Myanmar

Due to the delay in getting my Indian Visa my already short 8 day trip through Myanmar was now turned into a very short 5 day trip through the country. I'd never travelled with an organised tour on motorbike before, generally preferring to find my own way through a country at my own pace, however current government regulations force any overland traveler to have a guide if they go through Myanmar with their own vehicle. I booked through Osuga travels, which is one of the larger companies to offer organised tours and I was very impressed by the level of communication that I received prior to arriving at the border and at the border they took care of all the paperwork which was a nice change from having to deal with customs and immigration, I just sat back and let them do the work. I figured that if I was paying for a guide they could carry some of my gear and the team gladly threw my spare tires and dry bag in the car leaving me with a much lighter and much better handling motorcycle. As soon we left the border crossing the beauty of this country soon became apparent and although this was a short trip, traveling overland gave me the opportunity to see villages and scenery that sadly many travelers wouldn’t have the opportunity to see. It was also quickly apparent that the guide was necessary as there were quite a few check points and toll ways on our route.
On the way we stopped for some photo opportunities and on one such occasion we visited a temple, outside I could hear drums and traditional music being played and upon entering we saw a large group of local children practicing local dances for an upcoming competition, the energy and syncronisation in their movement needed to be seen to be appreciated, very impressive. Our first stop was the golden rock, the precariously positioned rock seems to defy gravity with its balancing act and although it was very impressive I was as much impressed by the extremely steep truck drive up to the mountain summit. The hotel on the first night was one of the nicest I'd stayed in throughout my year traveling in South East Asia, although as a solo traveler the trip was quite expensive I was glad that Osuga didn’t skimp on anything, this was like a luxury motorcycle holiday. The next day we made great time thanks to the pace of the tour driver, we arrived early at our planned destination and my guide Myo explained that it was just a transit stop so if I'd like we could push on to the town of Bagan, which is where the best site seeing was and spend an extra night there. I was thankful for the flexibity in plans and said yes to his offer, by the time we arrived we had covered 730km for the day and both myself and the tour driver needed a well earned rest.
Arriving early in Bagan turned out to be a great decision, we arrived at night so it wasn’t until the morning that I saw how amazing this town was. The temple complexes in what was the home of the Burmese empire rival that of Angkor Wat but without the throngs of tourists. Dirt roads connect the temples which gives the whole area a genuine feel and even at the sunset viewing there were only a handful of people waiting with cameras, most other tourist attractions at sunset require some serious jostling to get even close to a good viewpoint. As I quickly made my way to the top of the temple for the sunset viewing I looked back down the steps to see Myo clinging on to the handrail for dear life, he looked up smiling and said "I'm scared of heights, but its ok, I go where you go", I laughed and kept climbing, quietly impressed by his dedication. The hotel in Bagan managed to impress me even more than that at golden rock and is one of the nicest I've stayed in full stop, if there wasn't so many amazing sights to see in Bagan I would have happily lounged around the hotel in my bathrobe all day, it was 2 sizes too small for me but I managed to squeeze into just for the atmosphere, lucky I had no visitors, it didn’t leave much for the imagination. Spending time to relax wasn’t on the agenda thanks to my short trip through the country and our next stop was the village of Gangaw. It was a fun day of riding, we had to negotiate a river crossing, I got through but the tour vehicle got stuck so I joined in with other bystanders and gave it a push to get through the boggy sand. The road began to head up into the hills and I left the tour car behind on the windy narrow roads until we reached our destination. The guesthouse in Gangaw was a little more humble than my previous accommodation due to the remoteness of the village, it was still nice though and I met a Dutch couple there who were traveling the other direction, they gave me the heads up on India and it sounded like it would be a real test, but I’ll take it as it comes.
My exit from Myanmar was quite interesting, it was a Sunday and also a special holiday so the customs and immigration officers had decided to head to the local festivities for the day. We arrived at the border only to find no officers there, luckily the guys at Osuga were there to make the phone calls and get everything signed, I took a ride to fill up with petrol before I entered India and when I returned all my paperwork was sorted..... if only all border crossings were that easy!!! The team escorted me to the Indian border to make sure things went through smoothly on that side and that was it, my Myanmar adventure was at an end and my India adventure was just beginning.

 

 

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Thailand to Myanmar

Well, here I was back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and ready to start my trip to Europe, I had some time to catch up with my friend Larry, who had kindly looked after my bike while I was in Aus but what was supposed to be an early night turned into a late night of drinking. I had hoped to start my ride to the Thai border early but ended up leaving just before lunch with a bit of a hangover. I wasn’t planning on sightseeing this time, I was keen to get to Thailand as soon as possible, I jumped on the freeway, gave the throttle a decent twist and made the border that afternoon.  I had done this border crossing several times without incident, it was usually very fast and simple but this time Thailand had changed their rules for international vehicles, apparently I had to apply to some department or another 10 days in advance for a special permit. This was a massive pain, I had to get checked back into Malaysia and luckily Malaysian customs and immigration were fine about it all. I sent some friends in KL a message explaining the situation and then decided to ride to Penang to hang out for a few days and sort this out. I arrived to a reply from my message telling me that it was sorted and to arrive at the border early, there would be a guy there to meet me to organise the Thai side. I only got a few hours sleep in Penang before I was back on the bike and heading to the border again, My guy managed to get me across the border on just a carnet and no other paperwork, I was a little worried that this would come back to bite me but I’d sort that out in a month when I left for Myanmar.

I made it through the border and I had a month to kill in Thailand while waited for the Myanmar tour date, other than finalising some paperwork  I was hoping to spend my time doing something a little more different than the usual tourist attractions. I found 3 things that were all amazing experiences.... and no, none of them involved ladyboys.
The first was a 10 day silent Vipassana meditation retreat at Suan Mokkh monastery in Surat Thani. I turned up with very little meditation experience, expecting a relaxing 10 days, what I learnt was that spending a whole day trying to clear your mind and focusing on nothing was surprisingly hard work and mentally exhausting. I left all my electronics at the front desk, no phone, no computer, it was a great feeling, all I had were the bare essentials, a few pairs of clothes and bathing equipment. We would wake up at 4 am every morning and begin mediation at 4:30am, other than a few hours of yoga and Tai Chi in the morning the day was spent doing sitting and walking mediation with lectures in between. We were able to have 2 meals a day, both vegetarian of course and hot chocolate in the evening, before every meal we would read that the meal was only for sustenance and not for enjoyment, I gotta admit that it tasted pretty good to me and the hot chocolate was divine. There were also hot springs in the monastery so we were able to soak in the hot waters at designated times during the day. Learning to completely focus on your breathing and empty your mind takes time and it was slow progress but there was definitely a feeling of achievement as I passed every new milestone. The practice of mindfulness through breathing is a mind freeing experience that is unique to every individual, my experience was completely positive and although I am not in the slightest bit religious I came away feeling that I learned some valuable life lessons.

 After 10 days of meditation in the Thai forest I headed straight to Phuket for an extended range and trimix diving course with the team at Blue Label Dive in Rawai Beach. Technical diving adds another level of complexity to recreational diving and although I'd done over 1000 commercial and recreational dives in the past year it was eye opening to see how much there was still to learn. We did our pool work in Rawai Beach and a day of diving off the smaller islands that surround Phuket, the weather was quite bad however and we were struggling to get to dive sites deep enough for the course. This was actually a stroke of luck, it meant we would finish the course in a remote lake surround by forest near to the town of Krabi, this was perfect as far as I was concerned. We had the place to ourselves and it felt like adventure diving at its best, the dives went down to 60 meters and we weren't even close to getting to the bottom, not to mention that quite often we had to complete the dives blindfolded. 
 was that spending a whole day trying to clear your mind and focusing on nothing was suprisingly hard work and mentally exhausting. The practice of mindfulness through breathing is a mind freeing experience that is unique to every individual , I highly recomend it but you really need to experience it for yourself as everybody's experience differs
After 10 days of meditaion in the Thai forrest I headed straight to Phuket for an extended range and trimix diving course with the team at Blue Label Dive in Rawai Beach. Technical diving adds another level of complexity to recreational diving and although I'd done over 1000 commercial and recreational dives in the past year it was eye opening to see how much there was still to learn when compared to a world class tech instructor like Ben Reymants.We headed to the forest near Krabi where we dived a lake surrounded by jungle, we had the place to ourselves and it felt like adventure diving at its best. We dived down to 60 meters and weren't even close to getting to the bottom, not to mention that quite often we had to complete the dives blindfolded, the lake is also home to quite a large cave system so I'm pretty sure what my next dive course will be.
The 3rd experience
The 3rd experience was perhaps the craziest..... after a few beers at the hostel in Bangkok my friend Pete casually mentioned that his friend was looking for someone to help with a Kids English camp. He told me that I would basically be a guide, which in my mind meant leading kids for trekking, this sounded like fun so I said I was interested, from there our friend Ebony said she was keen and then Pete said he'd join in too. The next day when we were sober we found out that what we thought was going to be a chilled out kids camp was actually going to be 200 kids between 13 and 17 years old with only 8 English speaking teachers. I was quite nervous as I'd only spent 2 days previously helping to teach an English class in a small village. We weren’t so much teaching as we were supervising with activities, this often also meant standing in front of 200 hundred kids and singing childrens songs while doing the accompanying dances. This was definitely a new experience and upon our return every drinking session would include us getting up in front of everybody and singing the songs, dances and all. We had a great time for the 3 days we were there, the kids were awesome and very smart, even though they couldn’t pronounce Ray, so they just called me "teacher Lay.... like the potato crisp ".

After returning from the English camp I decided to spend some time hanging out with friends in Bangkok while I waited for my Myanmar tour dates, my Myanmar visa had come through quite quickly and I was pretty happy with myself, it seemed all my paperwork was done and I just had to chill out for the next 5 days. I had emailed the tour organiser quite regularly to confirm there was nothing else I needed to do and they were very good at getting back to me but at 9 pm after I’d had quite a few beers I received a reply about my Indian Visa, I couldn’t get the visa in Myanmar and had to organise it prior to the tour start date. It wasn’t possible to apply for an Indian Visa in Thailand so at 10pm when I was quite intoxicated I booked a flight to Phnom Penh for 6am the next morning. I went straight from the airport to the Indian embassy and put in my application, I was quite lucky because you are supposed to make a booking online and the next date was in 10 days, I rolled the dice and the gamble paid off, now I had to wait in Phnom Penh for the next 5 days for the visa to come through. I’d been to PP before, my last visit was for 3 days, which I spent sightseeing and I quite enjoyed it, this time my stay really dragged on, there really wasn’t too much to keep my occupied in the city and it seemed a lot dirtier and noisier than last time. Luckily I met some other travellers at the Indian embassy who had the same issue as me, we stayed in the same hotel and hung out for 5 days drinking 50 cent beers and eating the odd happy pizza.  I booked a flight back to Bangkok, went straight from the airport to the BMW dealer where the big girl was being serviced, rode to the Oasis hostel to pick up some luggage I had left  there and packed the bike. By the time I had a goodbye beer it was getting close to 4 pm and I had 500 km to cover to arrive at the Mae Sot border crossing so I could meet the tour group the next day and start the trip through Myanmar, I arrived at 11:30 pm, managed to find a hotel and had a few hours sleep before the border opened the next morning at 6am. As I'd expected my incomplete paperwork caused me some holdups at the border but after an hour of waiting I mentioned that the bike wouldn't be returning to Thailand and the customs officer saw that as an opportunity to be rid of the headache, they stamped my Carnet and let me through, I think I got very lucky that day, Myanmar here I come. 

  

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Back to Aus

 

The original plan for my motorcycle journey was to ride from Australia to Europe in a year and from there spend another year traveling Europe on bike, all dependant on savings of course. I made the decision relatively early that I wanted to take my time in each country so I could see the sights, experience the local culture and meet local people as much as possible, with that in mind I reassessed my travel plan and dedicated 1 year to riding through South East Asia. This was probably the best decision I could have made as I really had the opportunity to immerse myself in most of the countries I visited. Of course you never see everything but I did my best, many other motorcycle tourers I met along the way admitted that they regretted rushing at the start of their journey only to later realise it was better to spend a little more time in each country , it is a once in a life time experience after all.

A year was up for me and my bank balance was looking a little on the light side, I decided to take a 6 month break from the bike and return to Australia for work and a much needed bank balance top up. I stored the bike with a friend in Malaysia while I went home and started sending emails, hoping to get some work asap, thanks to some friends putting in a good word for me I had a job Tuna diving as soon as I arrived in Aus. Luckily the tuna farms are close to my home town of Whyalla so I got to spend some time with my family in between jobs, which mostly meant watching Bold and the Beautiful and Judge Judy with my mum, I actually couldn’t think of anything else I would rather do. Hanging out with my brothers and sisters also meant the usual shenaniganns like the challenge of a 6am ocean swim in the middle of winter which sent me to the edge of hypothermia or a timed obstacle course through a Jungle Gym at night, of course someone always gets hurt and this time it was me and my shoulder. I needed some transport to get me and my dive gear about and although I had a romantic notion of cruising around in an old Beemer with sidecar for 6 months I opted for a Subaru Forester with the addition of a rooftop tent. This was a great little car and I saved a small fortune in accommodation by camping in the national park every night which was only a few km from work at the tuna farms.

Most people think that taking a break from an around the world motorcycle trip and working means leaving the excitement behind, that’s definitely not the case when you work as a commercial diver. Doing a tuna tow was a job I’ve wanted to do for many years, basically you head out into the south sea on a fishing boat with 6 crew, the boat tows a 50 meter diameter cage with a net that hangs about 20-25 meters deep. A spotter plane flies overhead in search of large shoals of tuna and when they spot one a pisane boat surrounds it with a net. Our boat then comes up alongside with the cage, divers swim a rope from the net to the cage and they are connected, from there a gate is opened and the fish are transferred into the cage. We catch between 1000 and 2000 tuna each time and we repeat the process until we have about 10,000 fish in our cage. Tuna farming is done in Port Lincoln, South Australia, the Great White Shark capital of the world and we net the fish at the edge of the continental shelf where the water depth can be between 200 and 2000 meters deep, so when we swim the ropes between the net and the cage in the deep, dark, sharky ocean we swim very fast indeed, especially as we are in the vicinity of a few thousand tasty tuna.

Once the Cage is full we slowly tow them back to the farms at Pt Lincoln where they are fed for the next year and then harvested. Our main job as divers is to check the cages every morning, some days there may be a dead tuna at the bottom of the cage so firstly we check for mortalities and if needed remove it from the cage, secondly we check for holes in the net, obviously if there is a big hole it means a shark may be in the cage and then our job is to remove the shark. We had a pretty good run with only the occasional mortality in the bottom of the net, it was 4 weeks into the tow and it was my day to dive the cage, as I made my way down the net I noticed 8 -10 dead fish, as I got closer I noticed they all had bite marks in them….. shit!!! I removed the dead fish out of a small hole in the net and then worked my way around checking for holes, I wasn’t long before I saw 2 very big holes in the net….SSSHITT!!! I had to work my way around the net to see if the shark was still inside, it takes quite a while to cover the circumference of the net as you’re pulling yourself along at the 10 meter mark. I was very alert, I didn’t know what sort of shark I was dealing with, interestingly when a shark gets in the cage they initially go crazy and eat all the fish that they can, after a while they get disorientated because they can’t get out and they just swim around, which means you’re relatively safe being in the cage with them. As I pulled myself along the net I kept checking outside as well as in, anything against the net is at risk of being taken by a big shark and I didn’t want a pointer outside the net to get hold of me. While I was checking outside the net I noticed a shadow in my peripheral vision and saw something big swim past my right shoulder on the inside of the net, it was about 4 meters and luckily it was a bronze whaler, I let out a sigh of relief in my regulator, if it was a great white I would have been out of there. Bronze whalers aren’t necessarily a safe shark but they aren’t anywhere near as aggressive as a Great White, Mako or bull shark and with all these tuna swimming around I was pretty sure I wasn’t on the menu. I finished my lap of the cage and found another 3 ½ meter Bronzy swimming around…. Damn. I called the spare diver and he joined me in the water to attempt to get the sharks out. The sharks are quite placid when they’re disoriented from swimming around the cage all night so you can swim next to them, grab them and turn them upside down, which kind of hypnotises them, from there you can guide them to an opening in the net…… definitely an interesting day.

It took us 5 weeks to tow our cage back, we travel at 1 knot if we are lucky and if the tide is against us we end up going backwards, the worst was 3 days without making any progress. This would be fine if it was a leisurely trip with calm weather but the south sea can be rough, very rough. I was on navigation watch one night and the waves were breaking over the bow and over the wheel house, this was the roughest weather I’d sailed in, earlier the skipper, who was generally very calm mentioned that we should all re-familiarise ourselves with the exits in case we capsize during the night. This was definitely and interesting 6 weeks and the bank balance was looking better but not quite full enough, I had another job to go to on the other side of Australia, I was heading over to Broome for my second season of pearl diving.

The Trip from Whyalla to Broome is 4500km, I packed the Subaru and headed for the highway, camping along the roadside every night as I travelled the long stretches of road in central Australia. Broome is a town that has a rich diving history that stretches back over a 100 years when Pearl shells were first found on its coast, divers still head there today for the lucrative drift diving work collecting wild shell. The Pinctada Maxima pearl shell found in Broome is the largest pearl shell in the world and delivers the finest South Sea pearls, Drift divers collect the wild shell which are then taken to the pearl farms and cultured to develop the pearl. I was back on my old boat, the Clare 2, I’d spent plenty of time living on this boat and it was like being back home. When we dive for pearls we go out for 12 days and return to shore for 5, this goes on for the whole season which lasts 4 – 6 months depending on how quickly we catch the quota. The boat has a boom on each side with 4 weights hanging from each boom, the weight sits a meter from the bottom and a 40 meter rope trails off the weight, this is called the work line. Each diver has a work line so 8 divers are in the water at one time, searching for shell as they are hanging onto their work line and getting towed by the boat to cover as much ground as possible. Divers swim side to side and move up and down their work line putting shell into a bag that hangs around their neck, when your neck bag is full you move up the work line to your big bag that sits above the weight,  this is repeated for the 50 minute dive, up to 10 dives a day. If the tide is good and going with you

it easy to hang on but if the tide changes or you get stuck with a slack tide you have to use all your strength to hang onto the work line let alone move up to empty your neckbag.

I think drift diving has to be up there as one of the hardest jobs, everyday your muscles ache from the 10 hours of diving, you wake up in the morning with pain throughout your body, the worst of which is in your hands, after a few trips you struggle to open your hand fully, which we call the claw. Infection is guaranteed in the tropical water and any small cut turns nasty, many a diver spends there 5 days off on a drip at the hospital getting antibiotics pumped into them so they can dive on the next trip. Any diver will tell you it’s the best job in the world, it is definitely all about danger, excitement and adventure and spending 10 hours a day underwater means you see some amazing things. This season I lost count of the sea snakes and turtles I saw, whale season was busy with breaching whales making a commotion while we dived, as per usual there were numerous species of sharks both big and small, the 4 meter tiger shark that circled us on our deco stop was a rare sight and the 4 ½ meter saw fish that swam within arm’s reach was even rarer, best of all I managed to avoid the Irukandji, unlike a few of my unlucky friends.

At the end of the pearl season the bank balance was looking healthy enough for the ride to Europe, I packed the car again and did the road trip back to Whyalla ready to jump on a plane to Malaysia and be reunited with my bike to start my trip to Europe.

 

 

 

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Malaysia

My first destination in Malaysia was Penang, the island is famous for its culture, its food and of course the murals that adorn the walls of the old city. It was already 10pm when I exited the ferry from the mainland, I didn’t have accommodation booked and had no idea where to start. The first thing that became apparent was the night culture of the city, restaurants, cafes and bars were all full and people still filled the streets. Penang is a popular tourist destination and there was no shortage of hotels and hostels to choose from, my mission however was to find one with secure parking, Bingo! I stumbled across an old mansion come hostel with secure gated parking, perfect, this was my home for the next 3 days while I explored the island. I’d seen photos of the murals throughout the city and I was quite keen walk through the streets and see them for myself. Exploring by foot or bicycle is definitely the best way to take in the sights, sounds and atmosphere of the old city. I was armed with my trusty tourist map, which had the best known murals highlighted and I strolled my way through the streets with camera in hand. My route through the city took me through many interesting streets and through the floating markets, at times some of the murals were quite difficult to find and I’d team up with fellow tourists to search for the ones that were slightly hidden, after celebrating the discovery of a new mural we’d swap cameras and make use of the opportunity of a photographer. The streets of Penang are filled with restaurants serving delicious local dishes that the island is famous for and you are never far from a café, many of which have a unique theme, I was very glad that a quality coffee could usually be found around almost every corner.

After a day of sightseeing in the old city I spent the next day exploring the island on bike, the east side of the island was quite developed but as I followed the road west the buildings gave way to beaches, forest and villages. Penang really was a beautiful island to ride through and although I usually preferred the beaches and forests to the cities I was drawn to the atmosphere of old Penang town and was keen to spend another day walking its streets. I had missed a few murals on my last expedition through the city and was keen to head back for some photos, I bumped into a fellow traveller who looked a little lost looking for a mural I had already found and I offered to show the way, next thing I knew I was acting as a tour guide pointing out all the paintings I had found the other day, a new profession perhaps.

While I was in Penang I handed in the documentation for my bike and had a 2 week wait for the extension of my carnet to be finalised, this was perfect as it gave me some time to explore the country. I headed south along the West coast of Malaysia passing through many villages on the way, Malaysia has an excellent freeway system that runs the length of the country and although it is convenient it was nice to be on the backroads worrying less about making good time and concentrating more on enjoying the scenery. I by passed Kuala Lumpur and followed the coastal road to the seaside town of Port Dickson, a popular getaway for locals, I managed to find a small and very quiet beachside restaurant just outside of town and enjoyed a Nasi Lemak overlooking the water.

Malacca is a city that is full of history, its location on the narrowest part of the Malacca straights meant it was a strategically important city for Asian trade. The Sultanate of Malacca was established in the early 15th century, the city grew rapidly by encouraging traders to use it as a key port for Asian trade. Malacca was Subsequently conquered by many different nations, each of which leaving their mark on the city and providing it with a multi-cultural history. The Portuguese arrived in 1511 sparring the local Hindu and Chinese population but massacring the Muslim inhabitants, the Dutch followed in 1641 however although they controlled the city they decided to put more focus on the port of Batavia in Java as their base.  The British gained control in 1879 and the Japanese occupied the city during the 2^nd world war, after which Melacca returned to Malaysia. The old city is a UNESCO world heritage site and much like Penang it is best enjoyed by taking the time to stroll through. The old city of Malacca was another place I had an instant liking for, I spent most of my 3 days there walking through the streets, talking to locals, visiting the shops and of course sampling the local food. Malacca has a large Indian population and my visit was during Diwali, the festival of lights, I glad to be caught up in the local festivities, which included traditional dance and music.

My journey through Malaysia continued to take me south to the city of Jahor Bahru, an industrial city that is perhaps not the nicest to visit, however it is the gateway to Singapore and I was hoping to visit the Island city on motorcycle. I had visited Singapore several times previously however never with my own vehicle. I had some friends to visit and was hoping to explore a little more of the island with the use of the bike. The Idea was great in theory but in reality  the island city isn’t the most motorcycle friendly place and although I did manage to head to the outskirts of the island I spent much of my riding time worrying about entering one of the tollways that surrounded the city. The bike spent more time parked in my friends garage than I hoped but I still had a great time, it seems Singapore grows on you the more you visit it, it can be an oasis of organisation from the sometimes chaotic pace of life of its surrounding South East Asian neighbours.

The East coast of Malaysia is much less visited by western tourists than the west, from my experience it was definitely more conservative but the people were friendly and it was home to some spectacular beaches. Having travelled to so many tourist areas throughout Malaysia I had fallen into the trap of expecting to be able to communicate in English everywhere I went but here I was once again struggling to order some lunch, it was actually a nice change and as always I managed to communicate, this time using some very broken Bahasa Malaysia. I followed the East coast up to Terengganu where I turned inland to visit the Taman Negara national park.

Taman Negara was an opportunity to set my tent up and spend some time camping and hiking in the jungle, the park is still home to critically endangered Sumatran Tigers and Rhinos however they are very scarce and it is extremely rare to see one of these majestic creatures in the wild. For all its beauty Taman Negara was also quite a sad place to visit, it show cased the spectacular natural beauty that once covered Malaysia most of which has now been destroyed to make may for palm plantations. As I travelled overland through the country side I couldn’t help but be saddened by the amount of jungle that had to be cleared to make may for the palm oil industry, every now and again I would see a Karst rock formation covered in thick jungle vegetation rising above the palm groves almost as a monument to the natural beauty that had once been. It seems even Taman Negara itself isn’t completely immune, logging  is taking place right up to its borders and I wonder how long it will be before the borders of this jungle sanctuary slowly shrink to make way for industry and the pursuit of the almighty dollar.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, getting away from civilisation and spending a few days camping in the jungle was the perfect way to
connect with nature, I set up my tent and spent the days trekking along the jangle tracks, always keeping an eye out for tigers, just in case. As much as I enjoyed my time in the jungle I was keen for a hot shower and a comfy bed, Cameron Highlands was the last destination on my list before I headed to KL and back to Australia. As much as I’d enjoyed the back roads of Malaysia I was ecstatic to get on the zigzagging mountain roads that led me up to the tea field of the Highlands. Cameron highlands are most well known for its tea production and its steep slopes are covered in tea plantations making for some spectacular views. The temperature drops noticeably as you make your way higher into the mountains and the towns have a distinct European flavour which is noticeable in the style of buildings. I visited tea plantations and strawberry farms but the highlight were the mountain roads, I was glad to be throwing the bike around some twisty corners once again.

My return to Kuala Lumpur saw my trip through South East Asia come to an end, it was time to say goodbye and get back to work to pay for the ride to Europe which I’m sure will bring as many memorable experiences.

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