My friend loves bikes, and I'd love to put him on a big bike, while thinking it's a dangerous drug for someone who lives in china.
2 days in a factory, then planning to come home, but can't get a cheap flight, the bloody holiday sent fares soaring,
get something back to KL, and go to check out Ipoh, the town I'd preselected as being my best shot, close enuf to beach, cameron highlands, thai border, suppliers, large enuf, etc.
I met Tony before going to Ipoh, 73 years old, ex govt. veterinarian, with local equivalent of knighthood, he can get an audience with the Sultan anytime he wants, park anywhere he wants, his wife speaks a different chinese dialect, so they've always communicated in english, lovely, intelligent, travelled people, whose children are in far corners of the globe.
Tony invites me to stay for a few days, Ipoh's his home town, and he plays tour guide.
I instantly love the place, it's ringed with limestone mountains, slightly cooler than other parts of malaysia, in a bit of a rain shadow during the monsoon season with 3 mountain ranges to skim the rain, and surprising laid back for a nearly million people sized city.
First day I give blood in the morning, see some limestone caves after a nice lunch, and get some teeth drilled for cheap in the afternoon, 40ish chinese guy, old enuf to be highly competent, young enuf to still care and see what he's doing, and I went back the next day for a few more, (haven't had teeth drilled since before fire), I backed out of the recommended extraction, 'I can fill it, but if I drill it, it might upset the nerve, resulting in needing an extraction or root canal, and it hasn't got anything opposing it, so you might as well pull it out' 'can you pull it out if it gets worse?' 'Yep'
I'd had enuf fun by then, so I opted to leave it. I got a bunch of biz cards if you're headed that way.
next day have a bit of a look around the biz scene, and meet some of Tony's friends, then head back to KL via the cameron highlands, Tony said if I get a bike next time I come, he can give it a run occasionally, he's got a little honda.
Road to cameron highlands is motorbike heaven and bus hell, the road is wide and nicely paved, but cross stiches it's way up to 4500 feet altitude with very few straights, and the bus pulls so many G's on every corner you almost need to hold the seat the whole trip.
What a magic place, the temperature is low 20's year round, a mix of local culture, farming temperate climate vegetabales like corn and brocclli, and western retirees, the enormous golf course in the middle of the main town town seems like a waste to me, but they prob don't want it converted to a motorcross track.
I hired a bike for $12 for half a day, and got massive sunburn as I tracked around the tracks along the rivers checking out the local ups and downs, normally the humidity and cloud cover is so high in malaysia that you don't get sunburned.
then back to KL and home, via a few KL bike shops, and a shopping center that went on forever including a rollercoaster, archery gallery, bowling alley, and some food courts that weren't up to regional cuisine at 3 times the price. I felt like a decent feed of meat after the first meal, and ordered a kebab, which had a few shavings of meat, in syrupy sauce, I already suffered thru an asian pizza in china, and as I said to my malaysian friends, we've got western food at home.
As soon as I can sell a bike, I'm straight back to china, with the MC19 kit moulds, to supervise the making of a bunch of kits,
and once they are made to a standard I can put my name to, I'll get a house and a couple of bikes in Ipoh, so I can hide from my customers in Oz, make a few cheap race kits, (china is better for custom paint jobs) and new road designs and check out the local rides.
If all goes well, I'll get a network of places as stopovers for bike hire tours, which tend to cost a fortune and be very regimented, I'd rather offer a range of destinations, and leave people to their own devices.
