A Big Adventure

Tuesday 10th February 2009, Mersing, Malaysia

Sometimes things go well and sometimes things step in and zig instead of zagging. Today they zagged after some initial Zigging. The day started well enough our driver turned up at 10:00am as requested and our expected five hour plus journey took just four. We turned up at the Jetty and I went to get some tickets, but, wait….. Where is everybody?

It turns out that at this early stage in the season there is but one boat a day and the time of it depends upon the tide – Today it was long gone as was the sea, it reminded me of Weston-Super-Mare back home where the tide goes out so far you could be forgiven for thinking that the sea has just left Weston forever as indeed I have myself. So we were stood on the jetty with all our bags, in a place we did not know and  with no taxis in sight.

Luckily for us our driver had not gone far before he realized there was nobody around and he came back and kindly took us to the nearest hotel the Hotel Seri, nice pool but the stinkiest room ever, smells of cat urine times 100, makes your eyes sting and too expensive for what it offers, but hey it’s one night.

Once in our room I left Sofia and Basty to hit the pool while I went off to explore. An hour or so later I was back, Basty was in the pool and Sofia was about to join him, I decided to have a dip as well. The pool was very nice. Afterwards we went off to town as I had found a place doing DVD’s and another place with a small but possibly helpful selection of luggage.

Mersing is much more muslim than Melaka, in Melaka you have a large Chinese and Indian contingent, here in Mersing, I would say at least 95% of the women  here have their hair covered. English seems to only be understood by a small selection of the people and also the signs no longer seem to have an English version on them. I really feel that I am in a foreign country now. We purchased some DVD’s for watching while on Tioman as our place has no TV’s. We also purchased some new luggage. Sabastian and I got identical large cases and Sofia got a small back pack style one with wheels.

We returned to our smelly room and set about packing our new bags.  I gave Basty a very hard time for losing the new DVD’s which I then found in my bag as the great Homer would say Doh!.

Afterwards we went out for food, the first place we chose we a sea front place and it was OK but not enough so we carried on down the sea front until we came to a cool looking place by the Jetty (I think called the port), they served cold Carlsberg and very good food. Recommended.

Afterwards we headed back to the room, tomorrow we head out nice and early to the ferry for Tioman.

Mersing is an alright place, some nice cafes and shops. Not a destination on it’s own right but OK if you need to spend a night here

[mappress]