Johore Bahru, Malaysia
Sunday, September 3, 2006
Our last tour and last day in
Singapore. We had booked into a 1/2 day tour to Malaysia. We were in for a long wait at the Customs & Immigration department, hopping on & off the bus and going through counters & x-ray machines like at the airport - scarey when you see the staff carrying guns too! Malaysia is definitely the poorer country, the official buildings (like Customs etc) were dirty and unkempt - the toilets were pretty yuck to, but they could have been a lot worse. We got a Malaysian tour guide called 'V.J', she said her name was too long to pronounce. She was a lovely, hard-case lady and made us laugh a lot. The first place we visited was very touristy - a place that makes pewter items. We first watched a lady & man (the man looked like a woman - a 'Ladyboy' my Thai sister-in-laws would say) in traditional garb, doing a traditional wedding dance. We got to look through a reproduction of a country style Malaysian house and on to watch a pewter making demonstration
. Things in the gift shop were quite expensive so we went outside and found some more souvenirs sold at a mini market there. Once again we were off and we stopped in at a Batik craft centre. It was fascinating watching the artesians applying the wax to the stretched fabric. While we were there we were treated to some traditional Malaysian music played on some sort of wooden chime instruments and also a xylophone type thing. From there I bought a piece of batik with a flower & 'Malaysia' waxed on it - used for a wall hanging. Next we went to Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque where Fred bought a $7 'Rolex' (yeah, right) watch from a hawker. On the way back we paused to look at a Muslim cemetery (didn't get out of the bus). We came back through Imigration & Customs a lot quicker. There were a couple of beggars outside the Malaysian side, but not the
Singapore side - instead there were 2 guys in army fatigues with huge rifles!
We got the bus driver to drop us off in Orchard road and headed back to 'Lucky Plaza' for lunch. I had this fried pork dish on noodles with bok-choy, quick nice & only $4 ish. Fred & I went our own separate ways for a shopping bonanza! It was dark by the time we finished shopping and we decided to walk back to our hotel room again - sore feet again by this time! On the way we spotted four little wild kittens hiding in a storm drain.
