Malaysia

The border crossing into Malaysia took a while. This was mostly my fault, rushing the form I needed to fill in, expecting them not to check too closely the details of where I was staying. With the border situated at the top of a hill, I had a nice descent down the flat farmlands of north Malaysia.

After riding for only 40 minutes, a car pulled up alongside me at some traffic lights, and after speaking for 30 seconds, the man handed me some money and told me to buy myself a drink. He said he wanted to help a traveller and had ambitions of his own of cycling around Malaysia. This money proved very useful as it was still 50 km until I found an ATM in the city of Alor Setar.

I’m always a bit anxious the first night camping in a new country, and in Malaysia, it was hard to find somewhere as everywhere was farmland. I headed for the coast, stopping at Bunting Island Bridge where I was hoping for a great sunset but arrived too late and the bridge was closed. Whilst there, I met some Bangladeshi men who were on holiday in Malaysia and very interested in what I was doing. It was eye-opening also hearing from them that Malaysia is one of the few countries they can easily get a visa for and go on holiday to.

The following day I made it to Georgetown, taking the ferry across to the island. Along the way, I passed a huge snake on the side of the road. I’m pretty sure it was dead as it wasn’t moving, but it really shocked me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it whenever I was camping the following week.

Georgetown was a pretty place, and the buildings definitely had a colonial feel to them. The previous day, the Bangladeshi men informed me I’d feel like I was back in London, which I’m not sure I’d really agree with. There was also a large Chinatown where I enjoyed a huge plate of egg fried rice for dinner. Whilst at the hostel, I met Nathan, another Brit cycling around the world. He’d been travelling for 22 months already.

I just stayed for one night in Georgetown, deciding to detour towards the east coast and explore more of Malaysia. A very rainy day followed, and searching for somewhere dry to sleep led me to an old railway line where I found a small wooden shelter to sleep under. This was a very welcome relief from the elements.

My route took me into the Cameron Highlands, a collection of resort towns in the mountains built by the British to get away from the heat on the coast. It is a similar idea to Dalat in Vietnam; however, the Highlands still kept their heritage of looking like a European ski town. It also featured large tea plantations and strawberry farms in the hills which has made the towns iconic for serving afternoon tea with scones and jam.

I spent a night in a strange hostel which was originally a colonial bungalow built on a hill above the town but had been converted into a few rooms and a dorm. It had very strange outbuildings decorated up as a wooden hunting lodge and bar. Along with all this, there were many log cabins which were all getting demolished, and so each night there would be a large fire trying to burn through all this junk wood.

I also had my first burger of the trip in the Highlands. The Western food is similarly priced in Malaysia unlike the other Southeast Asian countries where it would cost 4x as much. I’ve also been able to find reasonably priced oats and chocolate for the first time in SEA which has been nice to have these home comforts.

Leaving the Highlands, I descended down into the centre of the country and became quite sick with a stomach bug. I took the next few days pretty easy, crossing over to the east coast, seeing lots of wild monkeys and passing through many palm oil plantations. These at first looked quite beautiful, almost a forest of palm trees, but once I noticed the straight lines of trees all planted the same distance apart, they lost their charm. It’s Malaysia’s largest export and used in lots of food and cosmetic products which has resulted in much of the jungle having been cut down.

As I was cycling along a quiet road, a van coming the other way told me to slow down as there was an elephant ahead. Not wanting to miss seeing a wild elephant, I picked up the speed and came face to face with the creature on the side of the road. It looked very old and frail with a hole in its ear, and every step it took made it seem like it would fall over. I stopped for probably 10 minutes just watching it cool itself down, blowing water over its back, and tried to get close but was always frightened when it would turn towards me.

I reached the east coast and had my appetite back after being ill, so I started trying to catch up on all the great Malaysian food. The ethnic population of Malaysia is Malay, Indian, and Chinese, so the food reflects this with lots of really great Indian food reflecting these cultures. I’ve particularly enjoyed the Indian roti, Dosha, and all the curries. The restaurants are often self-service, letting you just pile the rice and curry onto a plate, with most meals costing about £1. The coffee or “kophi” has been great too, costing 40p at restaurants and being black coffee with condensed milk stirred in. The national dish “nasi lemak”, translating as “fat rice”, is rice cooked in coconut milk with sauce, fish, peanuts, egg, and often deep-fried meat. This has all been great fuel for cycling but has led to Malaysia having a very high rate of type two diabetes, something I was told by many people.

The east coast was industrial with a huge Petronas oil refinery. I did manage to find a beach, but it was a protected area for turtle nesting so I wasn’t able to sleep there. Fortunately, the man in charge guided me round the corner to the turtle hatchery centre where he let me stay before just driving off.

Before leaving the east coast, I spotted one more bit of wildlife, a huge lizard wandering around a rubbish dump. This was mesmerising to watch, and again I didn’t want to get too close.

It took two more days to reach Kuala Lumpur where I found some hot springs open to the public, meeting a group of local uni students there who were very interested in what I was doing. Then, after a night in an abandoned building in the hills above KL, I descended down towards the Batu Caves. I should’ve arrived earlier as this tourist attraction was already very busy with people climbing the stairs up to the caves.

Kuala Lumpur felt very much like a western city with parks, skyscrapers, and all the generic shops you’d expect to find in the city centre. There were some interesting buildings with the Petronas Towers being the tallest in the world from their construction in 1999 until 2004, the old square consisting of a cricket pitch where in 1957 Malaysian independence was declared, and the national mosque where they were very strict on the dress code, giving us robes to wear inside. The food in the city was great too and surprisingly no more expensive than the rest of the country.

Coming into the city was easy, however exiting was quite a challenge, navigating the busy roads to the south heading for Port Dickson where I’d leave Malaysia by Ferry.

I was reunited with Nathan on the road, and we spent my final night at a Hindu temple before I headed to the ferry port and he continued south.

Malaysia has been one of my favourite countries to travel. The food has been the best of anywhere in Asia. The people have been incredibly generous and friendly too, as in the 16 days I’ve been in the country, I had 5 different people buy me a meal or refuse to accept payment at restaurants. The number of people that spoke English has been noticeably higher than almost anywhere else I’ve been, with lots of people in the non-touristy areas speaking very good English. This has been really nice, as I could talk to far more of the locals. The wildlife has been amazing too, seeing so many monkeys which I’ve struggled to take photos of. Finding places to camp has been quite easy too, and the locals have not been surprised when I’d say I’m just sleeping on the side of the road. Also there have been lots of abandoned huts or buildings I could sleep in to find some shelter. I’ll definitely be back to Malaysia and would love to have more time in the city of KL.

*** 26/3/24 Update ***

I’m now quite far behind on the blog having left Malaysia on 15th February so thought I should give a current update. My two excuses for not getting any posts out are: running out of website storage space for any more photos and breaking my phone. Now I have access to a laptop, I’ve upgraded the website (hence the new look) and hoping to get the phone fixed to recover some Indonesia photos. So expect the last few trip updates soon along with some final thoughts, cost breakdown and gear reviews.

I’m now in Sydney, having arrived in Australia on 15th March from Bali and having a few weeks of holiday with my family whilst I try and figure out what to do next…