We got up early to beat at least some of the heat. Unfortunately, Malaysians don't generally get up that early, so after an unsatisfying look around town for an open food stall or restaurant that served toast, I ended up getting a hot chicken soup and white rice dish at the only restaurant we could find. The soup was awful because they used the blender method to butcher the chicken. Literally every bite had bones in it--not big bones but little fragments and shards and gristle. I can't figure out how the locals deal with that. Most food stalls we go to don't have blender-chicken this bad, so I don't know if they save those pieces for tourists or what. Two or three more times we got this kind of meal in Malaysia. (Joan: eventually we got smart and started ordering seafood, lamb and veggies instead of chicken).

The first 30km or 40km out of Mersing was full of rolling hills. Nothing too steep but lots of gentle up and down. After Pandang Endau, however, the road became almost completely flat (Joan: and stayed that way right through to Bangkok).

Since we hadn't ridden in a long time (the last time we rode was in March, to Medan in Sumatra, and after that, we just hung out in Singapore and did our boat trip in Borneo and hung out in Singapore some more) we figured we should go easy and ride just 75km. But when we went that far we couldn't find a place to stay. We stopped for lunch at a "rehat" (rest area) where about six or eight food stalls were set up in the middle of nowhere (on a lovely beach!). They had a lot of room for parking trucks.

In Singapore Kris and Anne had warned us about the fires along the road in eastern Malaysia. Before lunch we saw what they were talking about. There were lots of small fires burning amid the scrub land along the coast. Just brush fires probably started intentionally to clear the land.

Most of the time we couldn't actually see the fires, but we rode through the smoke. At times it got so thick our throats and eyes burned. Joan got a headache she attributed to it. Since the Malaysians blame the drought on El Nino and the fires on the drought then Joan can blame El Nino for her headache. (Joan: actually it was very interesting to see fires on the East Coast, since Malaysia was publicly blaming all its "haze" problems on uncontrolled fires in Indonesian Borneo). The smoke was especially thick around lunchtime. A breeze kicked up after we ate, however, and cleared it up a lot.

We had passed abeach resort of some sort about every 20km since we left Mersing. After lunch we figured we would stop at the next one. Unfortunately they stopped popping up. In fact, we hardly passed any towns or even many people for the next 75km. All we saw was ugly scenery: scrub, fires and just occasional glimpses of the ocean. At least the road was flat and traffic was light. Now and then we heard scrambling in the trees along the road. If we looked carefully we could see lots of monkeys swinging in the branches. We also stirred up lots of lizards sunning themselves on the burm.

The road kills in Malaysia are some of the most interesting in the world (based on our tour so far). We saw cats, chickens, goats, a cow, snakes, and even monkeys flattened and mauled to various states of goo. Strangely we saw few lizard kills even though we saw them alive all over the place. (We didn't see many road kills at all in Indonesia for some reason. I think they get eaten quickly.)

By the time we arrived at the next town that had accomodation, Pekan, we had spent over eight hours in the saddle and pedalled over 150km. Though it wasn't the hardest day we've had, it was the farthest we've gone together in a single day. We were hurting when we rolled in shortly before dark. (The pain from that day's ride lasted for several days, and the road rash persisted for months!)

Even though it was the off season and every single hotel we have stayed at in Malaysia (I'm writing this one day before we enter Thailand) has been nearly empty and we feel like we're intruding on the staff who have settled in for another easy day without customers, the first place we went to in Pekan was full. The conversation I had with the woman at reception was classic.

HER: How many rooms do you need?

ME: One.

HER: We're full.

Perhaps if I'd asked for two rooms ...

Fortunately, we found another place,and though it was a bit old and tired just like the man who ran it, it did just fine. We went to KFC for dinner mostly for the AC but also for the large, icy drinks. We were asleep by 10 p.m.

**

The next day we got up early and didn't bother to try to find toast. Instead we got some good noodles at the food stall next to the hotel. We passed an awesome light blue mosque on the way out of town. Pekan has some of the most interesting architeture on the coast.

However, the road north of Pekan, and before the thriving city of Kuantan, was just plain ugly. The road here runs a few miles inland from the coast and had a lot of brush fires. My throat started to burn. The land, partly clear-cut, partly swampy and partly burning, looked like a good location to film some apocalyptic movie. Other than that I can't think of any good use for the land. (Joan: in the midst of this ugliness we took a photo of a sign that said "Love our Earth" or something like that).

Kuantan was busy but I liked it. It felt thriving despite the midday heat and humidity, which always seems even more oppressive in cities. Lots of people walked the streets and the padang, a large open grassy area in the center of town. We ended up eating at an AC diner called the Swan that reminded me of a Village Inn. About 10k north of town we saw a really big fire, to the west. It was right after we went around some refineries and heavy industrial areas and big warehouses. The smoke cloud was giant, billowing in slow motion. I bet it was hundreds or maybe even thousands of feet high, and several times that size horizontally. We couldn't tell how far away it was so we couldn't estimate the size well. But we could see the smoke for a long time. Luckily this part of the road ran next to the coast, so the sea breeze blew most of the smoke away from us.

We passed more refineries and new housing for the employees. It was hot. We stopped frequently at food stalls and gas stations for cold drinks. The road in the industrial area was very wide and generally had good shoulders. Lots of trucks passed but not too closely. The only bad thing was there was no shade, and the trucks stirred up dust and it was hot (did I say that already?).

We baked like two ants crawling across a hot grill. It wasn't an especially pleasant ride. Gradually the industry gave way to more rural and residential landscape. Still it was completely flat.

Our destination, Cherating, is a tourist village set on a pretty bay with a long beach. There is no real village there, just a string of bungalows, motels and restaurants. There's lots of competition especially during the off season. So we got a great "chalet" (cabin) at a place called Matahari (Malay for "sun") with a fridge for 20 ringgits/nite (about US$6).

Next: Cherating to Merang

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