Election day back home. 

  The rally events for this stop are over.  Folks are on their own until the next event in Lumut on November 17th.  Until then cruisers will stay here, go to Singapore, do whatever until they leave to make their way from Johor north to Lumut.  Today Randal and I went into Johor Bahru so I could go to the Johor Art Gallery.  It was a pretty long and not cheap trip but I think it was worth it.  The museum is small but there were several paintings that I really liked.  Then we had to figure out how to get from the Art Gallery into central JB and luckily a taxi came along as we stood there dithering since it would have been a really long not pleasant walk.  We ate lunch and visited a book store.  I took a pass on the 40 ringgit hair cut since I’m just too spoiled with the 10 ringgit jobs.  The last time I spent 40 anything on my hair was in Philadelphia, PA and it was the worst hair cut ever, EVER!!!  And the 40 there were dollars but it was the only place we found in the time we had. 

We did one day of official touring with the rally here in Johor State.  I give the tour a 3 our of 10.  The other official events I missed because of my back.  Oh well.  But we like Johor a lot.   And the visit to the local Tuesday night market last night was lots of fun.

Tour Johor November 2, 2009   Part one

“Johor, the southernmost state of Peninsular Malaysia is made up of eight districts…It has a long coastline flanking the Straits of Malacca on its western seaboard and the South China Sea on the east. Its capital city, Johor Bahru is the main administrative center for the state government…”

It was a long day with too much of it spent on the bus, but my back did pretty okay even when we had to climb the 7 flights of stairs in the Sultan Ibrahim Building and walk the 653 meters to the southernmost tip of mainland Asia at Tanjung Piai National Park. We left the boat at 7 am and climbed back aboard at 6 pm. We visited the city of Johor Bahru and Tanjung Piai National Park. There were stops in between at a pineapple plantation museum, a small roadside fish cake/banana chips facility, and lunch at a local homestay. I wish that the tour had been divided into two days, one full day in Johor Bahru and one out in the country. Luckily Randal and I have been to Johor Bahru so I don’t feel as if we missed out.

First stop was Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque

Outside the mosque.

It took 8 years to build and was completed in 1900. Our guide said that the interior walls were painted with egg white mixed in with the plaster. And when questioned about it he repeated that it was really egg white on the walls and also that there were absolutely no cracks anywhere in the walls. I know egg tempera uses egg yolks as part of a painting medium, so maybe the egg white is used here somehow. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed inside. The outside was so colonial looking that I was really curious what the inside looked like. I asked why the mosque spire had no crescent and star. Answer, the “crescent and star” was the symbol for Islam and the mosque itself being a symbol of Islam, it didn’t need it. Almost all other mosques we have seen have had the crescent and star and we have had discussions as to which way the crescent opening faces.

It was a very pretty building overlooking the Singapore Strait separating Malaysia from Singapore.

Something about it reminded me of the really old Portuguese church that we had seen in Macao.

Next we went to the Sultan Ibrahim Building.

One of our three buses parked in front of the Sultan Ibrahim Building.

“A famous landmark in JB featuring local and colonial architecture, this building was once used as a fortress and command centre during the Second World War. Today, it houses the state secretariat and other offices of the state government. For visiting purposes kindly obtain prior permission from the security personnel on duty.” All that emphasis is from me. The last time we were in JB I tried to visit and the security personnel didn’t even let me get close. That time I had worn shin length pants and sleeves but no luck. This time I came prepared with long pants, socks, a shawl… but no need especially compared to what most of the other women were wearing. Most of the government offices have actually moved to a brand-new-still-partly-under-construction complex not far from where we are berthed at Puteri. Of the old building we only saw the lobby and the aging theater on the ground floor before we climbed the 7 flights to one of the top floors with a great view of JB, the Straits and Singapore. The building must have been very impressive in its bustling days but now reminded me of a cross between an old castle, the old New Bedford High School and the government building in Buffalo where we could at least take the elevator to the open viewing floor. You can’t tell from this photo but there was lovely landscaping. This is the building surrounded by the fence that I had tried to find an opening into and failed last visit. I had hacked my way through brush and over ditches only to find myself having to retrace my hot dirty way back around to where I had started. Then they wouldn’t let me in to the building. Fond memories. That was last trip. Helps to be on a tour sometimes.

View from the top. The building with the dome is in JB, Malaysia and the other buildings are in Singapore. It took us a half of a day to go from our boat at Puteri to our hotel in Little India. You can go from Roanoke to DC is almost the same amount of time but then you aren’t changing countries.

I’m standing with two of the building’s guides. I look like a giant! And except for the red bag I had bought in China I look rather bland compared to my two friends.

Great space and wonderful views.

There was nothing up there but an empty space with these wonderfully shaped openings and a great view. It was definitely worth the climb since “the aging lift” just couldn’t handle the load of getting over 100 huge western sized people up there. Several folks skipped the climb and walked off to find coffee and snacks. I wish we’d had time for both since lunch was a long way off.

After the Sultan building we headed out of JB into the countryside. Our next stop (and the next email): the Pineapple Museum.

I am going to send out an email showing our passage schedule from Johor to Langkawi.  Lumut, Panang, and Langkawi are official rally stops.  The rest are places we’ve chosen as we make our way to the official stops. 

Ru

DoraMac