Port Dixon - points north 13/11

We woke up this morning looking out over the Malacca Straights and the continuing procession of ships. Still amazed at the coincidence of meeting Robbie yesterday.

After a good buffet breakfast (all included!) we bravely sallied forth once more.  Our abiding feeling on leaving any place is one of regret that we haven't more time to explore but our time is limited and we wanted to spend the most time up north in Penang and Langkawi.

The roads in Malaysia are generally of a high standard being mostly concrete paved. And they have a concrete motorway the full length of the country from Johore to the Thai border. 2 lanes each way - sometimes 3. It's a toll road but the charges are very reasonable and you don't mind if it's a good road. Unlike here with our goat tracks! The other welcome contrast from NZ was the price of fuel. 95 octane (they don't have 91!) worked out at around 80 cents Kiwi per litre.Obviously subsidised and/or no tax. While on the subject of motoring, cars are very expensive. They have a local car manufacturing industry where they make the Proton is several model guises. These are made in collaboration with Mitsubishi. They seem to be of reasonable quality (we hired a small one on Langkawi Is. for a day) but don't altogether match the imports. But there are heaps of them on the roads. Anyway the duty on any imported car is high in order to protect the local industry.

We had a pleasant drive north with Jean navigating - sometimes with difficulty as signs are difficult to interpret and highway numbers not always as logical as the map would suggest! Still, that's all part of the fun - so they say. All went swimmingly passing through several towns about Whangarei size until we approached Klang. Klang and its port, Port Klang is Malaysia's biggest port and quite close to Kuala Lumpur. So there is an abslolute tangle of motorways and interchanges and if you make a mistake which is very easy you're committed for some distance. This is what happened to us and we found ourselves on the motorway to KL! We didn't want to go there - at least not in the car. We managed to find an exit, then had to pay a small toll and headed back to Klang. Then decided to get off the motorway and ask directions to Kuala Selangore up the coast. Fortunately we struck a young woman wearing a Moslem head scarf in a service station who spoke very good English and we were able to get onto the right road - apart from taking a wrong turn a bit further on and we had to barge through the unforgiving traffic to get turned around and on our way.

Remaining drive fairly uneventful and arrived at Kuala Selangore which was fairly nondescript place. Had a mediocre lunch in a Malaysian cafe as we were ravenous by then (about 2.30) and then drove a short distance out of town to a resort we had heard about. Not somewhere we would recommend!! It was the La Palma Resort and had cabins in a lacklustre garden. Took us 3 goes to find a cabin where the air conditioning worked and the staff singularly unhelpful. But there wasn't anywhere else and it wasn't expensive.

We had heard about a fishing village on the banks of a nearby river which had good seafood so off we went. Met a young Dutch girl who works in KL so had a drink with her and then ordered some food. Well, it was revolting. Jim had squid which was uneatable with a very strong unpleasant odour!! Jean had a whole fish which, although not looking particularly appetising, was at least eatable. The village itself was a collection of rusty roofed hovels on the muddy banks of the river. It evoked memories of stories of the ferocious pirates who used to inhabit this coast and no doubt operated from lairs such as this. Arrived back in town in a disgruntled state and found some fried chicken to assuage the hunger pangs!

All in all not a great experience in Kuala Selangore but all part of the experience.