Tag Archives: Kuala Lumpur

Day 164 – Once more with feeling

Today is the third time we “leave” Kuala Lumpur. All jokes aside, it will very likely also be the last time we set off. We left Sonja and once again all we had to give was an inadequate ‘thank you’. We receive so many acts of kindness. People go out of their way to help us, often as if it were the only logical thing to do. We say ‘thank you’, take a photo and move on, but without all this kindness, we would have provably given up a while ago. This is what keeps us going and is, for a big part, also why we are on the trip in the first place.

Frankly, Nina and I talk often about how we will repay this life debt. Not in the sense of to “repay” everyone we meet, but in general. What can we do to give others this immense warmth?

Did not realize how much of our gear is in coprate colours

Did not realize how much of our gear is in coprate colours

To follow right up in the same vein: I wisely gave Tony Lim a call after breakfast. He is the Malaysian importer for Touratech and had a shop in Penang, where we will arrive in a couple of days’ time. Or so I thought. I found out just in time that the info on the Touratech website is outdated and he moved shop to a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, I also learned that the two pieces of Touratech kit I was hoping to replace were out of stock, but after a brief discussion we decided to pay them a visit nonetheless. After all, our bike is so kitted out with their stuff that we once were asked what kind of motorcycle brand Touratech be. 🙂

It turned out that Tony and his staff are incredibly kind and hospitable people. After a last ditch attempt to at least find one pannier-carrying handle to replace ours (which has a broken buckle) we got invited to lunch! At our pick, we went to this lovely Malay place. There were even all sorts of desserts thrown in for us to try out. I liked the rice with palm sugar water steamed in tapioca leaves.

Nina’s comment: It didn’t stop with a simple invitation for lunch. No, Tony made dead sure I had enough vegetarian food available and, in the end, even got me a take-away bag with rice crackers because I grew to like the crunchy addition to lunch a lot!

Everyone sports the Touratech logo but we are the ones with the most yellow ;)

Everyone sports the Touratech logo but we are the ones with the most yellow 😉

Before the mandatory good bye photo session, Tony loaded me up with contacts for Georgetown and Bangkok as well as some Touratech merch to replace some of our wearing wardrobe.

We took the motorway north all the way to the turn off for the Cameron Highlands. The ride was once again blissfully smooth, the one brief gust of rain not withstanding. At least this gave us a chance to experience another cool feature of Malaysian road infrastructure. Here, motorcyclist are not left “standing in the rain” or ducking precariously under bridges but rather every bridge is upgraded as a proper rain shelter. With little ramps leading on and off to get out of the way of the trucks. Even on stretches without bridges, there are little shelters set out in good intervals.

The moth it was eating was bigger than most spiders I know ...

The moth it was eating was bigger than most spiders I know …

Turning off the motorway we got the last bit of shopping done to be prepared for our first night camping. Or so I thought … As we arrived at the designated campground / nature park we first were a bit unsure because it was almost fully abandoned. No money collected at the entrance booth, the cafes all closed up and locked down. That alone would probably not have stopped us, but walking around to check out the site we found something that surely did: Two massive spiders, as big as my hand sitting in nets spanning 2 meters across one of the paths. Right next to the designated camp sites. Nina pulled her veto card – for what I think was the first time on the trip. We explored the site for a little while longer, enjoyed the also enormous Raja Brooke butterflies and then headed off further up towards the Cameron Highlands.

We ended up booking into the Twin Pines hostel. Back to slightly moldy rooms and shared bathrooms it was, but at least at $16 NZ the price tag was good 🙂

Day 163 – Batu Caves

Trying to find breakfast in Melaka is almost as hard as finding dinner after 7pm. The Lonely Planet suggested cafes but when we got there, it was either closed or didn’t exist (to our knowledge). Not feeling like indulging in yesterday’s Western-style cafe, we ended up in the same Indian restaurant we were in the night before. THEY open at 7.30am, serve coffee and chai AND we were quite certain we would be able to find SOMETHING to eat. And we did. Despite Flo’s best efforts to get a savoury doughnut with chili and spices in it that you dip into curries and chutneys, we had yummy Roti Pisang which is the Indian version of banana pancakes.

Final lap. This is the southernmost point we will reach on the continent.

Final lap. This is the southernmost point we will reach on the continent.

Thus filled, we rode our ‘good-bye lap’ through the city center and left towards Kuala Lumpur. Since we had the whole day, we had planned for the scenic route along the coast instead of taking the motorway. It turned out to be not scenic at all as the GPS showed us the coastline right next to us but all we could see was a row of houses. Also, the road was rather boring. A short stop at Port Dickson didn’t convince us to stay longer so after lunch, we hopped on the motorway again. Being so early gave us the opportunity to see the Batu Caves today.

Maybe we should have read about who this is ...

Maybe we should have read about who this is …

I knew before that the caves are not far from the city but truthfully, they are IN the city. They are also a major tourist attraction which is why traffic picked up…nothing you particularly want after being steam-cooked on the motorway in the afternoon heat. After finding a parking spot, we had a cold drink before starting on the 272 steps up into the largest cave. It has Hindu carvings and a temple in it as it plays a big part in a celebration coming up at the end of January. The two caves used for this purpose are HUGE. Certainly as big as a cathedral and also the biggest cave we’ve ever been in. Preparations for the celebration were going on: Floor newly resealed and parts of temples newly painted.

Apart from looking at the grandeur, there is nothing to “do” in these caves though. It is very cool to go and see the caves (it’s also free) but we had the feeling, we wanted a bit more out of it. Luckily, next door there is the “Dark Cave” leading tourists in and out again in 45min tours. The “Dark Cave” is a habitat for bats, cave spiders and other creepy crawlies and also part of a conservation effort for limestone caves. Flo, being a big fan of limestone caves, and me being kinda meh about the whole thing, signed up for the tour. We only had to wait 15min for the next one and when we were fitted with hard helmets and torches, I got very excited about it, too.

All excited now and ready to go!

All excited now and ready to go!

Our guide was a woman whose English was excellent…unfortunately, the same could not be said about our fellow tour participants who violated rules every so often because they hadn’t understood them. We didn’t see any of the bats (it’s not a good idea to shine a torch on 200.000 bats on a cave ceiling) but you could definitely hear them; not to talk about all the guano on the ground. We managed to see caves spiders, venomous centipedes and cave crickets. Also, one part of the cave system has light coming in from above and it looks so much like Moria that it made me miss a step. 😛

There was less sunshine when we came back out again and also less tourists. Given that it was also 5pm, we guessed that the caves close around that time. We, now,had our next place to visit: Sunny cycles. On the way down to Melaka one of Rocinante’s warning lights went on and stayed on for the entire trip south. While the manual assured us that this particular warning light is not for anything crucial, Flo wanted to have it checked out. It took about 30min and stripping the bike down to pull the engine up (again) before it could be fixed. The “air intake hose from the air filter” (Flo-speak) was unplugged. Once this was plugged back in, the guys from the workshop forgot something else which led to nine warning lights going on. This was also fixed with plugging something crucial back in.

So after riding, sight-seeing and working on the bike, we arrived back “home” at Sonja’s place and were treated to delicious pizza, a shower and a cozy,comfy bed.

Day 160 – Confluence of Mud

Not much is left of the namesake mud that gave the city its little complementing name, nor of the tin upon which the early success was founded. There was plenty to discover of the people that came here for that reason and many others, though. From European colonial era buildings to the Indian and Chinese quarters – Kuala Lumpur really feels like the melting pot it has been for so long.

Sultan Abdul Samad Building, one of the landmarks

Sultan Abdul Samad Building, one of the landmarks

We wanted to use the last day in KL to do some more proper sight seeing. So we headed out a bit before lunch to go for a long walk in the city. For a city with millions of inhabitants and teeming with glittering high-rises, KL is surprisingly walk-able. We took a taxi to Merdeka Square to start our walk. The square is surrounded by colonial era buildings with some modern museums thrown into the gaps and feels like a huge contrast to all the skyscrapers all around.

From here, it was a short walk to our lunch spot, an all vegetarian restaurant in Little India. All the food was amazing, but we had it especially for the plain naan bread. Fluffy, smoky and perfect to lap up that butter paneer sauce. An observation I made was that there was a surprising variety in what a main dish consists of. Until now, most Indian restaurants we have been still stuck to the western formula of rice – sauce – maybe bread. Whereas here, I got a tray with something between a naan and a pizza in the middle and 4 pots of sauces around it plus a cup with either a soup or a sauce. Without anyone around to mimic, it can be surprisingly hard to find out how you are supposed to eat your food 😉

Red lanterns mark the whole quarter

Red lanterns mark the whole quarter

With a short walk we crossed half a continent and went from Little India to Chinatown. There are a couple of roofed streets providing much needed shade in the searing afternoon heat. We used that for a stroll over the street markets here, amusing ourselves with knock off handbags and the politely pushy hawkers.

A three dollar cab ride later, we were right at the foot of today’s main attraction: The KL Tower, or Menara Kuala Lumpur. Since we did not get up the Petronas Towers we went all in here and got tickets for the highest (open air) platform for RM210. This one is higher anyway with its 421m on a 90m hill.

We  spotted a Hard Rock Cafe nearby from up top and thought it be a cool way to end the foray with a drink there. Unfortunately it was A: further than it looked from up top and B: we realized too late that we had run out of cash. At least we could pay our overpriced but nice drinks by credit card.

It took us almost an hour to find the nearest ATM in the next mall to be able to pay the taxi home – just in time for Nina’s family call to Germany.

The day was rounded off by another lovely home cooked dinner and wine, compliments of Sonja.

 

Day 159 – The Two Towers

ignore the hair, we are at work here ...

ignore the hair, we are at work here …

Our first “free” day; and we spent it catching up on blogging. Through the bike maintenance and the museum visit, we were now 6 days behind. This needed to be rectified. Writing my entry went okay, Flo needs more time for his. Lunch time came and went. Luckily, I had left-overs to share so no one needed to go hangry (also Sonja’s kitchen always has food).

While Flo was working on his workshop blog post, Sonja started fixing our hiking pants. Our North face hiking pants are a vital piece of equipment and while they are still good after 5 years of use (except for the hole I created when I fell in Dili), the seams were about to give up. I could have sewn it by hand in a couple of days and probably with finger pain but Sonja owns a sewing machine and offered to reinforce the seams. Continue reading

Day 158 – Islamic Arts Museum

Another day in the workshop for Flo. Sonja and I decided to spend the day checking out the Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur as we had done everything on the “to do” list yesterday.

Since we got back to Malaysia, I am constantly tired. Flo speculated that it might be the humidity which reached a new high for us or the simple fact that I don’t sleep so well in the heat. Whatever it is, I had another nap after breakfast so we only started towards the museum at 11.30 am.

A complete tent, put up inside out

A complete tent, put up inside out

The building is beautiful in itself. We ended up visiting the special exhibition about tentmakers in Cairo first, as it was on the ground floor, next to the reception. It was “just” one room but we spent a lot of time in it as the old fabric was amazing to look at. There was a time when most of the “stalls” were made out of richly appliqued fabric with a Koran saying woven in for good fortunes or blessings. There was even a whole tent that has been put up inside out so we could marvel at the fabric. Back in the day, the richness of the colours and texture was a surprise for the guests; many tourists even kept their travelling tents as a souvenir which is how they came to be known in England and France etc.

After this special exhibition, we went on to the next floor. It actually has none of the exhibition in it, instead, it has a big, open, architectural space with an inverted dome as a ceiling. Other features are a large water fountain, a restaurant and the museum’s shop. At this point not particularly interested in any of these (we actually missed the inverted dome…I blame the brightness once we came out of the elevator), so we moved further up to the second floor.

The inverted dome...a feature in the architecture

The inverted dome…a feature in the architecture

The second floor houses A LOT of the regular exhibition…we started with the Chinese section and then into the Malay section. The Chinese section was interesting as it showed the spread and influence of Islam in China through the trade routes. So there actually were copies of the Koran which were written with a brush and richly illuminated. The Malay section had EVERYTHING. At least some specimens of everything; clothes, coins, books, weapons, you name it. It was actually so much that Sonja and I decided to go and have lunch to refresh our minds from all the information intake we just went through.

Since we already were in the museum, we checked out the in-house restaurant. Only after we sat down, it became clear that you couldn’t just order lunch; there was a four course lunch packet on offer where you could choose your main whereas the starters and the desserts were buffet-style. Amazingly, all the starters were vegetarian. It must have been something like Lebanese cuisine as it had flat bread, many dips like hummus and an eggplant dip (SO YUMMY!), bean salad and a cucumber-yogurt-salad. I ate a whole plate full because it was so good and then had to skip the soup because I feared that I wouldn’t finish my main and the dessert. Eggplant in tomato-onion-sauce with melted cheese on top is divine. Now I have written so much about food that I will just mention the almond pudding for dessert. 😉

The museum is too big to see it all in one go. So, after lunch, we planned what we still really wanted to see: The architectural part and the jewelry section.

An actual dome...very pretty

An actual dome…very pretty

The architectural section was very interesting. It is filled with models of different approaches to mosques…some of them I wouldn’t have recognized as such i.e. the Chinese ones to the newer mosques that had been built with a sustainability aspect in mind. Unfortunately, Sonja and I seemed to have gone through the room backwards as the last signs we read told us which parts are actually essential for a mosque.

The jewelry section was smaller but very nice to look at. Here, more than anywhere else in the museum really, we got a bit annoyed with the very traditional museum concept. The specimens were put into glass cases, all of them with a number and then you need to look up that number on the sign to get any kind of information about it. It is very tedious and tiring and thus not part of the “engaging” museum concept but here, the information you received was more than limited. Some didn’t even list materials. Also, more context about when you wear it and how heavy it is would have been nice.

Flo’s insert: I have to add a bit about my day at the workshop. The guys at Sunny Cycles were just plain amazing. After fixing an issue I caused yesterday (Neutral sensor was unplugged), I did an oil change and finished with the rest of the inspection as advised. The two things I needed help with were to replace our worn chain and replace the break fluid. Help was needed mostly because I had never used the tools before and did not feel like practicing on safety relevant systems. Hussein, one of the assistant mechanics, did both in between his other jobs and even found time to find a replacement for the exhaust shell I broke yesterday.

To top it all of, I was only charged for the price of the parts. In short, if you are based in KL or an overlander coming through – give them a visit. They are amazing!

We got back home at 4pm, thinking that Flo will either be home already or on his way home (he did say today would only take him a short time) but no, he arrived back at 6pm. Just in time to have a shower and go out for dinner with Sonja, Nick, Jon, Alistair, Janette and myself. 🙂

 

Day 157 – Cool head(s)

Back on Lombok we got a tip from Oliver about a particular bike shop in Kuala Lumpur that was supposed to be extremely friendly to overlanders. Since it has been more than 8000 km since Rocinante’s last service in Darwin, I was intend to find out for myself. I have not been disappointed!

bless you, you are amazing!

bless you, you are amazing!

I showed up and hesitantly asked if I could work on my bike in their workshop and maybe have some help with the more difficult bits later on. Within 15 minutes, I got a work space cleared for me by lead mechanic Jing Sheng and his two fellows. Everyone was extremely helpful and I got started at stripping down Rocinante according to the manual on my phone.

The entire shop is just amazing. They have all the cool imported parts that an adventure rider could ever want and the workshop is just something else. All day, riders were coming and going. Some to get their bike worked on, some just for a chat. People are allowed in the workshop and you constantly meet interesting people. The shop was filled to equal parts with adventure bikes (mostly shiny 1200GSs) and performance bikes. Plus, everyone really knows what they are talking about.

My mission for the day was to prepare the bike to get the clearance of the valves checked and, if need be, adjusted. Last time I payed 400 € for the procedure, so I was determined to do as much as possible myself this time around. The issue here for my bike is not the actual procedure, that is really straight forward, but getting to the things in the first place. To reach the eight valves to check, the cylinder head cover needs to come off. Which, for my bike means digging through 4 1/2 layers of stuff. That is what I paid for last time, but it is also relatively easy to do, just laborious. It is also a good opportunity to check all the parts removed for wear or damage.

Almost there ... faring, tank, air box and throttle body are off ...

Almost there … faring, tank, air box and throttle body are off …

It took me 5 hours to get to the point where the cylinder head covers were ready to come off and another hour of cussing, wiggling and loosening extra parts to get this done. It may be because the collective consensus was not to follow the workshop manual and take the whole exhaust off as well to get a heat shield out of the way (not before I broke one of the rusted exhaust shells, though). Still the rear cylinder head cover was so tightly wedged in under the frame that we had to rotate the crank manually half way through to get the rocker arms out of the way. Jing Sheng told me that it was worse on the older V-twins and you had to tilt the entire engine slightly for a routine maintenance job.

There they are. They were only off by .025 mm, and only the intake valves.

There they are. They were only off by .025 mm, and only the intake valves.

In the end I even got to do the adjustment myself, with confidence inducing guidance from Jing Sheng. The guys are just amazing. I learned more about my bike in one day than ever before in Germany.

Even though it was late and I should come home for dinner, I got encouraged to re-assemble and test the same night. I did manage to put enough of it back together to get Rocinante started smoothly and get back to Mont Kiara before everyone everyone else had to starve. I even got a quick shower to get most of the grease off me 🙂 In the mean time, Nina gave me an update on her progress regarding our list, which included finally getting her boots to a cobbler for re-soling.

That night we went to a wonderful northern Indian restaurant. I must say, the food is one thing for sure I am looking forward to going to India.