Scott and Becky go East

It seems that just after we finish jumping through one hoop with the freighter, they put another one in place. We have “booked” a freighter from Shanghai to Seattle, through NSB Reiseburo, on or about June 1st.

First booking, we were told that even though we are Canadians, we require a Visa for the USA. Both us and our travel agent Fred had received letters from Homeland Security and the USA Embassy saying that Canadians do not require Visas; however, the freighter company insisted. They had an issue a few years back where a Canadian was denied entry, so they do not wish to get burned again.

So, we jumped through that hoop, forked over about $400 and received 10-year tourist visas for the USA. We only hope that having the visa doesn’t cause us more trouble than it save, since we don’t require it.

We thought everything was OK, but when we sent copies of our Visa’s, we hit another hurdle. Now we are told that our type L Chinese visa (tourist) does not permit us to embark in Shanghai. That type of visa is OK for any other port in China, but for some reason, Shanghai doesn’t accept it. So, we now need to acquire a type F visa (business), which requires an invitation letter from a company. We are hoping the freighter agent can provide us with the necessary invitations. It certainly would have been nice if they informed us of this odd restriction prior to us applying for and paying for our visa.

Once we finished with our Visa acquisitions, we decided to check out some of the various churches and temples. With three major ethnic groups, there are many different places of worship in KL. The most prevalent are mosques, but there are a number of Hindu Temples, Buddhist and Taoist Chinese temples and even the occasional church. We tried to visit a mosque, but arrived just as they closed to visitors for afternoon prayers – oops.

Our first successful stop was at Saint Mary’s Anglican Cathedral. Our initial reaction upon entering the church was that it felt very colonial. The plain design reminded Scott of some of the less elaborate Anglican churches in Canada. It was certainly nothing like the elaborate Roman Catholic churches we visited in Italy! The colonial theme continued for us – going out to High Tea at the former home of the British High Commissioner was the high point.

On our trip out to pick up our passports from the USA consulate, we stopped in at a Buddhist temple near the Petronas towers. It looked all shiny and new with a large gold seated Buddha at the entrance. We learned later that it had recently been renovated. There were many books on Buddhism available, published by the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, and according to those books, this was the Dharma Realm Guanyin Sagely Monastery (formerly the Deng Bi An Temple). We picked up several books in English and Chinese on Buddhism, only to later realize that DRBA is based out of the U.S. with a few monasteries in Canada – no need to have travelled so far!

Among our many other trips, Nancy drove us out to the famous Batu Caves. Scott had been there once before about 10 years ago, and noticed that it is much more built up now. There are several different Hindu shrines in and around the caves, but Becky did not feel it to be very spiritual, instead she found it rather Disneified (like it belonged in Disney World). There were a few Hindu worshippers receiving blessings from the priests at the various shrines, but most of the visitors were tourists. Had we arrived during the Thaipusam festival, with more than 500 000 pilgrims, her reaction would likely have been different though.

Batu Caves entrance

At the top of the interior cave stairwell, there were many monkeys, which turned out to be rather aggressive if you had any plastic bags or food. At one point, Becky was taking a picture of some of the monkeys, and another one snuck up behind her and started to tug at her pant leg. She screamed and the monkey hissed at her, baring its teeth. When she tried to walk away, it followed. She was shrieking and the many people around her were staring and laughing at her. Scott was nowhere in sight – he was taking photos of one of the shrines – so he missed all the action.

We made a brief visit to the Hindu temple in downtown KL, and did not find it to be particularly interesting. Becky really likes the ornate roof statues on the temples, but the downtown KL temple was being renovated, so much of the outside was covered with scaffolding.

We also visited two Chinese Taoist temples in downtown KL, one dedicated to the God of Success (and a favourite of businessmen) and the other to the Goddess of Mercy. Before the temple visit, Becky had not made a connection between Taoism and Chinese mysticism. At the Taoist temples there were many calendars indicating the various Chinese years (e.g. Year of the Bull), and you could have your fortune read. The temple was preparing for the upcoming “All Souls Day”, on April 6, where people visit and clean the graves of their ancestors. They also burn paper money and other items made of paper (TVs, cars, etc) which are then thought to be sent to the ancestors in the place they go to after death.

For more photos
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As Canadians, getting visas is often not difficult; however, we usually need to pay more for visas than others. This is because Canada charges more for visas than many other countries. Here is a summary of the visas we have acquired and a bit about our experiencing acquiring them.

The following countries did not require visas: United States (the first time), Spain, Italy, and Greece.

The only visa we have left to purchases is Laos, unless we decide to travel through Vietnam, in which we’ll need that visa too. To reduce hassles at the border, we’ll try and get the Laos visa when we are in Bankok.

Turkey COST: 45 Euro each

We acquired our Turkish visa at the border upon entering the country. The process was trivial, and we paid for the visa with Euros.

Syria COST: $141 CAD each

Since the timing worked out, we applied for our Syrian Visas in Canada – although it was certainly possible to get a visa at the border. Having the multi-entry visa made the border crossing much easier, and gave us more options when we took the bus from Amman to Damascus. The visa itself said it was a 15-day multiple entry visa; however, we successfully used it twice with more than 15-days between uses, and we were in Syria for 11 days the first time and 9 days the second. We had applied for a 60-day visa, so we suspect what we actually had was a 60-day visa, but were required to check in with Visa officials after 15-days, which is a standard requirement for most non-Arab foreigners.

Note that Syria also charges an exit fee. We paid 500 Syrian Pounds the first time we exited in 2008 and 550 SP the second exit in 2009. We suspect the second was just an annual cost adjustment.

Syrian duty free only accepted payment in USA Dollars, which was unfortunate, as we had hoped to use up our Syrian Pounds there.

Jordan COST: $10 Jordanian Dollars each

Upon arriving at the land border crossing in Jordan, we needed to purchase the tourist visa. The fee had to be paid in Jordanian dollars. Fortunately, they have official exchange counters available to exchange currency for anyone who requires it. Once we handed over our money, the visa was issued immediately, and the customs official welcomed us to Jordan.

Note that Jordan also charges an exit fee, which must be paid in Jordanian Dollars.

Singapore and Malaysia COST: Free

Upon entry into both Singapore and Malaysia, we were issued a visa for free. For Singapore we were given 30 days and for Malaysia we were given 90 days.

Thailand COST: $50 Singapore Dollar each

Since we had heard from other cyclists that the Thailand land crossings were only issuing 15-day visas, we applied for a 60-day visa while in Singapore. The process was pretty simple – go to embassy in the morning, fill in form, submit with $50, return the next day after 2 pm to retrieve the visa. No problem. We have since heard from Kat and Mike (http://katandmikebike.com) that they received free 90-day double-entry Thailand visas in Kota Bahru Malaysia.

China COST: 130 Malaysian Ringgit plus 150 RG express fee each

We noticed that the application form for the Chinese visa in Singapore required much more detailed information than the application form in Malaysia. So, we recommend getting the visa in Kuala Lumpur rather than Singapore if you have the option. We only applied for a 30-day single entry visa because that is all we will require for this trip, but the form had boxes for longer duration visas. The process was very simple, fill in form, submit, pay, pick up visa. We paid for the same day processing, as we needed our passports for the USA embassy the following day. Normal processing time is 4-5 days. They also have quick but not express 1-2 day service. We were surprised at how easy this turned out to be.

USA COST: 485 Malaysian Ringget plus 32 RG administration free each

The USA Visa was by far our most expensive visa, and most annoyingly the one we did not really need. NSB, the company that operates the freighter ran into a problem a few years ago with a Canadian citizen being denied entry to the US due to lack of a visa. The Department of Homeland Security required that the person be removed from the country and caused a delay in the ship’s cargo operations, which is very expensive. Even though our travel agent has a letter from Homeland Security and we had a letter from the USA Embassy in Singapore stating that we did not need a Visa, the company would not allow us passage on the freighter without a USA Visa. So, we applied for a Visa while we were in Kuala Lumpur.

The visa process involves filling out a form online, paying the visa fee at a specific bank (the Alliance bank), booking an appointment, and then going to the embassy for fingerprinting and an interview. Scott spent several hours agonizing over the forms and the various pieces of paperwork that we might require. After paying the fee, we had to wait overnight to book the appointment. There were several appointment options, the soonest being the next day (that is 2 days after paying the fee).

When we arrived at the USA embassy, we:

1. registered at information to receive a guest pass
2. went through security screening (metal detector)
3. checked our cell phone (you can’t bring any electronics in)
4. entered the main building where we again went through a metal detector
5. took a number and waited until we were called
6. upon being called, our paperwork was validated and we were again sent back to the waiting room
7. upon being called the second time, our finger prints were taken and we were again sent back to the waiting room
8. upon being called the third time, we were briefly interviewed. The interviewer asked one question “Why are you here?”. Once we explained, she approved the visa. She mentioned that having the visa may cause us to need to answer additional questions at the border, which we also were concerned about, so she kindly added a note to our files to hopefully prevent future problems.

The interviewer let us know immediately that we would receive a visa, and provided us with the claim forms for our passports. The actual visa processing occurs overnight, so we pick up our passports the next afternoon. The interview at the embassy took about 2 ½ hours (including wait time to get through security).

We almost completely screwed up picking up our passports with USA visas. We saw the address and were looking for the WISMA building. To our surprise, there were many Wisma buildings. Becky was wondering just how rich this Wisma guy is anyways. We have since learned that Wisma is “building” or “plaza”, and the important part of the address was the three letters after the word Wisma, MCA – oops! Fortunately, we were going in the right direction and found the correct building to collect our passports.

Most of our time in KL was spent running errands – getting visas, buying bike parts, and buying malaria meds. We also enjoyed visiting our friends – Scott’s schoolmate Jon, his wife Chin Chiun, son Philip, and mother Nancy. We are very grateful for our private tour guide, Nancy, who ferried us to the various embassies and bike shops around KL and JB, as well as to many of the temples and shrines we visited. Nancy facilitates the application process for the Malaysia My Second Home Visa, which allows people to get a 10 year multiple-entry, unlimited time, visa for Malaysia. If this sounds interesting, please contact us and we’ll put you in contact with her!

Between embassy visits, we snuck in a visit to the Petronas Towers Skybridge. The Skybridge hovers at the 41st floor between the two towers, providing an additional emergency exit for the towers and allows employees in the towers to move across without having to go all the way to the bottom. The Skybridge tour is free, but you must go in the morning to get a ticket, for a show sometime during the day. One person can collect as many as five tickets, so Nancy acquired our tickets while we were going through the visa process at the USA embassy.

The tour begins with a 7-minute video presentation about Petronas and the towers. The video uses polarized 3D technology, which is poorly done. The video would be much better if they gave up on the 3D and just did a reasonable quality production. It also was mostly an advertisement for Petronas, and only contained a short bit about the construction of the tower.

The view from the sky bridge is pretty decent. It struck us that Kuala Lumpur is a city where the various sky scrapers are rather spread out. It does not seem nearly as built up as Singapore. One observation is that the sky scrapers vary in shape and design, which makes the skyline much more interesting than many western cities.

We also enjoyed many great meals. Our hosts like to show us the different food options available in Malaysia, so we are experiencing and loving a great variety of food – more on that later!

47 km, 2h47min, max temp 30 degrees C

We woke up to rain, so turned over and went back to sleep. We had only a short ride into Kuantan planned for today, so we didn’t feel any urgency to move. After yesterday, we were happy for the extra time to relax. On our short ride, it rained on and off. The riding was really nice when it wasn’t raining – the rain kept the temperature down, so even riding during the hottest part of the day, we were not too hot.

We are staying with Yew Kong, whom connected with through Couchsurfing. When we got to Kuantan, we called him, and he came to pick us up, which was very nice. Fortunately, he has a small pick-up truck, so we were able to fit the bikes in the back. Unfortunately, Scott also needed to ride in the back, and just as we started driving, the heavens opened up again. Scott has never been more quickly drenched than during that 10 minute ride!

The rain which started as we drove to the house did not stop for more than 12 hours. Apparently, this much rain is common during the monsoon season, but not at all common at this time of year. Now, the weather should be hot and humid. Becky isn’t sure which she prefers, she hates riding in the rain, but the heat was doing nasty things to her skin. Scott is firmly in favour of the rain, even after the deluge he was in!

It is wonderful to get a taste of how real people in Malaysia live. In addition to staying with Yew Kong in Kuantan, we will be staying with Jon’s family in KL (Jon and Scott were roommates during university). Another advantage to staying with locals is that you can get many of your questions answered. For example, we were wondering what the multistory cement buildings with little windows were. These buildings were broadcasting a horrible bird sound – we thought maybe the sound was to scare something away. It turns out the sound was to attract swallows. The buildings are used to farm swallow’s nests, which are used to make the delicacy bird’s nest soup.

Our current plan is to leave our bikes and most of our stuff with Yew Kong for a few days and take a bus to Kuala Lumpur. We hope to get our USA Visas figured out in KL, and maybe even get our Chinese visas.

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When we started the day at 5 am, we certainly did not expect that we would be riding over 100 km. We had planned to ride to Pekan with a goal of arriving before noon. We were up at 5 am, at breakfast by 6:15, and on the road by 6:50. The sun was just rising, so it was light enough to see. We turned on our rear red lights to ensure that passing traffic would see us – but it was light enough that this wasn’t really necessary.

With the help of a tailwind and a temperature of only 22 degrees C, we moved along quickly for the first 43 km to Nenasi, where we stopped for our second breakfast and to pick up a couple of cans of cold beverages (one soya milk and one 100 Plus for each of us).

A side note on our beverage choices: soya milk and 100 Plus (an electrolye replacement drink like Gatorade) both come in three types of container – plastic bottle, tetra pack, and can. We debated which was the most environmentally friendly option and decided on cans. We see plastic bottles and tetra packs thrown on the ground along the sides of the road, but rarely see cans. Cans may not have a deposit, but they are still actively recycled. Aluminum is actually cheaper to recycle than it is to make, so it is always good business to recycle pop cans. Even when we toss our cans in the garbage, it is likely that someone will collect them for recycling. We hope that is the case anyway.

It's a bright, sunshiny day - thank goodness for shade!

Shortly before noon, we met our second set of touring cyclists within 24 hours. This time it was Tim and Shannon from Singapore, doing a “short” tour (575-600 km) from Kota Bharu down the East Coast to Mersing. They told us that highway 3 north of Kuantan gets quite a bit busier, so we’ll keep an eye out for ways to detour off, and onto some quieter roads. We were the first touring cyclists they’ve seen, so it seems there aren’t too many cyclists out here at this time of year.

We arrived at Pekan at 12:45 with a temperature of 42 degrees in the sun. The temperature really climbed after 10:30 am. Unfortunately, the Chief’s Rest House, where we had planned to stay was full. We checked at another Inn in town, and it too was full. There might have been rooms at the two cheap hotels in town, but both places appeared to be dives without air conditioning. (The Lonely Planet said not to stay at one of them, and the other was right next door looking the same – we also had recommendations against them from several other cycle tourists). We decided to hop back on our bikes and seek out something further along. Pekan is only 40 km outside of Kuantan, a rather large city, so we hoped for more options along the way.

Cows visiting the Melati Inn

We are using a free GPS map for Malaysia and Singapore from http://www.malsingmaps.com, and it has proved very helpful at times, but never more so than in our search for lodging today. A quick search for waypoints of type “lodging”, and we found “The Indrapura Lake Resort” only 5 km up the road from Pekan. Their roadside signs were tiny, and we likely would have missed the place without the GPS. Our plan was to try for a room first, and if it was under 300 RG and it looked good we would splurge. If they did not have a room but they had a pool, we would ask to use it and hang out for a few hours until the temperature dropped a little, then ride on. The temperature was reading 44 degrees as we left Pekan – toasty!

Fortunately, they had a room available for 110 RG (weekend rate, the weekday rate was only 60 RG). It was clean and had A/C, so we grabbed it. We never did figure out what made it a “Resort”, since it had no pool or restaurant, and no swimming was allowed in the “lake” (which we would call a pond). It seems like a hotel to us, but that’s all we need. We were hot and tired after the early morning and long hot ride and with everything full in Pekan, we did not want to pass up an available room. There were two big grocery stores and several food stalls within walking distance, so we didn’t starve.

We has hoped to meet up with Kat and Mike again tonight, but with the Chief’s Rest House full, our plans of meeting fell apart. We hope they found a cool clean place for the night.

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Given Becky’s heat rash, we decided to take a day off and enjoy the air conditioning in our room. Kuala Rompin is a medium sized town, so there are many food stalls and many shops. There is an Internet café just down the street from our hotel, so we are able to keep up-to-date with our correspondence as well. We expect to be out of Internet range for a day or two once we get back on the bikes.

Today’s post is about some of the food we have been enjoying. We can’t give you names for much of it, as we are only slowly learning what things are called in Malay. Malaysia’s population is made up of roughly 50% Malay people, 33% Chinese, and 9% Indian. These are the three largest ethnic groups, and the food stalls are strongly influenced by each of them.

We have had several Malaysian Chinese meals – mostly dinners and one breakfast. Our experience with our limited sampling of Chinese food places is that the food is expensive and the quality is not great. The meals are reminiscent of American Chinese food rather than the yummy food found in Hong Kong or mainland China. Scott has memories of great Chinese food in KL, so we remain hopeful.

Most of our meals have been Malaysian or Indian. These meals have come in two types: the steam tray and a-la-carte. With the steam tray, you get a plate of rice and add your choice of items from the steam trays. These are usually help yourself places, and we seem to be charged based on the number of items we choose, not the quantity of each item. The cost has been around 5 RG ($3 CAD) per plate.

At the a-la-carte places you need to know what to order; however, there is often someone around who speaks enough English for you to suggest some options for you. For breakfast we have discovered a great Malay dish of coconut rice, with fried egg, or fried fish, and salty crispy minnows “Nasi Lemak Telur” or “Nasi Lemak Ikan”. This provides excellent fuel for cycling. Roti Telur, a piece of flat dough fried with an egg in the middle is another yummy breakfast. They sometimes call Roti a pancake. Breakfast at a Malay restaurant costs about 7 RG for the two of us, including our coffees.

Drinks are often sold by a separate vendor, but can sometimes be ordered through the same waiter. Sometimes you pay separately for drinks, and sometimes the drinks are included in your bill. So you always need to check. Compared to food, drinks are expensive, at 1.50 to 3 RG each. Our favourites are iced coffee and fresh orange juice. Even Scott enjoys the coffee! (If we wanted to drink more cheaply, regular coffee is usually 1 RG or less).

Mike and Kat at dinner

After lunch today, we came back to our hotel, to discover two other touring bicycles being unloaded. We were stunned to discover not just a pair of touring cyclists, but a pair of Canadian touring cyclists! Mike and Kat left Winnipeg in September, and have been touring in Utah, Colorado, New Zealand and Australia. They arrived in Singapore a few days after we did, and will be following roughly the same route we are, until China, where they plan to turn west and try to cycle through Tibet and Nepal. We spent the afternoon and evening comparing notes and sharing stories, as well as enjoying some more great food. Good thing we stayed the extra day here, or we likely would have never met them.

80 km, 4h45min, Max temp 40 deg C

Monkey Crossing!

We awoke at 5 am to the sound of crying baby, but soon went back to sleep. When the baby started wailing again at 5:30, we gave in and got up to start our day. Our alarm was set for 5:45, so this was only 15 minutes earlier than we had planned. Today we changed our morning routine to do yoga and pack everything up before breakfast. We hoped that eating breakfast out would move us along quicker. In the end, we were on the road 30 minutes earlier than yesterday – but we were also awake 30 minutes earlier than yesterday. Not quite a grand success.

The morning riding was beautiful. We are contemplating how to make an earlier start. We will try eating a light snack in the morning and stopping for breakfast after 1-2 hours of riding. Perhaps that will allow us to get to our destination before noon and the worst of the days heat.

The ride from Mersing to Endau was uneventful. We took highway 3 until the turn off to Mawar and Resang, which allowed us to follow the coast a little closer – it turned out to be about a 10 km detour, but brought us through some small villages which were much more interesting than the shoulder of the highway. At one point we rode by a Muslim school with all the children out playing during their morning break. We could feel the rush of excitement in the children as we passed, with a wave of waves, grins, screaming hellos, and lots of giggles as each group of children noticed us. The responses we get from people here in Malaysia always make us smile.

We stopped for lunch in Endau at a Muslim café. We have found that Malay Chinese restaurants are much more expensive than the Malay Muslim restaurants. We paid 42 RG for dinner without beer at a Chinese food place (albeit we had some seafood) and only 12 RG at the Malay place. This price difference was emphasized at breakfast, where the Malay breakfast runs us about 4-6 RG and the equivalent Chinese breakfast is 12 RG. In the grand scheme of things, both are pretty cheap, but we are counting our pennies, so we’ll stick to Malay when we have the choice, and save the Chinese for special occasions.

When we hit the road right after lunch, the temperature had soared from 35 deg to 40 deg, so rather than riding the 26 km to our evening destination, we decided to seek shelter until the cooling of the late afternoon. Scott saw a sign for the Seri Malaysia Rompin – a hotel chain, and thought they might have air conditioning, a pool and Internet. Becky just hoped for a pool and wanted to look into getting a room for a few hours. Unfortunately, all the rooms were booked, but they did have free Internet, air conditioning in their café, and a pool. Once we received permission from the hotel manager, we found a comfortable spot in the café, drank some great fresh orange juice, and spent a few hours on the Internet.

Before getting back on the bikes, we hopped in the pool for a brief cool down. The water was pretty warm, but it was still nice to start the ride off while we were cool and a little damp from our swim. The thermometer on Becky’s bike read 38 degrees at 3:50 pm, but within 20 minutes, the temperature had dropped to 32 degrees.

We were back on Highway 3, and at Endau we had lost the nice paved shoulder. Fortunately, there was not much traffic, and the little traffic was happy enough to give us plenty of room when passing. It was a quick ride into Kuala Rompin.

We checked out the Hotel Kenkana but found it to be rundown. The room first room Becky was shown only had a fan, and the second room had an air conditioner but it was in very poor condition. Air conditioning and cleanliness are our two main requirements. So, we went down the street to Hotel Sri Rompin. There we got a basic but very clean room on the third floor with good air conditioning for only 40 RG (with a “Shower of Happiness”). The foam on the beds was a little thin, so Becky added her thermarest under the mattress to make it softer. A nice bonus was the hotel had a reception on the ground floor, and a room behind the reception to store our bikes – so we did not need to lug them up the three extra long flights of stairs.

Shower of Happiness

By the end of the ride, Becky’s heat rash had gotten bad again. The rash is on the front of her thighs, below her cycling shorts, and above her knees. We do wonder if the fact that we are riding recumbent contributes to the heat rash – the location of the rash is definitely related to riding ‘bent, as the fronts of our legs get the full force of the sun while riding, and with our legs in front of us, gravity doesn’t help to wick sweat away as well as the vertical position on a diamond frame. This “Prickly Heat” or proper name “Milaria” is a problem for many visitors (not to be confused with Malaria, the mosquito-born illness). We have decided to take a rest day here tomorrow and give her skin a chance to heal.

While on the Internet this afternoon, we learned that our freighter from Shanghai to Seattle is running into complications. The company that manages the ship, NSB, will not take us if we do not have a USA Visa. We have talked to the embassy in Singapore who gave us a letter and our travel agent has gotten letters from Homeland Security specifying that we do not need a visa; however, a few years ago NSB had a ship delayed in Seattle because they had a Canadian on board with a Visa issue, so they are firm in their requirement that we get a USA Visa.

So, with the combination of heat rash and the need for a USA Visa, we plan make our side trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL) a week earlier than originally planned. We have two more days of riding to get to Kuantan. In Kuantan, we will store our bikes and take a bus to KL. While in KL we will try to get ourselves Visas for both USA and China; and the time off the bikes and away from the most strenuous of exercise should allow Becky’s heat rash to clear up completely (we hope).

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98km, 6h30min, max temp: 44 deg C

We awoke to a nice clear day, with only the wetness of the ground and our clothes to remind us of all the rain of yesterday. We both got up with the alarm at 6 am, since we knew we had a long day ahead. Unfortunately, it took time to cook breakfast, pack up our still-wet clothing and do yoga, so we didn’t start riding until after 8.

We stopped for ice coffees (Kopi Ais) after 15 km in Sedili Besar, and saw several places to eat along the route until Sedili Besar, but weren’t hungry after our big breakfast of scrambled eggs and oatmeal.

One big advantage to the rain is that it keeps the temperature down. For most of our ride yesterday the temperature was in the mid to high 20s. With the sun shining full force today, we saw temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s all day.

The ride today was mostly through palm plantations. There were times when all we could see were hills covered in palm trees. Once we passed Sedili Besar, we saw nothing but plantations for 23 km, until we reached the turnoff to Tanjung Leban. After that, more services appeared, but the roads continued to be really quiet until we intersected with highway 3. From other reports, we were afraid that it might be a horrible experience riding on the 3, but it turned out to be rather pleasant. For the most part there was a large paved shoulder, so the traffic was not bothered by us or us by it.

We are still working on the idea of an afternoon siesta. We stopped at 1:30 pm for 45 minutes in a covered bus shelter and took a short nap. With a little breeze, it was a nice break; however, we really should have stopped for longer. We now know that the hottest part of the day is 1 pm – 3:30 pm.

We are really enjoying all the cheers and waves from the people as we ride by. Often a car or truck passes us and a hand or head appeares – smiles, waves or a “thumbs-up” are common. When we pass houses in small villages, the women and sometimes the children wave and shout “hello”.

Becky continues to be surprised at how outgoing the women are here. It is a dramatic change from the Middle East where we found women were quiet, reserved and often invisible. Here, we regularly see Muslim women running restaurants and driving scooters to and fro. Both of us find the Malaysian attitudes and friendliness very refreshing.

We arrived in Mersing at 6 pm, exhausted, hot, and with heat rash and sunburn. Fortunately, the first hotel we checked had a large room on the first floor (one story up) for 65 Ringgit (about $20 CAD). We were too tired to bargain, but since Mersing is a tourist town, we likely wouldn’t have gotten very far anyway.

We have decided that tomorrow will be a rest day, as we could use a day to recuperate and catch up on things. Mersing is the first “city” we have been in since leaving Singapore. Until now, we have ridden through small villages and resort areas, but nothing big enough to have a pharmacy, mobile phone store, or Internet café. So we will spend tomorrow catching up on various errands and letting our bodies recover from too much heat. When we get back on the bikes, we plan to start earlier to avoid long days and riding between 1 and 3:30 pm.

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max temp: 32 Deg C, 77 km, 4 hr 40 min

We got off to a reasonable start, 8 am. Not as early as we hoped, but pretty good for us. After 10 km and a half hour, we stopped under a bus shelter for a snack and to allow the rain shower we could see pass over us. Our timing was perfect, within a minute of entering the shelter, the rain started in force. Fortunately, this was just a quick storm that passed by within 15 minutes.

Back on the road again, we saw our first Malaysian wildlife, monkeys. At first we only saw a couple in the trees, but then we notices a group of about 20 of them prancing about on the road in front of us. For the next hour, we frequently noticed the trees moving and saw monkeys in the branches.

As we approached Desaru (a place full of resorts, with no town we found) shortly after 11 am, thunder and lightning were threatening, so we stopped at the Pulai Beach Hotel for lunch. We thought it looked very nice, and they had a weekday special for rooms, 120 RG, so we considered it, but decided it would leave us at a distance that was either too short or too long for the next day’s ride. It rained while we ate lunch, but then cleared up in time for us to continue riding.

Unfortunately, the nice weather did not last long. Light rain began within 10 minutes. At first, we found the rain rather pleasant, as it was warm and it kept the temperature down. However, the rain just kept coming, heavily at times. After 2 hours of rain, we were soggy and still 15 km from anything that might resemble a place to stay. After leaving the hotels at Desru, we did not see another place to stay until we reached Sedili Kechil.

The first resort/chalet place we stopped at appeared to be closed for the season. The second place we stopped (Mutiara Motor Resort) looked nice, but was full! We are not sure what was going on, but we guess there was some special event like a wedding or conference filled it up. Fortunately, there was a third place in town (Sedili Country Resorts) that had chalets available. We found the cost to be a little much at 80 Ringgit, but it was dry and we were very soggy. We had been riding in the rain for about three hours. The next opportunity for a place to stay was at the Tanjung Sutera Resort in Kuala Sedili Besar, a further 10 km down the road, but we were not able to reach them on our cell phone. We did not want to risk them being closed or full, so we took the chalet here at Sedili Country Resort. We had heard good things about it from Chris and others. Unfortunately for us, Jackie the Malaysian Princess was nowhere to be seen, so we did not receive the same level of hospitality as Michelle and Dave.

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