Distance: 76.9 km
Max Speed: 37.4 km/h
Average while moving: 18.9 km/h
Total distance to date: 1203.6 km (inc distance in towns, not reflected in blog)
On the morning of the 19th, I carried my bike downstairs, knowing it would be the last stage of the ride. I had packed light - my handlebar bag with my usual personal items and my rack top bag loaded with spares. No luggage, no spare water. The bike felt so light it took a few minutes to readjust.
The way out of Kangar was easy and fast. All around me were the limestone outcroppings that dot the Perlis countryside. At first it seemed I was headed directly for a mountain range, but as I cycled further along, the range parted and I realised I was headed for the valley in between. The bulk of the range was to my left and as I looked there I realised Kampung Wang Kelian lay in that direction.
Padang Besar lay ahead with only a few small climbs. And one beautiful dam and lake. It was still relatively early and the trees still cast longish shadows across green grass and deep blue waters. On a hill overlooking the lake, I found an abandoned, but still very new, rest stop. The shops were all shuttered and I wondered why - the view from the wooden patio was stunning. The volume of traffic was quite slight though so perhaps it was a lack of business rather than anything else.
Further along, a couple of inverted-bell shaped limestone hills rose up hundreds of feet. At the foot of these two was a large development - Pusat Serenti Bukit Chabang. I had no idea what a Pusat Serenti was, but right across it was a gerai so I stopped for a cup of tea and something to eat.
The little gerai was a simple affair with a zinc roof mounted on rough wooden beams. The owner had softened it considerably though - birds' nests hung from the rafters, and large and small ferns were suspended from the roof or hung on pillars. The gravel driveway in skirted a landscaped assemblage of plants as well so the entire was quite pleasing to the eye.
We chatted for awhile, the owner and I, and she explained that the Pusat was a drug rehab centre. She lamented the fact that most of the inmates were Malay - almost 300, with only a handful of Indians and Chinese. She said the youth of today were clearly having problems and the proximity to the Thai border meant drugs were an easily available way out.
One comment she made made me both silently laugh and cry - there are more drug rehab centres like this than there are universities. A striking statistic.
Still, she opined the centres were doing some good - and certainly the beautiful and quiet surroundings seemed a good place for inmates to start over.
Strangely, the ride in to Padang Besar after that was a little harder. I'd made some adjustment to the seat height earlier. I had previously set it slightly lower to help deal with the hills around Jerai but found my knees giving me trouble thereafter. Raising the seat sorted everything out and my legs could stretch out comfortably on the faster stretches. For some reason, however, the bike now felt sluggish. I would discover the cause later.
On the way in I saw a Jabatan Haiwan area and stopped when I saw Ostriches. Man, those birds are big... And I'm convinced now that Big Bird of Sesame Street fame is really an ostrich - when one looked straight at me, I swore that with liberal application of yellow spray paint, I'd have a good Big Bird double. OK, so my memory of Sesame Street is a little hazy... I also saw deer in the distance and some horses too. All on large tracts of pasture land.
I got in to Padang Besar and a policeman at a road block (of which there were a few) directed me to the back way in to the Railway Station where I wanted to go to get a refund on my train ticket.
I had to carry the bike up the stairs at the entrance, then down two flights to the platform where the ticket office was and got there just on 11:15am. Only to discover the counter closed at 11:00 and reopened at 2:30pm... An officer confirmed I could get a 50% refund later so I wandered off to town to take some pictures and eat.
A policeman at the railway station chatted with me for a few minutes and said that if I took the overhead bridge instead, I would get back into town without going via the container truck road I'd come in on. So I carried my bike up the two flights of stairs, then across the overhead bridge and down a long flight of stairs, and into the immigration centre.
I had lunch at a coffee shop fronting the badly rutted main road. Thai bikes and cars were everywhere, and in amongst the babble of Malay and Mandarin, I heard the singsong lilt of Thai.
I got back to the station early, and sat at the cafeteria upstairs for awhile, enjoying an ice cream. For want of something to do, I decided to check the rear wheel for wear - a habit since the torn tyre incident. I pushed the bike back against the stand and spun the wheel to have a look. It went around half a turn then locked solid. Damn Brakes were rubbing against the wheel. Obviously my wheels weren't true anymore either. Damn! That would explain why I had difficulty coming in...
It turns out the same problem I'd had earlier had come up again. I made some cable and pad adjustments and it sorted it out at the expense of longer brake lever travel. I'd checked the wheels before and they were fine then so it seemed the calipers were only occasionally sticking and not returning fully. How long this had been happening I had no idea, but the grip was very light so that I didn't feel any juddering or vibrations. It did make pedalling that little bit more wearying of course.
I felt damn silly. Well, live and learn and all that I guess.
The train ticket settled, I felt no great urge to stay on in Padang Besar, market stalls selling all manner of Thai and local goods notwithstanding. I made for Kangar, and the bike, freed of the rear brake encumbrance, felt light and oh so quick. I pedalled furiously - keeping up a speed of 29 km/h and above. At times I was doing over 35 km/h and feeling great.
I stopped at the same stall on the way back, had an iced lemon tea and chatted for awhile more. The owner wished me well, and asked me to drop by again one day. Maybe I will.
One km closer, one less km to go. The end was almost anti-climatic - I reached the roundabout in Kangar with my head down, still going at a bit of a clip and hit the brakes at the last second. I rolled up to the Kangar Hotel, the last stop for me and the bike. I was grinning when I climbed back upstairs.
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Max Speed: 37.4 km/h
Average while moving: 18.9 km/h
Total distance to date: 1203.6 km (inc distance in towns, not reflected in blog)
On the morning of the 19th, I carried my bike downstairs, knowing it would be the last stage of the ride. I had packed light - my handlebar bag with my usual personal items and my rack top bag loaded with spares. No luggage, no spare water. The bike felt so light it took a few minutes to readjust.
The way out of Kangar was easy and fast. All around me were the limestone outcroppings that dot the Perlis countryside. At first it seemed I was headed directly for a mountain range, but as I cycled further along, the range parted and I realised I was headed for the valley in between. The bulk of the range was to my left and as I looked there I realised Kampung Wang Kelian lay in that direction.
Padang Besar lay ahead with only a few small climbs. And one beautiful dam and lake. It was still relatively early and the trees still cast longish shadows across green grass and deep blue waters. On a hill overlooking the lake, I found an abandoned, but still very new, rest stop. The shops were all shuttered and I wondered why - the view from the wooden patio was stunning. The volume of traffic was quite slight though so perhaps it was a lack of business rather than anything else.
Further along, a couple of inverted-bell shaped limestone hills rose up hundreds of feet. At the foot of these two was a large development - Pusat Serenti Bukit Chabang. I had no idea what a Pusat Serenti was, but right across it was a gerai so I stopped for a cup of tea and something to eat.
The little gerai was a simple affair with a zinc roof mounted on rough wooden beams. The owner had softened it considerably though - birds' nests hung from the rafters, and large and small ferns were suspended from the roof or hung on pillars. The gravel driveway in skirted a landscaped assemblage of plants as well so the entire was quite pleasing to the eye.
We chatted for awhile, the owner and I, and she explained that the Pusat was a drug rehab centre. She lamented the fact that most of the inmates were Malay - almost 300, with only a handful of Indians and Chinese. She said the youth of today were clearly having problems and the proximity to the Thai border meant drugs were an easily available way out.
One comment she made made me both silently laugh and cry - there are more drug rehab centres like this than there are universities. A striking statistic.
Still, she opined the centres were doing some good - and certainly the beautiful and quiet surroundings seemed a good place for inmates to start over.
Strangely, the ride in to Padang Besar after that was a little harder. I'd made some adjustment to the seat height earlier. I had previously set it slightly lower to help deal with the hills around Jerai but found my knees giving me trouble thereafter. Raising the seat sorted everything out and my legs could stretch out comfortably on the faster stretches. For some reason, however, the bike now felt sluggish. I would discover the cause later.
On the way in I saw a Jabatan Haiwan area and stopped when I saw Ostriches. Man, those birds are big... And I'm convinced now that Big Bird of Sesame Street fame is really an ostrich - when one looked straight at me, I swore that with liberal application of yellow spray paint, I'd have a good Big Bird double. OK, so my memory of Sesame Street is a little hazy... I also saw deer in the distance and some horses too. All on large tracts of pasture land.
I got in to Padang Besar and a policeman at a road block (of which there were a few) directed me to the back way in to the Railway Station where I wanted to go to get a refund on my train ticket.
I had to carry the bike up the stairs at the entrance, then down two flights to the platform where the ticket office was and got there just on 11:15am. Only to discover the counter closed at 11:00 and reopened at 2:30pm... An officer confirmed I could get a 50% refund later so I wandered off to town to take some pictures and eat.
A policeman at the railway station chatted with me for a few minutes and said that if I took the overhead bridge instead, I would get back into town without going via the container truck road I'd come in on. So I carried my bike up the two flights of stairs, then across the overhead bridge and down a long flight of stairs, and into the immigration centre.
I had lunch at a coffee shop fronting the badly rutted main road. Thai bikes and cars were everywhere, and in amongst the babble of Malay and Mandarin, I heard the singsong lilt of Thai.
I got back to the station early, and sat at the cafeteria upstairs for awhile, enjoying an ice cream. For want of something to do, I decided to check the rear wheel for wear - a habit since the torn tyre incident. I pushed the bike back against the stand and spun the wheel to have a look. It went around half a turn then locked solid. Damn Brakes were rubbing against the wheel. Obviously my wheels weren't true anymore either. Damn! That would explain why I had difficulty coming in...
It turns out the same problem I'd had earlier had come up again. I made some cable and pad adjustments and it sorted it out at the expense of longer brake lever travel. I'd checked the wheels before and they were fine then so it seemed the calipers were only occasionally sticking and not returning fully. How long this had been happening I had no idea, but the grip was very light so that I didn't feel any juddering or vibrations. It did make pedalling that little bit more wearying of course.
I felt damn silly. Well, live and learn and all that I guess.
The train ticket settled, I felt no great urge to stay on in Padang Besar, market stalls selling all manner of Thai and local goods notwithstanding. I made for Kangar, and the bike, freed of the rear brake encumbrance, felt light and oh so quick. I pedalled furiously - keeping up a speed of 29 km/h and above. At times I was doing over 35 km/h and feeling great.
I stopped at the same stall on the way back, had an iced lemon tea and chatted for awhile more. The owner wished me well, and asked me to drop by again one day. Maybe I will.
One km closer, one less km to go. The end was almost anti-climatic - I reached the roundabout in Kangar with my head down, still going at a bit of a clip and hit the brakes at the last second. I rolled up to the Kangar Hotel, the last stop for me and the bike. I was grinning when I climbed back upstairs.
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