Tue 5th June
7am. Up and out (tipsy) for an early check out - in doing so we confused the old maintenance guy. His face was a gawping picture. A morning walk along the river to the bus stop, on the way we saw a 4-5 foot minotor lizard in the water! Another magical morning moment.
Caught the bus to the station, inside there for a coffee and croisant breakfast. I went to use the loo and you have to pay 60 cents - I did and judged the state of the toilets not worthy...I'll hold it! I went and sat waiting for our onward coach.
Developing a beer belly... must cut out bread and beer for a while...ha!
Into the coach and back on the road again.
The Malaysian countryside is swathed in row upon neat row of palm trees. They're planted in straight lines to make for easier harvesting. Palm oil being a huge source of income in the country, it's a controversial topic due to the deforestation/ environmental impact. Better to look at than concrete and steel though.
A couple of hours later we arrived in Muar bus terminal and asked a clerk at a counter which bus we need to get to our hostel. She kindly stepped out of her booth and called to some taxi drivers. They jumped up, only to then have a debate about which direction the hostel was in. We slowly backed away and left them to their puzzlings. A quick check on google maps said it was only 1.3km away back over the bridge across the river Muar...
Along the very hot way we were joined by some sweet young lads who asked us where we were from etc. and took some selfies with us. We popped into a shopping mall/KFC on the way for a cold drink, wifi access. And to use the loo - the noise from which, sounded like a grown man wailing and screaming. Was he vomiting?! Was it something he was passing?! Or did he have that weird itch you get inside your head sometimes?! 'Hmm, I'll hold it I thought'.
Wi-Fi helped us identify a glitch on my map, as our hostel was 4km away from town!!! So a 20 minute walk became 50 minutes, when we arrived at our destination. Hot and sweaty but happy. We were greeted at Wakalily hostel by Lily (the owner) and on seeing our red sweaty selves she poured two glasses of cold water. Wicked.
The hostel seems like a sweet place to get some r 'n' r. Lots of space, light and airy. Clean shower/toilets - far superior to 'Discovery cafe', a full kitchen, plenty of seating options and great touches of decor.
Settled in we unpacked and showered, Frank went for a snooze and I took the opportunity to read a magazine (National Geographic). Later in the early evening a knock came on our door, Lily asked us if we would like to come along with her and two other new residents to a local food court for dinner.
"Oh, yes please!"
"Ok. We'll leave at 7."
So 7pm came and we five went. We were joined by a German couple who had been cycling the world for the past 16 months. They had left last February and were due for home this September.
At the food court Lily helped us order and treated us all to an Oyster Omelette - a speciality. (Frank and I had pork claypot noodles, watermelon and a pineapple juice). We all chatted about food and travel, Lily is a traveller herself. The German couple were telling how they've lost all track of days and months and are very happy about it. After dinner we were driven around Muar and given a rough commentary by Lily. Back at the hostel we chatted a little more with the German couple about clothing and managing laundry - pure excitement here eh? But interesting for us though.
We then tucked into our beautiful double bed with a quiet A/C. Bliss.

Wed 6th June
We had a good lie in and sorted ourselves some breakfast, museli/fruit and toast, tea and coffee. Directly outside Wakalily hostel was the bus stop for town, where we waited a hour before waving one down. In town we walked alongside the river, passing the Mosque and Sultans (vacant) town house and on to the jetty. Not much there just the wide mouth of the Muar river to the see. We did see a massive bird - huge wing span, it looked like a crane or something much like it.
Back into town we criss crossed the streets of the old quarter, very much a European early 20th century architecture scene.
We sat in an ice cream café, Harbin, to get out of the heat, with a mango juice for me.
We then waited an hour for the bus - a man offered to show us round to take pictures. Not quite sure of his motives and preferring to get back we declined.
We asked to stop off at the supermarket from yesterday so we could pick up some bits for a stir fry dinner and some snacks. And beers!
At the hostel we cooked dinner, first time in nearly 4 months, (we moved out of our flat before April) and chilled on the sofa updating the blog.
Met May, (Malaysian) who was working near Muar doing a shut down.
Off to bed.
During the night we could hear others residents chatting/giggling/ on their phones. Maybe it'll calm down we thought. By 1am it was going, I went to the loo - evesdropping which room it was coming from. On the way back, noise still going I knocked on their door,
"Is everything ok? Only I can hear voices round here from my room."
"Oh, you're next door?"
"No, I'm around the corner" (!) The noise pitted out fairly quickly after that.

Thu 7th June
Woke up at 8am to the sound of heavy rain and thunder overhead. I took the opportunity to do a little stretching and exercise.
Breakfast and chilled out for a little while. We chose to extend our stay at Wakalily seeing as it was SOO nice, calm and relaxing. Booked our future stay in Johor Barhu (we may go to Singapore).
Went for a walk along the main (dual carriageway) road - headed towards the 'Tanwar Plantations Homestay', back out and down to the 'Ship resturan', as its called, then we sought out the path behind the schools that ran along the river. Found a clearing where people fish on the torquise wide river, that's lined with tropical trees and palms. Paradise.
Along the road it was beautiful, green and quiet. Palm trees over hang the unmade road, watered from a drainage ditch, and we were occasionally being passed by a moped or two. Small shack/corrigated tin houses. Looking about Frank spotted something -  pointing excitedly ahead. A small group of monkeys were crossing the road from the houses, most were clutching some green fruit, mangos maybe? They disappered into a bushy tree. Further along the path in, the hot sun, a giant crane-like bird flew out of the ditch, it had a huge wing span! We passed a small house on the left where some dogs behind a fence began to bark. After few minutes later the owner had walked out. He called 'Hello' to us and I thought beckoned us over to him. Anyway we walked further along and the same man zipped up alongside us on his 100cc scooter. He asked us where we were going and where we were from.
"You come to my house?"
He was very friendly. We told him we may pop by later as we were out for a walk. So he zipped back. Sure enough we came alongside his house again.
"Come in come in. You want to take pictures?" So we did, he led us to his rickerty jetty where his 2 boats were moored. Something big jumped from the shade of a tree and into the water but we didnt see what (another big lizard?). He showed us the 'Funa' (crayfish/shrimp) he had caught. We spoke briefly about the view. Asked if we could and like to swim?
"You can swim in there (pointing to the river). Jump in."
We sat with him under his veranda. His name was Abdul Alziz, he's 39, unmarried and an electrician. His english was good. He asked for some selfies - we obliged. His friend turned up who introduced himself as "Nobody". A few minutes after we continued our walk and spotted or rather heard the monkeys again. We stood listening and lo and behold small light grey faces poked out from the branches. The boldest memeber climbed to the top branch and eyed us intently. Then another two crept out. There was lots of activity, jumping from branch to branch and more little faces looking at us. Quite a cool moment. We could've stayed there for hours but our bellys were grumbling. Our final wildlife spot in this 1km stretch was seeing another huge lizard swim hastily through the ditch away from us.
Back at the hostel we told Lily what we'd seen and done and showed her photos,
"Oh these are really rare monkeys! Really rare."
May confirmed the same when we saw her in the evening - "Wow. You guys are really lucky. They are so rare."
Pretty cool eh?