We Got on a Bus Again

Wednesday 26/11

As we had gone to bed very late the night before, it was not easy to get up early. But we had decided to start the ride to centre early, so we would not have problems later on. We knew that with bicycles it was not easy to get around in the city.
Pedro lead the way again, as his navigation skills had proven to be fabulous since the beginning of the trip. I was surprised how easily he found the way through the highways. Needless to say, I was delighted that I did not have to get on a highway again. It had been much too scary on the night we arrived to Kuala Lumpur.

We tried to ride towards the Petrona towers, but there was a think mist in the air, and we could not see the towers, it was as if they had sunk to the ground over the night. We stopped near the towers to take the last pictures, first we stopped on the other side, where there was a parkish area. We sat down to enjoy the view, and then an officer came to tell us that we are not allowed to park the bicycles there. It seemed ridiculous as we were the only people there (it was quite early), and we were not disturbing anyone or damaging anything. As the officer left we remained in the place and took pictures. We then went to the front of the building, and again officers were eyeing us as if we had a visible bomb on us. It was so silly of them! When we stopped for pictures, two (not just one, but two(!)) officers approached us to tell us that we should keep bikes on the side. It all seemed as a joke, I really did laugh out loud. But we got the pictures taken and then we headed towards the KL Sentral where our bus was going to depart from.
We stopped in some shops to buy snacks for the trip. We arrived at the bus stop early, and then we waited. The bus was right on time. The driver, his helper and Pedro placed the bikes and our panniers in the buses baggage area. The bus was very comfortable. It had two seat row on one side and one seat row on the other side. There were not many people on the bus. Each seat had a screen in front of them where the passengers could watch movies, listen to music or play some games. Seemed extremely fancy. Then the helper guy went around to give each passenger a pillow. Later on he gave everyone a snack. We did not expect this at all! Later on I found out that we could have taken a regular bus route, not a fancy one, for half the price. But who knows, maybe the other companies would not take our bicycles, so either way, it was good.

We disembarked from the bus and headed towards the town centre where we would get in a hotel and see the city. However, along the way I had encountered a problem - another flat tire. The back tire was very used by now, I had suggested to Pedro that we should change it before the tire itself gets a hole, but we never did that. We stopped there were I had discovered the flat tire under a highway where there was a decent place for us to rest the bikes. Pedro again pulled out his repair kit and was awesome to fix the inner tube.As he was fixing the tube, cars and scooters were passing by and giving us strange looks. At one point there were some police officers, it looked like they were trying to regulate the traffic. The tire was fixed we were ready to keep going.

Once we arrived to Georgetown centre we got to our hotel. We showered and settled in, then decided to go out and find where the port is to go to Langkawi, as we figured that would be a good option to do later on. We found out that there are three ferries per day going across. The ride is about three hours, and they had two in the morning, one at 8:15 and one at 8:30, and one in the afternoon at 14:00. As it was late, we headed to the hotel to decide about the plan for the next few days.

We ended up deciding to stay in Georgetown for the next day, and take the first ferry the following morning. It ended up being a great idea!

On a Bus to Battambang

Monday  10/11

Finally a day we could sleep in. Very strange for a Monday morning! But heck it was nice!
However, Pedro was upset because he had some issues with his Garmin GPS cyclo computer. Since we had wifi we tried our best to find the solution online. With some button pressing we at least got it to turn on. Apparently there were some corrupt files. And we're still not able to access some of the day info. But the device is working now, and Pedro's happy. :D
After the technology problems we still had an hour to go up to the swimming pool and have some breakfast. But then noon came and it was time to checkout from the hotel.
We then cycled to the ticket office we were at yesterday. They still had seats for the last bus that goes to Battambang at 13:30. The price, luckily, had not changed over night. Which could easily happen. We asked where the bus station was, but the five people working there could not tell us. The truth is, we had a map the previous day, and one of the guys showed us where the bus station is, but today the map had magically disappeared. I was also very surprised that so many people where working at this one place. Customers didn't come so often, and most of the time they were doing their own things. 

Anyway, I asked the guy if he could tell me the password for internet, then I could load the map and find the station. So we did that. But finally Pedro decided that we'll wait for a car they provide for other people going from ticket office to the bus station, and follow it. This turned out to be a success. 

Now when we were there, we just needed to still buy tickets for the bicycles. Pedro took of the front wheels from the bikes and placed them in the baggage section of the bus. While I got on the bus he went to buy some water and snacks to munch on on the way. The ride was long, about four hours, odd considering the distance was roughly 150 km. The time was ten minutes passed the departure time when the bus finally left the station. It stopped in some other places still in the city. The bus was like any usual one, and it had good air conditioning. Everyone aside from us was sitting in long sleeves, some even in sweaters indicating with their body language that it's very cold for them.
We seized the time to chat and to blog a bit. 

Soon enough the bus arrived to it's final destination for this trip, Battambang. When it arrived in the station there were several tuktuk drivers waiving their prepared signs outside our window. They were offering a ride, a hotel, or both. When we went out of the bus, they literally attacked us with their services, trying to make us choose them. To have the right image, imagine a group of fans trying to get close to a famous musician that's getting out of his/her ride. I had to push to get through them. But then they got to see that we're with bicycles and one by one they disappeared. Now we had to find the guesthouse we booked earlier that day. At first we did not worry so much, because how hard could it be to find a guesthouse. We cycled about asking people if they knew the place, the street or at least which direction to go for that area of the town - nobody knew. One girl though said to go straight on the road we were on. We stopped at a pizza place, which supposedly had wifi, but turned out it was not working. But at least we had a dinner. The sun had gone down by now. We were glad that the girl serving us food spoke English and was able to tell us which way to go. Once we arrived to the correct area, a man on a scooter said that he would lead the way for us. But sadly this was the wrong place. We asked some young guy, he called out his friend to assist. Then we went inside a driveway where we thought the guesthouse could be. But it turned out to be some martial arts school, the teacher there was nice to call the guesthouse to ask them how to find them. The young lad then said that he knew the way and that he would show us, but again it turned out to be the wrong one. We cycled some more metres, then asked a street food seller if he knew where the place was. The young boy listens to instructions and lead the way again. BUT again this was not the right place. By now we were tired and upset! We know they all tried to help, but in the end we were nowhere. At the last hotel we were lead to we asked for wifi password so we could find the directions to our guesthouse. Turned out it was not far, in fact very close to the street food seller who directed us to the wrong direction.
We finally got to the place and the receptionist said that the place is full! How is this possible if we booked a room online??? We were now more upset!
The guy made some calls and finally said to follow him where we would have a place to stay. It was a hotel almost just across the street. And he also arranged for the price to be the same as on our reservation, so we stayed at a 12$ hotel for 6$. Ufff what a day it had been! We were glad to get to bed!!