My friend Michael Choo is from Bukit Mertajam and spent some time working in Sungei Petani in the 1980s. I called him up from SP (as the locals call it) to tell him I was in his old stomping ground and he started giving me all sorts of food suggestions, admitting he was a foodie.
I can understand why he was led to work in SP - it's full of eating places. Everywhere you turn, there's a food shop or stall. Turning right coming out from the hotel there's a Little India, with a popular Indian restaurant.
Turning left, there's another Indian restaurant in a row of shops. Followed by the market and stalls on the same side of the road. Across the road from these is a whole row of roadside stalls. At the junction diagonally from those is another Indian stall.
I'd gone to the railway station last night and found the queue too long so I went again this morning. The news wasn't good as the clerk suggested I wouldn't be allowed to bring the bike on the train. He suggested I try the express buses instead so I wandered into town for a bit of sight-seeing, had a nasi kandar lunch, then walked back to the express bus stand just as it began to drizzle.
The news from the bus stand wasn't too good - they didn't serve the northern routes from that stand so couldn't advise me on whether I could get a bus from Kangar/Padang Besar to Singapore. Someone did suggest that some of the buses could fit a bike in in the luggage compartment though so I felt a little hopeful.
Just as the heavens opened and it stormed with a ferocity I have not seen in quite awhile. There was nothing to do but wait it out, even though I was only about 400 metres form the hotel. So there I sat for a good hour until it slowed to a drizzle and I walked back and spent 4 hours catching up on writing, downloading and uploading blog updates.
Sungei Petani is one wet town!
I wandered out to have dinner at the Indian restaurant on the right and it was a very satisfying dinner indeed.
And so my brief stay in Sungei Petani passed. Nothing exciting, not even much good news vis a vis the return journey home. Still, there may be better news at Alor Setar.
The last couple of towns have been large and relatively dull. From experience, these add little to my ride, but they are necessary stops as hotels and chalets are few or out of the way.
As I approach the end of the ride, it's becoming worrying that the ride now is more about the destination than it was ever meant to be. The last time I met anyone of importance to my purpose was in Parit Buntar, now a week ago already.
Perhaps Alor Setar will change things a little. I'm hoping.
Post to del.icio.us
I can understand why he was led to work in SP - it's full of eating places. Everywhere you turn, there's a food shop or stall. Turning right coming out from the hotel there's a Little India, with a popular Indian restaurant.
Turning left, there's another Indian restaurant in a row of shops. Followed by the market and stalls on the same side of the road. Across the road from these is a whole row of roadside stalls. At the junction diagonally from those is another Indian stall.
I'd gone to the railway station last night and found the queue too long so I went again this morning. The news wasn't good as the clerk suggested I wouldn't be allowed to bring the bike on the train. He suggested I try the express buses instead so I wandered into town for a bit of sight-seeing, had a nasi kandar lunch, then walked back to the express bus stand just as it began to drizzle.
The news from the bus stand wasn't too good - they didn't serve the northern routes from that stand so couldn't advise me on whether I could get a bus from Kangar/Padang Besar to Singapore. Someone did suggest that some of the buses could fit a bike in in the luggage compartment though so I felt a little hopeful.
Just as the heavens opened and it stormed with a ferocity I have not seen in quite awhile. There was nothing to do but wait it out, even though I was only about 400 metres form the hotel. So there I sat for a good hour until it slowed to a drizzle and I walked back and spent 4 hours catching up on writing, downloading and uploading blog updates.
Sungei Petani is one wet town!
I wandered out to have dinner at the Indian restaurant on the right and it was a very satisfying dinner indeed.
And so my brief stay in Sungei Petani passed. Nothing exciting, not even much good news vis a vis the return journey home. Still, there may be better news at Alor Setar.
The last couple of towns have been large and relatively dull. From experience, these add little to my ride, but they are necessary stops as hotels and chalets are few or out of the way.
As I approach the end of the ride, it's becoming worrying that the ride now is more about the destination than it was ever meant to be. The last time I met anyone of importance to my purpose was in Parit Buntar, now a week ago already.
Perhaps Alor Setar will change things a little. I'm hoping.
Post to del.icio.us
2 comments:
Almost there! Give yourself to wind down I reckon. the last bit of the journey might be a transition to something? I can picture you cycling around Singapore and wondering at how small it is. It will be strange not to have your blog to look forward to each day - you'd better start thinking of the next one (Mei, ignore this comment!)
Yes, indeed I am just two days away from the end of the ride. But Celebrate Malaysia! doesn't end with the ride - I have mulling over some ideas and will announce them shortly.
I would like to have the spirit of the ride continue - life, like the bicycle chain, is really a series of links. I want to see how the process of discovering or rediscovering each link continues.
I have a loooong bus ride back to Singapore Tuesday night/Wednesday morning to mull things over. Let's see what happens next...
Post a Comment