October | 2010 | Iamalaysian

1 October 2010.
[Pictures gathered from Harris’s archive. Story found on Google cache by Bro Z. Thanks both! ~ Blog Admin]

“You will be in safe hand in Beograd, Serbia. They are expecting you,” I was told by our Mission staff in Sarajevo. Glad to hear that. 6hours down the road, border crossing was quick and I arrived Belgrade at almost 7 pm.

Tried to call the number of Mr Amizal but couldn’t get through. Tried few times and I guess I should find a place to sleep and try again later. Found a good and cheap backpackers place right in the center on Beograde. Bunked in and tried again to call them, promised to have dinner with them tonight. But sad to say, no Malaysian food for me that night.

Time to rest and I guess I will try again the next day. Had a good rest. Things I like about staying in dorm and backpackers place is that you meet new people with diff background all the time with different experience of traveling and different walks of life.

Ok…its cheap and crampy most of the times, not to mention sometimes with smelly people and their socks next to your bed. But it’s cheap and I cant be choosy when traveling on a low budget. Too cold to camp out there and it has been raining non-stop.

So I was told the best way to see Beograde is on bicycle. I missed cycling. I always cycle back home, no less than 3 times a week. With 5 months on the road, this is a good time for me to burn some carbon and sweat in this cold weather.

heading to the island…..cycling

I met this old guy making a locally brew liquor in the jungle on this small island.

Brewing a home made liquor called rake

After hours of cycling I had to head back to the dorm, it’s dinner time with fellow Malaysian here. There are not many Malaysians here as I was told by Faizal and also Puan Zainun. And not many Malaysian tourist too. Maybe it’s because of no direct flight or its hard to get a visa to enter here. No Serbian embassy back home. Lots of business opportunity for Malaysian businessman here I see.

Dinner was superb. Faizal is a great cook. He had some background in cooking, I believe. Met some fellow Malaysians too coming from Budapest. Looking forward to meet them when I head north.

Thanks everyone for the lovely dinner and good food. 5 months on the road and more than 22,000km on the odometer, I believe it’s time to change the drive chain. It has been making noises and for safety reason, this morning I changed it. Got my spare with me and I kept the old 1, just in case.