Kuantan

Since my bike, fitted with a new battery, woke me early to get going, I dropped the keys in the basket before anyone in the hostel had woken. The kids were starting school early as I packed my noble steed and waved to the family across the road who had been so nice talking to me while tinkering with the bike to get it working. The cheers when it started the previous day had changed into waves and best wishes for my continued journey. Dodging traffic, I made my way out of Melaka and toward Kuantan.

On the way, I had a guy on an R6 motorcycle follow me for a while before zipping past with a honk and a wave. I was too busy returning the wave to read the sign and ended up overshooting the right hand turn off I needed. Taking the first left hand turn off I could find, I stopped to check the map right outside the Alor Gajah mosque.

Alor Gajah Mosque (I got a little lost)

Accepting my error, I started back to the turn off and continued on the correct path. With a tank the size I have and an intention to ride for several hours, a wrong turn in the first half hour could result in significant deviation from he planned course. It started to rain; not heavily, but enough to make the roads slippery, which I found out to my detriment at the turn off to Bandar Seri Jempol.

I attempted a U-turn in the rain and didn't account for the fully-laden weight of the bike on the turn and managed to drop her right in the middle of the road. Although when I started there had been very little traffic, Murphy's Law had heaps of traffic turn up immediately, including an emergency services vehicle that had been clearing the road of fallen trees. No one had seen the incident, so they first asked if I were injured, which I thought was a great question to be asking, but I could not translate "Only my pride" into Malay-Bahasa, so instead, I said "No".

They helped me lift the bike and move it off the road to allow the traffic through and we had a chat about being a crazy Aussie on a solo tour of South East Asia. Only the guy in charge spoke any English, so he translated to the other young fellas in the truck who laughed away and made many jokes. You can tell when someone is making jokes about you in another language while you stand there, but I was happy they had helped. I could not lift the bike by myself on the incline.

The emergency services team continued on their way with grins and waves while I started to repack the bike. I had nearly got it finished when a large 4WD wanted to turn into the small lane I had been blocking. I pushed the bike just a little further to give him room and the weight on it again tipped the bike over into the mud, dragging me with it. The 4WD driver happily assisted me to lift the bike and move it just enough to get himself past, watched me drop the bike for a third time and waved as he left me there. I pulled everything off the bike (again) and tried to lift it from the incline as it slowly slid further down into the ditch at the side of the road.

Finally, a well spoken man riding a black Kawasaki Ninja came out of a driveway nearby and helped me pull the bike out of the ditch and talked for a while. Another man drove down on his motorcycle from the local mosque to see if I needed any assistance, but he spoke no English and the guy who spoke English translated for a while before he offered for me to stay at his kampung for a while. I told him I would consider it on the way back if I were coming this way, but that I planned to get to Kuantan. He waved and left me with the very helpful old man who had retired from Tourism Malaysia and spent some time in Australia. He agreed I was crazy to be doing my motorcycle tour solo and wished me luck. The bike started immediately and I continued on my way.

I took a leg stretch at Lake Bera which looked like a river (although I am yet to be convinced it is not a river), but is a large sprawling lake not very large across at too many locations. The road travels along and around it for some way past this photo on the way to Kuantan.

Lake Bera - leg stretch

I got a little lost using the wonderfully scenic route through the small roads on my way to Kuantan and had to stop for directions. My GPS was working, but I try not to run down the battery too much while I am out from power points. I usually need it for terminal guidance to my hotel once I hit the city limits, and it was great to talk to some of the locals, even if they did think I was completely mad. I seem to be told this a lot during my trip, maybe I should start believing it.

View from the hotel (South China Sea on the far left)

I had two things I wanted to photograph on this trip before I set foot in Singapore or Malaysia and that was the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea. I have previously taken a photo of the Malacca Strait, but the shot above is the closest I have come to the South China Sea (so far). Both these regions will be the zones of future (if not current) conflict and I wanted to at least get my eyes on them, not from any strategic aspect, but just to see them and understand their extent.

Masjid Negeri (from South-East)

Masjid Negeri (from South-West)

The local mosque was a fantastic building with very friendly people who offered to show me inside, but I had arrived at exactly the wrong time (prayer time) and was not allowed to enter just to take photographs - which I can appreciate. No one likes to be photographed while they are trying to pray and meditate. I was offered to be shown around the following day, but planned to depart the following morning as early as possible, so I never got a chance to see inside it. I can only imagine how impressive it was on the inside, given how impressive it was on the outside.

Heading off for Kuala Lumpur

Now I won't make any mention of the military guys standing to the left in the photograph above as I have been very careful not to photograph anything military or police in Malaysia, but the chap who took this photo had no such reservations and did not know how to focus an auto-focusing camera. Nevertheless, I am immensely gracious that he took the photo at all. The weather decided to put out a treat for my last days on the East coast of Malaysia and I was able to ride to Kuala Lumpur with only dark, foreboding and threatening clouds.