Singapore

Kota Tinngi to Mersing

Well what a day 92km, 6.5 hours. It started of all sweet and dandy, flat run out of the city just after 6am; sun was an hour or so away from rising. The birds were chirping and so was everything else.

Before for I start the road trip, the Nasha hotel in Kota tinngi is also used as a brothel, the love hotel, as Peter reeves puts it. From about 10 till about 2 in the morning lots of comings and goings, luckily I slept through most of it, I did say most but not all.

Anyway back to the ride, the first hour went well, averaged about 20km an hour and then it all slowed down to about 15km got to see some wild life on the way, I came across a large lizard at one point. It was DOMA (Dead on my arrival) After a 15 minute autopsy I deduced that it had been struck by something large and moving at high speed. Well I said to myself what moves at high speed around here, after a few minutes I gave up and got back on the bike and headed away.

Thinking about the lizard kept my mind away from the pain that was my arse, after a few km back on the bike that went away after it had gone num, I found another animal on the road which was also DOMA, a spotted cat of some sort. Another mystery never to be solved. The km were soon passing by, I knew this by all the signs on the side of the road, after you think you have been riding for ages and then you see the next sign and you have only gone 5 km it can get a bit annoying to say the least.

After eating bread and eggs which I had got the night before for breakfast, I stopped around 9 for second breakfast; this meant I would have about 40km left to go, not so bad. O did I mention there are lots of hills between Kota Tanngi and Mersing, No flat road at all. Legs were not too bad at this stage, the thing was the hill got a little bigger or that could have been that I was just slowing down. We know that would never happen.

Around the 30km mark my right Knee (the bad one) started to get sore, Could not really stop so just battled on, braving the pain, the heat of the sun and the crazy traffic. In Malaysia it is fine to pass into corners and also fine to just make it in before the other car coming the other way has to drive off the road. Gets exciting at times.

Anyway at about the 80km make the clouds seemed to darken somewhat and yes you guessed it the heavens opened up and the rain came down in buckets. It was very very nice, cooled me down a treat and wet everything in two out of the three bags I have. So have spent the afternoon drying things out. yippy...

After arriving in Mersing, using just my left leg to peddle as my right had had enough, no problem with my arse any more and then finding the hotel I was going to stay in had closed down
I managed to find somewhere and have booked tickets for ferry and hotel on Island, now I know I could get to island and find a place but the prices were about what was in the lonely bible I mean planet.

So am off to the Island of Pulau Tioman, lots of snorkeling and relaxing. I think I deserve a bit of a break.

Johor Bahru to Kota Tinggi

Well not much to say on this leg. Had a pretty amazing thunder storm last night and that's been about the highlight. It was all high way riding today, the good thing about it is your riding through forest most of the time. The truck smoke is pretty bad, so have be using my Bandana as a face mask which helps. Have a big day tomorrow to mersing and then hopefully I can relax on a beach for a few days. Bring on the beach. I have not seen another westerner since I left Singapore but should catch up with a few in mersing not that thats a big thing as the locals are very friendly and are always asking questions.

So I'm just exploring Kota Tinggi, and there an't much here. The bum is becoming a bit sore but hopefully it will harden up a bit soon, just have to keep on going.

Flights

Well I made it; Auckland to Brisbane was a good flight with some sleep on the way and a couple of hours sleep at Brisbane airport.. Then the fun began. 7 1/2 hours of crying babies, there was not just one baby, but 3, when one stopped the next one started, lucky for me there were some good movies so that occupied most of my time. There was some poor Irish guys sitting next to me who still had to fly on to Dublin.. Poor buggers..

The hotel in Singapore was really nice and they upgraded me for free, which was sweet. So I manage to get about 7 hours sleep there before my alarm woke me a 6. Took 1/2 hour to put my bike back together and there was nothing left in the box. So after doing the obligatory photos and getting some very dodge direction I set off in search of Malaysia, Big country should not be to hard. Well after finding 3 roads with the same name and finding out that you can’t ride on a freeway I brought a map, no GPS, bugger. Because of the freeway problem I had to negotiate the Streets of Singapore.

So off I set again with the sun rising in the west, yep wrong way again.. Sun rising in east back up the road I had just ridden down, I was back on track. The Map was not the best to say the least, it was the latest but for some reason some roads were a lot longer then the map showed.

So as the sun started rising higher in the sky I moved slowly toward the boarder, which because I could not use the freeway took about 4 hours that was with plenty of stops looking at the map to check I HAD NOT GONE WRONG AGAIN and food stops, must feed the beast I made it to the border crossing, now this was fun to, Singapore was stamp and away I went, and it kept going and then I thought I was in the right place but no still had more to go.

Finally got to the right place with the Malaysian border guard laughing at me, just because I looked like I had just been dragged up a river backwards. Made it across the border and am now in Johor Bahru, Great place, real nice. NOT. The door to my hotel says not to open door to anyone unless front desk rings first. But I am clean and ready for dinner soon and an early night. The roads are much better first thing.

I am also going to run the freeway, as this will be much quicker to get out of here..
Well must go have Glasses to buy and my room to lock myself in for the night. The recommended restaurant does not look to good either, may have to find some thing a bit nicer..

Notes from the farm

Hi all the packing is almost done. The bike is just about ready and it should be all go for next week. The travel route is some what planned with room to move. The bike weight has climbed a bit so might be some trimming of some fat, who needs two pairs of underwear anyway. I sure their will be something I forget but that can be sorted when I get there.

The farm has been pretty good the chickens have run a muck the cows are their usual moaning selves, always complaining about not being feed enough, and the Lab(dog) is still eating as much cow crap as she can, which is a bit discusting, but thats Labradors for you.

My parents have had me working while down here, it has not been all plain sailing, so far have chopped up 4 trees, water blasted 1/4 of the house and have only been subjected to one day of fishing which has been a bit disappointing. It was a bit ruff out at sea. Waves breaking over the bow and a limited amount of edible fish, but it was good to be out on the ocean, sea spray in the face and the smell of fish on my clothes.

Anyway the next blog I will be somewhere in Asia, Feel free to make comments and let me know what is happening here in NZ by email.

Take care all

Steve