72 km

The ferry picked us up at our dock at 7:30, and after many stops at other docks on the island, we arrived in Mersing around 10:30. We ate breakfast and bought some lunch snacks and headed out at about noon.

The ride was very nice, with light rain a couple times throughout the day and always a breeze. We are facing a headwind every day we head North up the coast, but it’s not too bad when we’re inland a ways and the trees block some of it. We also had lots of hellos, thumbs up and smiles today.

We found a nice hotel in Kuala Rompin for RM35 with air conditioning and a sizable room at the Hotel Kenkana. There are only two budget hotels in town, the other is in the same row of buildings with a larger sign but we didn’t even check in there when we saw this room. The other option is the beach resort, a pretty nice hotel with rooms starting at RM 140. The rooms were nice but we want to stay on a budget unless we have good reason to splurge.

We had dinner next to the hotel on the corner, a typical Malaysian-looking place. We had a nice waiter who answered a couple of our questions about food (and we are finally getting a good variety of things we can order, all super yummy!). Once we ordered Dave noticed there were Osama Bin Laden portraits everywhere. Yes, they were on all the walls, all sizes and poses. These guys were real fans. Uh, wow. That’s probably why, when the waiter asked with a smile where we were from and we answered, he sort of got a blank expression and said “America,” and then walked back to the kitchen. Then I looked around a bit. I was the only woman, and all the men looked very conservative, with hats and everything. They were all busy talking over coffee. But then everyone started getting up to go and all the restaurant staff were putting up chairs, sweeping, cleaning counters and all that. It was just before 7:00 pm. All the places we’ve been to so far are open and bustling until we head back to our hotel for bed and probably long after. This was weird. When the food came, it was good. But we ate quickly because we were the last people left and they were practically mopping us into a corner. OK, folks, we’re leaving!

A note about the people: Malaysia is a Muslim country. We have seen covered and uncovered women, we have seen traditionally dressed men in those little hats and others in Hawaiian shirts. But all of them, so far, have been nothing but kind and friendly. Certainly we’ll see more places like this restaurant, but one-on-one, people treat us really well here.