West Malaysia loop ride

Day three – Georgetown

*Unfortunately I did not take any notes for the rest of the days…the following account is my best effort from memory…enjoy!

Today we were meant to go on a trip in the morning. Unfortunately, the fact that we now have two bikes that needed some urgent repairs meant that we had to put that as a priority. But something is of an even higher priority…BREAKFAST!!!

We walked up the road from the hotel a little bit, cross it, and got to NS Nasi Kandar. This place opens 24 hours…specialises in Nasi Kandar…a local Indian dish that involves mixing curry gravies on a plate of rice. But that is a little too rich for breakfast…and the dishes were also not ready…so we had roti instead!

Makan Robot Style

After breakfast, it was time to head back to the hotel and do some research! I set Ariff and Chris the task of calling up bike shops to see which ones had the parts they needed. We did not want to go to multiple shops and I did not relish the experience of running around the island trying out shop by shop randomly. I forced them to make the calls in the room. Eventually, we settled on Hot Bike and started heading there.

The lady on the other line said the shop was just across the road from the Jelutong Market. So that was where we headed. Getting to the Jelutong Market was not difficult. However, once there, looking for the Hot Bike shop was impossible! The market was relatively crowded and many vendors crowded the already narrow streets! This made some of the streets very narrow indeed. After a wrong turn, a very tight U-turn…and a super duper tight squeeze between a street food vendor, a ballard and an open drain…we eventually found the main road again. Then it was up, around and down, and around and up…and down…again and again looking for the shop since their location was not well mapped. Eventually I stopped to ask for directions…and was pointed to where we came from. After a few hard looks…we eventually found the place!

While Ariff & Chris got their bikes done, I parked mine here and went for some refreshment!

Eventually, the bikes were done and we were ready to go!

We headed back to the hotel for a spot of lunch at Ivy’s Nonya Cuisine just across the road!

That was A LOT of food…and we were all feeling VERY satisfied with lunch. After a short rest, it was time to head out to Balik Pulau for our next adventure! We called an Uber and got going!

The journey out took about 45 minutes and we eventually got there! This place turned out to be a bit of a farm!

We were here for a biking adventure around Balik Pulau…a very special, laid back village at the back of the island of Penang. Eddie was our guide. We visited many places…have a look!

It seems the male fruit has a cross pattern while the female fruit has a single line across.

The bicycle adventure took about two hours. Thankfully, we found our Uber driver waiting for us at the farm when we got back! This was good news as I was worried we would not be able to find a car so far out away from the city. It was a slightly longer ride back as it was evening rush hour…we eventually got back though…and had a nice shower and change…before heading out for dinner. I had wanted to head for Nasi Kandar at a shop called Line Clear. Our Uber driver that night suggested another place so we decided to go for it instead!

Much later that night we decided to go for…yes…you guessed it…supper!!!

Time for BED!!!