I stayed a day in Crianlarich exploring the surrounding areas. It was nothing more than a one street village and there is only 1 shop there. I stayed in a youth hostel here, covering myself from the nonstop rain. Went for some short trekking around the area but the visibility wasn’t so great. It was raining all the way but I love the landscape here. It’s a lot different than Iceland. In Iceland, I hardly see trees. It was just a vast open space there. But here, its beautiful alpine forest. And the rain is heavier here compared to Iceland. The roads are narrow, reminds me a lot of Malaysia.

Loch Lomond alpine forest under the thick clouds

Criancarich village – small and cute!

I guess Im so used to sleep inside my tent. Staying in the youth hostel, I don’t feel comfortable. So many rules, the main door is lock at 11pm so you cant go out anytime after that. Have to be really quiet in the middle of the night since I was sharing the room with 4 other guys and many more. Sleeping inside my tent, I have all the freedom I want. The only reason I stayed in the hostel here is to get all my batteries charged and a laundry. Early the next morning, the sun finally shined proudly!

view of Loch Lomond forest

this looks exotic to me! I imagine Dark Elves hiding behind those woods!

I then rushed for breakfast and quickly packed all my stuff and ride away! I miss riding under the sun so badly. It was a good ride. The sun gave enough heat to make me feel so comfortable riding towards the highland from the forest. The road was narrow, many cars driving fast here and it was quite dangerous. From Crianlarich, I passed by only 1 very small village called Tyndrum, after that the road slowly snaked towards the higher ground from the forest of Loch Lomond. I found myself surrounded in the beautiful hills of Glencoe. The landscape drastically changed from alpine forest to rocky hills.

approaching the highlands! Sexy Glencoe here I come!

Issykul Lake, Kyrgyzstan. eh… I mean… Glencoe, Scotland…

I was first planned to ride all the way to Fort William and camp at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK. I plan to conquer this mountain since I heard about it from a few of my friends who stayed here in Scotland. Mountains, theyre my most favourite places on earth. I just love climbing mountains. Being at the top of a mountain, I feel like a winner, especially after hours of struggling climbing them. Its usually quiet up there, my ears only receive the sound of wind and birds, sometimes the rain. It feels that you’re closer to heaven. Being at the thin air, really gives you a special emotion, which you can never get at the sea level.

My target to ride to Fort William was unsuccessful, I was stopped by the beauty of Glencoe hills. I rode very slow passing by the hills and after a while, I decided to camp at Glencoe campsite about a kilometre from Glencoe village and explore the hills. It gonna be raining for the next few days so I guess I will stay here a while before heading to Fort William. It will be sunny again few days from now, and that’s when I will hit the peak of Ben Nevis. For now, I will feed my laziness inside my tent under the rain in Glencoe hills.

camping in Glencoe campsite

full rainbow very near me! some 20-30 meters away

i sat under the rain for hours watching this lol!

After staying too long indoors in Reena’s house, eat all the good food and feed all my laziness for almost 2 weeks, I finally got back on my bike, prepared for any possible kind of weather in Scotland. I was aware that the weather here in Scotland won’t be as friendly especially during this time of the year. Of course it is never nice to ride under the heavy rain and everything gets wet and youre shivering the whole night inside your tent in the wild. But somehow Im used to it already and I always remember an old Malay saying, “alah bisa tegal biasa”, which if translated indirectly but lead to the same meaning, “the pain of today is the strength of tomorrow” or even “no pain no gain”. Ive always know that any form of struggle or pain Im facing on every moment of my life, will just increase the strength of my mind power.

on my way to Greenock

So finally, I started riding from Reena’s house. It took me quite a while to get out of Glasgow city. The road is complicated and I was following the bicycle path to get out of the city heading towards Greenock. There were so many junctions and I felt like Im in a treasure hunt games, looking for clues to get out of the city towards the west. There were a bridge I had to cross and I had to carry my bicycle with all my 8 heavy bags through the stairs! But after about 40 minutes, I found out that I was in a quiet road, surrounded by nothing but trees.

beautiful view on my first day of ride

The ride out towards Greenock was pleasant, I was riding under the sun all the way! After some 20km out of Glasgow, I was surrounded by beautiful views of Scottish farms and hills. I’ve seen these views many times in postcards and the internet, now Im seeing them in real! I took my time and I was riding very slowly, making many stops to snap countless photos. I met many local cyclists along the way and most of them were amazed to see the luggage Im carrying lol. I arrived Greenock around noon and took a ferry to cross into Dunoon which took around 20-30 minutes ride. The reason I went to Dunoon on that day was to watch the highland games with Reena and her friends. They arrived a few hours earlier by a direct ferry from Glasgow. It’s an exotic Scottish traditional game where I only saw once in the movie Braveheart!

the view from Greenock

ferry crossing into Dunoon

At around 5, we finally split, they returned to Glasgow via ferry and I continued my journey north towards a camping site just around 6km away. The rain started pouring. It was the worst campsite Ive ever been, there were many people, I guess they were coming from the highland games in Dunoon and they were making noise playing the bagpipe and getting drunk and shouting and it goes on and on until around 2 am! There were so many lights too and it was really bright. So the next day, I cycled away towards the north heading to the forest, to find a quiet place to camp. I finally found a nice place to camp in the woods near a river, somewhere inside Argyll forest, in the west of Scotland.

park in Dunoon

somewhere in Argyll forest

somewhere in Argyll forest

somewhere in Argyll forest

Now, I feel so good camping here in the wild. There were no noise of people getting drunk and it was really dark at night, allowing me to see the bright night sky! For a few hours during the night, the sky was clear and it was so bright, there were countless stars in the open sky. I was really enjoying watching each of them blinking proudly in the sky. I didn’t get to see this in Iceland due to the Midnight Sun phenomena during summer. The last time I saw this kind of night sky was in Tibetan Plateau 2 years ago. Of course, the one that I saw in Tibet was much better, with shooting stars every few seconds, this time it’s a bit cloudy here.

I slept under this beautiful open sky 2 nights ago

peace of mind, view from my wild campsite

peace and tranquility

Somewhere deep in the night, I heard the rain started pouring and when I woke up early in the morning, the rain never stops. I waited the whole morning for the rain to stop. At around noon, when I look at the sky, I realized that the rain will never stop anytime soon. I then just packed everything under the rain and keep riding forward. I only carry 2 days of food and since I was too hungry, I finished all the food! Hehe, so I need to keep riding in search of a shop to buy more supply before heading to the wild again. After some 50km of ride, I came across a very small village with a camping site. The camping site looks better so I camped there and get all the supply needed. After a night camping there, took a good hot shower, charge all the batteries and got all the food needed, I left to the wild again, riding through the Loch Lomond forest heading north. Now I’ve reached a lovely small Scottish village called Crianlarich and I’ve no idea where to go next. Here in Scotland, I just ride blind, not knowing where to go. I guess, this time I will let the road to decide where I should go. I don’t even want to look at the weather forecast, this time I will face any kind of weather.

the view from my hotel

riding through the Loch Lomond forest

chilling alone somewhere in Argyll forest

Glasgow, my first point in Scotland. It gives the first impression for me on Scotland, the second country in Europe I will cycle after Iceland. Took me 3 hours of flight from Keflavik Airport in Iceland to reach Glasgow. Upon arriving, I got stucked at the immigration for almost half an hour, asking me soo many questions. But the officer was really nice to me. Even tho she held me for half an hour, her tone was calm. After everything cleared, a friend of mine, Reena, was waiting for me at the airport, a Malaysian who has been living here in Glasgow for many years and we used to stay in the same neighbourhood. Her elder brother, Khairul, used to be a close friend of mine back in the school days in Sri Hartamas. She introduced me with her colleague, a local Scottish guy, Tom, who speaks very thick Scottish accent which I hardly understand at first, since the only time I heard their accent was only in the movie Braveheart. I then wanted to reply him with very thick Russian accent that the Kyrgyz taught me hehe, but after a few minutes, I can slowly catch up with his thick accent. I find it interesting, a few hours ago, I was so used to Icelandic way of speaking English, which is totally different, and now, the world suddenly turned upside down for me.

It was early in the morning when I arrived Glasgow, so we decided to go for a coffee. And the first thing I really wanted to know was the price of the coffee in Scotland. I wanted to know the price of everything in Scotland. It was really good to know that prices in Scotland are way cheaper than Iceland! And I felt better that I actually had to take off my jacket since it was warm! The distance between Iceland and Scotland isn’t so much different yet here in Glasgow is much warmer! Scotland is also sitting on the same latitude of Kamchatka Region of Siberia but the weather here is warm, much warmer! Not only that, on that same day, they also brought me to a Malaysian restaurant! Guess what I had on my first day in Scotland? The legendary unbeatable jawdropping finger licking nasi lemak ayam rendang!!! I was eating like a wild lion and the big plate full of nasi lemak didn’t seem to tame me down so I had another. I was so full and started to think, how do I cycle with this kind of stomach? And because of these, I felt that I should stay here a while, being lazy! I stayed in Reena’s place for a while and I really feel like home.

Only a few days ago I was struggling, feeling the strength of the harsh Icelandic wind, under the fierce rain and now I was sitting nicely staying indoors in front of my computer screen for hours, busy doing video editing. What a contrast in life. I spent most of my rest days here feeding my laziness. During the first day of Eidul Fitr, I celebrated it with a good sleep, followed by a few more hours of another good sleep :) A few hours later, me and my friends went for cycling 20km towards the west, to Dumbarton castle. It was the first ever castle I ever visited in my life. Centuries ago, these piles of stones were filled with archers holding bows and arrows, now it is filled with visitors holding cameras. But I find it not so interesting visiting this particular castle, I actually tried to imagine fierce Viking ships bringing the unstoppable warriors from the Scandinavia sailing the water, but being here deep in the 21^st century, I saw petrol stations, supermarkets and shop houses while overlooking the view.

the view from the castle

Reena capturing the view

I then spent the rest of the days following Reena visiting her friends during Eidul Fitr, mostly bright Malaysian students studying masters and PhDs here and also a Malay woman who has been working here as a doctor for a long time. They stayed here too long and I realized they speak English with thick Scottish accent :) Hehe… It feels good that after been traveling far away from home, I had the chance to eat our traditional Malay food, a spicy chicken rendang, Negeri Sembilan styylleee!!!

I spent the rest of my rest days in Glasgow in front of my screen mostly trying to complete my works. Once in a while I join Reena exploring around the town. Also got my bicycle some minor repair and get some outdoor equipments before riding again. Prices here in the UK are considered reasonable to me, compared to Iceland! I bought a new bigger tent with better quality with less than half the price on what I got in Iceland!