9 April 2011
Malaysia
Today I went to Johor Bahru, which is the Malaysian frontier town just north of Singapore.
Getting there is amazingly cheap, but time consuming, a bus ticket costs about $3, but you normally have to change busses twice, once from Singapore into frontier zone, and again frontier zone into Malaysia.
Today however, I got an extra special 3rd bus change, because my bus broke down on the highway in the middle of nowhere!
It seems every single bus I have been on is stuffed in some way. The engine stalled a number of times and he was always able to get it going again, one time going around a corner was pretty funny because it was evident to me that busses rely on power steering!
The border control stations are huge and quite impressive, if you are taking your own car you dont have to get out but they make coach passengers get out and change busses as I mentioned.
Its hard to work out how this can be so cheap, the return trip was about $1 as you pay in Malaysian Ringgits.
Unfortunately, the bus station in Malaysia, is nowhere near anything at all. This I find perplexing. As soon as I get off I have 25 new friends offering to take me to Singapore, Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, and also we play the guessing game of where I am from. Best way to dismiss these guys is to speak in a made up language and look confused, I go with 'Nada fa ta misu, chock chock!'
The chock chock had the desired effect and they disappeared.
So I wandered around the vicinity which is a market for fresh foods and burkas (Malaysia is a muslim country), complete with a mosque, its an outdoor market, basically a big shed with no sides, but they still managed to have a mcdonalds.
I found an ATM and took out the equivalent of $30, the smallest amount it would let me take out, and headed for the regular taxi line.
All of these taxis have written on them, all over them, 'Meter taxi, do not accept fixed price fare, no haggling, running off meter is illegal' etc.
Do you think this made a difference to the drivers? All of them are quoting me fixed prices to go places I dont know about, so I explained that I dont know where I want to go! So we best find a driver prepared to turn the meter on and follow my directions. There was a great deal of grumbling and eventually an old guy accepted the challenge.
I told him I was here for the day, turn the meter on lets head that way, I want somewhere air conditioned where I can find lunch.
Eventually I spotted a giant shopping centre (Johor Bahru basically exists for Singaporeans to do their grocery shopping for half price), and told the driver to head there.
The fare came to about $3, I paid him the equivalent of $5 and he seemed super excited!
This behaviour was repeated on the return trip, even though I knew where I was going, I decided to play the game again, cause its fun!
Now onto the pictures.
Bus #1, it was very uncomfortable, and struggled to get into gear, the chassis sounded like it was in the process of snapping, multiple times.
Sure enough, it suffered a terminal explosion eventually, after dying twice and encountering a brief ressurection.
Whilst waiting for the replacement bus, I spotted this. I did a detailed inspection and logged the condition, location etc.
Now the tax man can pay for my holiday.
Replacement bus, also of poor condition!
Inside the Malaysian side of the frontier zone, they had a lot less armed police looking to beat anyone with a camera than the Singapore side.
They did however have a long scrolling list of prohibited imports, which included photos of the queen of England?
This is where you get dropped off. It was hot as hell, much hotter than any other day so far.
This is whats nearby, I dont think setting off for a walk in that directon will get me anywhere.
Inside the market at the bus station is not much better, nothing at all to look at except burkas.
Riding in a taxi, the seat doesnt go back, my knees are around my ears, and the air conditioner is louder than a chainsaw.
Inside the giant mall, its the worlds biggest supermarket, very good quality, and full of people from Singapore, it really is half the price here for everything. Families had things like a years supply of toilet paper and washing detergent.
I had to spend my $30 somehow, so I picked the most expensive lunch I could find, a gourmet chicken salad at Kenny Rogers Roasters Chicken, as featured on an epsisode of Seinfeld. They only have this in Malaysia, I remember from when I was here in 2005.
It turns out I couldnt spend all my money, I still have about $10 left over despite stocking up on junk food at a 711 and tipping every taxi driver.
This cat was enjoying the inside of the mega mall, the tiles were cool I guess.
Back at the bus terminal, I did find a huge food court on the roof, it was linked by a stair case only which I had missed earlier.
Also found this market for the locals, it was pretty dirty and smelt bad. Like rotting vegetables.
Singapore takes their border security seriously, this is the control point for people coming from Malaysia, its enormous.