Cycling from Butterworth to Taiping

Not a lot of people take the time to sort out what alternatives there are to avoid main roads. That certainly counts for the road from Butterworth to Taiping in Malaysia. Most are in a hurry to reach Pangkor and quickly go to Kuala Lumpur (which is anyway in my humble opinion as waste of time).

Bukit Merah

Anyway, there are a couple of alternatives to reach Taiping without even using any ongoing road and still not make massive amounts of extra kilometers. Here is the story:

Cycling from Butterworth to Taiping

Johor Bharu to Malacca

Malaysia is much overlooked as a cycling country. Some claim it's too hot, others tell you it's too expensive. And others say there's little of interest, especially the Malaysian west coast. Personally I like it. It was a nice ride from Johor Bharu to Malacca


Johor Bharu to Malacca

On the road to Malacca

Jungle trekking Teluk Batik-Teluk Rubiah in Perak Malaysia

My Pangkor website has dedicated several pages to jungle trekking around Teluk Batik and Teluk Rubiah. When I was first introduced into the jungle here just opposite of Pangkor Island in Malaysia I could not foresee how many times I would hike here, and eventually know the jungle so well, I even started guiding on an occasional base.

It's a beautiful piece of secondary rainforest. For primary rain forest in this part of Malaysia you have to visit south Pangkor (around Teluk Segadas).

I come here once in a while just to watch the monitor lizards go fishing

This piece of jungle is relatively open and was easy accessible until very recent. I love to get in here and find out if I find snakes, wild boar and other animals. I'm lucky, sometimes:)!

Jungle trekking Teluk Batik-Teluk Rubiah in Perak Malaysia

More jungle trekking around Teluk Batik
Jungle Trekking Teluk Rubiah with children
The International Award For Young People group

The canyon which might be transformed into a 4 lane road

Dali Lijiang and Zhongdian (Shangri-La)

Yunnan has a few principal places to visit, and they're not that far from each other: Dali Lijiang and Zhongdian (Shangri-La). Cycling here requires more from the body as you start in Kunming at 2000 meter and cycle up to Shangri-La at 3300 meter. It's best to do this in summer as in winter the road can be blocked by snow.

Dali Lijiang and Zhongdian (Shangri-La)

Shangri-La monastery

Cycling in Guangxi, China

Guangxi is mostly ignored by travelers with the exception of Guilin and Yangshuo. True, some travel to Liuzhou even travel to Nanning although the latter is usually visited by travelers to and from Vietnam.

SO is Guangxi reall the boring province that travelers think it is? There are more exciting places in China, true. That said, Guangxi is a pleasant procince, with quite a few things to see if you are willing to do some work.

On the road to Pingxiang and Vietnam

I have crossed Guangxi several times, from Baise at the Yunnan border to Guilin, from Yangshuo to Nanning via different way from Libo in Guizhou to Hechi and further to Liuzhou and from Wuzhou to Nanning. The last I did Yangshuo via the Liuzhou route (but not into Liuzhou) to Nanning in November 2011. It surprised me how much there was to see. So here are some pages to tell you what to do and expect

• Cycling in Guangxi
• Guilin-Yangshuo-Lipu-Taiping-Guiping-Binjiang-Nanning
• Guilin-Yangshuo-Lipu-Toupai-Liuzhou-Datang-Binjiang-Nanning
• Guilin-Yangshuo-Lipu-Toupai-Xiangzhou-Laibin-Binjiang-Nanning
• Baise to Guilin
• Libo to Yangshuo
• Day 1: Nanning to Suyu
• Day 2. Suyu to Chongzhuo
• Day 3. Chongzhuo to Pingxiang and Vietnam

South West China: Yunnan

Yunnan province in China is a very popular travel destination. However, most of the travelers visit only the loop Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La (Zhongdian). Considering that the province is roughly the size of France, it may looks strange only the north west of Yunnan is frequently visited.

With that knowledge I started to explore some other areas and found that the second most popular area was Xishuangbanna, which borders with Laos and Mynamar. It's a bit more difficult to reach but if you cycle Kunming to Laos (or vice versa) you will pass this beautiful piece of subtropical China.

Shangri-La - Zhongdian

Another spectacular areas even less visited is the Baoshan region. This is a little weird as Baoshan can easily be reached from Dali and with Tengchong and Ruili at the Burmese border this part of Yunnan deserves more tourists.

Two other areas are hardly visited. The Tonghai - Jianshui sees virtually no foreign tourists although Chinese tourists come here for praying. Going north usually means continuing traveling from Shangri-La to Litang, but there are two more options. One goes from Kunming to Panzhizhua and is not recommended (busy road) while the other goes from Kunming to Sonming and Zhaotong and further into south Sichuan. This is a very nice and seldom visited area,.

South West China: Yunnan

Lijiang

Yunnan, the Stone Forest

The Stone Forest in Yunnan is according to some sources, one of the natural wonders of the world. Of course others dispute that and see no more than a lot of strange formed stones. I went twice and I found it twice interesting enough. The first time I only saw the park but the second time I was on my way from Kunming to Guilin on the bicycle, and stayed a night in Shilin, right next to the park.

That time I didn't visit the park but instead I strolled around in the vicinity. It was beautiful, very natural, no tourists, in fact few people at all as the land is difficult to work on. So you are on your own, literally on your own. I like that. The next day I continued cycling for another dozen or two kilometers through the rock formations when I finally left Yunnan.

Yunnan, the Stone Forest
Kunming to Guilin