some of the moves car drivers made seemed
‘bold’ they were actually pretty aware of what was
going on around them and once you figured out
the rules, it was easy to make progress without
fearing you were going to get taken out at every
junction. Yes, cars will pull out from side streets,
but in doing so, they hug the kerb and leave
plenty of room for you to pass them before they
pull out into traffic – which may or may not be
accompanied by the use of indicators… but you
get used to that too. At least they drive on the
same side of the road as us (most of the time) so
that was one thing we didn’t have to worry about.
Escaping the metropolis took about half an
hour. Once we got out of the city, everything
changed and we found ourselves in a green lush
countryside with moderate traffic and excellent
roads. Apparently the Malaysians know how to lay
a fine bit of tarmac and they don’t seem much
invested in straight lines so curves, lots of them,
are the order of play. They’re also well signposted
although they could save a lot of money not
putting up speed limits because no one takes
much notice of them. That’s not to say there’s
wanton or reckless speeding, it’s just that for the
most part drivers seem to drive to the conditions
and sometimes that’s higher than the posted
speed limit. And from time to time, you might get
stuck behind a truck that’s going MUCH slower
than the posted limit and if it’s in a tight section
of road, you may be stuck there for a little while.
As the day wore on, the temperature crept up
above 30°C and it’s worth mentioning riding
gear at this point because there’s a bit of a
balancing act to be done between wearing a
sensible amount of protection... but not wearing
a mobile sauna. MMG did have clothing to hire
but we decided to take our own with us, and
whilst that’s a bit of a pain when it comes to
packing we found that we were able to take a
good set of gear without having to worry about
airline weight limits or how far our suitcases
“
OUR GUIDES WOULD A
PULL US UP BETWEEN
IF THERE WAS SOMETH
INTERESTING ON THE
36 KIWI RIDER