We continued with our training this weekend and so popped over to Pulau Pangkor. A place we’ve not been to for 2 years as it’s a bit of a pain to get to and not really that exciting once you’re there compared to other places. However we knew walking around the island would be good exercise so we decided to give the place another chance. We knew it would be busy with it being school holidays but we didn’t expect quite so many people and we certainly didn’t expect the guesthouse we tend to use to double the price. No choice but to check in and pay the lady but at least we had hot water, a fridge and a nice balcony to sit on in the garden away from the crowds.
Luckily we’d taken our kettle and it was just as well as we were ready for breakfast almost 2 hours before they were ready to serve. Can you believe that breaky didn’t start until 9 o’clock?! Malaysians can be really lazy at times! So we tried another favourite breakfast spot to learn that they don’t do roti canai anymore. WHAT!!!! Believe me I do not want rice or noodles for breakfast and the shops were all out of bread. There was no alternative but to start our walk round the island and take in breakfast on the way – a bit drastic having to walk 6kms to get a roti canai – but at least we were going that way anyway. We weren’t sure how far it was to circumnavigate the island’s road but suspected it would be somewhere in the region of 30kms and take the bulk of the day. There is only one stretch that gets anything like busy with cars and we’d done that before most people were up!
Once in the main port and fishing town we successfully tracked down breakfast and were ready to start the walk. Once we got past the fishing industries the road was very quiet and although road walking can be a bit tedious this wasn’t as the scenery is lovely. On the way we kept spotting troupes of monkeys and there were loads of hornbills flying around. We got up and over the biggest hill on the island much sooner than we thought and so where at our intended picnic spot way too early for lunch. The distance boards told us it was only 2kms back to our guesthouse and we realized that it is only a 15kms round trip. Not the work out we’d intended or hoped for but we were not to be cheated. We simply popped back to the room for a drink break and then set off again walking round in the opposite direction. I’m not kidding.
This time by the time we reached the quiet bay at the end of the island it was time for lunch. If only I’d known I could have left the sarnies in the fridge and picked them up half way through the walk instead of eating the slightly bashed and soggy numbers we had. By this time there were a few more vehicles on the road but not enough to bother us. It wasn’t until we got closer to town that the traffic noise was a little annoying. Still we were quickly through town and knew that we only had 6kms to go to the final end of the walk.
Now I’m good at simple plodding on and keep going but Steve was starting to get fed up at this point and he had a mini rant about the relentless pace that I set. What really upset him was the fact that I don’t slow the pace down on the up hill sections! We’d been walking a steady 6kms an hour all day and had only had a breakfast, 1 drink and a lunch stop all day. By this time it was very hot and I have to admit that even I was finding the whole thing a bit tedious but I knew that the best thing was to keep going and get back as soon as. When the terrain is easy I feel we should walk quickly to build up our strength. It’s going to be much tougher on Kilimanjaro as we will be pretty much constantly climbing and won’t be able to walk at pace. Anyway we got back to the guesthouse and congratulated ourselves on a job well done and rewarded ourselves with a laze on the beach. We’ve been doing quite a lot recently so we gave ourselves a day off exercise yesterday.
Whenever we talk about the trip to Africa we only seem to concentrate on the mountain. It seems to be taking so much of our free time in terms of preparation and of course it’s taking its toll on the bank account with all the gear we need to buy. I feel it is time to tell ourselves that we’re doing all we can to be ready for this challenge and to try to focus on some of the other aspects of the trip. We’ve hardly even looked into the safaris other than we know which parks we’ve booked up for. Time to start learning about the animals that live there and get a wish list drawn up. As for the romantic tropical beach part of the honeymoon on Zanzibar – other than trying to book a room we’ve largely ignored that part. Time to balance our priorities I feel but we really are rather concerned about this little hill we’re going to tackle. Just think Steve suggested that not be the first part of the holiday at one point. Bet he’s glad it’s going to be done and dusted first now!
Along with failing to get breakfast when we wanted it and the choice being shocking the evening food was no great shakes either. So when we got back to Bangsar last night we treated ourselves to a pizza in a great little Italian place near us. We don’t treat ourselves to meals out very often and it was a lovely end to the weekend. After all I am supposed to be on holiday!
