(written by Nancy)

While our chalet yesterday looked nice from the outside it was a bit rough inside so we didn’t sleep too well last night.  It was pretty musty and some mosquitoes snuck in to bother us.  Dave is fighting a headcold so we didn’t have the air-conditioning on, just the fan.  The combination of all those factors made for a not very restful night.

We had gotten some nice bread in Singapore and didn’t know how long it would last in the heat so we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast before we took off.  It was a nice change from the noodles, curry and fried rice!  We did stop for a coffee at the hawker stall before we left.

We headed out about 8:30 and it was already pretty warm – not as much cloud cover as we had yesterday.  We rode Hwy 3 along the coast the whole ride today.  It was mostly palm plantations along the way – I think the whole area up to Mersing (north of here) is covered with palm plantations.  Lots of no trespassing and no hunting signs along the way.  The road itself was quite nice – smooth tarmac and not much traffic at all.  We got lots of waves from people driving by and from some road workers along the way.

We weren’t sure how far we were going to go today.  Our map shows the road going along a bay called Jason’s Bay, with a town on each end of it.  We heard from someone at the resort last night that there were some chalets at Jason’s Bay but he didn’t think there was any place to eat there so we were riding a bit blind as to what options we had.  When we came into Kampung Sedili Kechil we saw a little grocery store so stopped to get something to drink and a little snack.  There were some packaged pastries similar to the fresh ones we had purchased in Sungai Rengit so we gave them a try.  They seemed to be the same flavour as those we previously had, kind of a curry taste.  A bit strange but not bad.

Dave needs some rest to get over his cold so when we came into Sedili Kechil, the town at the south end of Jason’s Bay, we started to look for places to stay.  The first place we saw looked even rougher than last night so we kept going.  As we headed out of town we came across another place, the Mutiara Motors Resort, that looked interesting.  We stopped to take a look at the chalets and they seemed to be in a bit better condition so we decided to stay here rather than take a chance on what we could find up the road.  As we were getting checked in the cycle tourists we met yesterday also rolled in and decided to stay here as well.  I think we are the only people here.

There is a restaurant here at the resort so after getting unpacked and cleaning up we headed over there to get something to eat.  They cooked up some fresh nasi goreng (fried rice) for us – it was delicious and hit the spot.  We watched the fishermen out in the bay while we ate.  It was very hot out so we headed back to the air-conditioned room so that Dave could get some sleep.  While Dave slept there was a huge rainstorm that went on for almost two hours – it really poured down, with thunder and lightning.  Glad we were not out in that!

After the rain let up we finally dragged ourselves out to get some dinner.  The restaurant at the resort was not open for dinner so we walked into town to the hawker stall.  It is a small little town so there were only a couple of stalls.  We tried to decipher the menu at one stall – thankfully the cook spoke a bit of English so we ended up with some interesting noodle soups.  Quite a few local people seemed to come by and get their dinner there – many on small motorcycles, kids in tow.  The frogs are out in full force so we were serenaded on our walk back to the resort.  We can still hear them singing outside our room.

Tomorrow we will head for Kota Tinggi, which appears to be one of the bigger towns in the area.  I think there are several hotels there so hopefully we can find a good place to stay.  There are some waterfalls near the town that may be interesting to see so we may spend a day or two there.

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