Advertisement
Published: January 13th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Day 48: Kulai to Johor Baru
Today was the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, and all Muslim shops and restaurants were closed from dawn to dusk. We would have been in big trouble if we’d embarked on our trip a month later, as many times the only restaurant we came upon was a Muslim one. We were blessed to have timed our spur of the moment trip perfectly. Today was also a Monday holiday for yesterday’s Merdeka, or Malaysian Independence Day. So we woke up early, refreshed from our long night of sleep, and the streets were quiet and empty. A Chinese restaurant was open across the street though, and we enjoyed a calm and relaxing breakfast, eating delicious handmade wonton mee with sweet, strong coffee.
We watched the sky brighten, enjoyed the coolness at this early hour and set off leisurely for what we hoped would be an easy day after the previous day’s troubles. Around 11 we stopped for a second breakfast at an Indian restaurant, ordering delicious roti canai (the soft, flat bread with an egg cooked in), served accompanied by a platter of curries/sauces. (We had only just learned from Doris that
this whole month in Malaysia, when we ordered roti, we should have been served a platter of simple curries with it, traditionally on a banana leaf. It was apparently like serving ketchup with fries in the US. But nobody had ever done this for us. Doris was appalled to hear that and insisted we always demand it from now on. But this first experience after learning the truth, it was actually served to us!)
As we biked on the road got busier, turning in to a busy highway while the shoulder got smaller, until it was non-existent. It was stressful, a stress we really couldn’t take after the anxiety of the previous day. The stress came in vehicles driving fast inches away from us and in having to cross active vehicle lanes to avoid getting off at exits. For the first time, I gave a bus the middle finger, because it came so close to hitting me, making no effort to move over when it saw me riding on the side of the road. My misbehavior only got worse when I mouthed ‘F*** you’ to some undeserving patrons waiting for a bus, whose only fault had been not moving
out of my way. I told you I couldn’t handle any stress on this day. We made an effort to de-stress by stopping for ice tea, where I was able to relax by staring at a super fat Chinese baby and a very scared little mouse.
We continued biking and all of a sudden we saw Johor Baru Train Station and then Malaysian Customs. No warning. No signs. Just Bam! T-junction. Go left to go through customs, go right to go in to town. We knew Singapore would be expensive so we figured we’d spend another cheap night in Malaysia before departing for the new country early the next day. So, we took a right, and immediately entered a quiet zone, a world away from the craziness we’d just been in. Johor Baru was a big, modern city with dozens of sky rises and loads of shopping districts yet was somewhat peaceful.
We found a tiny cheap whorehouse-like place to stay in, with a very comfy bed. I got in to bed, in a terrible mood, to nap. I had just discovered fifteen massive bites on each of my hands, likely from my bad experience with the red ants. My hands were unbelievably itchy and I couldn’t stop myself from itching. J went off and found a map of Singapore, once again just in the nick of time.
Once I had rested, J and I discovered a fabulous and popular alley, crammed full of food stalls, just a few minutes away. We ate oyster omelettes, with fat and juicy oysters, noodles peppered with small, salty clams and popiaw, the Chinese moo-shi style wraps. Everything was delicious and each stall was mobbed, with at least a five minute wait. Shark fins and sting rays sat upon ice, ready to be ordered and cooked up. We sipped naturally sweet and scrumptious sugar cane juice. We didn’t see any Europeans or Americans but we did see some Singaporeans, looking terrified and gripping their purses. Apparently this city was known for its high crime rate.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.154s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0427s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb