Distance: 51.13 km
Max speed: 41.3 km/h
Average while moving: 17.7 km/h
Another 6 am start. One of the old guys had promised me there would be a guard to open up the downstairs door for me. He failed to tell me he was indeed that guard... I had a bad night, constantly waking up, wondering what time it was. Finally a bad dream woke me with a start just about 5 and unable to get any more sleep, I got up and started getting ready to go. The old bloke gave me a big smile as I left. Nice guys, great ambience, this Hotel Kingdom!
Getting out of Muar needed some help and so I asked one of the newspaper men who gave me some directions. A little later, when none of the towns on the signboards said 'Melaka', I had to ask yet another newspaper guy for help and he pointed me in the direction of the bridge over the river Muar which I needed to cross.
Now happily on my way in the right direction and invigorated by the cool morning air, I pedalled on. I was looking forward to meeting up with my friends in Melaka, a town I have gotten happily familiar with in the last few years.
A little out of town, I got onto a wide highway which would eventually link up with the main trunk road along the west coast - Highway 5. Merrily pedalling along this long straight road, I thought I spied a blurring of the horizon, like rain. Minutes later, it wasn't like rain - it was indeed rain. Big fat drops, and plenty of it. With nowhere to stop, I carried on for a few minutes until I spied a deserted roadside fruit stall and pulled over. By this time the rain was very heavy and a few cars driving past tooted at me almost in apology.
Remarkably, I didn't feel at all cold. The Dri Fit clothes I'd bought were doing the trick - taking moisture away from the body and keeping me relatively dry and warm. The rain passed within the half hour and I set off again, making very good time indeed. I even harboured some thoughts of reaching Melaka in time for breakfast.
I stopped to take pictures at the border of Johor and Melaka - the first state border I'd passed. A landmark marked by a big 3-storey high monument of a trishaw on the Johor side and noticeably rougher roads on the Melaka side. The frequent patches and holes were irritating as they affected my rhythm and this proved to be a nuisance coming into Melaka town later.
I stopped for breakfast at a little coffeeshop in a little town whose name I did not discover. A large very tanned Chinese bloke and a Malay family were the only patrons of this simple establishment and they all offered a smile when I stopped and got off the bike. Why does this happen so readily in small towns and not big ones? Roadkill....
Near Melaka, rolling hills were the main feature and the roughish roads didn't help me at all. Ultimately though, the ride was not too taxing, a near-constant drizzle notwithstanding.
On one of the hills in, and on dry roads, I hit over 40 km/h, my highest speed yet. Despite an unintended detour which took me into the hot, dry bowels of Melaka Raya and Mahkota, and which eventually necessitated me taking a shortcut through the recently completed Dataran Pahlawan and a very very short ride against traffic to get onto the bridge over the river and on to Heeren Street, I still got to the Baba House by about 10:30. They checked me in early and I had a very welcome hot shower before popping downstairs to the Cafe for a bite.
Andrew Siow and Lina run this little establishment and I always make a point to say 'Hi' as soon as possible after checking in. Andrew used to work in Singapore and moved back to Melaka in '97. Over the last few years I've had many breakfasts, beers and dinners at his little cafe in the Baba House.
At 3pm, Amaran picked me up to go to his place for his son's birthday party. Amaran is an ex-schoolmate and we renewed our friendship when he did a stint at the KK Women and Children's Hospital in Singapore a few years ago. Now a Gynae in private practice in Melaka, he is married to Kasturi and they have two kids. The younger, Avigna was celebrating his 4th and I dropped by.
Well that was the plan... Eventually, I had to help organise and run the first of the children's games, a fishing game with plastic rods and fish. Was great fun. The company was great too and I spoke to a few people about the ride. I had to give them a reason for the sunburnt skin peeling off my arms you see, lest they think I was a leper or something...
Scarcely had I returned to the Baba House when I had to get cleaned up and rush out again, this time with Singam. Another ex-La Sallian, Singam was responsible for Lasoba, the mailing list which links up over a hundred of us. He retired to Melaka a few years ago and my visits to this city have always been made more pleasurable by the time spent with him.
He took me for a tour of Melaka and this served, among others, to reinforce the idea that Melaka has heaps of space for growth and really doesn't need to reclaim land form the sea. Ah well...
One of the places we drove through was Kampung Air Salak, a village which sits on land the Catholic Church bought years ago. A beautiful church, a school and Montfort Boys Home (my memory fails me and I'm not sure what the actual name now is) sit on this land, along with a chinese village of predominantly catholic households.
Some distance away, we also discovered a spanking new university, UTeM, which I guess is Universiti Teknologi Mara. A huge campus - most impressive. We eventually had a vegetarian dinner of noodles and most tasty it was too. I didn't know it then, but I was to have the best food so far on this trip in Melaka.
By the way, I've been having problems connecting at any practical speed since leaving Melaka so the posts are going to be slow until I get to KL this weekend I think. :-(
Max speed: 41.3 km/h
Average while moving: 17.7 km/h
Another 6 am start. One of the old guys had promised me there would be a guard to open up the downstairs door for me. He failed to tell me he was indeed that guard... I had a bad night, constantly waking up, wondering what time it was. Finally a bad dream woke me with a start just about 5 and unable to get any more sleep, I got up and started getting ready to go. The old bloke gave me a big smile as I left. Nice guys, great ambience, this Hotel Kingdom!
Getting out of Muar needed some help and so I asked one of the newspaper men who gave me some directions. A little later, when none of the towns on the signboards said 'Melaka', I had to ask yet another newspaper guy for help and he pointed me in the direction of the bridge over the river Muar which I needed to cross.
Now happily on my way in the right direction and invigorated by the cool morning air, I pedalled on. I was looking forward to meeting up with my friends in Melaka, a town I have gotten happily familiar with in the last few years.
A little out of town, I got onto a wide highway which would eventually link up with the main trunk road along the west coast - Highway 5. Merrily pedalling along this long straight road, I thought I spied a blurring of the horizon, like rain. Minutes later, it wasn't like rain - it was indeed rain. Big fat drops, and plenty of it. With nowhere to stop, I carried on for a few minutes until I spied a deserted roadside fruit stall and pulled over. By this time the rain was very heavy and a few cars driving past tooted at me almost in apology.
Remarkably, I didn't feel at all cold. The Dri Fit clothes I'd bought were doing the trick - taking moisture away from the body and keeping me relatively dry and warm. The rain passed within the half hour and I set off again, making very good time indeed. I even harboured some thoughts of reaching Melaka in time for breakfast.
I stopped to take pictures at the border of Johor and Melaka - the first state border I'd passed. A landmark marked by a big 3-storey high monument of a trishaw on the Johor side and noticeably rougher roads on the Melaka side. The frequent patches and holes were irritating as they affected my rhythm and this proved to be a nuisance coming into Melaka town later.
I stopped for breakfast at a little coffeeshop in a little town whose name I did not discover. A large very tanned Chinese bloke and a Malay family were the only patrons of this simple establishment and they all offered a smile when I stopped and got off the bike. Why does this happen so readily in small towns and not big ones? Roadkill....
Near Melaka, rolling hills were the main feature and the roughish roads didn't help me at all. Ultimately though, the ride was not too taxing, a near-constant drizzle notwithstanding.
On one of the hills in, and on dry roads, I hit over 40 km/h, my highest speed yet. Despite an unintended detour which took me into the hot, dry bowels of Melaka Raya and Mahkota, and which eventually necessitated me taking a shortcut through the recently completed Dataran Pahlawan and a very very short ride against traffic to get onto the bridge over the river and on to Heeren Street, I still got to the Baba House by about 10:30. They checked me in early and I had a very welcome hot shower before popping downstairs to the Cafe for a bite.
Andrew Siow and Lina run this little establishment and I always make a point to say 'Hi' as soon as possible after checking in. Andrew used to work in Singapore and moved back to Melaka in '97. Over the last few years I've had many breakfasts, beers and dinners at his little cafe in the Baba House.
At 3pm, Amaran picked me up to go to his place for his son's birthday party. Amaran is an ex-schoolmate and we renewed our friendship when he did a stint at the KK Women and Children's Hospital in Singapore a few years ago. Now a Gynae in private practice in Melaka, he is married to Kasturi and they have two kids. The younger, Avigna was celebrating his 4th and I dropped by.
Well that was the plan... Eventually, I had to help organise and run the first of the children's games, a fishing game with plastic rods and fish. Was great fun. The company was great too and I spoke to a few people about the ride. I had to give them a reason for the sunburnt skin peeling off my arms you see, lest they think I was a leper or something...
Scarcely had I returned to the Baba House when I had to get cleaned up and rush out again, this time with Singam. Another ex-La Sallian, Singam was responsible for Lasoba, the mailing list which links up over a hundred of us. He retired to Melaka a few years ago and my visits to this city have always been made more pleasurable by the time spent with him.
He took me for a tour of Melaka and this served, among others, to reinforce the idea that Melaka has heaps of space for growth and really doesn't need to reclaim land form the sea. Ah well...
One of the places we drove through was Kampung Air Salak, a village which sits on land the Catholic Church bought years ago. A beautiful church, a school and Montfort Boys Home (my memory fails me and I'm not sure what the actual name now is) sit on this land, along with a chinese village of predominantly catholic households.
Some distance away, we also discovered a spanking new university, UTeM, which I guess is Universiti Teknologi Mara. A huge campus - most impressive. We eventually had a vegetarian dinner of noodles and most tasty it was too. I didn't know it then, but I was to have the best food so far on this trip in Melaka.
By the way, I've been having problems connecting at any practical speed since leaving Melaka so the posts are going to be slow until I get to KL this weekend I think. :-(
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