Category: Travel Blogging

Today was another of those days that started of poorly but turned out well:-)

After been woken by my neighbours and the totally rubbish plumbing in The Apps Hotel (I don’t think I’ve ever heard such noisy pipes). I strapped everything on the bike sat on the saddle to discover the back tyre was partially flat! Of it all came I flipped the bike over , couldn’t find any damage so pumped it up and hoped for the best. In the process discovering the front wheel was binding on the brakes due to the quick release being loose.

Of I set on a cool morning, a few miles down the road the tyre suddenly went totally flat 🙁 I wheeled it across to a tyre fitting place, closed of course on Saturdays  but they had conveniently left a big bowl of water out 🙂 so stripping the wheel, in the process discovering the axle was pretty seized up. No wonder it’s been hard going! I discovered a staple had punctured the tube, wheeling it across the road had caused the staple to make a hole on the other side:-(. I swapped it for the repaired tube & continued on my merry way finding a shop that sold a can of thin sewing machine oil, which I poured into the rear axle plus a place to get another spare tube.

Looking at the Google cycle map layer on Gaia I found some good back runs & even a pleasant track not even marked so I kept of the dreaded Highway 5 all the way into Klang. Interestingly I’m wondering if Google are using bridges as Easter Eggs, since they seem to be misplaced quite often. Certainly made for a more pleasant ride and i found a great seafood place for breakfast the folks even thought I was like 55 🙂

I made it into Banting at 56 miles and discovered the rather pleasant Hotel Garden, decent internet  (until it fell over) & shower. However, my room seems to vibrate with the lift motor 🙁 but hopefully it will stop during the night!

Rather amazingly another cyclist, Sabine, is staying in the hotel tonight she is pedalling from Bangkok to Singapore. Very interesting to compare notes  although some motor bike made her fall off leaving a nasty scrape, so her leg is covered in tape & gauze 🙁

Here is todays Strava:

and some pictures here

Another very long & hot day. I was beginning to get worried at 70 miles that I would be able to find a hotel at all! However at 87 miles the Hotel Huang City in Hutan Melintang loomed into view, so I quickly paid my £12 and checked  in with the very giggly girl receptionists.

The main preoccupation of the day was trying to find air conditioned places & cold drinks, preferably together 🙂 7/11 stores are good but they have no seating inside so you have to eat/drink the goodies on the hot pavement. I did find one gorgeous garage that had a small table & chairs inside, in fact I could have stayed in there for hours…

The roads were infernally busy especially with old Chinese Tatra tankers & trucks  belching out black smoke.  Plus the motorcyclists weaving around. The scenery wasn’t to great, once again miles upon miles of palm oil plantations (I guess that is what was in the decrepit old tanker trucks) although at one point I skirted some mountains that looked jungly.

I’m beginning to wonder that maybe I should have stayed on the Eastern side of the country as that doesn’t seem to have any major highways, equally it probably doesn’t have A/C or Western style cold drinks, although that’s pure speculation.

The new saddle has done the trick and I no longer am getting a sore behind, so having a shiny saddle is good for your shorts to slip on, rather than the shorts sticking on the saddle & trying to slip on your bottom thus making  it sore. Probably the secret to the Brookes saddles 🙂

Strava now  reckons I’ve done 2,127 miles of pedalling & 47,643 vertical feet, which according to my reckoning only  leaves another 400 or so miles to do 🙂 in the next 11 days.

Here is todays Strava:

The pics of the day are here