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JB Malaysia (Johor Bahru)

Batam, Indonesia, Barelang Bridge
Malaysia

While beeing in Singapore we also took the chance to visit another country, Malaysia which is just a 500 m connecting street/Train dam (the Causeway) away. We looked for a guided day tour to the city Johor Bahru but found nothing worth the price so we went alone by public bus and Sheila mastered the border formalities with her usual confident appearance.

We entered the express bus to Malaysia in Singapore at Queens Street bus station.

 

We came through big, high Immigration halls in both countries and had to wait in line for  mayby 45 min but enjoyed the procedure. We looked around us and found ourselves being the only Europeans in the big hall with maybe 700 people. Of course Sheila on her quest for Blackforest Cake had to be treated to a piece in JB which was easy to find. Entering JB I tried to get a taxi but being warned before that it might end in a rip off. I planned to get a voucher at the little office at the Taxi stand with many waiting taxis but some hawker immediatly tried to make a special deal. The situation became intransparent so I renounced and decided to rely on my feet. At first I walk into the wrong direction but soon noticed I am on the wrong side of the train tracks. So I returned, took an escalator into the car park house of the Train station and found a way over the tracks and into a shopping mall.

I was in Malaysia  before but did not take any good pictures of Sheila there, so that was the main reason to go there again.

I visited the Hindu temple and as I entered after taking off my shoes and socks and washing my feet found out, that a ceremony was going on. A band was playing ceremonial music and the priest and the believers held their hand in the flames of a fire for a short time. To avoid to disturb the ceremony I left soon. On our following walk  down to the sea we past a palace and a mosque and enjoyed the promenade along the sea and some official looking buildings. I had a small talk with a local man who had asked me if I am from the USA and who said, Donald Trump is a good man, well I had a different opinion. I canceled my first attempt to change money at  the first exchange bureau at the teain station as they required a minimum amount of 100 EUR but found another one further away from the exit of the Immigration complex.

We even dared to take a Malaysian bus back to the central Station for which I payed cash.

 

As prices are low in Malaysia I tried to buy myselve a body glothe for my time in the Marina Bay Sands rooftop pool to protect me from the equatorial sun but guess what, they did not have anything my size. Sheila and I shared a Fish and Chips lunch in the big mall. On the way out we saw a Blackforest Cake and we decided to return later.

To finish the trip Sheila got her cake which did not contain alcohol as expected.

Credit: Maps Icons Collection, https://mapicons.mapsmarker.com

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Batam, Indonesia, Barelang Bridge
Malaysia