(written by Nancy)

Our budget hotel turned out to have a very budget bed – we both woke up with sore spots from the springs in the bed as there was very little padding beneath the very thin sheets.  It was quiet though so surprisingly we both got some sleep.  We picked up some nice bread yesterday so we made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for breakfast in the room.

The ride today was a continuation of the ride from the east coast to the west coast of Malaysia.  We had quiet roads when we started out about 8:30 but it was already getting hot.  About 15k from Kluang we came across the Zenxin Organic Park so we pulled in to take a look.  It was a large organic farm that had a store and a cafe.  I think that is the first time we have seen anything organic since we have been in Malaysia.  We sat in the cafe and had some very nice smoothies – Dave had a banana smoothie and I had a mulberry one.  They were delicious and hit the spot.  The store had lots of good looking food – it would have been nice to get some things but we don’t have much room to carry much so made do with some mixed nuts.

We passed over the main north south expressway – lots of traffic on it, bikes are not allowed.  We didn’t have the nice shoulder that we had the last couple of days but it wasn’t too bad.  Traffic started to get a bit worse as we hit more development but people generally gave us enough room.  The last 20k to Batu Pahat was all developed – out of the palm plantations and small villages now.  There were several very picturesque mosques along the way – quite big ones but we didn’t see a lot of activity.

On the outskirts of town we saw a bike shop that had some neat looking single-speeds outside and several bike signs so we pulled over to see what they had.  It was a typical Asian bike store – stuff piled everywhere.  Dave is looking for a new gauge to check the tire pressure but unfortunately they did not have one so after the owner chatted with us a bit and took a picture of us on his phone we continued on into the city.  We had some information about a hotel that was supposed to be nice so we headed for the B&S Boutique Hotel as we came into town.  It is a nice hotel – much nicer than last night and not too spendy  They even let us roll our bikes in through the lobby, into the lift and into our room.

We got cleaned up and checked out the hotel cafe for lunch.  Good food and good value too.  We decided we would stay another night – we need to clean the bikes really well, as the high humidity is really wreaking havoc with the chains and the bikes have a bit of rust here and there.  We wandered around town a bit to pick up cleaning supplies (not a good thing to do in the mid-day heat!) and then made our way back to the room to recover.  After it cooled down we went out for dinner to a place recommended by the guy at the front desk where we had nasi lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk) with chicken – pretty tasty.  As with most places here, the friendly neighbourhood cat showed up to see if he could get some leftovers…

Resting and cleaning are on the agenda for tomorrow.

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