Adventures & Misadventures Abroad

4/2 Chines Landing Spot

Henry - our Chinese guide took us to the spot were the first Chinese immigrant landed and where he built a temple. No one else seems to acknowledge this spot - but it was very important to him.

Henry took us to this place - I forgot about the change of temperature in the van and outside - so fog happened.

This was the ceiling on our way into the building. There is a very small temple here.

The alter piece.

Same chinese lanterns above us.

This looks very Dutch to me.

Building accross the way. I have seen a lot of tin - roofs and siding on buildings. Tin was one of the things produced in this area for awhile.

Inside this building is an alter to the first Chinese immigrant.

Then we drove to the river where the first Chinese immigrant landed. There is no signage at all. But important to our guide.

It is actually quite dirty and smelly.

But amidst the trash I find beauty.

4/2 Tour with Guide and Car and Driver

Michael has arranged for a guide to take us to places further afield. The Guide will find a car with a driver that will hold 8 people. The van we got was more than large enough for us all. So we were able to spread out.

Our guide who wanted us to call him Henry - was Chinese so you can understand when I tell you that he wanted to honor his Chinese ancestors and their influence on Malaysia. So you will not be surprised to know that the first place he took us to was the place where the first Chinese immigrant landed in JB. Not the most beautiful place and not developed at all.

We also saw the new location of all of the Johor Bahru government buildings - all by themselves way out of the city on beautiful grounds, We also saw a mangrove forest, houses on stilts in a fishing village and a new Chinese housing development called Forest City.

We left our apartment complex around 9am and spent most of the day touring and getting back around 6 - 7pm very hungry. And did I mention exhausted - not just Michael and me - but even the girls. They wanted to rest before we went out to dinner. I just wanted to get it over with so I could collapse.

We rested for about 40 minutes then met up in the meeting area to walk to the restaurant/mall area. People wanted to try the restaurants outside of the Mall - they would be cheaper, but also had no air conditioning.

We were beyond tired and everyone had different ideas of what they wanted - in the end no one could make a decision. I had wanted Indian food - but turns out the only local place that serves Indian food - serves it buffet style. I don't like that at all as the food has usually been sitting out for a long time. And I hadn't seen many Indian people around so - No! But we ended up there as they had lots of other things. I ordered a poached fish. Which was very late in arriving. So I ate from other people's dishes and was surprised when it actually arrived. It was pretty good - but not much meat - lots of bones and no plate.

We went back to our separate apartments to collapse. No playing Gartic Phone as we did last night as all were too tired. Should mention that the Heald's love to play Gartic Phone as do we. We have not been able to entice any other family member to play. So it will remain our thing. You need a phone or computer. Someone - usually Lia as she was the first to discover it - sends out an invite. We all join, chose our name and then there is a choice of type of game. The basic is - Every one writes a sentence. The next person gets the sentence and has to draw what that means. The next person gets the drawing and has to write a sentence about it etc. It can be pretty funny. There are other variations as well.

End of a good day. Tomorrow A&R and family go to Singapore were they will be joined by Lisa and Tim and Nicholas for two days before they go back to Sweden. We have opted to not go to Singapore. We need a major rest from family and doing stuff! And the sisters and family need some time to bond.

The next 4-5 posts will be about what we saw on the tour with Henry on April 2.

4/1 Komtar JBCC all in City Center - Mostly Foodie Post

Yes, we finally did find something to eat! We found a place called the Ramen Stall. It had a lot of different kinds of food.

Alexis' looking very excited about her beef wrapped mushrooms.

Many did get Ramen.

I think this was Rob's.

My dish has rice on the bottom, lots of scrambled eggs in the middle and topped by crispy fried chicken wedges. It was great - but way too much food. Luckily I had many helpers to finish it.

Photos at the mall.

A bakery to buy cakes from. We were looking for a birthday cake. We decided to wait till we were home so we wouldn't have to worry about carrying it so far.

Michael and I did some shopping later. Rob and Lia needed to return some items in the mall next door - I think this is that mall. Notice the top two floors are not open. This seems to be a theme here. Chinese investors build like they would build in China - but this is Malaysia and there are not near as many people. That is why the mall near our apartment has escalators to nowhere. The building is 5 stories high, but only the first floor is occupied. I did not buy anything here.

When we got back to our neighborhood. We all went shopping at the local mall. We got a few groceries from the Aon grocery store and found this cake at a bakery. A quick rant on Malaysia chocolate tastes. According to AI - they love chocolate. But just a watered down version. Most of the candy bars at the grocery stores are milk chocolate. This cake looks beautiful, but it did not taste very chocolaty. If it had been a blind taste test I am not sure that I would have guessed the flavor was chocolate. The birthdays we are celebrating are - Natasha who turns 12 on April 13 and myself whose birthday is on April 22 - age unknown!

4/1 Kota Jail

The Kota Jail or as it was originally known Ayer Molek Prison, was built in 1883. It is no longer in use and is slowly being converted to a eating/shopping mall. It was advertised as being up and coming, however we found it mostly abandoned. We appeared to be the only ones there besides staff. We had hoped to have lunch here.

This was the ticket office - you could take a tour of the jail grounds except the tours didn't start until much later at 1pm. We could walk around ourselves. So we did.

A few places look like they have been rehabed.

I made use of these mirrors to catch reflections.

I find abandoned buildings like these fascinating and interesting photo subjects.

A tree growing out of the second story.

There was a cafe near here - but closed now.

You could not go beyond these steps with out a tour guide.

Lots of places to renovate - probably cheap to rent too!

Hopefully after 1pm when tourists can take a tour this flower shop has more business.

Waiting for a grab to take us some place where there is actually food available!

4/1 Arulimigu Sri Rajakaliamman or the Glass Temple

We took a grab to get to this location. I was expecting plain glass like in windows. But this was what we saw. I guess if I had gotten what I expected it would have been very hot! Even still - with some fans it was quite warm inside.

This is what we saw from the outside. It looks like a small Hindu temple.

I have not seen a ticket pricing like this. Special rates if you are Hindu or if you are a foreigner - you pay more.

There claim to fame is that they were the first glass temple to be built.

Can you see the photographer in this photo.

These figures used to all be gold! Looks like they tried to modernize them.

All around the building were statues of humans that the Hindu's consider to be of divine incarnation.

This priest came up to me and asked who the two young girls with me were. I explained that they were my granddaughters and that I had three daughters. He said I was very lucky. I think he was referring to the belief that some Hindu's hold: