250km was all that stood between me and being able to tick off an item on my cycling bucket list – to ride from the west coast of Malaysia to the east via the Cameron Highlands.  It would take me 2 long days of cycling to cover this distance, and for the first time I would really witness first hand the massive scale of deforestation that is taking place in Malaysia.

Malaysia is synonymous with the oil palm plantations that now cover vast swathes of the country and is fast replacing native trees and forests throughout Malaysia.  When I was planning this trip I had originally wanted to cycle through Borneo but the reviews from cyclists who had made this journey seemed to be that, although amazing, you would spend days on end cycling through oil palm plantations.  Even on mainland Malaysia I had feared that this would be my scenery and although I had cycled through some oil palm plantations it had not been for days on end.

My first day heading for the coast from Taman Negara would be dominated by oil palm plantations and the huge logging and land clearance operation that takes place to support it.

The whole process begins with the whole scale clearance of the primary forest. Again, nobody seemed to mind that I had just cycled into the logging yard and was wandering around with a camera which still amazes me.

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The only ‘fail’ that I would have so far would be later that day when I tried to film in an oil palm processing factory that I cycled past.  The security guard on the gate was not for letting me in or even letting me take pictures from the road, but more about that later.

The size of the trees that they are removing from the forest is staggering

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Once the forest is cleared the next stage is to completely clear the land ready for the oil palms to be planted in neat little rows:

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Obviously you need to have some oil palm trees to plant and so you need an ‘oil palm’ nursery:

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The next stage is that you need to have some workers to plant the trees in the ground, and the ones that I have spoken to on this trip seem to mainly come from Bangladesh and they live on the plantations in ‘pieced together’ housing:

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The ‘washing’ facilities are a communal bucket shower:

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Once the land has been cleared and the plants planted it is time for the plantation owners to do an inventory of the number of trees that have been planted before handing over the final installments.  This is not done by boots on the ground though as I found out as I cycled past one of the newly planted plantations:

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Instead, a remote controlled plane, on a preset GPS course, flies over the plantation taking pictures of the ground.  These images are then used to count the number of trees that have been planted and the client then pays accordingly.  The main road in front of the plantation is used as the runway for take offs and landings.

When the trees are in the ground it is now a case of sit back and wait for them to mature and to start growing the ‘nuts’ that will be harvested and processed into oil.  This takes around 3 years before the first nuts appear and the trees carry on producing for roughly the next 25 to 30 years before being uprooted and the land replanted with new trees.

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The plantations do make a very shady place to stop for a cuppa and with a layer of grass underneath they would make an ideal camping spot if needed:

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Here is a video I shot en route to my cuppa in the oil palm plantations

After 3 years the ‘nuts’ are harvested and taken to be processed at factories that you located nearby. The picture below shows the picked ‘nuts’.

 

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Each nut weighs between 10 and 25 kilograms with 1000 to 3000 ‘fruitlets’ per bunch. The fruitlet on the tree is dark purple/black in colour as it grows and the colour turns to orange/red when ripe. At the factory the fruitlets are crushed and steamed to remove the oil.

This has been my only fail on this trip so far as the security guard at the processing plant was having none of me and my video camera gaining access.  He wouldn’t even let me take photos from the road although I sneaked in a couple of quick shots anyway.  Even the normal ‘Blakey charm’ didn’t work on this guy.

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I will write a separate post specifically on oil palm production when I find the time as it really is a huge part of the Malaysian landscape and economy.

It was now late afternoon and I still had a long way to cycle if I was to reach my destination by nightfall but first I was hungry and went in search of the ‘car boot’ restaurants that start to set up around this time.  It wasn’t far until I found one and the meal of choice today was banana pancake:

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It is amazing what the Malaysian people can produce out of the back of their cars.

The roads were still a roller coaster affair and there constant nature really took the energy out of my legs by the end of the day:DSCN2242

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By the time it was going dark I was about 30km from my planned destination of Maran, the halfway mark in my journey to the coast.  All around me were palm oil trees and nothing much else.  I saw an older couple on a motorbike by the roadside and stopped hoping that they would speak english.  They spoke a few words which was enough with hand gestures for them to understand that I was looking for a hotel.

Off we went in ‘convoy’ as they led me on a zig zag route through the plantation roads for the next 20 minutes and led me to Bandar Pusat Jengka where I would spend the night.DSCN2249

I was up early the next morning as I still had over 130km to go until I reached the coast.  I would normally ride for an hour before eating breakfast, but the lack of food opportunities in the hills has meant that I take food where I can find it, and so had something to eat before I left Bandar Pusat Jengka.

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My plan was to get my head down and ride on an eat – cycle – eat basis until I hit the coast.  As I left the town that morning I had only ridden about 10km when an amazing site opened up in front of me:

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That beautiful piece of FLAT tarmac infront of me was the first that I had seen for nearly 500km.  Even though I still had more than 120km to cover, today was going to be a much easier day on the bike.  I cycled the majority of the day in the big chain ring and rolled along at an easy 22kmph.  Not even the wind could dent my happiness.

My plan had been to push on all day to the coast without stopping, but as usual fate intervened when I pulled over for an iced coffee and the lady said that I should visit the temple to see the ‘pouring of the milk’. I left my bike and walked to the nearby temple and watched an amazing ceremony to celebrate the Hindu god Marathandavar.

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The story behind the temple is that in the early 1900’s the British wanted to plant a rubber plantation in the area and so the Indian workers were building a road when they came across a tree which was bleeding. Inside the tree they found the statue of Marathandavar and a temple was built in his honour.

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The ceremony that I saw was to celebrate this. The rubber plantation is no longer here but the temple remains and so does a fairly size able Hindu community who prey at the temple.

People travel from all over the world to visit the temple and as the nearest accommodation is about 50km away anybody, including tour cyclists, can sleep at the temple and at noon each day they provide a free meal for the whole community regardless of your religion.

Within the temple there is a ‘wish’ tree where you would tie a yellow ribbon to, for example, prey for somebody who was ill.  Many couples use the tree to ask god for a baby by tying a basket to the tree, and inside the basket you place a boy or girl doll.

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When couples have the baby they return to the temple to give thanks to god.  The parents shave the childs head as a sign of thanks whenever they return to the temple. (the yellow powder is apparently to stop the scalp itching)

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An amazing morning spent at the temple and here is a video I made to record my time there.

It was now already lunchtime and I still had many hours of cycling in front of me, and I wanted to make the coast before dark.  This mean’t that sadly I couldn’t join the devotees for the ‘free’ lunch, and was once again on my way pedaling towards the coastline.

Around 5pm, I made it to Kuantan and could finally tick an item off my cycling ‘bucket’ list. I had cycled nearly 1000km since I had last seen the Andaman Sea near Alor Setar on the west coast of Malaysia to the South China Sea on the East.

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I had chosen arguably the toughest route via the Cameron Highlands and Taman Negara National Park, but had an absolutely fantastic time.  I met some amazing people and cycled through some jaw dropping landscapes. A must do route for any tour cyclist visiting Malaysia.  There was still one last job to do and something that I had been dreaming about for the last few nights:
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Here is a video that I shot along the way of the final section of my journey to the coast:

I have been totally blown away by the amazing acts of kindness that I have been shown in Malaysia be it people going out of their way to guide me to a hotel or at lunch the other day where after having something to eat, an iced coffee and stocking up on water the owner, who spoke not a word of english, just waved me away and wouldn’t take any money.

My time in Kuantan would be the same as Amri, a man that I had never met before, paid for my hotel room, which  I think is the first place that my wife would of stayed at on this trip:

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He also picked me up from the hotel and took me out for dinner in the evening and we had satay (a Kuantan speciality) and Nesi Lemak (a malaysian speciality).

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It was great meeting him and we had a very enjoyable evening, and I just want to finish by saying thank you Amri for all your kindness and I hope that you continue to make a difference with the work you do at the Pahang Foundation.

This section of my world cycle had not only ticked one of my cycling bucket list items but had without doubt been on of the highlights of my trip so far.

Cheers

Stewart

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The run to the coast (Malaysia)
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