March 28th: Nenasi to Kuala Rompin – 49.56km
Day 166
I rolled out of bed at 5:30am and took a walk down to the beach to check out the stars and gather the laundry before the morning dew set in. However, I couldn’t see anything at all. Even my head lamp was blinding me. Cher woke up and thought it was smoke, and there was a fire burning nearby, but after just 30 minutes on the road we knew it was just humid. We were both thankful that we put in a long day yesterday and became even more thankful as the day went on.
From our “resort” on there was nothing. No stores, gas stations, nor restaurants. Had we continued past our last stop, we would either pushed on until we arrived in town, or spent a hot thirsty night camped on the beach.
We arrived early and moved into a hotel another cyclist had recommended on Google Maps as cycle friendly. It’s always a good sign when you see lots of bed linen hanging on the clothesline. It was everything we hoped for, clean, functional, and relatively cheap. We were so pleased with the cyclists recommendations that Cher began making her own. Cher has also started marking our hotels on our map for any other weary travelers in need of a budget shelter.
We once again found a Chinese restaurant and to our surprise a westerner was sitting at a table drinking a beer. We have learned that although alcohol is banned in Malaysia, many Chinese restaurants and shops still sell it.
He invited us to join him. What could we do but being Social? In a moment we were sharing beers and life stories. Adam, who we learned was from California is working as a training teachers here. He had been in Malaysia for 3 months, in a very local area, and we are the first tourists that he has seen. Seeing our reluctance to buy more beer he treated us to two more. Cher and I have bored each other with our common knowledge and Adam hasn’t had a western ear in a while. He was bursting with words, but we were all happy to have some outside interaction.
I can sympathize after having taught in Hong Kong and working with local teachers all day, but I also had Cher and western friends in the area. Cultural differences make it very difficult to express yourself freely, especially in a professional environment. We were impressed that he had made the commitment to come out here where there is a sharp cultural contrast. We learned it’s not unusual for people to ask what religion you are, assuming that you must have one.
We are cheap dates and after not drinking for so long it went right to our heads and we went back to his place for a night cap or two, some guitar, and conversation. We talked about travel, love, education, books, yoga and plans for the future. Adam was a great host and Cher and I were fortunate to have bumped into him. He was such a great host that when we got back to our hotel Cher told me to turn off the alarm clock before we went to bed.