Today was a big day by my standards. Six hours in the saddle in this heat is more than I’d like to do. However, it was also one of the few days that I didn’t decide on the end point the night before. This time, I waited to see what would happen, and play it by ear. It was more about letting go and doing what makes sense.
In the morning, I tried to book a ferry ticket from Kuala Kedah to Langkawi, but ran into the usual issues with my banks. My only option was to go to the ticket office and pay cash, but it was 105kms away.
At a petrol station in Sungai Petani, I stopped to get some drinks and spoke with Beh Huck Wei for about 30 mins – many many thanks. He gave me lots of information about a local ethnic group and suggested I take a more interesting route via a museum and gave me a run down on the 2000 year history of the group. I simply had to go and check it out. Sure, it would add some extra kms to the trip, but it would be worth it.
Well… After a killer little climb, I found that the museum was closed – probably for Friday prayers. Regardless, I had a good look around the grounds and saw some of the things that I’d been told about.
The ride through this area was quite interesting.
I decided to stop at a “resort” another 20kms up the road, took one look at it and left. I then booked a hotel a further 20kms along, and headed to Kuala Kedah for my ticket.
I bought the ferry ticket and had another 7.5 kms to my hotel – but I sat in a/c with a mango smoothie and an iced coffee for as long as I could. The sting was definitely out of the sun when I left, and I had a slight tailwind, a little shade and a flat run to the hotel. I’ll retrace these steps in the morning.
It’s a nice simple hotel in the suburbs with plenty of eating options nearby.
Dinner was a pork and noodle soup at a food court nearby. I’m getting quite partial to a lime juice as well – refreshing at the end of the day.
This certainly isn’t a tourist area, so it was fun getting food, but super friendly as well.
A really enjoyable day today, and another positive step in the process of letting go, letting things unfold of their own accord and not worrying about the outcome.
It all works out.
