To date no other country made me feel as welcome as Malaysia. I have heard only bits here and there about the country beforehand so I came in with no glorious expectations. But it's been truly wonderful right from the start. There is just something nice about being given a 3 month entry stamp with no questions asked. Although trying to declare the bike through customs was not easy. Normally, the Carnet (bike passport) is the first thing officials want to see when they see me but here they just kept waving me on until I found myself on the highway towards Ipoh... On my return to the border it was a bit of a mission to find the right person to stamp my documents.but in the end all went smoothly with smiles all round.
The general easy going mood followed me right until the end of my stay.
The only negative comment I might have is that the food is not as good as in Thailand, but then in few places it is. Somehow Malaysia makes up for it in everything else though.
Cameron Highlands , which I have been told are lovely, were indeed nice, but a little bit too artificial for my liking. Kind of like a huge gardening centre and a theme park in one. But then things got interesting. I rode out of the wet hills into Taman Negara - one of the oldest rain forests in the world and a really magnificent wilderness. being very remote and largely unchanged for the past 130 million years I got pretty close to some cool wildlife, including the (mildly) venomous Twin-barred Tree Snake on which I very nearly stepped just outside my tent, and the numerous leeches stuck to my legs.
I'll try to add some photos whenever I can.
Slowly I then got to the Perhentien island where I did my Open Water diving course. My highlight from the week or so on the island would have to be the swim only about half a metre away from a Hawks Bill Turtle that could not care less about my presence. I also spotted some Black-tipped Sharks, all three about a metre long, but they were much faster swimmers than I and stayed well clear..
I'm now in KL airport waiting for my flight to Perth. bike is flying too.
The general easy going mood followed me right until the end of my stay.
The only negative comment I might have is that the food is not as good as in Thailand, but then in few places it is. Somehow Malaysia makes up for it in everything else though.
Cameron Highlands , which I have been told are lovely, were indeed nice, but a little bit too artificial for my liking. Kind of like a huge gardening centre and a theme park in one. But then things got interesting. I rode out of the wet hills into Taman Negara - one of the oldest rain forests in the world and a really magnificent wilderness. being very remote and largely unchanged for the past 130 million years I got pretty close to some cool wildlife, including the (mildly) venomous Twin-barred Tree Snake on which I very nearly stepped just outside my tent, and the numerous leeches stuck to my legs.
I'll try to add some photos whenever I can.
Slowly I then got to the Perhentien island where I did my Open Water diving course. My highlight from the week or so on the island would have to be the swim only about half a metre away from a Hawks Bill Turtle that could not care less about my presence. I also spotted some Black-tipped Sharks, all three about a metre long, but they were much faster swimmers than I and stayed well clear..
I'm now in KL airport waiting for my flight to Perth. bike is flying too.
cool - how about to send a postcard to some of your friends (me!)
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