Steven Raucher's World Tour
2001-10-07 in Malacca, Malaysia
Malacca Madness
We headed back to Malaysia to catch a boat from there to Sumatra, I hadn�t been following the news as attentively as most people and the day after I had arrived in Malacca my inbox was full of emails from my friends in Singapore warning of the dangers of Indonesia.
Let me back up a bit first, my send-off from Singapore was great, a whole gang of bikers escorted me to the Malaysian side of the border before filling up their tanks with some cheap petrol and heading home. One couple, Eric and Lynette, insisted on riding up to Malacca with us*. It was really great having some company on the road for an otherwise boring stretch of highway. Eric and Lynette even took us to dinner and refused to leave until they had made sure we had found a hotel. What great people! So back in Malacca and unsure of the turmoil in Indonesia we did spot of sight-seeing and the odd bit of shopping. And this was were I happened upon Charles Cham, Charles is a famous artist from Malacca and he very kindly agreed to paint some of my petrol tank in one of his original designs. The bike is becoming more of a living memento of my trip than any photos could ever be.
After contacting the South African Embassy in Jakarta and establishing the risks of going to Indonesia, I accepted that the odds were in my favour so I rode down to the port and arranged shipping of my bike to Sumatra. All very exciting driving onto a boat on a couple of wooden boards, my nerves, I tell ya! (see picture)
Malacca is a great town full of history and something interesting around every corner, it really needs at least a few days to absorb it all. By Tuesday I was ready to leave and we hopped on a boat and crossed the Straits of Malacca and headed off to the now media-scared island of Sumatra.
Louise my good friend from London joined me in Malaysia for the next 2 months.
 some nice sugar tea to calm your nerves my son? |
 last Saturday with the Singapore Bikers |
 Eric and Lynette my co-riders from Singapore K1200 LT |
 Artist Charles Cham painting the Karma Tourer |
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