November 12, 2012
We knew we had a long ride today. There are few choices for hotels between Melaka and Port Dickson. From reading other journals we knew there is a dive hotel about 8 km on the road but we were hoping to find something further. Getting out of town was easy enough. We wanted to try taking a quieter road than highway 5 and turned off on highway 143. We only got a mile or so and we were stopped by a military road block. This road is closed. So back to highway 5 we went. Later after we stopped for lunch we asked about another road and were told that it is open but we would have to leave our passports. There was a military camp down this road and there are 3 in the area. We decided to stay on highway 5. The terrain became hillier than we have encountered. There were monkeys in the trees and lots of cows grazing on the side of the road. We stopped about every 10 miles for juice. Much of the scenery was gorgeous and lush with coconut and papaya orchards.
Because of the hills we weren't making the time we hoped for and around 4:30 we started asking about accommodation in the small towns. Some ladies selling durian fruit from a stall tried to describe a good place to stay. They kept talking about a sign with an eagle and a cowboy in very broken English. A cowboy? Another women insisted it was only 2 km down the road to the sign. We had no choice and started riding. We rode and rode and didn't see any eagles or cowboys and were pretty sure this was one of those weird biker/non-biker, English/non-English encounters. But then the sign appeared and it was huge. There was a cowboy with an eagle. There was also a large covered wagon on the side of the road. What did we stumble on?!? With great relief we pulled into the Eagle Ranch Resort. This place was unbelievable. Everything was American western. Just passed the entrance was a large circle of teepees. There were enormous covered wagon lodges and horses for rent.
We got checked into a log cabin next to the go-cart track for $80 which is the most we've paid for accommodation since Singapore. Ouch! The shower in the room was amazing. It was partially roofless and there was a waterfall - in the shower! It was already close to 6 pm and we were starving. The restaurant served western meals with a soundtrack of western music. The western meals were very expensive and we ordered local grub. The meal was still pricey especially compared to the street stall food we usually eat. Looking around all I could do is shake my head in disbelief. The decor was done up like a log cabin in dark wood with wooden busts of cowboys, cow horns and guns hanging from the walls. After dinner we walked around the grounds until the rains forced us in.
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