The Amazing Flying Motorcycle

Whilst bumming around KL I visited Batu Caves, the location of a Hindu Temple. There were lots of steps up and it was nice and hot. Thankfully someone had the sense to stick a useful sign at the top.

There was also quite a nice view from the top of the KL Menora tower.

Sunny Finally opened after a week of waiting. I could finally get some new tyres, some nice knobbly offroad ones, for the potentially hard slog across Indonesia. There were also some aluminium boxes there which fit my rack perfectly so I snapped them up at a discounted rate and posted my soft panniers home. I like these ones. I'll try to not break them. I discovered my engine was running very rich upon spark plug removal so tweaked my carburettor a bit more but it still ran rough on the way back to the guest house.

At Sunnys I noticed another Uk plated BMW, and recognised it as being Russ' who I met in Pakistan. We bumped into each other at the guest house. He was having engine troubles. Luckily despite the problems my bike has never stopped running and has always managed to get me somewhere (apart from when the valve clearance became massive in Turkey which I could adjust or for that matter when the chain snapped in Northern Thailand.

I figured out that it must be the float in the carb set incorrectly and thus with it being Sunday, and Sunny closed again, I decided to pull the bike apart on the pavement in true 'Yeah it can't be that hard to fix can it?' style. After an hour I was holding various mechanical parts in my hands trying to get to grips with exactly how it worked. One part didn't make sense, something had to be missing, and sure enough I had dropped a tiny important bit on the floor. Thankfully I found it. The bike is now running perfectly again after my confused tinkering.

I set off back to Penang to get boat to Indo. Everything ran perfectly, just as I had hoped for my anticipated island hopping adventure.

Whilst killing time for a change on Penang I met Lene from Norway and we decided to hit a beach for the day. Whilst lazing in the water on a deserted beach I heard a sharp call from an alarmed bird. I glanced up and was convinced I saw a 'dragon type creature' about 1 metre long in the water not far away. I promptly removed myself from the vicinity. Later in the day I saw it again. Possibly it may have been Nessie on her holidays but more likely I think it was a Monitor lizard. Various monkeys also visited us on the beach and I managed to fall asleep on my side in the sun and now have a half bronzed (read burnt) body.

The onion boat to Indonesia arrived on Thursday, so I could head down to Butterworth port to sort out the customs clearance. That afternoon and my bike did its greatest acrobatic trick to date when it was hoisted into the cargo hold of the boat. It was a rather apprehensive experience as she floated a few metres over the wharf whilst I hummed the theme tune from 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. I just hope she doesn't take a dip on the other side.

I now will get a ferry to Medan in the morning. I've been a bit apprehensive about Indonesia, due to the size of the archipelago and the reduced amenities in remote areas. But then again I have been swanning around Thailand etc. for the past couple of months. Now I'm rather excited at the opportunity for adventure in the jungles, and with the bike running well I am confident of few problems, but then again...it is a KTM.