Riding Pulau Penang Malaysia

[Mark Rossi]

After an intense few days visiting Triumph and racing a off-road endurance event in Pattaya, we said our goodbyes to this Wild One the James Dean impersonator, spread our wings and flew the coup out of LOS



Distanced by a 1hr 40minute Airasia flight from Bangkok and serviced by a small sleepy international airport is Pulau Penang, a great cheap get away.
"Honky" an excited young man

The Malaysian island is about 22km from south to north and 12km from west to east so a Honda dream was our vehicle of choice to cruise the islands roadways.


Hooking up the rentals



Headed of from George town in a anti-Cristian, I mean anti clockwise direction we circumnavigated the Island, With my trusty GPS and newly loaded Malaysia map,( a big THANKS to Auke for the map) forgotten and left in my pickup in BKK we would have to wing it.
The Honky, perfect size for a prehistoric Honda dream

Our first stop was Batu Feringhi then on to Teluk Bahang a small fishing village on the north west point of the island
Batu feringhi photo taken on a previous trip

Teluk Bahang fishing village


The curvaceous coastal and mountain roads where just what the doctor ordered.
Honky puts the dream through its paces



from the elevated view of the mountains the views over the Anderman sea and city are stupendous

However we sometimes needed to ride on the high road to get a unobstructed view

looking down on George town

Honky passing a fetishistic fruit stand

We wound down out of the mountains near the airport then headed straight back up to cut across to George town through the mountain by-pass, here we visited the Kek Lok Si Temple in Ayer Itam on our decent into the city.

Kek Lok Si has some amazing ceramic statues




Back to George town and our tour of the island completed it was now time to absorb ourselves in motos at Planet motorcycles a special treat for us who have relocate in Thailand.

The RC8 and whatever Honky's on

Spiders have 8 legs and Planet cycles has 8 Spiders

Something for the old boys

Something for middle aged

something for the mechanics, must have been every puller here to disable all Ktm's
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Honky's previous exploits were not brought up before unleashing him on a 690 SMR, however as he accelerated away at maximum revs in each gear I did turn to see a set of raised eyebrows questioning my vouching his credibility

My turn

As any normal person does I made a illegal u-turn at a traffic light and the front wheel lofted slightly above the ground on acceleration through the first 3 gears as I made my way back to KTM headquarters. On disembarkation through the airport Honky picked up a local paper to read a Malay had been jailed for 8 months for the same precise riding skills, amazing!!

Honky giving admiration to the RC8

A great day which led us into a great night, but not first without stopping in for some foot relief

The food in Penang is an amazing mix of Indian, Malay and Chinese and is well documented for its culinary exploits and there not kidding when they say its a multi cultural melting pot as we found out being An Aussie and a Pom in Malaysia staying in a Chinese run guest house, drinking Singaporean beers and eating Indian food while talking to Vietnamese girls in English?

The next day out we were a little exhausted the first time I have actually desired a flight to be longer so I can catch some Zzz's
The Honky in-flight, maybe dreaming of Indian curry's or maybe dreaming of a Vietnamese noodling

[KTMphil]

Very nice report Mr. Rossi.

The KTM dea;er in Penang is on my list of visits after the dry season. I agree about the food there, i think some of the best in the world.