Finally, after more than a month spent in Singapore, I’m leaving the place and not by myself :-) Kate, Pee Ta and Arjan decided to follow the same road as me. We cycled first at the top of the Changi airport to catch a ferry back to Malaysia. Once on the other side we travelled along the east coast until the next twon where we found a Chinese temple where to sleep. The adventure continues!
We started around 9am this morning and have been cycle all the way up to the Changi airport. The ferry place is not far away now. Arjan is leading :-)
Kate (at the back) and Pee Ta.
Actually, I’ve only did some research online. I was not 100% sure that taking this ferry was doable, especially for 4 cyclists together. What I knew was that a ferry doesn’t leave unless being full (12 persons). On weekends, having a full ferry is common but on week days like today, it’s very rare. Here the prices :
- $13/person for 20 minutes trip in a fiberglass ferry (a kind of modern one)
- $11/person for 45 minutes trip in an old wooden ferry
- $2 per bicycles
We chose the wooden boat without hesitation. In case no one would come, we would have to pay the full price, I mean paying for the 7 people missing which is 12 x $11 + 4 x $2 = $140. So, we decided to wait a bit in case some people would come for sharing the price. 10 minutes later, the counter guy came back to us with a discount. He said : “This captain is a nice guy and propose you to go now for $130 (which is $32.5 per person). We hesitated a bit more… The guy repeated that no much people go to Pengerang during the week. Yes we knew that! Ok let’s go…
We passed through the immigration very easily (there was no one but us) and are now walking towards the ferry. This one other there might be the “fiberglass” one.
Fiberglass VS wooden boat?
That’s our boat :-)
This is very rustic but the good thing is there is lots of space for the bicycles.
We are leaving Singapore.
Bye bye :-)
Now we have 45 minutes to spend in this boat and not much to do. I think I’m going to have a nap. During the first minutes we can observe the place landing. They are passing right up our heads!
And 45 minutes we are back in Malaysia! The trip was fine, nothing special to report (especially because I was sleeping :-)
We just have to get through the Malaysian immigration and very soon we will be cycling again.
We are now at the bottom left of this map and are going to cycle along the coast. My plan is to cycle all the way up to Sedili, at least.
Just before we left I’ve asked to a guy behind his desk how far was the next town. I want to make sure we won’t be stuck in the middle of nowhere tonight because Arjan, Kate and Pee Ta don’t seems to be happy to sleep in the bush. I’ve told them many times what I’ve done before. They smile but I’m not sure they look for the same thing. The guy explained to us that a certain part of the road we planned to ride is now closed. We had to do a large detour around a huge fenced area. Later on, people we met told us a bit more about this project. The works suddenly started only few months ago. They are extracting oil… I can see with my own eyes now what the petrol industry is doing. They look for oil anywhere on this planet. As soon as they find some they destroy everything around to reach their goal.
We finally arrived to Sungai Rengit and saw a chinese temple along the road. FIrst, we have been in town to buy a SIM card. Then we came back to the place. We turn around until we found someone to talk to. There was a bunch of people here chatting. We asked if it is possible to sleep in the area (we thought about the beach as the temple is near the water).
The guy showed us the place at the back of that same temple, on the right hand side of this picture. We asked for toilets and shower. The guy told us that they don’t have much water here, in the area particularly but if we are lucky we would have some water tomorrow morning. The big black tank on the right hand side has some water in it but not much. We will have to be economic.
This is the view :-) Not the best one but at least we have a roof for tonight.
The tents are set up. I could not find the way to attach my hammock this time so tonight I’m gonna sleep on the ground with my mattrees. That was our first trip back to Malaysia. I’m allowed to stay another three months here :-) Good night!
I would choose the wooden boat, too. It looks more stable and has a character. :-)