Our PENINSULAR MALAYSIA TOUR offers the most riding of any of our motorcycle tours, and this riding is mainly on roads that approach or equal Western-standards. The comfort level on this tour is high for its entire duration, as we stay in top quality lodgings exclusively. No roughing it on this motorcycle tour.

     Malaysia is a multi-ethnic society and a mixing pot for three main cultures: the Malays, the indigenous people of this land; the Chinese, the earliest immigrant group; and the Indians, the last group of settlers to call Malaysia home. All three have brought into their mix their own charms, cultural practices, and of course their own unique cuisine which we will sample fully every day. Overall, Malaysia just may have the most delicious variety of food in Asia.

     Malaysia is also covered by the world’s oldest rainforest; their flora and fauna never having been disturbed by the earth’s cataclysmic climate shifts. We will visit a couple of their national parks and view their startling ecosystem first-hand.

1st Night: KUALA LUMPUR: Participant's meeting and motorcycle distribution.

2nd & 3rd Night: We head straight into the interior of Malaysia, to their largest national park, TAMAN NEGARA, smack-dab in the center of the world's oldest rainforest.  The riding terrain to there is hilly and rolling and it is a good introduction to Asian roads and Malaysian drivers.  At the approach to the park, we drive a lazy dirt trail to a river junction and board a longboat for a twin-night stay in the luxurious  jungle outpost––Trenggan Lodge.  The jungle birds are as colorful as orchids, yet both pale against the  splendor of the huge Rajah Brooks butterfly--electric green and blue on a black velvet background.  Pockets of elephants and tigers still survive, though barely.  They are rare to see but possible to hear, especially in the still of the night.  A park naturalist makes sense of the incomprehensibly profuse jungle ecosystem for us, and a night jungle walk introduces us to a completely different cast of jungle denizens.  Nearby are waterfalls, caves, salt licks, and hot springs.

4th Night:  Historic MELAKA is our second target. As Kyoto is to Japan, Melaka is the heart and soul of Malaysia.  Some of Asia's earliest and finest colonial relics from the Portuguese, Dutch, and British days are well preserved here. But even before the Europeans came the Strait's Chinese. Many of the current residents proudly trace their roots backwards to a single 15th century Chinese Princess and her entourage. Their Baba-Nonya cuisine is unique and world renowned, and delicious as you will discover in the evening.

5th Night:  The plaintive wail of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer arouses you from slumber in a town on the opposite side of the globe. We drive past many traditional Malay kampongs (villages) and stop off in a few of them. Watch how another culture goes about daily chores in their inimitable style. In the afternoon we arrive in CHERATING, on the South China Sea. This is a beach so beautiful that it prompted Club Med's first foray into Asia. Palm-fringed sands stretch as far as the eye can see.  Soak off your road grit in the gentle surf.

6th & 7th Night:  We cruise north on a coastal road passing old-fashioned fishing kampongs with their brightly painted boats bobbing in the surf.  The traffic is light, the sun is beaming, and our motorcycles are gobbling up the miles.  Offshore islands sparkle in the sea and one is for us, PULAU REDANG, with a newly gazetted underwater national park. We spend two nights at the plush Berjaya Resort. Their specialty is scuba diving and snorkelling and all other water sports are available.

8th Night:  Too soon we must leave and immediately we hit a gorgeous coastal road. Traffic dwindles to an occasional car or bicycle.  The weather is perfect and the bikes effortlessly cruise past miles and miles of deserted beaches shaded by coconut groves. Motorcycling can't get much better than this! We whisk up to the apex of Malaysia, to KOTA BHARU, a stronghold of conservative Muslim values and traditional crafts. If we are lucky we will spot a top-spinning competition in full spin, the villagers madly urging on their team.  Home-made colorful kites are another passion up here and they mambo across the late afternoon sky.

9th Night:  We bid farewell to the east coast and motor across the peninsula on the East-West Highway, an engineering marvel that slices through the center of wild jungle. This is the first of 3 of the "top 10 Asian motorcycle roads" on this tour. Perhaps we'll see some nomadic Sakai, a shadowy negrito people who immigrated here eons ago and refuse to settle down in villages. Another "top 10" road brings us to a tranquil and secluded PEDU LAKE RESORT, a wonderful tonic after a full day of intense motorcycling.

10th Night:  In the morning we're off to PENANG, "The Pearl of the Orient" and the British Empire's former Asian capital. A culinary feast awaits us amidst the hawker stalls on Gurney Drive, and an outstanding variety of aromas and tastes attack our sensory organs.

11th Night:  Our last and final lodging is atop FRASER'S HILL, a delightful colonial hill station built by the British to escape the stifling heat of the low-land tin mines and rubber estates. This is the third Asian "top 10" motorcycle road in Malaysia. It climbs up a mountain road so steep and narrow that traffic has to alternate hourly between one-way up and one-way down. You would notice dozens of waterfalls pouring off the mountainside if you weren't concentrating so hard on the roadway.

    KUALA LUMPUR is not far away so we sleep late and lounge around Fraser's Hill in the morning, enjoying the cool air and go for a bracing dip in a nearby cascade. After our final excursion to the Batu Caves, an important Hindu shrine, a most impressive motorcycle trip becomes a lifetime memory.

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The next PENINSULAR MALAYSIA MOTORCYCLE TOUR is scheduled for 2010. However, custom tours can be organized in Malaysia for private groups at any time upon request.  Please contact A.M.A. for further details:

Questions / requests / feedback: info@asianbiketour.com