Day 33 Nov 17 Alor Setar - Kangar Part 1

Distance: 51.37 km
Max Speed: 27.3 km/h
Average while moving: 18.5 km/h


The Regent tried its best to get me to dislike it. Being stuck on the top floor when you have 20kgs of bags to haul up is one thing - even when one of the hotel staff helps.

When he opens the room door and tries to switch on the air con only to find that the remote fails to work, it adds to the overall image and mood just a tad.

Then when he comes back with fresh batteries and the air con starts up, you look around the room and realise two things - it fronts the street and you get traffic noise (though in reality it isn't too noisy) and you also realise that only 2 of the 6 lights in the room actually works. No bedside lamps, no entrance light, no side light...

Still, there was a feeling of lived-in comfort. Like an old pair of shoes that feels just right, despite looking a little worn and tired, the hotel just seemed to fit around me invitingly and warmly.

And it did get warm... but don't let me get ahead of myself.

The staff at the hotel were extremely friendly - not in a false, instructed or trained manner, but in a sincere straight-from-the-heart flow that just added to the aura of the place.

Now, I'm not saying that the Regent is the best place to stay in Alor Setar. Not by any means. However, just like how I've found such warmth and friendliness in so many people I've met along the way, the Regent was that little kampung gerai compared to some other newer hotels. You forgive the gerai for its torn table cloths, or its grubby walls, for you know you'll have some decent grub, a good chat, maybe a memory or two to take with you.

I went to the Railway station to book my ticket back. The station master confirmed that if I booked the entire first class cabin, and if I wrapped the bike up and made it as small a package as possible, I should have no problems taking it on board. Happy to have finally made progress on the matter, I went up to the ticket counter and found all the tickets sold out for my intended date of travel...

I had wanted to be back in Singapore on Wednesday the 21st, for a number of reasons. The only tickets I could get would land me in KL on the 21st morning. I bought the tickets anyway, with all sorts of scenarios running through my head...

1st class train from Arau to KL arriving 21st. Bike dismantled and boxed.
Then express bus to Singapore - will they let me take the bike? Could it fit in the luggage compartment?
If not, what about train to Singapore? Hmmmm... got to heave everything through customs - no fun that. Anyway, it would be too late to arrive on 21st evening.
What other choices? Other stations? What about getting to Butterworth and getting the train straight through to Singapore?
Or I could leave the bike in KL and bus down immediately...

I got back to the hotel just before 11, quite hot from the walk. I had requested a late checkout so went upstairs to think things through. As I sat there, the lights suddenly went off and the air con main switch flicked off loudly. Hmmmm... the room was still plenty bright due to the large windows so I waited a little while.

5 minutes passed and I decided to pop downstairs to find out what was going on - they couldn't have thought I was checking out and flicked off my power could they?

The entire hotel was dark save for the emergency lights and the natural light that came in through the clear roof panels over the atrium. It seems there was a power blackout - I found the staff having lunch in the cafe and joked that they should pay their electricity bill promptly next time. They laughed and invited me to join them for lunch but I declined and headed out to find me something to eat.

True enough, most of the shops were in darkness, the owners sitting around calmly reading papers or talking. I gather blackouts are not uncommon here, in Mahathir's birthplace.

When I came back, hot once again (it was a very hot day), the residual cool air in my room was welcome though after a few minutes I was getting a trifle warm, though not uncomfortably so. I made some telephone enquiries about buses and it all didn't look good.

Still, Not something to dwell over, so I decided to check out and head out to Kangar. I waited in the lobby (the electricity supply had resumed) until about 3, chatting with the staff for a bit. When I eventually set off, I turned around and 3 of the staff were at the hotel doors waving at me.

I like the Regent... even when the air con or lights don't work!

Day 32 Nov 16 Sungei Petani - Alor Setar

Distance: 84.42 km
Max Speed: 45.8 km/h (steep and long hill! And I was using the brakes!)
Average while moving: 18.7 km/h


I had way too little sleep last night. I just couldn't get any shut eye and was up past midnight. Not a good idea when you want to get some miles in the next day.

As it was I woke up feeling a little lethargic. There are essentially two parallel routes to Alor Setar - one being the main trunk road, and the other the coast road which ends at Kuala Kedah and then cuts back to Alor Setar. I opted to take the scenic route - though this was a last minute decision.

I had noticed a note on my maps marking the Archeological Museum near Gunung Jerai and had considered checking it out. As I cycled along the main trunk road to Alor Setar, with every intention of taking that shorter route, I saw a sign pointing west to the Museum, in the Bujang Valley. It claimed the museum to be less than 20km away but by the time I considered it, I had passed the junction - bicycles do go so very fast, don't they?

At the next junction, there was another sign again so I figured what the heck, maybe I was meant to get there so I took the turn off and headed west.

I cycled in, and used my instinct to guide me as there were no more meaningful signs after that. At one stage, I saw the sign for Butterworth and got concerned so I stopped and backtracked 400m to the previous junction and true enough, I had taken the wrong turn off. Phew!

While crossing a bridge, I heard the familiar whirring of bicycle gears coming up behind me. I usually check my mirror quite regularly but had been distracted by the scene below me so failed to notice the cyclist until he was abreast of me. Decked out in cycling gear and riding a racer, he seemed to be out for a pleasure ride - he had no other bags on him. We said 'Hi' to each other he went past. I sensed he slowed down to let me catch up, but laden with all my stuff and struggling with my lethargy, I was going at a very sedate 20 km/h and he slowly distanced himself.

By this time, there were no more signboards pointing to the museum so I gave up on that idea and decided to just continue on to get to the coast road and take that way up north instead.

I made a couple of turns by instinct and eventually found myself in Merbok, with Gunung Jerai looming large on my right. I rode through town saw a Malay stall, went past that, saw a Chinese stall and nothing else, then opted to go back to the Malay stall. Something about a good sambal in the morning...

I sat down facing the main road and as I looked up what should I see but the signboard to the museum, pointed straight up a little road that ran off the main road. I was, in effect, sitting across from the entrance to the museum I'd given up hope of seeing...

After breakfast, I rode in. The sign said 2km and I got as far as 1.4 when the rode became much too steep to ride up. I pushed the bike up a couple of hundred metres to the corner, expecting to see the road taper off. This was supposed to be the Bujang Valley after all wasn't it?

Apparently not - I rounded the corner and saw that the road got even steeper. The gradient got so steep I was leaning into the bike, my head almost level with the seat. I even had to stop a couple of times to rest, such was the effort needed to push!

Well, I got up to the guard post and the entire episode mocked me with two speed humps I struggled the bike over before I could get to the museum itself. Which turned out to be a small affair, opened in 1980. This was a large Hindu trading post 1600 years ago and it was interesting seeing the various artifacts unearthed in the area.

The gallery entrance was dominated by a large 3D model of the surrounding area and the first thing I noticed was that the museum was actually located in a cutting in Gunung Jerai. Hence the steep climb.

The next thing I noticed was that the road along the coast went steeply up a hillock. My blood ran cold for a moment. It seemed my earlier declaration that hills were no big deal now were coming back to haunt me...

I had come across a blog by someone from the area and he'd referred to the Singkir kampung area as hilly. Well, the maps didn't really indicate that, and besides, wasn't this area the Bujang Valley? OK so every valley needs a couple of mountains to define it...

The staff at the museum warned me that there were 3 hills on the way up the coast but he said I should be OK if I took it slow.

I wasn't OK. If the climb in to the museum was the mother of all hills, I met her 3 offspring on the way up the coast. The peak of one of the hills turned out to be Tanjung Jaga which had some very elevated views of the sea below.

I made it up the first, pushed up the second, coasted along a short plateau then pulled up to rest when I saw the third. It seemed to reach for the sky and I appeared to be looking down on the roof of cars that went up the slope ahead. Well, I eventually sped down the slope, made it up about two-thirds of the way then got off the bike and pushed the rest of the way up. I had to stop once to rest - I really wasn't feeling very fit today!

After the hills I stopped for an iced tea at a little stall by a river. The stall had a little sheltered space beneath a large shady tree with a juke box, a few seats and a large TV. Seemed like a really nice place to watch football or hang out in the evenings.

A lady ran the stall and her son and his friend were lounging about when I sat down. The usual questions followed and the son declared he would never be able to cycle such a distance - he made a great pantomime of having to call a friend to come and pick him up.

It was here that I knew I was well and truly in the north. My iced tea didn't cost me 80 sen. It cost me 8 kupang... I was beginning to have problems with the dialect as well and often could not understand what was being said. It wasn't just the pronunciation - 'betoi' for 'betul' - but some of the slang was lost on me too.

I reached Alor Setar, roamed around a couple of streets before I found two hotels. So I checked into the Regent.

No, not that Regent... This one was built in 1967, and in fact the foundation stone was laid by none other than Tunku Abdul Rahman, our first prime minister. A much more modest hotel, a room cost me less than RM80 and was clean and comfortable. My bike was locked up downstairs, and they gave me a room on the 3rd floor. And the hotel had no lifts 'Ini hotel lama ni...' 'This is an old hotel...'

Ah well, I survived Jerai, I'll survive the Alor Setar Regent.

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Day 31 Nov 15 Sungei Petani

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.

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