Midliferide: Malaysia

Most of the pictures up to now were of the destinations. Because I didn’t bother stopping off to take photos. I relied on my handlebar-mounted cam for that. Unfortunately, as it is a front-facing camera, most of the pictures are of road. The really nice scenery was to the left and right of me. Maybe what I need is a helmet mount for future. Anyways, here are a few of the ones I’ve saved. Not great, but I had to put up something. Misty fresh morning on the East-West   Highway. Nice when this sight does not bring with it the smell of burning. The guard at Tanjong Jara Resort, taking names. On a country road 29km from Kuala Dungun Wide open spaces. They were stopped for breaking the law. I  was stopped for being cool. The only picture of me on the bike. Bridge on Route 4/East-West Highway One of the many, many curves along Route 4. Drive into Swiss-Garden Beach Resort. Mountain view on the road to Gerik.

Oh, it got better indeed. Waaaay better. Started off a bit later this morning, about 9am. Simply because I am following a no alarm clock rule; I go to bed around 2200hrs (plus or minus one hour) and wake up when my body is ready to wake up. Since I’ve got a bit anal with tracking sleep - wearing my Apple Watch to bed and using the Sleepwatch app - for the first time this year I’ve had a really good resting heart rate and sleeping heart rate dip over the last 3 nights. With a breakfast of nasi lemak and two cups of coffee to start my engines, I rode off. It was Route 60, then A1-something-something then onto the North-South highway towards KL. The ride started off to be similar to Route 5 but just as I was gritting my teeth and mentally preparing myself, traffic opened up and it was a smooth ride to the NSE. Opened up on the NSE, as this would probably be the last chance for the rest of the trip. Then exited on Exit 143 - Kuala Kangsar, Gerik and a few other unmemorables. Upon which I w...

Ok, it’s official. The worst road in Malaysia for riding is Route 5. This is from where it starts in Johor, all the way to Lumut. It might get a bit better after, but I can’t be bothered to find out. Headed out of Carey Island at about 0830hrs. I forgot that I was located in/in the vicinity of the Klang Valley, and had to actually pass through Klang. An hour later, leaving Klang after battling rush hour traffic, I was a sweaty mess, and the day was just warming up. Route 5 (the same from my 21-traffic-light gauntlet from two years ago, although I might be exaggerating the number now) is the same down south as it is up north. Too many traffic lights, too many lorries, too many small towns trying to win the traffic light contest and roadworks almost all the way. This made for slow going, not much overtaking opportunity, a lot of lane-splitting coming up to traffic lights and small town dawdlers out for a Sunday drive on a Tuesday morning. I’d left Google Maps on for quite a bit as the ex...