The bus soon turned up and we hopped on. I slept most of the way (as normal for me on journeys now!) as it was a fairly comfortable bus. Before we knew it we arrived in Mersing, a small port town.

We watched as all the other westerners went in the direction of the ticket office for a ferry to Tioman Island but Neil and I headed for the main street of the town instead. I was hungry as I'd had no breakfast so we stopped at KFC (also because I was desperate for the loo!). We shared some food and made a plan for which direction to aim. This is the first place we have been (so far!) without a Lonely Planet map in our guide book. We ate up, used the facilities and got our bags back on as we headed out into the heat of the day to try and find a room.

The first room we found was well out of our price range, we looked at two others and neither of which I was happy to sleep in. Neil was starting to get a bit cross (I can be a little choosy!) but we stumbled upon a room which I was pleased with - well as pleased as you can be while backpacking on a budget in Asia! We sorted the registration out, cooled out under the fan for a while before heading out to see what was on offer in Mersing.

Mersing is a lovely little fishing village with a friendly local atmosphere - we immediately liked it here.

We were disappointed to learn that there are currently no boat tours offered, only the main ferry to Tioman. Also that it is harder than hard to get to the strip of beaches along the coast as they are deserted - we could get there but would have no way of getting back when we needed to. Gutted!

We have decided just to spend the one night here after the realisation of this, so we bought a bus ticket from the bus station to get us to Cherating.

We then found a lovely Chinese place to eat - the food was so good and reminded us of China so much!

It is so local here. Earlier I got some flip-flops for 36p with no tourist tax added! I am also excited because I bought a magazine here for the bus ride - I haven't read a magazine since we left home! Small pleasures and all that!

We currently have a pet gecko in our room who has circled the ceiling twice trying to find the way out - so sweet but I hope he doesn't fall on me in the night! Today was a good day where I felt like a proper traveller away from the main crowd! I am also happy because my tummy feels loads better!

We slept a little later today - not a great night for me but I've had worse. We conducted the usual check out routine and made the short walk to the bus station. After locating the bus which wasn't in the bay we were told it would be in, we got on ready for our journey.

Lots of love - Missing you all lots and lots xxxxxxxxxxxx