The Falang In Penang

My time on Koh Tao came to a rather abrubt end one morning at 5am when I was unceremoniously turfed from the ferry back onto the mainland after a few bad hours of sleep. A couple of truck drivers were rather annoyed as well since I had managed to block their lorries in with my bike so they had to wait for me to remove my straps and disembark.

It was still dark at 5am but I decided to push on South and across Thailand to Krabi where I would spend the night. I hadn't left myself much time on my visa since it expired the next day so I would then have to push on to Malaysia. The road to Krabi was mainly highway but I amused myself by taking photos of my shadow.

Fantastic limestone rock formations emerged from the landscape like sleeping monsters and the foliage also appeared to get bigger. Massive palm trees lined the road and it was all very scenic.

I arrived in Krabi at about 10am, had some breakfast, found a guesthouse, then went to sleep. I awoke at 4pm and decided that I should probably have a look at what the town had to offer. I expected some nice beaches in the bay but there just appeared to be a lot of mangrove trees. The same tout asked me 3 times whether I wanted a boat ride. I returned to my hostel just as it started to rain pretty heavily. I was glad since the bike would get a good wash after spending a week on an island in the salt air. I ate then went to bed. I'm sure Krabi is a nice place but I was too tired to appreciate it.

I set off early the next day to get to Malaysia. After 5 hours and 300km I saw a sign for 'the border'. I followed it curiously since I still thought I was a good 50km away from where I thought the border was. The road snaked through the jungle and then I did indeed arrive at the border. It was literally a drive through border in the middle of the jungle, sort of like a McDonalds, but I still had to get off the bike and wander around the Thai side being directed from window to window just to get my passport stamped. For some reason the moody guy at the window labelled 'departures' wanted me to go to one labelled 'information'. They sent me back to the 'departures' man who stamped my passport then let me go. Since I was now stamped out of Thailand with nothing to stop me leaving I decided against going to customs so that they could get confused about the paperwork for the bike and just rode over the border. Nobody seemed bothered.

Just over the border I noticed a 4x4 parked up. It had plates from the Netherlands and was a couple of overlanders I had last met on Koh Chang. They were also surprised that there was a border here. They're on their way to Kuala Lumpur to ship their bike to India so that they can begin the long journey back to Europe. Good luck guys!

Immigration on the Malaysian side couldn't have been easier. I filled in a form, and was given a 3 month visa for free. The cheerful man behind the window was happy to welcome me to Malaysia and hoped that I would enjoy my stay. The man at customs knew exactly what to do with my Carnet, stamped it, then waved me on my way.

I was headed to Georgetown on the Island of Penang. Here I hoped to find a place to ship the bike to Indonesia once I have explored Malaysia a bit more. There are also KTM dealers here! The first I will have seen since Turkey. I want to get my rear shock absorber re-built as well as a decent service by someone who hopefully knows what they are doing. I'm not holding my breath but we can all dream.

After 50km or so I stopped at a petrol station. I had a brief conversation with a man from Bangladesh who, once I had mentioned I was from Manchester, kept naming footballers. I get this a lot. Mostly I just have to stare blankly, nod and agree. They soon seem to figure out that I have no idea who the names they keep repeating over and over are. They then look at me as if I'm stupid, which I am, and there is an awkward silence. I then make my getaway.

Luckilly there was an ATM there since the money change shops at the border were closed for Friday prayers and couldn't change my Thai Baht. I had no idea what the exchange rate for Sterling was so after a couple of attempts at trying to take out more money than I had, ended up with 1500 Ringit. The petrol station had 97 Octane petrol, the best I had probably seen since Europe. 16 litres cost me 34 Ringit. I figured out that there is about 5 Ringit to the Pound thus it was £7 for 16 litres of top quality fuel. Bargain! It's amazing how much healthier my engine sounds with the better petrol. I guess that's the price of higher compression and higher performance.

I took the toll road highway South towards Penang. Unlike Thailand, bikes are allowed on. We also don't have to pay and have seperate chevroned lanes marked out for us! In Thailand the police just wanted you to ride in the gutter. The Malaysian's have also built little storm shelters for bikers for when it rains. So thoughtful!

After another couple of hundred kilometers the traffic started to thicken and the bikes were directed to a seperate lane to the left, for what I presumed was to bypass the toll booth. Most of the bikes pulled over for what I also presumed was a break. I pulled over too but also to try to figure out why Helmet Cam had stopped working. I think he got wet when I took him diving or maybe the batteries are playing up.

I moved off again and was shortly greeted by an unexpected toll booth. I fumbled around for change and annoyed the woman in the booth as well as the bikes behind me. It clicked, the other bikes who had pulled over were getting their change ready.

I was soon on the bridge across the water to Penang island. It's several kilometers long. I wanted to take a video but as I mentioned Helmet Cam was asleep.

Once on Penang Island I attempted to negotiate through the traffic and down the one-way streets to find a guesthouse. This sign wasn't much use...

I managed to get to Chinatown where most of the guesthouses seem to be. I had a beer in a cafe whilst trying to decide where to stay. An enterprising businessman took advantage of where I had parked my bike to make some extra cash.

After finding a guesthouse I went out for a little walk. Georgetown is a wonderful fusion of Indians, Chinese, Malaysians and Muslims all living together in a vague semblence of organisation which I would like to attribute to the former British rule (yes maybe we did something right!). The call to prayer is sometimes accompanied by Chinese drums being beaten. A Indian man in a cycle rickshaw passed me by, smiled, then kept going. I was amazed he didn't keep hassling me. I had some food at a small streetside stall. The Indian man did his funny little head nod dance when I asked for noodles and chicken. He cooked up an amazing fusion of Indian and Oriental dishes.

On my walk back to the hostel, fat women hid in bushes and whispered 'hello darling' to me. I grinned at them, waved and said 'hello' loudly. They tried to hide behind tiny bushes. Such friendly people!

This morning I went on the hunt for a KTM dealer, the first one I will have encountered since Turkey! I found it after a 2 hour hunt during which I asked lots of directions and even had someone draw me a map which would have taken me straight there had I not taken a wrong exit and ended up on the highway. Whilst I was stuck in traffic an old man came and had a conversation with me about the virtues of patience.

I found the dealer. They had lots of 990's. I was tempted to trade my bike in and get one. I am now bike-less, having left Katie for the best service she will probably have had this trip. My rear suspension is being rebuilt, the engine is being properly serviced together with my carb being tuned and I'm having new tyres and wheel bearings put on together with numerous other little things. All in preparation for potentially bad roads in Indonesia together with the long slog across the Australian desert.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do or where I will go next. I could try and get across to Borneo or wander around Malaysia for a bit before heading across Indonesia. Maybe some more diving is in order but I know it will never be as cheap as on Koh Tao.