Saturday, November 24, 2012

The Usual Wonderful People - All Day Long

Saturday, Nov 24th
Bidor to Ipoh, 42 miles


So we started out in the rain today, and knowing that we had a long day ahead, we got an early start...8 am:). Well, that's early for us...a girl's gotta get her beauty sleep and at my age I need more than I used to!

But we only go a few miles before its time to stop for breakfast. Roti canai, of course! Her a young woman is spinning the dough to make it very thin...you can see her hand through it. Then she'll fold it so that it captures pockets of air and put it on a big griddle to fry...yum! The canai is a spicy fish sauce that pieces of the roti, that I've torn off, are dipped in. Did I say yum? I can eat it every morning...happily!



Back on the road, this an named Chun started biking with us, showing us different highlights of the town and helping us find a coffee spot. He had an old beat up bike and wore flip flops but had no problem biking with us for 8-10 miles before his turn off.



When we sat for a quick coffee and a bite to eat he showed us his and that had been deformed in a mahining accident - 4 of his fingers were amputated and unable to bee reattached. Conversation with locals can be challenging when their English is limited, like ha was. A couple at a early table picked up our tab...how sweet is that?

Her are "the kids" waiting patiently for us as we get that bite to eat. This looks like the typical stall where we get most of our meals. We can have no concern for hygiene and just trust that it will be all right. So far, so good!



Further down the road, another gentleman pulled over to get our story and check out our bikes. Suhaimi is our newest Facebook friend from Malaysia!



On into Ipoh, a small city. We landed at our 2nd hotel, a darling boutique hotel that has just opened. $33 for the night for the both of us and that's for a very nice room. One question we always have to ask is "Do you have a place for our bikes?" Of course the imagine normal bikes when they say yes. As you can see they were determined to get Blaze into the storage room...Myrtle was already in there!



And last, but not least, I have to tell you what a comfort it is to have Col. Sanders on every street corner, open 24 hours! KFC is really, really big over here!





Pedaling down the road,

BagLady



More pictures are posted at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104890875270597877610

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