Mnara Antik Kenti

This one has been on my list for a long time. The setting of the tiny theater on a high ridge in the mountains above Antalya is impressive. It’s where all the photos that you see on the internet are taken. Philipp‘s been up here at least a couple times, and it would have been more fun to come with him than with a big group, but Ahmet called and told me about this plan with TODOSK. On the dolmuş ride to the trailhead, I sat next to 83-year-old Durmuş Ali Abi who I hadn’t seen in years. Great to see that he’s still a strong hiker. I also met some fun new folks who hopefully I’ll see again.

IMG_20250518_144134 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Keykubad Yolu walking: Güneycik to Çıplaklı

After last spring’s walk on the Zengibar Yolu, Ferda and I knew what we were getting into this time. This five-day tour was also organized by the Konya Büyükşehir Belediyesi though the route was entirely in Antalya İli (province). We started in Güneycik (Gündoğmuş); most of the route was in Alanya İlçe (district).

The best thing was that we went with a fun group of friends. This was the first time we’ve seen Emek and Görkem since Şavşat four years ago.

IMG_20250422_163941 by bryandkeith on flickr

Likya Yolu apparently didn’t scare away Gülizar and Ali. They joined us again from İzmir.

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Bicycle touring Malaysia: from Malacca south to Singapore

The first week I bicycled in Sulawesi I complained about closed restaurants and too much traffic because of the busy end of Ramadan holiday. Unfortunately I have to do the same thing for Malaysia. We did find some nice roads, and we did find some horrible roads (narrow with too much traffic), and it wasn’t at all predictable from looking at the map which would be which. For example what looked like a main road heading into Benut had almost no traffic, but what I expected to be quiet rural roads before that were crowded with way too many cars.

IMG_20250402_104050 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Bicycle touring Malaysia: Tampin to Malacca

Well, sort of bicycle touring. Still in a little hurry to make it to Singapore in time for our flight home, Ferda and I took the train from Kuala Lumpur to Tampin. There’s one daily train that allows bicycles. Don’t miss it.

In Tampin we stayed in another large Chinese hotel, had a good Indian dinner, and found these street murals.

20250327_193216 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Four days in Kuala Lumpur

Not really bicycle touring. We took the bus from Penang to Kuala Lumpur and rode about 4km from KL Sentral to Chinatown. Four days later we left KL by train to Tampin, and we didn’t cycle at all during our days in the city. It appeared to be a very unfriendly city for cyclists, but we can’t really say firsthand.

Back in Lanta we bought plane tickets from Singapore to İstanbul, and in Penang we planned out the rest of the days. We will have time for a little riding — from Tampin to Singapore — but we basically skipped the whole bit from Kangar to Tampin. I don’t really know what we missed.

Before getting settled in Kuala Lumpur, it took some time checking quite a few hotels before we found a good one that would accept our bicycles. What a surprise then to see this view of Merdeka 118 from our balcony!

20250326_193102 by bryandkeith on flickr

A lot of what we did in Kuala Lumpur was walk around and look at buildings. We didn’t even have to leave the hotel to see the second tallest building in the world! For good food all it took was walking downstairs to the street where there were many options. On our first night we had this chicken and rice clay pot just in front of our hotel.

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