I'm back in Kuala Lumpur because the bike needed a service, I was only in Ipoh so it was just 200km along expressways into the city.
Everyone mentions Sunnys as the place to go for servicing here, I tried to find it last time I was here but I'd been looking at an old post on Horizons Unlimited with their old address.
For future reference it is here now (the green arrow, not the red marker):
Address: Syarikat Motosikal Sunny, 37 Jalan Pahang, Setapak 53000, Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.179802, 101.700992
Email: sunnycycle@gmail.com
Phone: 0340211661 or 0340216611
And the reviews are all correct. I wandered in expecting to come back the day after or do it myself (no problems there really), but they changed my oil, oil filter and brake pads on the spot! It took less than an hour, but I was looking at all the other bikes in there so I didn't really notice the time. He even used a Torque wrench to tighten everything back up (I have NEVER seen that in Australia. There they have left my axel nut undone, or put the front sprocket on the wrong way round... etc... but that's a different story).
Here it is, waiting to get new oil.
The bike on the right of the picture is Simon's bike from 2ridetheworld. I believe they've gone home for family reasons. I had a couple of random people in out of the way spots come up and mention that they had been in Malaysia. It looks like they've been at this travelling malarkey for longer than I ever plan to be!
So highly recommend if you're in the area! It ended up costing about a third of what it would in Australia, I would not have even got the parts for that price.
Yesterday morning I decided to start my bike for the first time in a week and go for a ride through the hills near Kuala Lumpur.
I'd seen a couple of lakes on google maps that looked close by with some minorish roads that ran between them in a nice loop. I had no idea what was out there except the lakes, so I went to explore! Here is a brief map of the route I intended to take (and stuck with it I think).
I tried to leave early enough to get out on the roads before most of the traffic. Like Australia people don't really get moving here until 10-11am.
First place I stopped at was Kampung Kuala Pangsun. I think. I went through it up towards the lake I'd seen on the map, but I think it's a town water reserve, so you can't get in. Just outside of Kuala Pangsun were a few reserves, with a Malay word that looked roughly like 'recreation'. My GPS said they were parks also, but they had little huts built on them.
These huts!
They were all vacant, but they all had phone numbers and a small dollar figure and a word that I think means rent:
RM25 to rent. About $8.
They were all in front of this part of the creek:
Huts were on the right here. I was standing in the water to cool down my boots!
Then it was off to explore more. I took this video along the way:
It's a long video. But now you can get a better look at the villages landscape out here. You can use the playback speed option in youtube to make it go faster. I've also realised with the camera on the right you see more of the road and front tyre than anything so I'll have to move it somewhere else.
I darted in to Sungai Gabai Falls, as you can see from the video, I didn't see the sign until quite late! It costs 1RM to get in (32cents), and because I was on a bike, someone waved me through past all the cars to a large area just for bikes, right near the water and shop! It was quite popular yesterday, there's a swimming hole at the bottom of the falls and another at the top with a large amount of stairs between them.
Looking down.
Looking up. More stairs... [Just noticed how blurry that one was. So I replaced it with a less blurry one....]
Picnic spots!
On the way up there are several little huts next to the falls for people to set up picnic's in, and a small space to start a fire outside for cooking.
Big groups were walking up to the top carrying bags of cockles, rice, and cooking equipment, most of them complaining about the number of stairs. I just didn't complain loudly.
Another hut, down from the main walkway up.
Some obscured water.
The top!
I didn't get any photos of the full falls, I'm not sure that I could, they were on a slight curve and there were lots of people in the way anyway.
I headed back out for another run and saw these things also:
Hmm... I don't remember either of these town names from the map. Time for a google maps check.
After I hit the above intersection The road turned into this awesome windy road along the edge of a lake. It still had it's usual potholes in places but it was mostly a good surface and hardly any traffic, I had fun. And there's no video to prove it.
Looking out over the lake
Fun road!
Lots of cemeteries out here, but before long it was back to the populated areas for the ride back to the middle of Kuala Lumpur. Not so fun now it was in the early afternoon heat. I'd also finally figured out I'd set my GPS to avoid tolls while in Singapore which is why it was giving me all these odd directions here, wish I'd know that before all the rain on the way in.
Two nights left in Kuala Lumpur, bike still hasn't been serviced because of the holidays. I'll do a run to the East coast and then probably come back through KL to get that done.
I remember seeing Batu Caves on the amazing race once. I hadn't planned on going there as someone else told me they were crap, it was just a name on the map otherwise. It wasn't until I saw a picture on wikipedia what I remembered what the place was.
272 stairs to the top! And that's the largest statue of Murugan in the world (42.7m)
And once you get inside, you can buy souvenirs! Handy......... I mean. you know, if you didn't buy any outside the cave, and you absolutely need that rabbit toy.
Looking down the rest of the cave. It's big.
From the last section looking back towards the entrance. Lots of little shrines everywhere.
A bit of the cave
Looking up.
Anyway. Caves are awesome. This one seemed to be spoilt with all the stuff they put in it. In and around it everywhere are shops selling the same crap they do everywhere else too. I wanted to go see the smaller caves while I was there but it's a guided tour and they were on holidays for Hari Raya Aidiladha.
I took public transport out to the caves because there is now a station right next to them. However, I wouldn't recommend it. Three trains just never arrived at the station on my way out there, no explanation, they just didn't turn up at those times. And on the way back the train just parked itself on the tracks for a good 20 minutes for some reason. When I got off the train I experienced the rush of people trying to get on while I was trying to get out. That's a worldwide problem of course, but it's a little more polite in Melbourne at least. There are ladies only carriages on the trains here also. Sure, good idea, but then everyone else is crammed into the other two carriages when that one is mostly empty.
The monorail also sucks, which is very odd because it's a monorail, but it does actually suck. It's crowded and expensive and slow. And for some unknown reason, they put the monorail a long walk away from the rest of the transport options in KL Sentral. I should use my bike more!
KL Tower
Or, Menara KL, is one of the tall things in this city along with the Petronas Towers. I'd been waiting for a clearish day before I went to either of the two observation platforms in the city. It costs RM45 (about $15AU) to go up, so I wanted to pick carefully! The KL tower platform is at 276m from the ground, but because it's built on a hill you see a view of the city slightly higher than that.
A view of the tower from the street infront of the hostel I'm staying in.
Kuala Lumpur...
More Kuala Lumpur. To the left of the photo is all the shopping areas, and near where I'm staying. The two brown towers joined together is part of the 13th largest shopping mall in the world. 12 floors of shopping mayhem!
Towards the Petronas Towers. Everyone was crowding this window. Looking at the one tall object from another tall object in the city, didn't quite get that.
Night time. More of that huge shopping mall.
Petronas towers all lit up.
From the bottom of the tower.
Now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of my time here! I still have to visit Low Yat Plaza for all my technology needs. I'm having issues with Compact flash adapters, the pins have bent in the last two I've had so maybe I'll get an adapter so I can use SD cards in my 350D. Or maybe I'll upgrade my 350D :D
