Cycling Tour

17th January

I had to be up early for the Penang cycling tour I had booked. I don't really enjoy cycling, but I imagined (and hoped) this would be a gentle 'drift' through the Malaysian countryside and not a tough ride. It was also reasonably priced for a 'Get Your Guide' trip, and they are usually pretty good.

It was quite nice being up early. It was cool (in temperature) walking down the street to the meeting place and nice and quiet.

The driver met us at the 7 - eleven. There were 5 in our car.

There was a 20 year old lad, Alistair from Fife, Scotland. We were the first to be picked up so we got chatting - he's about to join the army - Royal signals - so of course I was telling him about Archie! He'd done his assessment and was waiting on some tests to be cleared, before finding out where his basic training would be in March (either Winchester or Pirbright). He'd decided to travel for five weeks around Asia in the mean time.

Next was a lady from Indonesia - Jogjakarta originally but she is living and working in Jakarta.

Then two young trainee lawyers from Hong Kong (25 years old - they made me guess and I was spot on!) They had 'snuk away' for the weekend and had only arrived in Penang at 2am - and were wondering if they would regret booking this tour as they had only had a couple of hours sleep! 

They seemed pretty lively though - one of them had been brought up in Malaysia before moving to Hong Kong. They were chatting away and it was so funny as they would mix up the language - saying a few sentences in English then back to whatever they speak in Hong Kong (Chinese or Cantonese).

We were driven over the hills to the bike pick up where we were joined by another group, so there were 14 of us in total. We got handed a bike and off we went with the guide.

To be honest it was great! The guide was very jokey but also knowledgeable, and the ride was exactly as I had imagined - a relaxed 'glide' through rural Penang.

I had to pinch myself because it felt like I was in a film or something - looking at the scenery and spotting the odd colourful bird including one or two kingfishers - it was so nice!

We stopped at a Palm oil plantation, where you had to be quick to spot the monkeys - rural monkeys are a bit of a pest to the farmers, but are now protected. (The guide joked that this meant they couldn't be used or employed for low wage labour - you see what I mean about being 'jokey') 

They are quite shy too - unlike 'city' monkeys or ones you find in tourist spots.

Palm oil crops are not native to Malaysia (or Indonesia) but grow well here due to the tropical climate. They were introduced 100 or so years ago, brought here by the Europeans, of course, from Africa - Penang being the very first Port & office for the East India Trading Company (as I'd learned from the museum).

Most of the palm oil itself is exported - a lot goes to Australia and New Zealand - and what remains is used to make margarine and used as a butter replacement in cookies and cakes.

We cycled onwards to a little Chinese fishing village, around 150 years old, (Older in fact than modern Malaysia) where there were many small wooden boats called Sampan - which in Chinese directly translates to 'small wooden boat'. 

These are used daily - the fishermen utilising the tides - and currently most households will be stocking up on seafood for Chinese New Year which is fast approaching.

We then arrived at another small village where we could wander around and then had a drink and some snacks at a cafe. 

Note: The following information is from the jokey guide and therefore I cannot reliably claim that there is any truth in it - although from observation it seems credible:

For most businesses, in small Malaysian towns, the people would live above their shop or business. Here the house numbers do not run in any order and are random......must be tricky for the postman! - and the guide said you can tell the household from the type of pets they keep.

Malaysians, particularly Muslims, like cats, whereas Chinese prefer dogs......

I did notice they seemed to like cats in Indonesia.

Some people ordered food from a stall which the staff - in this case an 8 year old boy - brought to where we were sat (those are the girls from Hong Kong):

He was very cute!.......so the monkeys are 'protected' from slave labour but not the children 😂

Here the guide showed us some birds that the locals had caught and caged - apparently they sell them to pet shops. He said, unlike us they don't see it as wrong, but a good deed for local business.

We then rode to a little goat farm which was supposed to be 'authentic' - according to the description on 'Get your guide'.

It was more of a 'petting zoo' really but it did look like they genuinely did farm goats there. They just had a few other animals including porcupine, ostrich, tortoise, chickens, Meerkat, rabbits and gecko!

We got given shoots to feed them with and then we were given a little pot of ice-cream (for us to eat of course, not the animals) - it was like being on a school trip 😁

The guide showed us a rubber tree, which is also not native to Malaysia. Like the palm oil seeds, they would have been brought here, probably from Brazil, and smuggled by the English - likely the East India Company again - as at this time the rubber plantations were controlled by the Spanish.

Rubber is no longer a viable industry here - the natural rubber being taken over by synthetic forms.

It is laborious to collect the rubber and 1kg will only be worth 3 ringgits.

Interestingly one sister city to Penang is Adelaide, the cities being founded by Father and son:

British Sailor, Captain Francis Light founded Penang in 1786 & his son, Colonel William light founded Adelaide, Australia in 1836.

As we cycled back to the bike drop off it was getting hot and no longer a pleasant temperature for cycling.

We were driven back to George town which was very busy with traffic etc. and we said our goodbyes. What a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning!!

I stopped off at a place for Lunch - I was a little confused about the payment system but it turned out you collected your food - wrapped in a banana leaf - so cool! - and sat at a table and ordered a drink which all cost 3 ringgits per portion and drink. The note on the table (which I noticed later) said if you didn't order a drink you were charged an extra 1 ringgit anyway. Ayam (chicken) and rice:

I then visited the Botanical Gardens - which were lovely in an un-tendered shabby sort of way but I loved it and loved the trees surrounding the place. At the entrance there was more repair/construction going on and I could hear bangs or shots coming from the hillside - there seemed to be military around - I don't know if the were doing some manoeuvres or something.

I ended up climbing a lot of steps again to a terrace at the top where there was a Hindu temple. On google maps it was called 46 Rest area Trail-head - part of a walking trail.

I caught the bus back to Georgetown - my first taste of public transport in Malaysia