EPIC FLOOD vs MOTORCYCLE in Malaysia – Will the KTM 250 ADV make it through? 🇲🇾 [SE E39]

EPIC FLOOD vs MOTORCYCLE in Malaysia – Will the KTM 250 ADV make it through? 🇲🇾 [SE E39]

Previously on “Two Up and Overloaded” – On our way through the tropical country of Brunei,   we hit a torrential rainstorm. It was hours and hours of riding through the rain,   which then caused our phone that we use for  navigation to die after getting water damage.

So it was like an iPhone 6. Oh my God, I’m  already talking about it in past tense,   this is really bad. And although we fixed it, and  the sun came out, we thought our water problems   from the storm were far behind us. Unfortunately,  though, as we continued to ride across the Pan  

Borneo Highway trying to complete our goal of  riding a motorcycle from tip to tip of the island   of Borneo in East Malaysia, we realized that doing  so during the rainy season has its drawbacks. Hey everyone! Nice to have you here. We are  Tim, and Marisa Notier. I ride in the front.  

And I’m in the rear. We travel the world and we  pack too much gear. Oh, all the places we’ll go!   Through rain and through sleet and through mud  and through snow. Oh, all the things we’ll see!  

We’ve been to a country or two. Or three! Oh, all  the fun we’ve had! To have you along, would make   us real glad. So give us a like, and hit  subscribe to join us along our epic ride. [This episode is dedicated to our Join the Journey Patrons]

[Join for as little as $1 a month! See link in the description below.] [Lawas – Malaysia] You can see the wind through our hair. That’s how fast we go. [Southeast Asia Journey – Day 120] Good morning, everyone! Today is another kind  of cloudy, a little bit rainy day. We’re hoping  

It should clear up, well at least that’s what the  weather app says, a little bit. But as you can see,   it’s pretty gloomy. So we’re going to  be riding all the way to Kota Kinabalu,   which is called KK, by the locals. And it is the  biggest city of Sabah. We’re actually going to  

Be exiting the state of Sarawak for the first  time and entering Sabah, a land of beautiful   beaches and the largest mountain in Borneo,  and that is Kinabalu. So it should be really,   really pretty. We’re quite excited. Fingers  crossed the weather turns out okay today. And  

Yeah, we’re going to get packed up with our new  rack on the back of the bike. Thank you to Tim. All right, let’s go. So we packed up that morning,  excited for what the new day was to bring. I was  

Excited to test out my new rack that I made. Oh  yeah! It was very uh, it was either going to   be awesome or a complete failure. But I had  enough zip ties to hold pretty much, you know,  

The moon in orbit for the rest of all time. Bam!  Look at that! Wow! Starting on one side, going to   the other side. You can see Tim’s handiwork from  this side. Oh, we got a new wooden thing. Yes!

Big shout out to Temple of Moto for allowing  us to stay in such a beautiful accommodation.   Because this hotel room is so awesome, we want  to thank Temple of Moto for helping us out and   supporting us in our journeys with a luxurious  room just like this. So, Temple of Moto is a  

Motorcycle tour company that goes all across  the United States to different national parks.   The roads that it rides on are incredible. They  also have tours in Mexico and Europe as well,   and they are super awesome. We went with them in  Yellowstone, and it’s an amazing tour company with  

Very, very cool accommodations. So, check them  out at TempleOfMoto.com. Bye, thank you so much! Bye! Very, very nice hotel. Here we go! The weather  was looking good, no rain so far, which was good   because we had just fixed the phone from water  damage. And so we had it off. This is true. This  

Is our tripod going lengthwise, our rain gear  is in the blue bag, and then our stinky, stinky   shoes are in the black bag. Nice. And that’s it, folks. Except for the tank bag. It’s amazing when you   don’t have camping gear how little you actually  need. But camping gear kind of needs panniers if you  

Are going to have all of that for two people.  Or at least at the comfort level that I want. That day we went from what was it? Sarawak into  Sabah? Yeah. And it’s kind of like… They’re two   Malaysian states, so it’s kind of like Illinois  and Indiana bordered together. But in at least   East Malaysia when you go from one state to  the other, there’s a border there. And we had  

To do our whole passport and get a new  stamp. We got another 90 days. It was odd to say   the least. It would be like traveling across the  States, and every state you go to you get like   another 90 days. It was like an international  border. In fact, people from Sabah who want  

To go into Sarawak, they do all the same customs  procedures as they would going into Brunei, which   is another country. It’s very, very interesting.  This was an accumulation of borders over the last   couple of days. We went from East Malaysia to  Brunei, Brunei to East Malaysia. It was just…  

Yeah, if you have a motorcycle in this part of  the world, you can just keep getting 90-day visas   over and over again. But get the extended passports,  the thicker ones. Lot of stamps. Pro tip, pro tip. We’re in Sabah!

And you know what? In the United States, a lot  of people that come from other countries say,   “Wow, you guys fly your flag all over  the place. I see it everywhere.” Well,   Malaysia does the same thing. They fly their  flag everywhere. And not just the Malaysian flag,  

Which looks very similar to the United States  flag. It’s not the stars and stripes, it’s the   star and stripes. Yes! But also they  fly the state flags all over the place too. So   in Sarawak, we were very accustomed to seeing  that orange and red state flag, and now we were  

Entering into Sabah, which had this beautiful  blue flag with the shape of the Mountain of   Kinabalu on it. This is true. But it kind of  looked like an island because it does look like   to a foreigner, you’re like, “I don’t  know what that is, but that’s an island.” Yeah.  

When you say it’s the same as America, I  think there’s even more Malaysian flags   everywhere. It’s just, you know, it’s like  ticker tape 4th of July everywhere you go.   But it’s a great country to be proud of because  it is absolutely stunning and beautiful. And it has a cool flag. It does. So after our little border crossing,  we wanted some food. You actually got   off of the main Highway, the Pan  Borneo Highway, and decided, “Hey,   let’s go to the coast because we haven’t really  seen the coast.” And there’s a little detour  

That you can take. But we took this little  off-ramp, and we found somewhere that looked cool. There was a whole soccer team eating  there. Oh my gosh, they were the coolest. What team? Red Jaws. Red Jaws! Where are you from?  America. Ohhh! Chicago. One, two, three. Red Jaws!

Go Red Jaws! Go Red Jaws! The town was called Sipitan, and everything  really was right on the oceanfront,   which was very cool. The food was good,  and it was the perfect little rest stop.   But oh man, it was so hot. It  was very, very hot. Not the food,  

But the weather. But we made at least a  couple more subscribers there, so that was good. Thank you, mister! Thank you! Really  great people. And we got back on the road, and…   It just started to dawn  on us, which it already has for so long,  

But Indonesia and Malaysia are  just filled with just the kindest people and   just the most hospitable and friendly. There are  friendly people all over this world, but like wow,   Malaysia and Indonesia just really were blowing  our minds when it comes to friendliness. Woo! Woo!

The people here are super friendly. Yeah, right?  We just met a soccer team. Yeah,   and you kind of veered off the main road to come  to this little town. I’m so glad you did. Yeah,   I saw that was by the ocean. The ocean’s  kind of brown, the sea. I’m not sure.  

But it’s kind of brown. It is brown.  Yeah, but it’s still nice. It didn’t take long after we left the town of  Sipitang to get to a part of the road where all these   cars were kind of lining up. We’re like, “Oh,  is it more construction? What could it be?”

And usually we go around cars, but it  didn’t take long for us to realize uh-oh,   this is not road construction. I  was zipping through the middle,   and then I saw this just river going through the road. Yeah.  

It was like an entire river had just taken  over the road. It was that brown, muddy,   thick water from lots of flooding. From the rain  before that we had experienced the day before. Once you get that momentum, you go, and you  start plowing through that water, and you don’t  

Stop. Because if you stop, you’re just going to get  flooded. And… it’s crazy! And Southeast   Asia is known for its small motorcycles, and  there were some of those. And I kept looking   out for them because I was like, “All right, if  a really small motorcycle can make it through,  

Then we can make it through.” Even though our  motorcycle itself was quite small. 250 for a   Malaysian standard or an Indonesian standard  is pretty big. But for us, that’s a very small   motorcycle, and I’m wondering, where the  air intakes? How high is the exhaust up off  

The ground? Because the worst thing is there’s this  line of traffic, and we’re going to get stuck behind   a stopped car, and then our motorcycle is just  going to fill up with water. I can’t stop though. Jesus. We can’t stop. Oh no! This river is so deep! Whoa!

You can really feel the water! Yeah. It was a  rented KTM from Tay Motors, so shout out to them.   And welcome to this episode where we had no  idea if we were going to flood the bike or not.  

But you got it back just fine. Spoiler alert.  Yeah, a lot of people say, “You know, ride it like   you stole it, or ride it like you rented it.” And I  don’t want to trash this thing. It’s been good to  

Us. We just blessed it. We named it Koi, The Real  McCoy. Yeah, that’s true. It has proven to be a   very nice little motorcycle. Absolutely. And then  here we are, you know, Yellow Submarine-ing it. But we are plowing through this water like  a speedboat. And again, you can’t  

Stop once you’re going because all that water will  just surround you. Absolutely. And the oncoming   traffic was just splashing us like we were at  SeaWorld. Yes, this is true. We were definitely   at an amusement park for motorcycles and vehicles.  Everybody was kind of having fun. You can see it  

In their eyes. Just grown adults playing  in the big, big puddle. It could be disastrous,   but you might as well enjoy it. Well, the water’s  so brown that you can’t see potholes. And   the cars are going side by side, and  I don’t know where that actual asphalt ends and  

Then turns into the shoulder. And if I were to hit  that, things could get a little bit squirrely. And no one was making a plethora  of room for each other to pass by because they   were judging where they assumed the road was and  trying to stick to that as much as possible. Yes,  

And it wasn’t just the road that was flooded, it  was all the sides of the flat landscape that we   were in that was flooded. So you just couldn’t  tell where this road was. I mean, you just look  

In the distance where the road is again, and  that’s where you’re riding towards, you know? Yes. I’m, “Woo!” I’m having a ball. I have  my Klim Adventure Gore-Tex boots, and they are   waterproof but not when it just goes over the top.  You can’t swim in them and then expect to be like,  

“Oh, my feet got wet. These boots suck.” So  they held up just as much as they could,   but that amount of water and when the  traffic’s going by and splashing you…   I mean, I was getting water in my helmet.  I had to close my helmet visor because it was  

Getting in my eyes. It’s too fun, no. I got my glasses  on. It was really, really fun. I don’t know   if you guys, a lot of you are motorcyclists,  but when it starts to rain, there’s that hot   engine kind of steamy smell. And when it hits  the radiator, there’s a very specific, “Hey,  

The radiator is soaked” smell. It kind of makes you nervous at first because   you’re like, “That’s a mechanical smell.” Yeah,  that can’t be good. But it is just a part of it. But it was awesome. Yeah, my boots are soaked! I’m soaked! Yeah, buddy!

We actually came to a section where we thought,   “All right, it’s over.” Done. There weren’t  any cars ahead of us, and so we were just   driving along like, “Ah. This is it. That was  great.” And then we realized uh-oh… Round two!  

Round two is coming up. I don’t know if it’s even  ended because there’s more stopped traffic up here. Yeah. Ohhh! Oh, man. Oh, wow. All right, I think we made  it through. Like you said, you have to  

Just keep going when you’re in the water. You  can’t just stop. I mean, when you’re going,   you’re pushing the water out of your way to a  certain extent, right? But when you stop, all that   water that you’re physically pushing out of your  way then comes back, and that’s when things can  

Get a little bit more sketchy. Yeah, again, I was  just smiling and woohoo-ing, and Marisa is giggling   in my ear. Oh man. Yeah. It was  a water ride. It was “Splish splash, we were   taking a bath.” It was super, super fun. But my  feet were just soaked… I’m changing gears,  

Pressing on the brakes, and it’s just like…  That’s I think everybody’s favorite feeling   in the world. No! Just soggy socks and boots. It’s just  reminds you of pleasantries. At least that wasn’t a sewage line, but I am  soaked. That was a lot, that was intense. Well,  

There was, like… being on the  open water and a jet ski going by.   Just nailed me. So after that massive water crossing,  we were going along the highway, and we saw this   place to stop, a rest area with a little cafe.  And we’re like, “Uh, we have to stop.” Yeah,  

We had just eaten not too long ago, but I was like,  “I feel disgusting from the waist down.” You needed   to take off your boots. Oh, I sure did. I can just feel  my toes swimming around like goldfish. Oh no! Here we go!

Oh my gosh! You dumped your boot out. I dumped  my boot out. And it was… it was gross. A   little goldfish was like… I was like, “Oh no!” It’s  vacuum-sealed, it goes like… Oh! So gross.  

Look at that. Oh, that’s a dry boot right there.  I need a Hazmat sign. Ew! I don’t know how   he lived. I mean, my boots got wet on the  inside, but they didn’t puddle up. Then again,  

My feet are much higher than his. He was just,  like, straight up in the river. But that rest   stop was needed, and it was great for us to  recharge and continue on to Kota Kinabalu. [Kota Kinabalu – Malaysia] Malaysia has Kuala Lumpur, which is  the capital over in West Malaysia.  

Yeah. KL. There’s KB, Kota Bharu, I think,  and there’s KK, which is where we were headed,   Kota Kinabalu. And Kota means the place of,  and Kinabalu is the big mountain of Borneo,   which happens to be very close to this big city.  And so this is the Place of Kinabalu. Even though  

Kinabalu is not there, just to be clear. That’s  right. This is the place next to it. Yeah. It is on the coast, and as  we came into Kota Kinabalu,   we realized how beautiful this city is.  It’s very modern, it’s got big buildings,  

Neon lights, shopping mall. It’s got a whole  mixture of cultures there, so you got your    Chinatown mixed in with your Malay area  mixed in with all the indigenous people. So cool. Yeah. We finally found our little hotel we were  staying at. And we were kind of in a busy  

Part of town, right? And it’s a rental bike, and  it’s a KTM. Theft is not rampant anywhere,   but I just wanted to be double triple  safe with everything. For sure. We didn’t   want to just leave it on the street.  Yeah, and the guy said that  

He had these sliding doors and he said that we could  park it in the little hotel in the section   where it wasn’t being used for much. But… There was  no way to get it in there without lifting it up in.  

Yeah, I sat there just kind of being a big  dummy. I mean, you could have gotten over that   ledge if you had been able to turn the bike to  face it. But because you were on the sidewalk,  

There was no way to turn into it. And he saw  me do it like three times, and he was like,   “It’s going to be just fine.” I was  like, “Okay, thank you. Thanks, because… yeah.” We walked up into our hotel, and it was  like a little Swiss chalet in the Alps. Okay,  

Before I close the window because we’re  going to have the air conditioner on,   look at how cute this window is with the  view of the city. I loved it. It had the   little curtained shutters to the window  that would open up to the street below,  

And it was all wood. It was really, really  nice. It was exactly what we needed. It was on   the third floor, though. Yes. But to  get the cute little shutter window view… You have to be high up. Very cute.

Good morning, everyone. So I am not feeling  very good today. But little did we know that   the rain from the previous couple of days  and getting drenched and being in the hot   sun made Marisa get pretty ill. Yes. But  that will all be in the next episode.

And we have some fun exciting news. The podcast  edition of our episodes! So some of you   guys out there have said, “Wouldn’t it be great  if you had a podcast or audio version of your   episodes so that I can listen to them on  the road, on the motorcycle, in my car,  

On a bike, doing dishes, whatever it is that  you’re doing.” Yeah. And we listened. We did   indeed. So you very well may be listening to  this in that podcast version of our episode,   and so you are fairly aware that it exists. But  for the rest of everybody, we are now on iHeart  

Radio. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,  all the things. You can find us everywhere. You   just have to look up “Two Up and Overloaded,”  and we’re there as a podcast. This is true. And if you are a Patreon, you get the podcast  episodes a week early, just like you do the  

YouTube videos. That’s right. As well as our  YouTube members. Yes! Yes, they get our videos a   week early as well. So we want to thank everybody  who supports us out there. We’re so glad to have   you along on this journey. It’s been an amazing  experience, and we can’t wait to show you all  

The amazing things we’ve been up to. So if you  liked this video, please give us a big thumbs up   and hit the Subscribe button below. Ding, ding.  And we’ll be seeing you next time. Stay safe,   everybody. Bye! Peace. This was the longest  water crossing that we had ever experienced.  

There were a couple really long ones in the  Baviaanskloof in South Africa. That’s true. Yeah. But this was the longest one  that we had experienced on a major   road. This is a major highway, and it was  completely flooded out. This is definitely  

The longest flooded highway we’ve ever  been on, just to be clear. But yeah…

As we continued our journey riding a motorcycle through East Malaysia, we thought we had gotten through the worst of the rain in Brunei and Sarawak. But once we crossed into the Malaysian state of Sabah and headed to the big city of Kota Kinabalu, we realized that Mother Nature was not done with us yet.

Ahead of us was the Pan-Borneo Highway… except we could no longer see it. The entire road and surrounding region was covered in a thick layer of brown water, entirely flooded out. And not knowing how long this flooded road was going to be for, or more importantly, how deep it was, we just plowed right into it, hoping for the best… But also fearing the worst.

🎙️Podcast version of this episode –
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