March 24th: Dungun to Chukai – 87.2 km
Day 162
When we decided to do this cycle touring, we chose to do it so that we could see and experience more. But now we know the reality – there is no guarantee that those experiences would be magnificent days full of wonder. Even though Cher doesn’t often admit that she loves overcoming adversity, such as tough border crossings, sketchy towns, and mysterious foods, but the heat has never been her favorite. I don’t particularly enjoy the heat either. You have to consume such a steady flow of water that I can’t help imagine my body as a leaky bucket that I have to continuously dump liquid into to keep it full. I just wish I could find that hole and plug it up so I don’t have to keep pouring this hot, bland and sometimes strange tasting tap water into my body.
Not impressed by the leakage
When I woke at 5:30 and stumbled outside in the dark to retrieve our laundry, I could already tell that it was going to be a hot one. We were already sweating at 7:30am. Although the sunrise was quite beautiful we dreaded it. Today was particularly hot and even more so as we were stuck on a highway the entire day without any shade. Cher almost had a melt down and could be heard yelling over the traffic, where are the trees? There were none and as we rode on, the road left the coast, beaches, palm trees, and villages were replaced by construction, gravel and shopping malls.
We attempted to stop early but only found overpriced roadside hotels so we kept moving. Hot and exhausted, we slid into Chukai around 2pm and began searching for a room. I wanted to settle for a cheap room with the toilet next to the bed, but Cher was not impressed and wanted to keep on looking. Cher’s persistence paid off and we were rewarded. We found a nice clean hotel, with everything in perfect working order in the Chinese area of town.
We had learned that Malaysia is 29% Chinese but until today we hadn’t seen any. Other than the clean room run by the Chinese, we were happy to find Chinese food. We have enjoyed the Malay cuisine, but we have discovered that breakfast, lunch and dinner are all the same. Maybe this is only the roadside restaurants, but after a dozen, we have found basically fish, chicken or beef, in one of 3 sauces over rice, various fried noodles, and rotti canai are served no matter what time it is. There is also a conspicuous lack of vegetables. We showered and rushed out the door and feasted on big buns as appetizer, then dined on a local specialty – stuffed crabs, and for the first time in a while fresh leafy greens stir fried with cloves of garlic. Had we stopped earlier we would have passed right by this town the next day. It’s always a difficult decision, if you keep going you might find nothing but if you don’t stop you could miss something amazing. This is why cycle touring despite the heat and gripes is so rewarding and also a great metaphor for life.