Monday, November 29, 2010

Road Adventures of Malaysia

I have been trying to mostly travel overland, since I have the time, and the only exception I have made since leaving Australia has been to get to and from Borneo.  I think I have after three weeks in Malaysia taken nearly every form of road transit the country has on offer, except trishaw which they only have here in Penang, but I think I will remedy that tomorrow.

The first adventure was after completing my hike at Mt Kinubalu.  I opted to travel onwards from the park gates rather than return to KK and do a couple hours backtracking each way.  I had been told by numerous people, my guide included that I could stand at this particular spot and the bus would stop for me and I could get to the next town for 5 Ringgit.  What I didn't pick up on was how to tell what bus to get.  I was under the naive impression that they would just stop.  In reality if they have space, they honk at you to ask you if you want a ride, in response you need to flag them down.  Simple, right?  Well I managed not to understand why all these vehicles would honk as they went by but nobody was stopping.  Fortunately a taxi driver decided to take pity on me after I turned him down for a lift into Ranau at 50 ringgit, and flagged a minibus down for me.

The minibus drivers are extremely economical, if they happen to need to do an errand along the route they are driving it doesn't matter if their van is chock'a'block (that is to say full) they will stop for it.  This took me aback slightly when my driver stopped for fuel and then made another stop to attempt to get oil - made me hope the van didn't break down.  Leaving the Kinabatangan with two Swedish guys they were outright shocked when the driver stopped to buy groceries, and maybe even more stunned when several passengers did the same (well snacks at least).  These minibuses are cut from the same cloth as my Wicked Camper was only the drivers don't seem to mind the bumps and I don't think I've seen a working speedometer in anything but a taxi here (teksi in the local spelling).  We spent about 5 hrs total in one of two mini buses with nearly no breaks, getting stuck behind a garbage truck was the worst part - we joined all the locals in funny faces and nose hiding and gagging.  The worst part was that due to the mini bus stopped to let people on and off our driver had to get around this thing more than once!

The Ekspres Bas (Express Bus) is a bit more conventional, in Sabah it was a straight forward point to point with a single stop at a roadside restaurant and random shops.  On the way back to Kota Kinubalu from Semporna (all day bus) there was a German couple who didn't eat the whole day, when I told them I haven't known how to figure out what I'm eating they replied "You ate at the bus stop, didn't you?"  Turns out they were impressed I managed to order food there, and had the guts to eat it.  The taxi we shared from the bus station to the hostel they wanted didn't speak any English, at all - a rarity in my experience of Malaysia.  He also didn't seem to know the name of the place we wanted to go and I ended up having to give him directions from the couple's travel guide book. lucky I know how to read a map.

On the Mainland the Ekspres Bas was a bit more exciting.  Not only was the original bus terminal under construction or rather recently moved, so I hopped on what seemed to be a shuttle bus and hoped it would take me to where the long distance buses were (success), but instead of the conventional 4across seating they had these massive seats like lounge chairs.  They were only 3 across, and you had a fold out leg rest, no joke.  We also had a roof problem, so the bus stopped under a random bridge for an interval, I don't think they fixed the problem they just didn't want to drive in the heaviest rain.  After that we stopped at a truck stop type area and I grabbed some food, I thought we would be getting underway again when the driver shouted something - a place name - and the gentleman next to me jumped up said goodbye and got on a different bus.  Apparently not everyone who got on the bus was headed to the same destination of Penang.  I chatted a bit with the older gentleman the next seat over, who was also going to Penang, so when the next place name came he told me it was the one we wanted and I had to hurriedly stuff my belongings into my bag as I was not expecting to vacate the bus until my destination.

Upon arrival at the Penang bus station there was a man who offered me 15RM as a fare to the town proper.  He was a private taxi, it was a good rate I knew by the distance he told me it was to ride.  The whole time I kept thinking okay what is his angle?  He actually gave me a lot of good information about Penang, took me to the street where the cheap hostels are and made a little detour to show me where to catch a bus to go to the good places on the island. I still had my guard up and opted not to share my e-mail address with him. At the moment Penang has my back up a bit, though when I go inside a restaurant here it does a lot to soothe my nerves about the town.


From guiding a teksi, to eating malay truckstop food, to learning the proper way to hail a ride, to jumping rides when a stranger tell you to jump and paying for a ride with a stranger with no proper credentials.  I think I've done enough to worry my mother about my travel habits for one day!

1 comment:

  1. ... and your big brother. But you can't have a proper adventure without a little trust in people. PS re the via ferratta in Banff, they're just talking about it right now, doing studies and whatnot. I just heard it on CBC... you could probably find more info on the parks.gc.ca website.
    Be safe, but don't be too cynical either...

    ReplyDelete