After 6 days spent in Penang, well, in Georgetown which is the capital of the Penang island, we are moving again towards Thailand where we should be in 2 or 3 days time. We did not visit all the island. I thought I would spend a day or two cycling around but I got lazy. The back of the islnd is apparently very hilly so it cut off any motivation. I should have find the way to leave my trailer somewhere. Anyway, we visited the historical centre which was okay. Today we left Penang at 5pm and cycled just out of Butterworth city to find a quiet place where to camp. Easy day.
Category: Perak
Lata Kekabu > Perai (119km, 7h)
Big day today and absolutely no plan at all. Firstly we started the day with a 500 metres climb. I knew we had to cross a pass today but I did not expect it to be that high. It was hard! and steep! and hot! Few! Then we planned to reach at least Selama or even Kulim but the road was so nice than we kept going and going until we were stop by water. We thought we could cycle on the bridge leading to the Penang island (The northern one) but a guard stopped us and redirected us to the ferry terminal. Finally we stopped halfway to the terminal on the side of the road. Penang will be for tomorrow then :-)
Ipoh north > Lata Kekabu (72km, 4h30)
Small day today, I mean, picture wise. Today we keep trying to cycle off the main axles. The roads are more hilly but much enjoyable too and the local food is cheaper :-) We planned to reach the waterfall called “Kekabu” and stay there for the night. Today, the thermometer of the GPS showed up a crazy temperature of 45 degrees! In fact, it became really hot today!
Ipoh south > Ipoh north (41km, 3h)
Today, we are going to stay in Ipoh and around. Ipoh being a bigger town that what we cross usually, Steph wants to buy some gear. There is also few interesting Buddhist temple mixed with caves to visit in this area. It a kind of resting day today, a lazy one ;-) This is Christmas eve too so give us a nice treat :-)
Tanah rata > Ipoh south (89km, 4h50)
Today we are going to reach Ipoh which means downhill all the way! In real life, this is not true as we have spent the first two hours cycling big up and downs. That was even harder than the long (and steady) climb yesterday. Overall, we knew that, at some point, the downhill we were looking for would come and it did :-) And that was nice! Let’s have a look…
Tapah road > Tanah rata (71km, 6h20)
Today is not going to be an easy day as we have about 1350m to climb up to Tanah Rata, the city in Cameron Highlands. This area is famous for its tea valley(s?). That’s what we want to see. On the way there is a waterfall too and lots of nature. Tomorrow we will have the same kind of road but we will cycle downhill! Enjoy the visit :-)
Sungai Besar > Tapah road (86km)
Hello, today is the third day towards Cameron Highlands, our temporary destination. Thanks for the GPS coupled with Google maps to show us all the tiniest road along the way. We have cycled 60% on highway and 40% person on tiny roads even tracks sometimes. It’s much better like this, especially early morning when we are the witness of the sunrise :-)