Thursday, January 27, 2011

Start of a long road 25/01/2011 : Singapore to Pontain 96.1km


After a sleep disturb night because Craig called me at 4 a.m (cheers mate), in his defence he did ask if it was ok and it was great to catch up with him. I got going pretty late as I got chatting to a couple from Bali who were interested in what I was doing and gave me some wise words of encouragement, once moving after about 13km the heavens opened, when it rains here it like someone is pouring a bucket of water over your head. I decided not to push myself too hard over the first days as I haven’t ridden a bike for almost a month and the legs will need a few cobwebs blowing out. I got to the border crossing with Malaysia after mid-day, being my first I was rather excited and even more excited to be going into a new country. The first thing I noticed about Malaysia was how dirty it was compared to Singapore, rubbish was thrown everywhere and the general feel wasn’t a clean one.
Getting out of Johor Bahru proved to be more difficult than it should have been, after a break to collect my thoughts I realized I’d missed the turn I needed to take to be on highway 1 but being a great believer of all roads lead to Rome I blindly headed off in the general direction I thought I needed to be. After wasting time going back on myself I eventually found the road I needed to be on which was 4 lanes of high speed traffic! Not having confidence in Malaysian driving I was filling my pants with anything that want to come out. I soon discovered Malays are much more considerate drivers than most Australians and New Zealanders I have had the pleasure be in the way of, Malays drivers were giving me plenty of room and warm smiles to go with. At a petrol station I’d stopped at  to get a drink a man approached me and he spoke really good English which I hadn’t come across yet, he asked me about my trip then proceeded to giving me his card and said any problems, just call him.
As time was getting on I decided I had to put in the time on the bike but opting to pull in at another town to get a drink the bike gods smiled on me but letting the rain fall as hard I think is earthly possible, it came down so hard the rain even came up! I then carried on till I got to Pontain where I chose to stop, but finding somewhere cheap to stay was never going to happen here, in a local bike shop they told me you won’t find anywhere cheaper than 60/70 Ringgit (rm), I managed to haggle a place to RM50 which is still way over my budget but what the heck I didn’t fancy camping. I then set about food and found a quirky outdoor eatery which was really cheap, RM3.5, although not being a tourist spot no one spoke much English so ordering was a bit random. Good to be back on the bike and first impressions of Malaysia are that of friendly people, we’ll see how the legs are tomorrow

Monday, January 24, 2011

5,4,3,2,1 Thunderbirds are go (almost)

OK, I'm still in Singapore but my new hub arrived (5 days late) and i managed to Zombify it with the other one, after a test ride all seems good but my paranoid mind is working over drive, i guess we'll see tomorrow.

Singapore isn't the greatest place to be for two weeks on a tight budget, as its the most expensive place i'm going to be till Europe i did my damnedest not to spend all of my travel fund here, i succeeded but still spent about an eighth of it. I didn't do a whole lot with my time here as everything cost money, typical day would go as follows;
Get out of bed around 9am take advantage of the free breakfast and chat to some fellow hostelers,
11ish brush my teeth and wait for the postman,
when the postman failed to arrive go get some lunch and walk round the shops (just window shopping of course),
return to the hostel sleep, use the internet then go about looking for evening dinner,
back to the hostel, watch a movie off the laptop and sleep and repeat the next day.

However occasionally i did make friends until they left me, first there was Joe from England, she showed me the fountain of wealth (the worlds biggest fountain)  and went up to the top of the casino which has a huge boat dropped on top of it!!! Joe left me and Rayann and Lois came along and we went to the night safari together to see what its like for wild animals to live in a prison at night!! (i'm not much of a zoo fan but it got me out of the hostel). Once i was abandoned by them Alex a German guy showed up, we had dinner together and went to the beach but missed each other theeeeeen Keith a fellow cyclist turned up and after initially driving me insane by non-stop talking about bikes, cars and cameras turned out to be pretty sound. Alex left (bit of a pattern here) and James an Irish guy showed up who turned to be my hero as the first thing he said to Keith was ' I love cameras.' James left but a mass attack of bed bugs took his place, then it was Keiths turn to leave but he was replaced with a brand new hub so tomorrow is my turn to leave all be two weeks later than planned. I hope the bicycle gods are good to me from now after a bit of a iffy start, though i think my legs will suffer having not cycled for almost a month!!!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Singapore:

Starting from the airport in Melbourne things didn't go as planned, feeling pretty ill I was charged $450AUSD in excess baggage charges, although on the plus side I was upgraded to business class and being 6ft 5inches I did appreciate the extra leg room. The flight was then delayed by an hour which in turn made me miss my connecting flight in Kula Lumper to Singapore, but after being greeted by a very short Malaysian man I was ushered around the airport where I was put on another flight. Being concerned my baggage wasn't going to be put on the flight with me I asked numerous times are my bags going to meet me when i get off at Singapore and each time the answer was a very definite 'yes.'

Getting off at Singapore, I soon realised the empty baggage carousel wasn't a good omen and very nice Singaporean man told me to go join the Que at lost and found, (unfortunately people only que'd for things that were lost, not for whats been found). After an hour queuing and nothing but a packet of nuts in my pocket to eat, (I was pretty hungry) I finally told someone official my bags were missing which was not a huge shock to her. After telling someone my bags were missing and 'feeling confident' they'd  be found I decided to head into the city. I had been told the 'Little India' section was the best place to go for Backpacker Hostels, so still feeling a little ill and with a headache that was packing a punch I bravely jumped into a taxi. The taxi driver was surprisingly chatty and asking him about cycling in Singapore he said it was much better than it was, i noted people on bikes and cars giving plenty of room. Almost as soon as i stepped out the taxi a big shiny 4x4 knocked an elderly looking cyclist straight off and without making any fuss he picked himself, bike and scattered belongings and carried on his ride. I wasn't feeling confident at this stage of making it out of Singapore never mind all the way to England.

I spent 2 hours walking round checking out hostels only to end up back at the one I had been dropped virtually outside of. Things here were a lot different to what i have been use to in Australia and New Zealand where I'd spent the last 2 years. Suddenly I was in the minority, although Singapore doesn't seem to have an identity other than being Asian, by Asian I mean mix of India, Chinese, Thai etc etc. I was feeling pretty down and was seriously doubting myself, (i still didn't have any of my lost baggage) i had the worst headache i can remember having, felt physically weak and very lonely. By about 7.30pm i decided to lay on my bed and feel sorry for myself, but at around 9pm my bags did turn up and checking them a few items had gone missing but i was just so glad to be reunited with my luggage.

I slept so well that night I didn't hear anyone coming back to the room or even the band playing till 1am downstairs and i felt so much better, headache gone and i even manged to eat a good breakfast of toast, eggs, fruit and cups of tea.  After breakfast i set about sorting my bags and building my bike. Once bike was built i was feeling much more positive but then disaster as i discovered my rear hub was rooted. Going to a bike shop ( which was 45mins walk away) to see if Harry Potter had decided to be a bicycle mechanic in Singapore when he grew up, i crossed my fingers things weren't as bad as i feared, they were and myself and the two mechanics spent 2 hours trying to figure out the problem with no joy.

As things stand now, I have ordered a new hub to be sent out from England only to discover they are out of stock. Things can only get better, right????