Year: 2006

We spent a day in Pekanbaru, deliberating over the difficult dilemma of how to cross Indonesia. The facts were: 1. We had to cover 4000kms2. We had to do a minimum of 6 ferry crossings from island to island to get to Timor (some ferries only running once a week […]

We caught the highly efficient Singapore ferry from the World Trade Centre, to the Indonesian island of Karimun – a slightly unconventional jumping-off point for Sumatra, but much nicer than the traditional stop-by island of Batam, just off the coast of Singapore. In true Singaporean style our departure at the […]

We were on the cusp of leaving Singapore – though some of our admin was still incomplete – when Sedef got in touch with Andrew T., an old boss back in the UK, who now lives in Singapore. It was rather unlikely that we would hear from him since he […]

We arrived in Singapore a day later than we expected, on the 23rd of March. It had taken us 2 weeks to cover Malaysia, no mean feat considering we covered over 1000kms and a whopping great mountain in the middle. We were tired but happy to know that we were […]

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Our first impressions of Malaysia were rather jumbled as in three days time we went from a flashy expensive island resort (Langkawi) to a heavy Chinese influenced city (Georgetown) and then the predominantly Muslim mainland. We had expected Malaysia to be very similar to Thailand food-wise. However we were surprised […]

After a couple of day’s rest in the cool of the Highlands, we thought it would be fairly plain sailing down the mountains towards the East Coast of Malaysia. We wanted to cycle south to Singapore by the 22nd of March latest – to stay with friends Dean and Jessica […]

Not far out of Butterworth we were advised by various people to take the motorway rather than the busy and narrow highway to Ipoh. We followed the advice, and ignoring the all too clear ‘No bicycle’ signs went past the tolls with no problems – in fact the police waved […]

The next afternoon we boarded the speed ferry from Langkawi to Georgetown, on Penang Island further south. Georgetown is Malaysia’s second largest city, a fast-moving place with a confusing amalgamation of its traditional Chinese heritage and smart brand new high rises dotted around the expensive colonial mansions. It was once […]