Last days in Malaysia

Just over 100 miles of Malaysia left, and then we cross into southern Thailand.

Route: George Town - Yan - Alor Setar - Kuala Perlis - Langkawi island.

This is by far the best cycling we’ve enjoyed in Malaysia (which overall we’ve not been that inspired by). Quiet peaceful backroads, often alongside the sea. Kedah, our last Malaysia state, is the country’s main rice producer and we cycle through expansive views of fluorescent green paddy fields framed by coconut palms.

The white gravel tracks often teem with dragonflies flying at eye level. At such close quarters you can appreciate their beautiful colour, a bright burnished copper. Clouds of swifts fly in the blue sky above, playing with the wind. In the aerial level above large storks soar upwards in wide spiralling circles. Ariel-white egrets, heads upright and alert, thin as a stick, are often startled as we cycle by. So graceful, their wide wings lift them up, as they tuck their feathery feet neatly behind, their throats curled in an elegant ‘S’ below their arrow heads. Large monitors lizards plop into irrigation canals and silently glide through the murky green water. Large gaudy-coloured flowers trumpet from the undergrowth on either side.

It is times like this - cycling along with nature for company - when my heart is gentle and open and I love the world.

Highlights from our last Malaysian days:

• We had to circumnavigate a wedding that paused all traffic through the centre of the village. The whole village turned out in all their finery: beautifully patterned sarongs and immaculate head dresses.

• Ferries top and tailed our first day back on the bike. On the large car ferry from George Town a friendly elderly lady on a scooter (an Aussie) invited us to stay with her in Butterworth. With further to go I had to decline. Our second ferry - to cross the Merbok river over to Tanjung Dawai - was much more fun. Lifting the bikes up onto the small wooden boat from the beach and racing across the water at top speed our panniers in a large pile at our feet.

• Our first tropical camping - we’d lapsed in fear of overheating since experiencing equatorial humidity in Indonesia - was brilliant. We spoke to a local who had lived in Hertfordshire for 25 years and motorcycled around Scotland. We had the place to ourselves and so pitched our tent up on a covered platform with great sea breezes and cooked our meal as we watched the sunset and crabs with one big red claw scuttle across the mudflats. There was a huge resident spider in one of the toilet cubicles - not a highlight! - luckily there were other cubicles!!

• We enjoyed roti canai at a roadside eatery. When we went to pay we learnt that a local who had left, had already bought us breakfast!

• We briefly met another cycle tourer, Ondřej from the Czech Republic. Svelte in tight cycling Lycra and a minimal setup he was lightning fast compared to us.

• The early morning ferry to the island resort of Langkawi from Kuala Perlis provided spectacular views as it wound through karst limestone scenery. We had planned to cycle up to the land border crossing of Wang Kelian (Malaysia) / Wang Prachan (Thailand) but recent landslides and flood damage in early December had forced closure of the crossing for over 6 months. The other land crossing of Padang Besar would put us on the wrong side of a mountain chain once we entered Thailand. So an island hop it was - ferry to Malaysian Langkawi, ferry off the island to Thailand region of Satun.Læs mere