had been riding in meant that he really just wanted to relax and get back to his hotel. Having been caught in a similar rain attack days earlier, I really did understand, so instead, we spoke for about 15 minutes on the phone. It was the most rewarding experiences of Kuala Lumpur and a real buzz to talk to the legend.

I drove through Kuala Lumpur several times and got lost almost every single one. The GPS was no help at all as it did not differentiate between the upper or lower road. I found myself getting caught on the wrong one regularly. On my first entry to the city, I managed to get myself lost in Little India as a market sprang up around me blocking roads that I had initially driven down. I felt the markets growing around me and it took me a lot of effort to get myself out of the lanes shrinking like clogged arteries.


Front of the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur



Kuala Lumpur's National Mosque

I raced out on foot one afternoon before the weather closed in to see the National Mosque, which I did not find as spectacular as the mosque in Kuantan, but it was certainly larger. I didn't get a chance to look inside as it had been closed for prayers. This seems to be the time I turn up at mosques to take a look at them, actually, at almost all temples.

Islamic Arts Museum

Instead, I found the Islamic Arts Museum with an excellent arms and armour, tapestries, calligraphy as well as a Chinese vase display. It took me some time to find the entrance, but once I figured that out, it cost only MYR$10 for as long as I wanted to roam around and look at things. Although most photography was prohibited in the museum, and the displays were incredible, the ceilings were amazing.

Roof inside the Islamic Arts Museum

Inverted dome inside the Islamic Arts Museum

On my way back from the National Mosque and the Islamic Arts Museum, I spotted some street art on the railway line. I crossed the road to take a quick photo of the spot I had found, which suggests there is probably some other stuff in Kuala Lumpur that I just didn't find. Although the image is interesting, the more exciting story is that minutes later, I had two guys on a scooter attempt to snatch the camera off my shoulder, failing miserably and ending up hurting themselves in the process.

Street art example in Kuala Lumpur

Driving videos - Singapore (Part One)

Introduction

I took with me a small Contour Roam that mounted to my motorcycle helmet. It came with two mounts, but I only even attached one to my helmet. I assumed that at some point I would probably have to replace my helmet and then I would use the second mount, but it never came to that. As a result, all of the shots are in portrait when they would probably have been much better in landscape.

Regardless, this footage is really valuable for people wanting to drive through some of the areas I have driven through. The GPS is good, don't get me wrong, but there is no Google Street View in many of these areas (although Singapore had a lot), which I use extensively in Australia when I am navigating to a new location to get an idea of what the roads are like and what sort of landmarks or road markings I should be looking out for.

I also didn't realise the size of these clips initially, both in terms of time and bytes (or should I say Gigabytes). There were times driving where twenty minutes could pass without me turning the camera off and there were certainly times when I forgot to turn it off. Finally, they are raw footage, and if you don't like them, bad luck, as they are great memories for me.

First recorded drive in Singapore

My first drive in Singapore from RAM Racing Engineering to my hotel undertaken in the dark did not have any video associated, and lucky, because not only did I go to the wrong location, I also got myself lost and drove around in a circle. Glad I had my wits about me, I noticed I had been there before, and pulled over to check the maps that RAM had printed off for me. I am so glad they did. I found the point where I turned left instead of right and just stepped through them again.

This video is the first time I drove in Singapore with the Contour Roam on and it is about 25 minutes of footage. I have left the audio as recorded. Although I am not a great speaker and I sometimes stop when I need to concentrate, it is my first footage of what it is like to drive in Singapore during the day. Some of my commentary helps to show my own thought process and might assist in both placing it geographically and pointing things out. It might also be funny to hear my brain disengage from my mouth at times, if you have never heard that (some of my friends might say this is a regular occurrence, but I beg to ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long).

This video sees me drive past the Automobile Association of Singapore headquarters on River Valley Drive (and the lovely Rosie Chan who has really helped me out with all the paperwork in getting the insurance and carnet sorted out to drive in Singapore). It also shows the relatively tame Singapore traffic, but watch out for those taxis, and the Chinese New Year set up, like the big red dragon along New Bridge Road/Eu Tong Sen Street. I find out talking in the wind does not work on this first trial.

I especially like the attempts to turn right and then left into a one-way street. This happens a few times in the early days of driving in Singapore because I have been walking down the streets and failed to really notice the traffic is only one-way. After a lot of round town hunting, I finally get to my hostel and if you watch up at minute 23 or 24, I actually forget how large the panniers are and get stuck on two concrete poles just before parking. Worth it for the laugh.

Chinese New Year

It didn't take me very long to get the itch to ride around Singapore, which is not that big. Even then, I did not stray too far as I was still getting my feet (or wheels) around both the new bike and the new country. I have a process for learning my way around places and it works on foot as well as with the bike. I go around the block a few times and get my bearings, then I extend the block to two blocks, then three. If I have a map, I head off in a direction for twice the time I have taken to explore around three blocks, then try to find my way back, using landmarks and skyline to navigate.

This is what I did on the first day of Chinese New Year, but several streets had been blocked off for the celebrations and I didn't really count on how many one-way streets or how few u-turns were available. This meant that if I tried to duck down a side street to turn around, I found it was one-way (for better or worse).

I had been parking my motorcycle in a paid parking location directly opposite my hostel (Beary Best) on Upper Cross Street. I had my camera on the helmet, just in case, but once I rode down the street and saw the spectacle unfold in front of me, I had to turn the camera on. This shows me initially on Upper Cross Street and approaching the corner of Upper Cross and New Bridge Road/Eu Tong Sen Street. From what I could gather (and I could be wrong) New Bridge is one side of the street, and Eu Tong Sen is the other side. This stumped for some time and I am still unsure if it is correct. It seems that the locals consider this two separate carriage-ways, but for me it seemed that one side had a different name to the other side.

This clip shows South Bridge Road down to Neil Road during the high point right before the first night of Chinese New Year celebrations, past the Sri Mariamman Temple and the Buddha Tooth Relic and Museum. It also shows you how packed it can get before the celebrations and how many people are roaming around.

Gardens by the Bay

The Gardens by the Bay at Marina South were very hot and humid during the day, but once I got the bike, I could roam a bit more on my own and so, on Chinese New Year Eve, I decided to get away from the traffic around Chinatown and head across to the Gardens by the Bay to take a look at them at night.

This clip shows me heading out to Marina South Park, starting on Central Boulevard and turning into Marina Station Road, then Marina Street, Marina Place, Marina Boulevard, and finally into Marina Park and the Gardens by the Bay. The second clip, below, shows parking at the park.

Not going to Sentosa

No one told me that motorcycles aren't allowed on Sentosa. I had heard about how glorious the place is and the magnificent beaches. It also has the resorts and Universal Studios theme parks, but I was not overly interested in seeing them. I decided on the morning after the first night of Chinese New Year celebrations to head over to see for myself.

This footage shows what happens when you take the left fork in the road once you are across the bridge to Sentosa. I realised I could not skip lanes, so thought I would ride it out, not stopping and just doing a loop around to find that you have to go back across the bridge to turn around and try again. I wondered why the security were waving me through - because unauthorised motorcycles are not allowed on Sentosa Island.

This clip shows what happens if you take the right fork in the road once you are passed the bridge, but it doesn't show you much else as I was turned around quick smart. No unauthorised motorcycles are allowed on Sentosa, which is a shame because I decided from that point that I would not bother seeing the island if I couldn't do it on motorcycle. I am a responsible rider and don't see why I should be penalised because of the scooter punks. Maybe they should just ban scooters.

Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery

After being turned back from Sentosa, I travelled to the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery on the day after Chinese New Year celebrations started, not knowing this is a traditional time for Buddhists to visit the monastery. Initially, I thought there must have been an accident on the road ahead, but as I approached at a snails pace, I realised the monastery was the cause of the traffic.

Next clip, showing my ignorance, is where I realise it is a Buddhist Monastery. For some reason, I never bothered to find out before I turned up and then I seemed to be surprised that it was Buddhist.

The parking was incredible and on repeated occasions I was directed to ride on the footpath or around cars, but I was still new in Asia and not quite used to the disdain for traffic rules that all other motorcycles and scooters show. The following clip shows my travel through various parts of the monastery as directed by security.

Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Sanctuary

I really wanted to go and see some fauna that I have never seen before. I had planned on heading to Taman Negara to see if I could see anything in the wild, but I also planned to support some of the conservation and sanctuaries for sick and injured animals, like the Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Sanctuary. This place is incredible and the guides and elephants are very friendly.

Welcome sign to the Conservation Sanctuary

Not knowing much about elephants and only ever seeing them at a zoo at a distance, I really didn't quite understand how awesome their mass actually is. They are big and heavy and they can make very loud sounds. They are also very smart and seem to really try to communicate.

Baby elephant at the holding pen

I got there on a Friday, which due to the Muslim holy day, is a little quieter than normal and only has a feeding activity at about 2.45pm (check the times before you take my word for this). I knew it would be quiet, which is why I picked this day and drove from Kuala Lumpur. It is relatively easy to find and marked well by Tourism Malaysia (watch for the brown signs). The 9km road out there from the highway is a really nice forested and cool drive, but beware of the local traffic, chickens, dogs, and children running across the road. Also be aware that the road is not very wide and oncoming traffic can cause some issues, although this is minimised with a motorcycle.

On arriving you need to check yourself in and register at the visitor information centre before you cross the bridge and into the sanctuary itself. This is to ensure that you are informed about what you can and cannot do, and any safety information you need to know. It is also to keep track of the numbers of people going into the conservation area to maintain it and the elephants state of mind - there is a quota.

Real elephant skeleton on display at the registration centre

This is also the place you can make donations and unlike the temples, there is no donation box sitting around. If you want to make a donation, you need to see the registration staff. It costs about MYD$100 a day to feed a single elephant, so I'd recommend this as a starting donation as there are quite a few on the conservation and they eat about 200kgs of food daily. They are vegetarian and banana trees themselves make good food, which is why they can become a problem for farmers.

At the registration centre is a display room and a theatre which shows videos on how the elephants are translocated from areas of danger or concern to places like the conservation and Tanam Negara. The video was quite educational as I always thought of elephants as relatively docile creatures, but they are clearly difficult to manage.

In fact, there were lots of things I didn't know about elephants that I learned while being here. I didn't realise that Elephants have a similar life expectancy to humans and some have lived to be as old as 80 years in good environments that mimic their real wild environments. They have 4 teeth (tusks are not teeth) that are replaced up to 6 times as they loose them throughout their life and once their teeth are all gone, they die - usually because they can no longer eat. They are also very susceptible to trauma and just the traumatic experience of being moved somewhere can be enough to kill an elephant.

Part of the trauma issue is that they have really good memories. I have seen a documentary on their burial practices and that, in their native environment, they return to the burial grounds every year to pay respect to the dead. I have also heard that they are on the same level as primates for intelligence and tool use. They also make many more different noises than just a trumpeting sound, which is damn scary when they let forth a trumpet near you. They also have clicks, whistles and this deep grumble that reminds me of the crocodile rattle. There is even one instance of an elephant (Kosik) using its trunk inside its mouth to articulate Korean words. Eat your heart out Washoe!

I'd recommend you pay the MYD$50 for a guide to take you around the sanctuary. If anything it will keep you from getting zapped by electric fences, attacked by snakes and large spiders, and they carry a beating stick for anything larger - and apparently there are tigers on the sanctuary but they are well fed. I was afraid to ask what they were eating since they don't eat the elephants or humans (at least not that I heard). You can also get a guide for the Malaysian aboriginal community up the hill from the reservation centre to support them.

My guide, a pleasant and informative lady named Azmira, led me around the sanctuary and introduced me to the elephants, answering my many questions about various aspects and giving me some great general and specific information. First, we went to see the young ones and feed them some sugar cane and banana - I got to pat an elephant, hold the trunk, and pat its tongue (which was very warm). Then we went for a walk through the forest area and her and another guide showed me some of the bush medicine and poisons native to the area. Finally, after the video, she took me up to see the aboriginal community and the traditional house structures before getting me back in time for the adult elephant show and feeding session.



Greedy elephant who wanted more of everything

I had a brilliant day with the elephants and seeing the native Che' wong Orang Asli community. I'd recommend if you find yourself in Kuala Lumpur or even in Kuantan to take the effort to get out of the city and go and take a look at this marvellous sanctuary and lend some support to the efforts to keep them going.

Driving in Malaysia

My first experience driving in Malaysia was painful - driving rain, pitch darkness, limited visibility. I didn't know where I was going, my GPS was out, and I was getting dazzled by lights from incoming vehicles. I have driven in Australia around kangaroo and cattle zones, so the warnings to beware of the cattle were nothing special, but the warnings to watch for elephants really had me a little worried. I decided it must have been a joke.

I found out a little later that Johor has a significant population of elephants and they do sometimes cross the roads there, so if you see a warning about crossing elephants, take it seriously. I have no doubt an elephant would make a mess of your car, but riding a motorcycle, I'd probably have to have my body surgically removed from the elephant, even if I survived and this just doesn't sound pleasant at all.

The weather in the period I have been in Malaysia (mid to late February) has been quite wet, but reliably so. You can pretty much guarantee that mornings and early afternoons will be cloudless or a little overcast, but will not rain. There is a rain period from about 3pm through to about 7 or 8pm when it clears up and, as a friend told me (and I didn't really believe him) if it is not raining at about 9pm then the night will be clear of rain for some time. There can also be a midnight rain period that lasts until just before dawn.

The ultra-violet is severe here, like it is in Australia, but the sunlight is a little less bright, so you don't quite expect it. I have had some excellent sunburn just riding around in the mornings with normal jackets and gloves on. One day, I went for a long ride to a local beach (about 2 hours return) and on the trip out my sleeves blew out leaving an inch gap between my shirt and gloves. This resulted in a wonderful red wrist band that was sore for days. I also got a lot of sunburn on my neck due to the high UV and lack of cover on this area.

I have made a lot of use of these tubes of fabric that are placed over your head under the helmet and pulled down to cover the neck. They are also really useful for keeping dust out of your nose and mouth. This is not a big problem in Australia, but Malaysia has a lot of particulate debris on the roads from dust and dirt to grit and pulverised bits of plant and leaf. It is easy to inhale this on the road, so having a cloth over your mouth and nose will save you a lot of unsavoury experiences.

As for roads, the major highways are pretty well maintained and the speed limits are set at 110kph when you are outside a city limit and at 90kph when you are close to a city. Sometimes if the highway takes you through a city, it might drop down to 70kph (or even 50kph) when there is entering or exiting traffic.

I was told by other riders in the area as a motorcycle, I would have no problems travelling at 130 or 140kph in the 110kph zones and at first, I didn't really believe this. After being hassled by scooters sitting on my arse at 100kph in a 90kph zone and watching some of the larger bikes fly past me while I was doing 120kph in a 110kph zone, I decided to crank it up (safely). On a specific stretch from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru, I had the bike up to 140kph in a 110kph zone and a police car passed me (much faster) waving and smiling. I have been able to get the bike up to in excess of 160kph in a 110kph zone with no trouble at all and the roads are good enough to handle it. However, note that the legal limit it signed well and you take a risk exceeding that limit.

The smaller roads will not handle this speed and you would be crazy to try. Both the state of the roads and the amount of slow traffic would be prohibitive at best and deadly at worst. Many of the country roads into the jungle areas are not signposted with tight corners and you find even at 80kph (in an 80kph zone) it can be difficult negotiating these corners as they come up on you from out of nowhere with no warning. Additionally, some of these old roads have some wicked dips in them and I got airborne on one doing 60kph which had me a bit worried. There is also no way to overtake if you get stuck behind a slow moving vehicle on these roads and it is often very dangerous to try.

On the larger roads, there is a shoulder that becomes a default motorcycle lane for the scooters and smaller bikes. For most cars, they expect that all motorcycles should be in this non-lane, but the edge of the road is not a place to be doing much more than 100kph and I would consider that speed in that lane is dangerous. That section of the road is not maintained as well as the main road, and there is often debris over it, like gravel, branches, and road-kill. I started trying to stick with all the others in the left lane, but as soon as you are on a big bike and travelling faster than 100kph, it is almost suicidal to stay there. You are also in a big blind spot for many normal road scenarios.

It is also expected that you as a motorcycle will relinquish your lane to anything larger than you if it approaches at speed behind you, even if you have nowhere to go. It is expected you will pull over to the left and the vehicle will pass very close with no indicator on your right. The vehicle behind will sometimes flash lights or use their own indicators to urge you out of the way. As a courtesy, in Australia, you stay left unless overtaking, but in Malaysia even if the right lane is clear, you will need to pull to the left while in the left lane to give another vehicle space to get past you. It doesn't matter if the right lane is vacant and they could move into the right lane to get around you; you, as a motorcycle, are expected to get out of the way to anything larger behind you.

Staying to the left is also useful for the toll plaza that seem to arrive randomly as far as I can see. When I got into Malaysia from Singapore, I had to get a "Touch and Go" card for USD$34 (which I found out later was a lot more than it needed to be). This card is used at the toll points for cars, but the only toll point I have had to use it with for a motorcycle was the one when I entered Malaysia from Singapore. Every other toll point has a small motorcycle lane at the far left just large enough for a motorcycle to move through.

Some of these motorcycle toll lanes are simply a small lane right next to the car lanes with no toll gate. Others are intricate weaving lanes that move around the toll area, with motorcycle parking and different single lanes disappearing off into other directions. There were even a few that had an over and under pass area for motorcycles. I always took the direct route as I was never sure where the other routes led. The idea, though, is to keep your speed down and that is why they are designed to be quite narrow and meander around the place.

Night time riding can be quite dangerous because the roads are not well lit and their seems to be no courtesy about turning down the high beam for oncoming vehicles. I was told that there is a general courtesy to turn high beam down, but that the lights themselves are often not adjusted to focus on the road properly and many focus high, which looks like high beam glaring in your face rather than being focused on the road. Regardless, in rain this can be devastating and I have refrained from driving at night since that first night ride to Mersing.

Batu Caves (Part Two)

Walking up the Batu Cave steps to the Temple Cave, I made sure when I started to feel fatigued that I concentrated on where I was putting my feet. The photo below was an exchange with another solo tourist who wanted a photo like this with her in it, so we negotiated an agreement. If you look in the background to the right, you will see two guys in the process of being mugged by monkeys. This was a smart phone snatch and the guy in the black shirt lost his latest edition iPhone because he held it out to take a photo of a monkey who decided it was an offering, snatching it and running.



Nearly to the top (Pic exchange with another solo tourist)



Only a few more steps, surely

Getting to the top, you assume that there are no more stairs, but you are very wrong. The Temple Cave complex is vast and much larger than I expected before I got there. The caves themselves are amazing structures, but the amount of space is impressive as are the shrines and temples built inside. I had a few monkeys approach to see if they could steal anything, but I think my helmet put them off as it was latched to my belt and looked like a face watching my rear.

Welcome to the cave entrance

More steps, both down and up

The temperature drops significantly once in the shadow of the caves. Although there are no more banana stalls from this point, there are many tourist shops, even selling little die cast Petronis Twin Tower replicas and "I love Batu Cave" bumper stickers. They also sell drinks in these stalls, so if you have run out of water you can grab more here.

 

One of the many shrines inside the Temple Cave complex

There are dozens of detailed shrines and temples inside the cave complex, some are off-limits and some are being repaired, but many are open to the public to pray at or take photos of. The detail in the work is amazing and I found myself happily snapping away just because they were incredible works of art, not just religious in nature. I was a bit disappointed with the Main Temple after such incredible build up outside and the size and scope of the cave itself. I was imagining a massive and intricate temple hidden in the caves.

 

Batu Caves Main Temple

Batu Caves Main Temple

It seemed that there were no more monkeys this far into the cave complex, but I was wrong. Looking back the way I had come, the caves themselves were still impressive and quite large, but as mentioned above, I was expecting more inside the caves than there was. Maybe the caves themselves were so revered that to build anything inside them really needed to have a good reason.

Also be aware, even though there are signs everywhere, you need to remove your shoes if you are going to enter the temples. I watched a tourist from one of the Eastern European countries fail to read the signs and she was monstered by one of the monks who told her in crisp English to remove her shoes. She continued as if she didn't understand and he had to physically walk her out. Then she started to remove them where she stood and he had to point to the signs for her to figure out she was still too close. The signs really are quite obvious, so I don't know what she thought she was doing.

 

Looking back toward the entrance to the caves

The large temple at the far point in the Batu Caves

There are more temples and shrines at the far point of the cave so don't just stop at the Main Temple and think you have seen it all. It is still worth heading up the final set of stairs to see the back of the cave. This is also where the more peaceful monkeys are and the only place I saw the little baby monkeys, clinging to Mum with big bright eyes. Many of them were not happy to have their photos taken, but they were not as aggressive as those out the front of the cave complex, which I thought was a little strange as they had young to protect.



I exchanged my saved banana to get close to this Mum and baby

Many of the tourists were trying to get close to the babies and the mothers would just take them higher into the caves to get them away. I remembered then that I still had two banana in my backpack, stashed for an emergency like this one. Wary that these monkeys are not stupid and often cannot be cajoled into doing anything, I thought that just offering two bananas would be a nice thing to do as the guys out the front were clearly not bringing any bananas into these depths for the young.

She hissed at anyone else who got close, but I was favoured

Initially, I pulled them out and some of the younger monkeys came up to me intending to mug me, but they soon found out I was wise to them and when they couldn't get behind me or form a pack, they relaxed a little. I moved as close as I could to the Mum and baby I could find within throw range and threw my first banana at them. Mum realised it was for her and the other monkeys also knew it was for her, so they let her come forward to collect it. She still wouldn't let me hand her the second banana, but she checked it was suitable and then gave the remains to the baby who munched it down.

The choice photo, contemplative and caring

I threw the second banana a little closer and she knew I wanted her to come closer so I could get a photo. Once the second banana had been devoured, she considered my request and then clambered down onto the stairs for some close photos. She hissed at the other photographers if they came closer than I was, clearly understanding the trade we were making. I was able to get about four meters closer than any of the other photographers and took some great shots of the couple.

This was probably my highlight of the day. The caves were amazing and the temples were detailed and beautiful, but the interaction with the monkeys was the most fun. They are not stupid - in fact, I think I saw much more stupidity from the "higher" monkeys. They were often outsmarted by the "lessor" monkeys. There is such a curiosity and intelligence in these eyes that I think we humans sometimes forget that we are not the only sentient creatures on this planet.

Perhaps this was my lesson from Haruman?