Feb 2008

This is the first face that we saw as we stepped off of our boat from Indonesia and onto Penisular Malaysia.

His name is David, he's from Malaysia, and he collects cyclists. Years ago he begun cycling around the world, and ever since he has been taking other cyclists into his home and showing them around his part of Malaysia. The moment that we stepped off the boat from Indonesia, David had us flying around town visiting temples, religious festivals

Chinese new years celebrations,

weddings,

fishing villages,

and tasting every food known to mankind.

The population in Malaysia is made up of Malay, Chinese, and Indian people. That being said, you can imagine the beautiful variety of temples, festivals, and foods that there are to experience in this clean, super friendly country.

We left David's house a whole lot fatter and a little bit wiser about this great country.

From David's house we biked our way over to Kuala Lumpur to meet Wim's mom and sister. We were so excited to have new people with us after so long, that we dumped our bikes in a hotel and ran off to explore the country by bus with them. We went on jungle hikes,

walked high up in the jungle canopy,

learned about Chinese medicine (you can come here to munch bats if you have asthma)

saw the fields where they grow tea,

and celebrated Chinese new year again and again.

Although we are really sad and alone now that our family has left, we're excited to start traveling by bike again. Long sweaty bus rides are incredibly tiring, completely unrewarding, and surprisingly not always so much faster than just riding your bike.

Tomorrow we begin pedaling our way north towards Thailand.