Travelling by bicycle is slow enough to allow intimacy with the land and its people - driving tropical rain envelopes us, we sweat in the stifling heat, hustle the roaring traffic along with the motorcyclists at traffic lights, am overwhelmed by the putrid smell of Durian at roadside stalls, go deaf from the sharp zing of cicadas in the rubberplantations, feel the road's rough surface beneath our wheels and taste weird and wonderful new delicacies as we drift through everyday Malaysia along the back roads.