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4th August 2000

As we make our way down to the border we're both wondering how Andrew and Tim have got on - we hope to meet them in Alor Setar - our first town stop. The road passes through deep forest and over a small range of undulations before we hit the border immigration controls.

Apparantly its quite OK to leave Thailand with a car - provided you pay a small fee of around 45pence, and likewise we are free to leave with our bicycles without charge - we can't resist a pic of the sign which says that for 45p we may take a train out of the country!

The guards on the Malay side are a smiling bunch and they astound us with a command of the English language that would impress anywhere in the world. We're also delighted when the customs official begins a conversation about 'Why do English shops shut at 5.30 P.M.!'.......he goes on to explain that his country just 50 years ago was a part of the British Empire - Dean and I nod wisely trying not to let on that neither of us had any idea.....whilst inside we feel ignorant and ashamed of our lack of knowledge of Malaysia - we are going to have to learn fast! Our initial bubble of friendliness is deflated a little when we notice on our embarkation card a bright red notice in capital letters 'PENALTY IN MALAYSIA FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING IS DEATH'. A lump sticks in our throat - and although of course we are carrying nothing - there is always that seed of doubt sown by horror stories of other people planting illegal substances in innocent baggage. We cycle through unchecked - and away into the countryside - a sigh of relief!

We find ourselves on the Expressway - and rattle along at high speed - dampened only by a torrent of monsoon rain just before lunch. Alor Setar is reached in the early afternoon - and we get our first view of Colonial British Architechture - and of a wonderful old Mosque belting out the mid afternoon prayers. We check the prices of the hotels around town - and decide that on the eve of Dean's last cycling day we should celebrate with a good room.

We meet Andrew and Tim just before nightfall and swap stories of the last few days. Andrew and I have some cross words - and end up having a falling out. This is a pattern that is set to continue for some days, read more later.

We head from Alor Setar to Butterworth - 95km for Deans last ride. We ride as 2 to begin - Andrew and Tim set to catch up later. As we ride we notice some peculiar wildlife in the verges. Lizards are everywhere - we saw some yesterday - and it seems that Malaysia has Thailands share too! None in Thailand but here already we have seen flocks of them!

They range in size from the 'Sewer Lizard' - a baby at just 3 or 4 feet long up to the 'Monitor Lizard' which we see a couple of sheltering from the heat in the shadows - around 5 or 6 feet long. A couple of days later - when Andrew, Tim and I are riding together we come across the Big Daddy of Malaysian Lizards - Tim's eyes seeming to be the best in the hunt for these modern day dinosaurs. The Jungle Lizard is a truly terrifying sight - we swerve violently when we see one rustling its way out of the long grass beside us. Just a handleful of feet separates us from the beast. We see his powerful head with flapping mane of skin, he spies us - and luckily for us - he too is petrified of us. He folds his muscular body back on itself and turns finally exposing his long tail before powering off into the undergrowth. We can't say quite how long he was - but with a waist measurement of maybe 12 to 15 inches this was a heavyweight reptile.

On our final approach into Butterworth, Dean insists that the four of us ride as a peleton - something we often talk about in our cycling conversations - the formation that helps us to save energy by cheating wind resistance. We each take our turns on the front - including Dean - who seems to find new energy - rocketing along at over 20k's per hour even up hills. She says it's rather like 4 bikes travelling togther as one - all of us pedalling together and helping each other along. We make good time into Butterworth - the end of Dean's ride - Human (Girl) Power from Bangkok to Butterworth - I am so proud of her ride - not once has she taken the bus - despite her heatstroke, the monsoon downpours, getting bitten by mosquitoes, burned by the sun, and finding extra kilometres tacked on to her hardest riding days. Once it begins to sink in that she will now no longer be travelling by bike (we have a rush now to get down to Singapore to meet Rich and Gary), Dean is quite sad. She had joined the team properly for the first time on the road - and for the first time - I think she has actually begun to enjoy cycling and travelling day by day through the country on two wheels. I have to pinch myself when I hear her say 'Why can't I carry on cycling........I want to ride - I don't want to take the bus!' - how things have changed!

We take the ferry over to Pinang Island - I must add that this is a side trip from our proper route - we are visiting the island for Tim's birthday celebrations - we shall be returning to Butterworth to rejoin our road south to Singapore in just over 36 hours time. In the meanwhile we are given a real treat. The ferry across to the island is pure dreamtime - the sun is setting over Pinang Hill - and the continuous stream of ferries are bathed in the orange warmth of the end of a Malaysian day. The skyline is enticing and exotic - the tree covered hill melting down into the highrise of Pinang's hi-tech electronic industry headquarters - and then onwards into the colonial clocktower, Mosques, and older Victorian style that the British left behind on the island. We're surrounded by the peoples transport as we leave the ferry - mopeds and motorbikes rev anxiously as the ferry reverse thrusts as we pull in to the ferry port. Then in an eardrum bursting din they all charge for the exit. We pedal gently - four human powerers in a sea of petrol engines - quietly and cleanly off the ferry - spluttering as we breath the hot fumes of the 'peds. We're straight into the old city of Georgetown - and before we have chance to look around the swarming bikes have disappeared and we're left to wind our way down shady atmospheric backstreets - looking for The Coral Guesthouse - our abode whilst we're here.

Our recommendation has come from Sarah and Simon - our English friends who have been travelling out here; who are usually moving a couple of weeks before us. Here we have arranged to meet once again - our third encounter. Dean is brimming with excitement - she explains frequently 'you just don't understand......I haven't spoke to a girl now for over a month...............bikes-schmikes............can't wait to see Sara!'. We first met in Lhasa in the Dunya Restaurant as mutual friends / acquaintances of Rene Schrama of Shigatse travels. Simon when we first met him explained to us how he had been out with Rene and co. for a few drinks; 'entertaining the authorities' in Tibet. His eyes had been opened to the way that business is conducted with the People's Republic of China, and his London 'Cockney' twang excitedly babbled on about how he had seen the head of the tax department for Lhasa with his trousers round his legs - whilst his colleague had to help him to the toilet - Lhasa beer taking its toll again. Since then the friendly couple had been through a train derailment in Vietnam, the monsoon in Laos, and a mad Salt and Vinegar Crisps hunt on Dean's behalf in Kuala Lumpur. We find ourselves - 6 of us - recounting the last few weeks since we saw them in Bangkok - in the Bettlenut Bar Georgetown. The two from Brentford are two of the easiest people to get along with - and we talk - rather as we did back in Lhasa - until far later than we had planned - and we all awake the next morning blessed with the only punishment befitting too much alcohol!

Georgetown has a surprise at every turn. First we are astounded by the people we see - dark skinned Indians pop out from every orifice - and the Tandoori Chicken is food fit for kings. Alongside the Indians who seem to hail mainly from Tamil Nadu - in the far South of India, are the Chinese - with their distinctive paler light brown complexions - and we witness Chinese writing on many of the restaurant menus. But the real excitement is in the wonderful mix up of Religions. The crossroads next to our guesthouse is treated to a Mosque on one side, a buddhist temple on the other, and on another corner a rampacked Hindu temple exuding life, colour, music and incense from every pore. We try to absorb what we can - and Tim has a birthday to remember - visiting the Mosque and the Hindu temple for evening prayers - before our very own thanksgiving - inevitably back at the Bettlenut bar!

Our next journey will take us in a whir of chainrings down the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia to Singapore. We wonder how our support team in England are getting along with their final preparations - and we look forward to some 853 km in just a week of riding - our longest distance ever in a week. Andrew and I also wonder to oursleves how we are going to sort things out - and how we are going to hold things together.