Day 167
Since I am an annoying morning person, I woke up early and began dressing and packing. By the time that Cher woke up from her deep slumber, I was fully dressed, drinking a cup of coffee asking when we would get on the road. She looked at me as if I went crazy:”I thought today was a rest day!” Apparently there is a reason why alcohol is banned, and is involved in the majority of domestic disputes, neither of us understood anything the other was talking about before we went to bed last night. With my head lightly throbbing, I willingly agreed to take a rest day.
The rest day turned out to be necessary and fruitful. We spent the whole day catching up on the blog, and I did some research on our future itinerary. Traveling from Indonesia to Jakarta is not a common route for cyclists and we found only a couple of blogs with directions. With a little independent research I found that there is only one way to cycle into Singapore and that is through Johor Bharu over the Johor Causeway. I also learned that there is a ferry from Johor Bahru to Batam, saving us 34 km and possibly a day of travel through expensive and crowded Singapore. With a good rest today, we will be able to pull a long day from Mersing to Johor Bharu just in time for the ferry.