Yes! I made it! My cycling journey in SE Asia is complete! I am writing this from Kuala Lumpur, my final destination for cycling. Here is a quick summary of my final few days on and off the bike:
Firstly, the hills weren’t actually that bad. The biggest one, going up to the Cameron Highlands was very long, (about 30miles of up) but it never got very steep so it wasn’t actually that difficult. Additionally, going down the other side of it (on Christmas Day,) was a lot of fun and had some great views! The other hills were small by comparison and were also fine.
Secondly, after writing previously about how lucky I was to have seen Monkeys in the national park in Thailand, around this part of Malaysia they are literally everywhere! Cycling along I would often hear or see tree branches moving in the trees at the side of the road, and look up to see monkeys jumping between them! The power cables that run alongside the road in many places also seemed to serve as ‘Monkey highways’ that they would run along to and fro. I saw Monkeys of all shapes and sizes – from big ones with furry mane-like hair which I took to be the big males, to tiny little babies clinging on to their mother’s belly as she leaped and scampered around. They often seemed quite interested in me, and would often stop mid-run and peer down, but would immediately scarper as soon as I began slowing my bike down to stop, and before I could get anywhere near my camera!
Thirdly, this parts of Malaysia really is beautiful! In general, Malaysia is more developed than the other countries that I have ridden through so it would be easy to not really get an impression of the countryside if you just stuck to the highways. However as usual I chose to go the more interesting way rather than the quickest way, and boy was I rewarded for it! Instead of slogging along beside lanes of traffic, I spent my time cycling along quiet country roads through lushious countryside, sweeping hills and through forests echoing with the sounds of wildlife.
This beauty of Malaysia really is exemplified by countryside around the Cameron Highlands, where I took two rest days to explore. It consists of hills, beautiful man made terraced tea plantations, and best of all amazing natural forest!
The town itself is a little odd. It was first indentified as a possible sight for a hill settlement by a British colonial surveyor, William Cameron (who gave it his name) in 1885, but old William forgot to mark it’s location on his map, and they didn’t manage to find it again, and actually start building until the 1920’s! Nowadays, it’s a popular destination for Malaysians from nearby towns and cities as well as foreign tourists, and is being rapidly developed to meet the demand, resulting in lots of hastily put up and not too attractive concrete blocks and regular traffic jams on the narrow mountain roads (which I very much enjoyed smugly riding past on my bike!) The odd thing about it is that it’s colonial past is very much still a part of its character and indeed it’s draw for tourists – so tourists from all over Malaysia visit to pick their own strawberries on the strawberry farms, sit in cafés and enjoy cream teas with scones and strawberry jam, maybe play golf on the golf course, and if they are willing to pay three times as much as anywhere else, they can visit the old smokehouse hotel and restaurant, which is located in a Tudor style building and serves only traditional British food such as oxtail stew and dumplings, steak and kidney pie, and bubble and squeak! It’s rather bizarre!
Myself, I didn’t spend much time in the town apart from in the hostel and in the excellent and cheap Indian restaurant that I found. Instead, I spent my days exploring the hiking trails which spider out in all directions around the town.
Trails 10 & 4, which I explored on the morning of the first day were relatively easy trails quite close to the town, but were pleasant to walk along and 10 in particular had amazing views when you reached the peak Gunung Jasar (Jasar Hill). The sun was shining, which always helps, but due to the higher altitude the temperatures were a little cooler, which was very pleasant for walking. I made it back to town just as the clouds began to roll in looking like rain, and went off to munch on a delicious thali meal whilst I considered my options for the afternoon.
The thing was… it was probably going to rain, but whilst I had enjoyed the morning’s walks, I didn’t feel that I had done any serious hiking nor did I think I had really seen the best that the Cameron Highlands had to offer… and I only had one further day after this one before I had to get on my bike again and set off. I could just cut my losses and spend the afternoon reading or watching Netflix, but that didn’t strike me as very interesting. “Besides,” I thought, “I’m English, and I have a coat – I’m not going to melt!”
I’m SO glad that I decided to go out again! The trail that I decided to follow went mostly through forest, so being under the canopy I didn’t get that wet, and the forest in the rain was so completely amazing – it was just like nothing I had ever seen before! I literally felt like I had walked onto the set of a fantasy movie in the enchanted forest of the elves, only 100times better, because it was all real. It really was insane. Everything was too beautiful, the colours were too vivid, the forest just felt more alive than I ever could have imagined. The rainwater made all of the colours stand out, like when you put varnish on top of paint, and with the sunlight still trickling in through the trees, it also made everything sparkle. Moreover, the continued sunshine through the rain and the high levels of humidity that were around even before the rain led to the rainwater evaporating literally in front of your eyes in clouds of mist hung that around the forest and caught the slatted beams of sunlight beautifully. If you have ever been to one of those Christmas light shows where they illuminate the trees and the gardens for you to walk through, you will have an idea of the effect I am getting at, only this was just infinitely more marvellous because of the endless complexity and unlimited wonder – every way you turned there was something new to look at, and even just looking in one direction your gaze would be drawn deeper, and deeper, and deeper into the undergrowth, at every moment falling on something ever more beautiful and amazing. It wasn’t just the sights either – it was a feast for every one of the senses. The sound of the rain on the leaves came from every direction, along with the loud and varied calls of numerous birds, occasional crashes of branches as birds or monkeys leaped or landed into the water-laden canopy, trickling of water in some places as it ran through crevices in the rocks and the undergrowth, as well as the sound of my own breath and footsteps. On top of this the scents of the numerous tropical plants and trees and the musty scent of the damp undergrowth rose with the mist, and I could feel warm damp air and splashes drops of cool rain, as well the prickling of sweat on my skin as I worked my way through the forest.
By the time I got back I was pretty wet (even under the canopy if you stay out in it long enough you get wet,) but very glad that I had gone out. On the way back I bought a lovely warm cheese filled naan from the Indian restaurant which was made in front of me as a I waited in a traditional fire oven, went back to the hostel, stripped off my wet clothes, and settled down with a cup of tea.
The following day I went out to explore trails 6, 3, 2, which lead through forest adjoining the area that I had been in the previous day. I have to say that even without the rain the forest was exceptionally beautiful, but compared to the previous day when it had felt so incredibly alive – as if it were singing joyously and harmoniously at the top of its voice – now it seemed more subdued and restful – as though if it were happily dozing and waking, occasionally murmering something sweet before it nodded off again. The trails themselves were lots of fun – trail 2 in particular involved lots of steep up and down, clambering up on tree routes and balancing over streams, and I was pretty glad that I hadn’t been on that one when it was all slippery the previous day!
Now, After two more days of cycling, I have now reached Kuala Lumpur and have finally completed this part of my journey! In total, I have covered around 2800miles on my bike! Not bad I reckon!
Of course, this isn’t the end of my travels yet. The next stage is New Zealand and all the adventures that will entail. But first, I’m off to explore Kuala Lumpur, followed by New Year’s in Singapore! 🙂
Dancing in the Dawn 