Johor Bahru

Yesterday Lex and I went to Malaysia. It is only a 30 minute bus ride (and $2-3 fare) to get to the northern shore of Singapore and cross the bridge to Johor Baru, 'the southernmost city of the Eurasian mainland'.

On this map you can see Singapore in the lower center, just off the tip of peninsular Malaysia. Johor Baru is not shown on the map but it is a big city, Malaysia's second largest with nearly 2 million in the metropolitan area.

The difference in the two cities is not quite as severe as San Diego and Tijuana but does have those contrasts. Malaysia is more 'wild West' while Singapore is much more controlled, manicured, polished and efficient.

We arrived at the modern bus terminal, walked out and encountered Southeast asia: muggy heat (no surprise there) traffic, broken streets, some litter, shabbiness. Singapore, by contrast, is like tidy, organized Europe, inside a sauna.

The residents of JB are about 44% Malay, 42% Chinese, 9% Indian and the rest, other minorities. Everyone we met was very friendly. After about 15 minutes of wandering, we entered a small Chinese temple and were graciously encouraged to enter. It was pretty basic, but had the incense stand at the entrance and a half-dozen or so people walking in for a few minutes to pray. We went inside to sit and take in the peace and quiet a while.

Across the street, and half a block down, was a Sikh temple where we were again invited in by the guy at the door who gave us a guided tour (in his very basic English) of this 2 storey building. Downstairs just inside, it looked like a huge dining hall with a large kitchen off to one side. Upstairs was the prayer room -large, open, carpeted, with an altar at the center rear. Again, a half-dozen men or women were entering and praying for a few minutes as we walked around with our guide. Back downstairs in the dining hall, he offered us a meal or tea. Since it was still morning (11am) we decided to accept only the tea and he brought us some delicious sweet milk tea.

Here is the kitchen.

It was explained to us that Sikhs never turn anyone away who is thirsty or hungry. No matter what race sex or religion, all are equal in God's eyes and share the same rights.
We really enjoyed what we saw and learned here at this temple.

Around the corner, another temple this time, Hindu!

Oh, the colorful images here are each crazier than the next:

           

We sat inside to enjoy the cool shade and breezy marble floor. After about 5 minutes, a ceremony began with LOUD bells and drums and a clarinet-like instrument. Half a dozen people were following priests around as they lay brilliant flower wreaths and ghee-butter lamps on and in front of several colorful gods. We didn't take photos of this but here is the main part of the temple where it took place:

After leaving this temple we wandered down toward a tree-lined street that looked like it was going to be pleasant to walk on. We were hoping to go and visit the main history museum of the area, when we were approached by a middle-aged man who started giving us directions and advice on how to visit the city. He walked us to the water's edge, were we could look back to see a panoramic view of Singapore  and told us that to see the sights we wanted to see, we would have to hire a taxi who spoke English. He hailed us a taxi, and, well, he had a few hours to spare, decided to go along with us to guide the taxi to the various interesting places of the city. This gentleman was very interesting, and he did take us to see various sights, including this mosque/tomb of the Sultans:

By the way, Sultans still 'rule' here in the different states of Malyasia. Nine Sultans take turns to become  King of Malaysia for 5 years. They are just figureheads, like the queen of England, and there is a parliamentary system, but they live lavish and some say debauched lifestyles paid for by the government. 

We also stopped at a fabulous outdoor lunch buffet.

Well, after about 2.5 hours of a whirlwind tour .... and this guy was truly hyper, we were taken back to the bus depot and told to pay the taxi $175! Whoa, no way did we bring along that much with us, and it was a shock that this would be so costly. We paid what we had, $100, keeping only $6 with us so we could get back to Singapore. We hadn't even brought our ATM cards because of the pickpocket warnings. As we left our guide and the taxi, it slowly dawned on us that we might have been scammed. Ok, we were scammed. Bill later did the math looking up the taxi fares and we probably should have only had to pay $70. Luckily we hadn't brought a penny more.

Never mind, it had been a great day and we topped it off with a rousing 90 minute game of tennis at our courts. Tennis in Singapore, it's like playing in a sauna.