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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