There is no doubt about it, this day started way better than it would eventually conclude. We remembered from yesterday that the lovely place we had lunch at also serves breakfast. Since the breakfast at our hotel was underwhelming to say the least, we were more than keen to go there. The owners actually remembered us from yesterday and were super kind once more. We had delicious strawberry pancakes and our usual coffee and tea setup. It’s these encounters that keep us going, honestly.

Only 200m after packing the bike and hitting the road, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye that had us stop again right away. A pair of overlander bikes, with the unmistakable Touratech panniers were parked on the main street of Tanah Rata. We stopped and had a look around until we found Bjorn and Willemien in the same Indian restaurant we had dinner last night. They have come down overland from the Netherlands. Since we already had breakfast, we kept it to a brief chat, exchanged some contacts and went back on the road.

It was not too far though, and the first disaster of the day was about to strike. We refueled a couple of kilometers north before we intended to tackle Gunung Brinchang (highest public road in mainland Malaysia). But then, Rocinante would not start with what looked like a flat battery. Only that it should not have been flat. A suspicion started to creep up on me while we push started the bike down the hill.

The stupid fall last night when I tried to lubricate the chain on my own? Well, instead of just falling flat on her side, Rocinante hit a massive flower pot that went right into the left rear cover. That panel covers all the really important electronic parts of the bike: Regulator, ABS computer, ECM (Engine management) and fuse box. It did not look too damaged from the outside, though …

Sure enough though, right after the push start the next issue arose. The ABS light was blinking, warning about an issue with the break system. So we stopped on the roadside 100m on and I had a look under the cover with the engine kept running. Luckily, this issue was sorted by forcing the plug of the ABS unit back in properly.

The road up to Gunung Brinchang was sealed all the way, all though a bit worse for wear. The only mild worry were all the big land-cruisers zipping about with loads of tourists on board. With the road pretty steep and narrow, Nina got a bit worried that one of these cattle haulers might come flying and knock us off the road. Gladly, none of the sort happened. Only that reaching the top was a bit of a let down in the end. The clouds were hanging so low that there was nothing to see here. Oh well, at least Rocinante started without issues or warning lights this time …

Next stop, Ipoh! The mountain road was nice, until the clouds drew darker and darker. This time, we missed our 30 second window to stop and decided to put on wet weather gear, and so we got drenched through when the first bit of rain hit. The rain here is really an all or nothing affair.

We decided against another detour with minor sights around Ipoh and headed for the center of town instead for some lunch. At first we could not find the restaurant from the Lonely Planet we wanted, then found another recorded one which would turn us away again at the mention of Nina’s vegetarianism. Hot and frustrated we got back onto the bike, when real disaster struck. A push of the starter button did not produce the reliable humm of the starter motor but instead “crashed” the electronics of the bike. Rocinante would not start, and for the first time ever I did not know the cause right there and then.

We pushed her one street over to where the restaurant was that we were initially looking for, only to find out that it was closed. Defeated we dropped into the first forgettable eatery we saw and considered our options. Just in case I checked in with one of our contacts for workshops in Ipoh.

I was able to get the bike started again, after some tinkering with the electronics under the side cowl. Less exciting was the fact that the issue seemed to be related to the Engine Control Module, a prohibitively expensive black box type computer controlling engine operation. Well, once started, she seemed to be running fine …

The 150 km to Penang flew by in no time on the motorway. For no particular reason, we took the “old” bridge over onto the Island. Impressive as it is, the new 27 km long motorway over the sea seems impressive to say the least. This is the only time that even motorbikes need to pay the toll in Malaysia. We could not find any place to pay our RM1.40 in cash. Just when we were about to fork over RM20 for a toll card, someone handed us his wave & go card and payed for us to get through. Since toll is only payed getting onto the island, we were sorted! Nice.

In town, the day wound down with another minor series of catastrophes. The road to our intended hotel was closed for a movie shoot, the hotel was full and a fat white man got randomly prissy with us. Then we got ping ponged between three of the many Red Inns of George Town’s Love Lane.

As often, the day concluded in a great positive encounter with a local contact. Through Tony from Touratech we got hooked up with BK. He has just come back from a 6 month trip on Honda Waves to London and is somewhat of a local legend. We went out to an amazing food court, talked about traveling and everything else and went home with a contact number for Jonathan, the local motorcycle electronics wizard!