Somebody has switched on the sauna in Malaysia, and forgot to switch it off again. It’s been extremely hot these days and today was no exception. We started out early, at 7am, to enjoy the morning cool as long as possible. It was indeed very nice, and we had a bit of a climb to start with but that was fine. After a while we left the main road to Raub and followed a much smaller kampung road, direction Lanchang. It was beautiful, quiet, cool riding with some short gentle hills. And a hornbill today as a bonus.
 |
| At the top of the morning hill, the air still cool |
 |
| It’s hard to get up at 6am, but that beautiful morning sun is worth it! |
 |
| The much smaller kampung road, still quiet at this point, becoming a bit busier later in the morning. |
After some time we entered Felda territory, in other words palm plantation time. Still fine, great views, blue sky but gradually warmer and warmer as we rode very exposed to the sun. After our mid morning break, we continued our way through mostly beautiful nature again, but still quite exposed to the relentless blazing sun. What a heat! It remained scorching hot for the rest of the day, and by the evening we saw some promising high clouds but so far, still no cooling rain... Despite consistent use of sunscreen, we both found quite a few patches of pink skin...
 |
| Palm view, with Genting in the distance |
 |
| I can still feel the heat building up just by looking at this picture |
We arrived in Temerloh, after a very welcome cold drink stop in Mentakab. The part of our journey over the much bigger road 8 was not too bad at all, much better than expected. What struck us the past 2 days however, was what a mess it is along the Malaysian roads! We saw that also last time, but kind of forgot about it, and we were reminded again now how bad it is (MUCH worse than all the other countries we rode through). There’s litter everywhere, bottles, plastic bags, packaging, cans, diapers (!), name it. All just chucked out of the car, who cares. We see people do it all the time, just throwing things on the ground, it doesn’t seem to matter. Come on guys, open your eyes, it’s a dump along the roads!!!
 |
| High clouds in Temerloh; will they bring some cooling rain? |
 |
| Temerloh riverside |
In Temerloh we took a stroll around town, to the riverside, through the “center” of the town and back; nothing spectacular but nice to walk around. Most shops and even restaurants were closed today, but we found a great Chinese outdoor restaurant, with the typical plastic chairs and tables, nicely placed under some huge trees and with a VIP sunset colours view. Grilled stingray, rojak, hokkien mee and a glass of ice cold beer, the perfect conclusion of another great (but hot!) day.
 |
| Coffee corner in Temerloh |
 |
| Depending on how you look at it, this can be old and worn, or charming |
 |
| Just another view in town |