Like for all the Muslim countries, the celebration of the end of the fasting month brings up a lot of festivities in the country. In Malaysia, the Eid is called
Hary Raya. For the Muslim Malaysians, Hari Raya is the time to reconcile and renew relationship with others, mainly with the family. It lasts usually a week, during which the Malays are supposed to gather with the family in their hometown and ingest as much food as their belly can contain! There is a dedicated Malay song for it, broadcast on all the radio, TV, supermarkets, cabs, food stalls, etc... This is called
Balik Kampung and literally means going back to one's hometown (most likely in the remote countryside) and celebrate Hari Raya with friends and family.
Jerome and I have been totally brainwashed
by the song, so we took the whole week off for Hari Raya, and decided to go on a tour in Pahang state (the most rural state of Malaysia) and go visit the
Kampungs during the celebrations... Since there is almost no public transportation in this area, and to be more flexible, we rode our motorbikes. The good thing with Pahang is that it's the biggest state of Malaysia and it spreads from one coast to another. Therefore Pahang is a concentrate of the whole Malaysia.
Our trip started on the West coast along the strait of Melacca. We visited little industrialized towns with a strong Chinese influence like Muar. Those towns were created during the Spice Trade period and are now hosting most of the Malaysian industry. The West coast is from far the most developed part of Malaysia, but Jerome and I were looking for more adventurous, kampung-style attitude, so we quickly left the West coast and crossed the country from West to East, across the central mountains.
As soon as we passed the North-South highway (main trunk road in Malaysia) we instantaneously felt we reached an very different environment! No more highways, malls and tall buildings. The road became a lot more bumpy and we crossed only small dusty villages. Finally we felt we reached the middle of nowhere! The fun can take place!
On the way we stopped at Endau-Rompin park for a jungle trek. To
reach the trek's starting point one must follow a dirt path for about 60 km through palm tree plantations. It seemed fun at first until the monsoon rain started to pour... Dust became mud and it became really hard to control the bikes... My bike was so mishandled that the steel fly case support got literally ripped off by the shocks. Then the trek was nice and very wild, but we felt safe because our young guide was really good. He is an Orang Asli (first inhabitants in Malaysia, they now live in tribal villages in the jungle).
At this point of the trip we were seriously exhausted and needed some rest. We spend the nex
t two days on Tioman Island. We went straight to the Eastern side of the Island, the most quiet and wild one. We spend the next two days chilling out, diving and rock climbing. We hung out with a old Malaysian who once lived with a Dutch lady who ended up leaving Malaysia. But in the mean time they created a gorgeous half-blood Eurasian girl who took a one year sabbatical on Tioman... Yeah, this is life!
One interesting anecdote about the rock climbing thing: to pull the rope on top, we needed a local guide to show us the way. But since it was Hari Raya week, the guy was busy with the family gathering. However after few minutes he came back to us and said it was OK. So he came, along with 2 of his friends to help him setting up the climbing spot. Jerome and I felt pretty bad about it: the guy left the family gathering because of us, and for not so much money... So once everyone was more relaxed after the first climb, I told him again that we were sorry to bother them during Raya, and that since the rope was pulled up, they could leave us and come back later on to pick up the gear. But they didn't want to: he confessed to me that he was really happy to have an excuse to be released from the family thing for a while. He was bored with being a good boy and all, and he brought his best friends along at the climbing spot for them to get wasted on beers while Jerome and I were climbing! Owned!!!... Sometime I really think religions are all about hypocrisy...
After Tioman we were back on track, aiming North along the long stripe of wild, deserted sandy
beach stretching for hundreds of kilometers all the way up to Thailand. That very part of the trip was actually the main reason for us to get on this trip. This ride was the most expected part! And I got to say that I was only disappointed... by the fact that we didn't have more time to spend on it! By chance the monsoon ceased pouring for few days, and riding along the beach at sunset, through small fishermen villages is a unique experience! The East coast is definitely very different from the rest of Malaysia, it really lags behind in terms of development and infrastructures.
We finally had to leave the East coast and crossed again the country from West to East through the mountains to reach Gua Musang and finally Brinchang in the Cameron Highlands. Some fresh air felt good. And I loved riding the crooked slope from Brinchang to Tapah. I only touched 4 times the concrete with my footrest...
Some figures to wrap-up the trip:
- 1670 km by motorbike
- 6 different repairmen visited along the road (yes, bikes are local brand ;-)
- 1 Pepsi can used by repairman #2 to fix my loose wheel barring...
- 1 fall (but no major injury)
- 60 L of premium gasoline released in the atmosphere
- ~27 fried rice/noddles dishes eaten
- ~10 leeches stuck under my skin
- 6 white water rivers crossed by foot
- 999,999 liters of rain water poured over me
- Priceless: tons of fun and discoveries all along the way!
In a nutshell: I was really hit by the duality of Malaysia: on one hand the Klang valley around Kuala Lumpur, its modern malls, huge elevated highways, Petronas Towers (tallest building in the world), industries, bustling development. On the other side, the rural Malaysia with many villages made of wooden stilts houses, dirt path, little markets along the road etc... Really two different countries.
Beside this, I discovered a new approach of traveling, and I sure will be back on a bike someday for another trip like that... The little man in my ear keeps whispering: "
Sumatra, Sumatra"...
Like for all the Muslim countries, the celebration of the end of the fasting month brings up a lot of festivities in the country. In Malaysia, the Eid is called Hary Raya. For the Muslim Malaysians, Hari Raya is the time to reconcile and renew relationship with others, mainly with the family. It lasts usually a week, during which the Malays are supposed to gather with the family in their hometown and ingest as much food as their belly can contain! There is a dedicated Malay song for it, broadcast on all the radio, TV, supermarkets, cabs, food stalls, etc... This is called Balik Kampung and literally means going back to one's hometown (most likely in the remote countryside) and celebrate Hari Raya with friends and family.
Jerome and I have been totally brainwashed
by the song, so we took the whole week off for Hari Raya, and decided to go on a tour in Pahang state (the most rural state of Malaysia) and go visit the Kampungs during the celebrations... Since there is almost no public transportation in this area, and to be more flexible, we rode our motorbikes. The good thing with Pahang is that it's the biggest state of Malaysia and it spreads from one coast to another. Therefore Pahang is a concentrate of the whole Malaysia.
As soon as we passed the North-South highway (main trunk road in Malaysia) we instantaneously felt we reached an very different environment! No more highways, malls and tall buildings. The road became a lot more bumpy and we crossed only small dusty villages. Finally we felt we reached the middle of nowhere! The fun can take place!
On the way we stopped at Endau-Rompin park for a jungle trek. To
reach the trek's starting point one must follow a dirt path for about 60 km through palm tree plantations. It seemed fun at first until the monsoon rain started to pour... Dust became mud and it became really hard to control the bikes... My bike was so mishandled that the steel fly case support got literally ripped off by the shocks. Then the trek was nice and very wild, but we felt safe because our young guide was really good. He is an Orang Asli (first inhabitants in Malaysia, they now live in tribal villages in the jungle).
t two days on Tioman Island. We went straight to the Eastern side of the Island, the most quiet and wild one. We spend the next two days chilling out, diving and rock climbing. We hung out with a old Malaysian who once lived with a Dutch lady who ended up leaving Malaysia. But in the mean time they created a gorgeous half-blood Eurasian girl who took a one year sabbatical on Tioman... Yeah, this is life!
One interesting anecdote about the rock climbing thing: to pull the rope on top, we needed a local guide to show us the way. But since it was Hari Raya week, the guy was busy with the family gathering. However after few minutes he came back to us and said it was OK. So he came, along with 2 of his friends to help him setting up the climbing spot. Jerome and I felt pretty bad about it: the guy left the family gathering because of us, and for not so much money... So once everyone was more relaxed after the first climb, I told him again that we were sorry to bother them during Raya, and that since the rope was pulled up, they could leave us and come back later on to pick up the gear. But they didn't want to: he confessed to me that he was really happy to have an excuse to be released from the family thing for a while. He was bored with being a good boy and all, and he brought his best friends along at the climbing spot for them to get wasted on beers while Jerome and I were climbing! Owned!!!... Sometime I really think religions are all about hypocrisy...
beach stretching for hundreds of kilometers all the way up to Thailand. That very part of the trip was actually the main reason for us to get on this trip. This ride was the most expected part! And I got to say that I was only disappointed... by the fact that we didn't have more time to spend on it! By chance the monsoon ceased pouring for few days, and riding along the beach at sunset, through small fishermen villages is a unique experience! The East coast is definitely very different from the rest of Malaysia, it really lags behind in terms of development and infrastructures.
We finally had to leave the East coast and crossed again the country from West to East through the mountains to reach Gua Musang and finally Brinchang in the Cameron Highlands. Some fresh air felt good. And I loved riding the crooked slope from Brinchang to Tapah. I only touched 4 times the concrete with my footrest...
