Return to Mersing
After three idyllic days, reality beckoned. The ferry was to depart at
11:00 AM, but as fate would have it, we left much later. Upon
returning to Mersing, I spotted Ernest at the boat terminal—a
surprise that felt like my own twist of fate. He looked worn after a
month of travelling across Malaysia in dire straits, so I offered him a
place to stay.
I invited him to share my accommodations, providing a much-needed
shower and laundry facilities. I shared meals and gifted a rear tyre;
after learning he had been cycling on a tyre sewn with fishing line.
There’s something about a heart-wrenching story that pulls at my
soul, and I couldn’t let a fellow traveller struggle alone.