Where we are today 

Singapore Map 

The lower part of Malaysia 

Hum, I see a bearded half man, half cat wearing a dress. 

"Tract Housing!, there goes the neighborhood" 

I look so relaxed even though my foot is getting bitten by red ants OUCH! 

Jodi showing me where she wants to build her Youth Hostil. 

Fishing Boat 

The cats here have short tails 

Negari Mosque in Kuantan 

River walk in Kuantan 

Little nanners 

Stand selling Malaysian Power Bars, i.e. Fried Bananas, "pisang goreng" 

I can see for miles and miles 

Picture of Michael 

December 30, 2005

When Jodi and I decided to do this trip we planned on keeping our ride length at 50 to 60 km per day. We did not anticipate the days when accommodation would not be available and we would need to ride more. Well, we have ridden more, much much more!

Three days ago we left Mersing for Kuala Rompin, 80km. But before moving on I discovered that Jodi’s cones on her rear hub were loose and I needed to find a way to tighten them before hitting the road. Luckily, my dad had sent one of my cone wrenches with my pedals so I could use it to install the pedals on my bike. Thank goodness the wrench was the right size but then I needed another wrench to turn the locking nut to free the cones so I could get the tension right. Again luck was on my side and the nice Chinese woman who ran the hotel had an oversized adjustable wrench. I freed the nut and the cone and was able to get the right tension after two tries, a new personal best.

The ride was long during which we discovered Mr. Pumpy isn’t always accurate with his details, or lack there of. He mentioned that from Mersing to Cherating the road is dead flat which is mostly correct but the road doesn’t get flat until after Padang Endau. Then it becomes a flat ribbon of tar stretching off into the distance. The riding reminds me of the drive between Salida and Alamosa, dead flat with waves of heat distorting the view.

The first pass through Kuala Rompin we did so thinking that we would be able to find some nice beach accommodations at Rompin Lanjut Beach (15km further up the road). We stopped in the shelter of a bus stop to enjoy a few snacks of peanut butter, apples, bananas and energy biscuits. We were not paying much attention when a guy appeared just outside the bus stop. His name was Michael, from Johor Bahru and he was seeking information about where he could buy gear like ours. He wanted to do a touring ride around Malaysia next year and I guess finding gear is very difficult. He asked how much touring we had done and I think we surprised him when we answered that this was our first trip and that we had no idea what our bags cost because some friends loaned them to us. I suggested he could probably get some made since there are so many people good at making things in Malaysia, but he said that would be too expensive. We suggested he check out the website for http://www.panpack.com/ where he could find information about the packs we are using. Michael provided us with some good information about places to stay up the road and indicated that there was nothing at Rompin Lanjut Beach. So when Michael left we packed up and rode back the way we had come to Kuala Rompin.

In all we did over 80km that day and found a place that had beach access in the distance and was acceptable but nothing like what we had become accustomed too while in Bali. It did have a great pool and HBO, both of which we enjoyed. Usually when we finish a ride we lay low in our room for an hour or two just enjoying the cool temperatures inside and on this day we watched the "Italian Job" during our rest. Later we walked down the unspoiled beach wondering why there were no other places to stay on the coastline here or any other types of development including houses. It was a long lonely stretch of beach, which was beautiful even though the ocean was very brown from the recent rains. Unfortunately we discovered we were being eaten alive as we walked along by little annoying sand fleas. We returned to our room with welts all over our bodies. Late in the evening I went into town to fetch some snacks and returned in time to take a dip in the pool, then to bed.

At 6am we awoke, packed and ate our free American breakfast of eggs, toast, baked beans and "sausage" which were actually hot dogs. Eww! The ride was an uneventful 75km, but at the end of the road we finally found what we were looking for. All the way from Kuala Rompin we noticed signs that indicated a "Beach Resort with Budget Accommodations". We followed the signs expecting yet another goat rope but this time things turned for the better (usually when we follow these types of signs the places turn out to be expensive and the signage disappears so we can not find the place and we end up circling round and round). There was a narrow walking bridge across a river and some cute beach bungalows right on the beach. It was so nice to take my afternoon nap with the sound of the crashing surf just outside. I loved it! One problem, the place did not have a restaurant and the closest warung was 2km away and did not have food that would really power us up for another ride the next day. We’re a little tired of fried rice and fried noodles. So I thought I would ride north a few more "K" hoping I could find something. I found something in Pekan 15km away, but I did not take water thinking it was only going to be a short trip. By the time I arrived at a Chinese Mini Mart I was hot, sweaty and dehydrated. I walked up and down the aisles looking for food for dinner and breakfast the following day with sweat pouring off me onto the floor. The people running the place looked at me like I was going to drop dead any minute and no one spoke English and what little Malay I knew they did not understand. They called to their teenage daughter and she came looking very annoyed that she had been disturbed from what she was doing to talk English with this hot and sweaty bloke. She helped me find the things I needed, yogurt, peanuts, peanut butter, bananas, noodle soup and tuna. I also purchased a large bottle of water that I downed once outside. They all stood around trying to figure out how I was going to carry all this stuff on my bike and even offered a few extra shopping bags. I tried to explain that I had a backpack but no dice, so I just let them do their thing while I loaded everything into the pack and handed the bags back to them when I was done. I bowed and said "Terima Kasih" and rode off.

The 15k back sucked! The whole time I envisioned Jodi napping and enjoying the beach while I was destroying the shower I had taken and on the verge of total exhaustion. I stopped just short of the lodge and purchased two orders of fried rice from the warung. They gave me an order of fish cakes, which are ground up fish that I think is similar to a spam like concoction but deep fried. I went to eat one and noticed how badly my hands were shaking and I knew no matter how much I hated deep fried food I had better eat them, so I doused them in hot sauce. I noticed a really nice SUV pull up and two gentlemen get out and sit nearby. They ordered fish cakes and sat and talked to me. They asked where I was from and I said New Zealand because every time I said I was American in Mersing the looks I received in response lead me to believe they do not care much for the good ol’ US of A. He told me we were safe in Malaysia and that we had nothing to worry about. The further north we ride the more I would agree with him. In Mersing, I felt kind of like a black man at a "KKK" convention but further north the people seem more hospitable; however, I think I will continue being a Kiwi nonetheless. They shared their fish cakes with me and they had a good laugh when my dinner only came to 6 ringets and they did the conversion from ringets to kiwi dollars. They said that is only $2.50 where you come from, not even enough to buy a coke. I smiled feeling not very comfortable with whole thing and said goodbye. When I returned to the room Jodi was just finishing the laundry and was delighted to have some fried rice and snacks. We had two dinners that night, one of fried rice and the other of Tom Yam soup, all in the passing of two hours.

It was so nice to finally have accommodation right on the beach! We enjoyed sitting in the sand watching the sunset on our own private beach. All night long I could hear the surf and it had such a calming effect on my nerves, helping me to relax and get a really good nights sleep. This morning we watched the sunrise during our breakfast and were on the road by 7:30 am. We had a "short" ride of 68km to Kuantan.

One thing that really amazes me is how much things change with the time and the distance. From Mersing to Kuala Rompin there was thick jungle on both sides with the occasional monkeys playing on the roadside. Then from Kuala Rompin to Pekan the jungle became less dense and disappeared into wetlands where we were more exposed and the riding became hot. Then from Pekan to Kuantan the road became less lonely, the jungle pushed away by development and we had much more company on our way. Then we turned from highway 3 onto 2 and were joined by all the people coming from Kuala Lumpur. The road was very busy. I wanted to get some lunch before pressing on because I wanted my wits about me but Jodi insisted that we only had 5km more today and she just wanted to get down and out of the heat. We pressed on but I don’t think it was a smart decision since the traffic wasn’t very biker friendly. We followed Lonely Planets advice (the first time on this trip) and stayed at the Classic Hotel. We don’t know if we will move on tomorrow, we are both very tired and need some down days. We had hoped to make Cherating by New Years Eve but right now laying low in a place with good food and services for the beginning of the New Year sounds very nice.

Eatathon 2005 

Malaysian Palm Groves 

Kirk after the "eatathon" 

Yikes.....Monkeys run away! 

Hotel Tekka 

December 27, 2005

Merry Christmas! It has been one of the most unique Christmas’s for us this year. Traveling in Bali we didn’t experience any of the hoopla that goes along with a western Christmas until we arrived in Kuta for our last day on the island (back on Dec. 19th). We went in the mall across from our hotel (Lord only knows why) where the Christmas music was blaring, Christmas decorations were everywhere, people were shop shop shopping, and the Balinese people working there were all decked out in Santa hats. It felt very out of place and kind of wrong after not seeing a single sign of Christmas the whole way around the island. It makes perfect sense as the island is mostly Hindu. The other tourists didn’t seem to mind the craziness, but I guess if they wandered out of the Kuta area they might understand why it was so weird for us to walk into that.

Singapore was bustling with Christmas as well. That struck us as a little odd not really knowing what to expect, but not as odd as in Bali. Singapore is a big, clean city full of malls. They have different dedicated malls for anything and everything you could think of. I’ve never seen so many malls in my life. I told Kirk it’s like the “Mall of America” but spread out over blocks instead of encompassed in one building. Kirk and I went into the electronics mall and that was enough for us. Floor after floor with store after store all selling similar products for about the same price. It was very overwhelming. We certainly got the sense that the people in Singapore are large consumers just like in the US.

Malaysia was a shock as well. We thought being mostly a Muslim country that Christmas wouldn’t be an issue. I guess there is quite the population of Christians here because signs of Christmas were all over the place.

We spent the 23rd traveling from Singapore into Malaysia (40K) which was a pretty easy ride and very easy to get through customs on a bicycle. Johor Bahru was definitely a contrast to Singapore. It wasn’t as clean and didn’t feel nearly as safe. We agreed we only wanted to spend one night there and then move on. We ended up staying at the “New York Hotel” because we were having trouble finding accommodation. We looked at one hotel above a strip mall, but when they told Kirk they rent by the hour, we knew that we needed to find a different area of town. We couldn’t find any homestay or guesthouse type accommodations that we had grown so accustomed to in Bali so it was hard for us to realize that we had been spoiled there and in this city we needed to be looking for a high-rise hotel. We figured out the hard way that the high-rise hotels are actually the better places to stay and the rates aren’t too bad.

The 24th we rode from Johor Bahru to Kota Tinggi (40K) and on the way out of town we stopped at a bank to cash some travelers checks. After I stood in line for about 15 minutes and waited another 15 at the counter the woman came back and told me they couldn’t help me because their system was down. So we hit another bank along the way and they told me they wouldn’t be able to help me until Tuesday nor would any other bank because the market was closed. That didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to Kirk and I because we figured they could just give us the last rate the market closed at. No dice. So we left for Kota Tinggi with about 65RM (approx $18 USD) to get us through until Tuesday. We thankfully were able to use our credit card at the New York Hotel and were hoping for the same luck in Kota Tinggi. Fortunately we found a hotel there that took visa also. Looking back I wish I would have just cashed enough travelers checks at the Singapore airport to cover us in Malaysia too. Next time I know better.

The saga continued when we rode from Kota Tinggi to Mersing (100km). After using our cash for a few meals and some groceries we arrived in Mersing with 25RM in our pocket which still had to get us through 2 more days. Stupid stupid stupid! And I know you’re all probably thinking why not use an ATM card? Well, Kirk and I don’t typically use ATM cards and I have one, but I don’t have the pin number. Brilliant eh? So we looked around Mersing for accommodation both being hot, exhausted, hungry, near critical melt down mode and ready to get off the bikes when we looked at several hotels that didn’t take visa because we weren’t thinking clearly. It finally dawned on us that we were going to have to suck it up and stay at one of the nicer hotels so we could charge it. So the first night we spent at a family hotel with screaming kids and the second night we went to the nicest hotel in town (since we found out it was cheaper than the family hotel) thinking it would be nice and quiet. Wrong again! There was an all night party going on in the room next door and on top of that we kept waking up to a noise that sounded like it could be a rat! We certainly have not had the best nights sleep over the last two nights which was a little disappointing.

Today is Tuesday and we originally wanted to hit the road at 7am to move on to our next destination which is about 70km north of here on the beach. We found out the banks here do not open until 9am so we figured we better stay in town to cash our travelers checks not knowing if the next town was big enough to have a bank. Good thing we did! We got up a little later than expected this morning after being pretty pooped from not sleeping so well. We ate our breakfast and were ready to hit the road at 9:30am to find a bank in town and then blaze out of here. Well nature was working against us and it started raining just as we finished packing our bikes. We jumped on our bikes and rode for a couple of minutes in the rain to get into the main part of town. We stopped at the first bank we saw and were told they couldn’t cash my travelers checks and to try the bank down the road. So I tried the next bank while Kirk waited with our bikes under an awning. Same story. I finally found a bank that said they could help me, but not until 10:15am. I’m assuming that’s when some market opened? So I waited in line and it was 11:40am before we had money in our pockets again. I’m really glad we didn’t risk going to the next town to cash our checks as we had a hard enough time here and this is a bigger town than most others that lie ahead. Moral of the story, cash as much money as you need either before or just after entering the destination country! Yes I feel like an idiot as that’s probably rule number one of most seasoned travelers. Oh well!

Kirk and I evaluated our situation and decided to lay over here one more day. A 70km ride will probably take us anywhere from 3 to 4 hours and we’ve discovered in our last few late morning starts that a nice little head wind seems to kick up around 1pm. We didn’t particularly want to have another epic day with the rains pouring on us as well so we took it as a sign that we should lay low and leave early tomorrow rain or shine. So the one good thing about being stuck in Mersing is we found an awesome internet café with a fast connection and a cheap rate. Today will be our opportunity to catch up on some things including the blog.

We are currently holed up in a nice little hotel that was only 48RM (13USD) per night with hot water, good water pressure and A/C that we could finally pay cash for. Now that’s more like it! Tomorrow we’re hoping for clear skies, light traffic and beachy bungalows awaiting us. We’ll see!

Mersing is right on the beach and has a river running through town so I can see that this might be a nice place for people in Malaysia to come on vacation. Again Kirk and I have been completely spoiled so we just don’t have the same perspective. There are several islands just off the coast here that are supposed to be lovely with resorts and great snorkeling and diving. Unfortunately we’re here in the monsoon season, so the ocean water is very brown right now and it’s probably not an ideal time to enjoy those islands. They are fairly expensive and we don’t have a lot of time left to spend in Malaysia, so it’s best for us to move on.

So far Malaysia has been a different world for us. We stick out like sore thumbs everywhere we go and people stare. The people don’t tend to be as outgoing and friendly as in Bali which is both good and bad. At least we don’t have people hollering at us all the time, but the stares can be a little intimidating. Riding isn’t too bad though because the people driving down the road on motorcycles give us a little honk and wave and the people in the cars usually do the same. Although I do feel like a zoo animal walking around town sometimes because several times I’ve seen kids with their faces plastered against the car windows, eyes wide and mouths agape. I can just imagine the conversation going on in that vehicle. “Look kids…there are some white people over there, otherwise known as crackers. They smell like sour milk so don’t get too close! Wow…they’re so weird looking!” Overall it has been a totally new experience to be such a minority.

The other thing that is an adjustment for us is that most of the women are fully clothed with their heads covered in scarves so Kirk and I are extra conscious of how we dress here. We both make sure that when we get off our bikes, we immediately throw on a sarong to cover our tight bikes shorts. I’m sure we look like dorks in our sarongs, with our odd looking bike shoes, socks, bike shirts, gloves, helmets, sunglasses and camel backs because we get the strangest looks from people passing us, but we’re just trying to be respectful of their culture. It was an eye opening experience at the family hotel the other day when the Muslim women were fully clothed with head scarves and all calmly soaking in the pool, while the boys splashed and played around them in their swim shorts. Needless to say I wouldn’t have felt very comfortable out there in my swimsuit so we bypassed the pool.

The plan is to still be in Malaysia for New Years and we will probably cross into Thailand around January 7th or so. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you the best in the upcoming year!
Jodi

December 26, 2005

We found "better" digs in Mersing but not good enough for us to stay another day. We will move on tomorrow morning. The food here hasn't been very satisfying so we went to the grocery store (thank goodness they have them, Bali didn't) and bought a feast we called "Eatathon 2005" it consisted mostly of protein and didn't include rice.

Below please find some pictures and a new blog from Christmas Day. We haven't taken many photos since entering Malaysia but we will try to get some up in the coming week. Please enjoy and I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas.

Kirk

Night Safari lighted animals 

And more orchids 

More orchids 

Jodi next to the "Golden Shower" Orchid. 

December 25, 2005

Have Mersing! Today was a rough one, especially on Christmas Day but more on that in a minute, I need to provide some details about what we have done and how we arrived here.
Singapore was great, it provided a nice opportunity to take a break from third world living. Flush toilets, air conditioning, great food, subways and people who speak English were all plentiful in the shining big city. We found a great hotel called the Hotel Tekka (01-22 Belilios Lane Singapore 219962, Tel 65-6225 3378) for about $30USD per night. We spent four nights there enjoying some good downtime and some attractions around Singapore.
Since we had visited the botanical gardens everywhere else we thought it only fitting that we visit the one in Singapore also. It was a very hot day and we thought we could walk but after about a mile we were so drenched by our perspiration we decided to ride a bus. The buses whiz so quickly down the streets we missed our stop without knowing. Fortunately an English woman who worked at the gardens offered to show us in through the back entrance. The three of us walked about a 1km to the gardens and during that time it was interesting to hear her perspective on Singapore. I had always heard that it is a very sterile city without personality and everyone moving around like a robot. She pointed out that she feels more free there than in her home country of England because she feels safe. Hearing that I began to think of all the near miss stories of the women in my life and began to understand how liberating it would be to move about at any time of day without fear. Maybe public caneings and the highest number of executions per capita in the world has some benefits.
We arrived at the back entrance said our goodbyes and we made our way to the evolution garden (or the intelligent design garden depending on your beliefs). I found it very informative and well done in its portrayal of the different stages of plant development on the earth. Next we visited the ginger garden which was also very informative. I thought ginger was the stuff you get with sushi that looks a little bit like ham but it is so much more. I found that ginger is a classification and included many thousands of plants ranging from bamboo to wheat grass. Next we visited my favorite part of the gardens and probably the trip so far, the National Orchid Garden. This was the only part of the garden that charged admission but it was well worth it once inside. I don’t know much about orchids but I was impressed with the numbers of different types, all the different colors and the number of different hybrids created there. The curators have become proficient in cross pollinating orchid plants creating what is called a hybrid or a new plant. Since it is something that has never existed before they get to name it and they often name them in honor of visiting dignitaries or famous people. They had orchids for Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Bush, Laura Bush, Ricky Martin, Princess Dianna, Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan to name a few. Some were prettier than others but each was unique and thus a very special honor from the Singapore Government.
Next we grabbed a bite to eat and made our way to our next attraction the Night Safari at the zoo. Jodi and I do not like zoos but we had heard so much about the Night Safari we thought we should make it happen. We followed the directions in the Lonely Planet and arrived soon after dark. Once there I realized we had probably made a mistake because of the Walt Disney World like appearance. We purchased tickets anyway and gave it a go. Granted the animals are more active than what are seen during the day at regular zoos, but we both felt it was still a zoo and not something we would do again. We left early and went to bed.
The next day we rested a bit, Jodi saw a doctor about a rash on her leg and we went to a book store to find a good map of Malaysia. We went to bed early because the next day we were going to do the border crossing and begin our adventures in Malaysia. Since most of the directions we have found describing the border crossing are fairly weak in detail I want to provide a description of what we did to help anyone wanting to do the same crossing in the future.

We started in Little India where we took "Race Course Rd" south to "Owen St." and onto "Thomson Rd." We followed "Thomson Rd." for over 10km until we arrived at "West Admiralty Rd." and headed west until the road ended at "Woodlands Center". We did not follow the signs telling motorcycles to turn left on "Woodlands Center" because that would have taken us on to the BCE expressway and to certain death in the fast moving traffic. Instead we turned right and followed it around the woodlands center shopping mall where the road connected to another that went up to the causeway. We turned right into the "cars only lane" and stayed to the left until the top of the ramp. Once on top we lifted our bikes over the guard rail into the motorcycle lane and through the border checkpoint.

To me the differences between Singapore and Malaysia were very similar to those between the U.S. and Mexico. One side hosts wealth and the conveniences of the west and the other filled with the smells of industry and people trying desperately to make a buck. Realizing we were no longer in the same world we stopped for lunch to study our map, read the Lonely Planet and tried to get our bearings so we could find a place to sleep that night. Jodi did not want to stay near downtown because it would be noisy so we rode up Highway three into the burbs. We noticed several high rise hotels and because we thought they were outside our price range we didn’t stop. I found a row of "budget" hotels and began my search. The first I entered and asked for a price and noticed they rent by the hour. I asked to see the room anyway and was surprised to find one of the worst hotel rooms I had ever seen. Then when I walked downstairs I discovered that it was a massage parlor and doing the math in my head I began to understand things here were not what they seemed and we "B lined" it to one of the high rise joints. The New York Hotel was very nice and cost only $37 USD per night, a little high for our budget but it beat listening to "wild kingdom" in the room next door. They had a lovely breakfast and the security were very diligent in making sure our bikes were safe for the night.
The thing that really surprised us in Malaysia was how popular "Kristmas" is. Everyone it seemed was in the Christmas spirit and everywhere we looked we saw decorations. The most bazar was a giant Santa Claus on skis at our hotel that made Jodi and I take a second look and made us wonder when anyone here has ever seen snow.
The next morning was a real "pisser." It was Christmas Eve and we had decided we did not want to spend Christmas in Johor Baruh but we would make our way to Kota Tinggi for several days. Lonely Planet indicated there was a nice 30m water fall with little pools where one could sit and enjoy things for an afternoon. It all sounded very nice and preferable to the busy city we were currently stuck in. In the morning we visited the free buffet breakfast where I exercised the kayakers mantra before paddling, "to eat until the spray skirt is snapped firmly in place on the boat." I am sure the 4 plates of food I ate surprised and maybe offended some but then again they were not going to have the same day I was going to have. Once outside we loaded our bikes and discovered Jodi’s bike had a flat so I fixed the flat and began to get annoyed that it was well after 10 in the morning, getting very hot and highway three was much to busy for my liking. This trip has been full of firsts, first ride through a tunnel, first touring experience and now first "full on" highway riding. The highway was very simple at first since there were many traffic lights to keep speeds in check but eventually we rode into the burbs where the lights became interchanges, the lanes went from three to six and highway speeds were in excess of 60km/hr. We stuck to the shoulder, when there was one, and when lanes would peel off to the left for exits we would somehow make our way across without getting killed. Jodi took things much better than I did, and I nearly cracked on several occasions when I would look back to see if she was ok and see a wall of traffic moving rapidly from behind. At one point she said to me "I want you to hold your right hand out like this, don’t look back and just pedal to that point over there." I did as she told me and the traffic yielded and slowed to let this slow moving bicycle out into traffic around lanes exiting the highway on my left. I could not believe it." It continued on like that for nearly 20km and we just took it bit by bit until we came upon a traffic jam where we were able to ride the lines to the front and around the traffic that was holding things up. When we arrived in Kota Tinggi our faces were black from the diesel soot and again I thought of Zoolander’s black lung bit.
Things in Kota Tinggi were not better than Johor Barhu, in fact they might have been worse. The one good hotel was booked so we spent several hours going from hotel to hotel looking for a room. Eventually we settled on the "Executive Suite" at the Seri Kota Hotel. What a dump, the toilet didn’t flush, so we spent the first part of our evening trying to figure out how to dump buckets of water into the bowl to wash things down stream. Then the TV didn’t work and neither did the fridge. I asked the manager about the problems and he said "I am so sorry" but nothing else. Executive Suite my ass! Early in the evening we decided we would not layover there but would move on to Mersing the next day. It would be a 90km ride, so we tried to power up on a big dinner and go to bed early so we would be ready. In the morning we did not get the early start I had hoped for but were on the road by 9am. The good news is we had overcast skies so things didn’t get too hot until about 2 in the afternoon. The road was wide with a really good shoulder and I felt safe most of the day. Periodically cars full of children and scarf clad women would pass honking and waving. To me the whole seen seemed very strange in that if I were to see a couple of bicyclists on the side of the road I would think nothing of it but for some reason some people here feel compelled to honk and wave in an effort to say hi. I am sure Jodi and I must look like a couple of space aliens to them.
I wish I could say the ride was perfect and we did it with little trouble but it was anything but easy. The road was undulating, my least favorite because the down hills were not big or steep enough to provide a good rest and the up hills were just enough to be annoying. It went on with one 1km up and another down for 90km and because I did not have much time out of the saddle my ass was so tender that I did not want to sit any longer. On a more positive note Jodi commented along the way that the ride was better than the night zoo. We saw wild pigs, snakes, a giant lizard, wild dogs and my favorite....monkeys. (One important note unlike Bali where the dogs pay no attention to passing bicycles the dogs here will chase us down the road. Yikes!)
When we arrived in Mersing we were both tired and cranky and had little patience for one another. I was thinking that we should find a place for one night and then find more comfortable digs, provided there were any the next day. Jodi had other ideas and we ended up working against one another and in talking about it later we decided we need to have business meetings at every stop to get an idea what the other is thinking so we can develop a plan and move forward productively.
Mersing is another dump! The accommodations are clogged with vacationing Malaysians and their kids run about early in the morning yelling and screaming. We can’t sleep in. The budget hotels suck and the more expensive ones are like the "executive suite" at the Kota Seri. I don’t necessarily believe the problem is Malaysian but ours because we are used to the standard of living that we had in Bali and here it is very different. If things do not improve soon, we are going to have to "B-line" it for Thailand because I have no interest in living like this on vacation. If I were to do it over I would never ride from Johor Barhu to Mersing but would have taken a bus to Mersing and saved myself two days of misery along the way.
Today we have to rest so at noon we are going to check out and ride 10km in a direction in a quest for better accommodations and hope we can find a nice quiet spot to lay down for a couple of days. Yesterdays ride zapped me pretty hard and every two hours I get hungry. Last night I awoke during the night so hungry I couldn’t sleep, fortunately we had a box of cookies and a bottle of lassie to sooth my pangs.
Looking at the map it appears that things get better farther north and from what we have heard from other people it’s a long coast of beaches and small bungalows. We sure hope that is true because this riding from shit hole to shit hole really makes the riding difficult and the stops unpleasant!

December 22, 2005

The joys of free in room internet. While in Singapore I have found many unsecure wireless networks that I can plug into without any problem. Two new postings today with many pictures. Enjoy

I RULE!