Day 16 Oct 30 Klang - Kuala Selangor

Distance: 52.65 km
Max Speed: 27.2 km/h
Average while moving: 17.7 km/h

When I started on this ride, I struggled to make 35 km. Now, 50+ is not a problem at all. I'm also quite adept now at estimating distances on one of my maps - it turns out the width of the fingernail on my little finger is about 10 km on the map and I've sometimes been as accurate as within 2 km in a 50 km distance.

My little fingernail said it would be about 55 km to Kuala Selangor and so I was confident enough to start out a little later than usual - about 7 am. Getting out of Klang wasn't too difficult although I needed to stop and ask directions from a group of men sitting outside a factory waiting for their shift to start. They all gave me the thumbs up and big smiles and waved as I rode away.

I'd only had a few hours in Klang (and I've just realised I've been spelling it both Kelang and Klang...), enough to walk around a bit last night and not much more. I did note that I was probably in the best part of town to fall sick in. The few blocks around the Hotel B had more clinics in one place than I've seen anywhere. I even saw 3 clinics in a row, followed by an Optometrist and then a 4th clinic. When I turned the corner of that row, I spied even more clinics. Are Klangites frequently ill or what? It might be they've all cycled from Klang to Pulai Indah often enough to ingest way too much sand, grime and tar for their own good...

It turned out to be a windy day, with much traffic on the road. The weather remained cool and dry for quite awhile and the cycling was comfortable. As such I stopped a few times to put on or adjust the video camera on the neat mount that Johann had given me.

I stopped at Kapar for breakfast at chinese shop and then as the day steadily got warmer, decided to stop just after Kg Asam Jawa for lunch. This was at an Indian shop right next to a large temple. As I sat there, the sky suddenly clouded over and it stormed with a vengeance for 15 minutes then slowly cleared. Remarkable.

I was the only patron as it was still rather early, maybe about 11:30, so I sat around for awhile and chatted a little with the owner and his wife. The shop was remarkably clean and I was genuinely surprised to hear they'd been there 4 years.

I reached Kuala Selangor, rode through the town and checked out the De Palma Hotel which I'd read about in an online tourism review of Kuala Selangor. As I rode in to the place, I realised from the signboard that it wasn't named in tribute to the film director, but instead referenced palm trees. It is run by PKNS, the state development board and I was grateful that they were full. I had no wish to meet anymore relatives of the booming programme leader from PD or Morib...

So I rode out, took out my mobile and called the Malaysian Nature Society. They had chalets available (it took her a few seconds to check) and booked me in. When I arrived a few minutes later, I discovered I would be the only guest tonight so could not quite figure out why she needed to check in the first place...

Ah... Cold water showers. I know you get used to it after awhile. And to be honest, it helps when you're hot and sweaty. I sure felt much better after I'd cleaned up. Good enough to take off for a walk around the hill, amply coated (or so I thought) with mosquito repellant. Incidentally, if you're looking for some, may I recommend Moz Away. My rationale is simple - buy local stuff as you're dealing with local mosquitoes. Forget the 'Off' and whatever. This stuff works.

There is a set of steps up the hill from the road in to the Nature Park and I had to use muscles that have not been used in a few weeks... There is a Chinese cemetery on the hillside which I'd never noticed before. The monkeys, however, are still about.

Ever since a bad encounter in Ulluwatu in Bali, I've been a bit wary of monkeys. The monkeys in that part of Bali have obviously been trained to snatch things from visitors and I was extremely agitated at being extorted in that way. Twice...

The monkeys on Bukit Melawati are of a different breed though - much more docile. You can feed them, as one person was doing. His familiarity with them was clear - eavesdropping on his conversation with some touring schoolkids, I gathered he came up every other day or so to feed them. I didn't like how he began to show off though and had to fight the urge to tell him off. When one monkey became a little greedy at the expense of other monkeys, the man grabbed it by the tail and swung it around to teach it a lesson. It seemed to work as the guilty monkey kept away for a little while. I didn't find this treatment at all amusing though - it is so easy to apply human rules and dynamics to animals who resemble us in some way. And yet so wrong too.

The hill is actually a very pleasant place to spend some time. You get such a panoramic view of the area and every time I visit I can't help standing at one of the old cannons and wonder what it must have been like to see pirate ships gathered off the coast, expecting them to mount a raid at any time...

Unbeknownst to me, I had not properly sprayed the repellant on and had missed a band around my left ankle. When I went down and decided to walk through the Nature Park instead, I was savagely attacked by a dozen or more mosquitoes. All at a 3 inch band around my left ankle and nowhere else... And these mosquitoes were savage! Their bites/stings were like sharp jabs with a needle so I hurried on, cursing myself for not bring the spray along.

I didn't stay long, as every time I paused, the damn mosquitoes would smell the blood coursing through the veins of my left ankle and form a mean, dark, vicious cloud around that space, jostling for air space like, well like mosquitoes after a hunger strike. OK this metaphor is breaking down big time, but I think you know what I mean.

If there's one thing I hate more than hills, it's leeches. Fortunately there weren't any. But I didn't know that. I kept looking out for them and that, combined with my rushing about avoiding the dark cloud of mosquitoes chasing my left ankle meant I didn't really have a good time in the park. Sad, I know, but so it was.

I went for a walk around town instead and eventually had dinner at a Malay restaurant. It was the air-conditioning that tempted me I must admit, but it turned out to be a great decision. A very good Nasi Goreng with some excellent Sambal Tumis left me full and happy.

Back at the park office, I wandered around and chatted for awhile with Kayli who'd been working there for 3 years or so. The information gallery is quite comprehensive though I was more than a little intrigued by two pale blue fabric objects hanging on a panel. They looked like large bra cups with oval holes cut in the top and I couldn't figure them out. Kayli laughed when I asked her what they were - insect traps or something? Turns out they were just containers they used to hold models of insects. Kids who visit the centre have itchy fingers - and not from insect bites. It seems they had pilfered the lot of model insects in the containers and Kayli had not bothered to replace them, nor remove the containers, leaving 42-year old men with overly imaginative sexual thoughts to ponder on the purpose of the strange cup-shaped fabric objects...

I had learnt my lesson again and had kept a mosquito coil lit in the chalet. I also lit one in the bathroom, and when the first one went out that night before I went to bed, I lit a fresh one.

Two days later I discovered that the clothes and towel I had hung up to dry had a mosquito coil ash smell... But that was later.
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Day 15 Oct 29 P Carey - Kelang Part 2

Eventually I reached the turnoff to where the flags on the lamp posts had been advertising the Festival of Pulau Indah was and cycled a little further in. New houses were on my left - some occupied and some not - and at the end of the a long road in, I spied a large fairground.

Nothing moved, nothing stirred. The Ferris wheel was motionless, the Top Gun a stationary monument to machismo and derring-do. I went around the ground and noticed a few people walking about. At this time, I still had not had any lunch and was getting a trifle hungry. A group of security guards sat near the entrance, idly chatting. They confirmed my worst fears - that there really were no chalets in the immediate vicinity but there was a hotel near the Star Cruises terminal some kilometres back.

I walked around a little anyway - construction was going on everywhere. I climbed up some steps and came up on an embankment. Across the water, I could see Pulau Carey and the stacks of the Golden Hope Palm Oil Mill. To get here from there, I had travelled in a large loop of about 40 km. And there really wasn't much here at all...

Further up the road I came upon a fancy food centre with a banner that proclaimed a coffee shop to be open. It wasn't. Nothing was, except the washrooms. It was all new, but I noticed one of the panels of the palm frond shaped roof of a pavilion was already hanging loose.

With no real choice, I cycled out, just as it began to drizzle. Going out the way I'd come, back amongst the lorries and trucks, I spied a mobile hawker's van in a layby and I stopped. I was feeling quite tired and my earlier enthusiasm from the two very pleasant meetings on Pulau Carey were now a distant memory.

I ordered an Air Tebu from the stallowner and sat down in the shelter he'd erected under the trees. He'd laid out some tables here, and there was another table with some curry puffs and assorted pastries displayed in plastic containers. As I sat there, a couple of trucks pulled over and the drivers hopped out to buy some drinks. It was then I noticed the hawker's van had food as well and so I had a plate of rice with a mutton curry and some veges. Tasted very good indeed, though not for any particular culinary expertise on the part of the cook...

The stall was tun by two blokes and as has been the case, we started chatting. It's amazing how easy we slip into warm, friendly conversations when in out of town areas. And it always seems so natural too. Just then another truck driver sat down to have his lunch and as we chatted he joined in too. When I described the hills around Batu Pahat and PD, the truck driver laughed - he knew those hills well and thought they were pretty steep too. So now I don't feel quite so embarrassed!

The driver had come out from Muar in the morning, delivered his cargo, filled up with other stuff and was now on his way back to Muar. Each trip would take him up to 4 hours so it would be a long day indeed by the time he got home.

I've always had the greatest respect for lorry drivers, especially those who have to manhandle the old trucks sans air-conditioning. They've always given me enough space on my ride (except around here as there just isn't enough width) and have, on more than one occasion tooted or waved encouragement at me.These guys work hard and are the blood supply of the agricultural and industrial activity of the country. They're also almost never acknowledged - unless some tragedy occurs.

I got into Klang, wet, dirty, grimy, sweaty and smelly. It had been a much harder ride than I'd anticipated, mentally and physically. The bike and I were splattered with sand, oil and tar.

But it wasn't over yet. Klang has a number of bridges over the river that runs through the town and I think I went over each one twice trying to find my way to a hotel. I'd marked out the Goldcourse Hotel and I could even see it, but somehow couldn't get on to the right road towards it. I eventually found myself at the train station and asked a couple of taxi drivers for directions. They just had to say that I needed to go back up that bridge....

Anyway, I finally found my way there, only to find the hotel fully booked. I looked across the street and spied another hotel named simply Hotel B. How appropriate - the second choice proved to be the right one and even though I couldn't get the bike upstairs, they let me chain it up in a back room downstairs.

The Hotel B was a strange mix of good hotel appointments and low-rent hotel quality. There was a shaver and hair dryer socket in the bathroom for example, but the carpet was stained and didn't look particularly clean, even if it felt OK underfoot. Still, the bed was comfortable and my initial fears of being kept awake by the sound of birds - a swallow nesting area was right next door and outside my window - proved to be unfounded. I was later to learn that much of the bird noise is actually recorded and played back over loudspeakers to attract the birds... They switch them off at night obviously.

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