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August 27, 2006

A Trip To Johor Bahru

I've not yet explored much of Singapore, but here I was already taking a tour of nearby Johor Bahru, the southern trip of Malaysia along with friends (Dennis, his wife and a sister-in-law).

A great Chinese cuisine
After Sunday mass, we first had lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant, West Lake. The black peppered crab was superb and the tiger prawns were nice and crunchy. The chicken nuggets and wings were tasty too (and now I begin to remember Jollibee Chickenjoy. Ah those were truly to die for).

Somewhat like Manila here in Malaysia
Off we went to Johor Bahru via bus from Bugis. During the trip, we had a chance to chat with fellow Filipino Ferdinand Marcos. No really, the guy's name is that of the late (infamous) ex-president Marcos. He told us he was going to process some documents in Malaysia and he just passed by here in Singapore (or so I could still remember).

Upon arrival, I took at once the bustling cityscape of Johor Bahru. Frankly, the place looks very similar to Manila, specifically in Chinatown, Manila.

Cityscapes in Johor Bahru
I took the shot above while we were about to cross the street to get to the Royal Museum. A local told us that it's a few walks from the immigration building we came from.

Roasted duck signboard
Here's something fascinating I took a picture of. A roasted duck signboard. I spotted this one far away while we're walking along sidewalks.

Malaysian flags
Some malaysian flags here.

Huge palace
We chanced upon this huge palace-like building. There was no guard in sight, but the gates were closed. We were thinking that, since it was a Sunday, everybody must be at home. Only a stray black cat greeted us when we arrived (the cat kept circling and pressing its furry body against my ankle; meanwhile my friend's wife kept shoving it away for she hated cats).

Stretch of highway
We finally decided to take a taxi drive to the Royal Museum. We had to change some Singapore dollars to Malaysian ringgits.

The Royal Museum
The Royal Museum. No pictures were allowed inside. We had to remove our shoes; we were given some plastic bags for our shoes. So we walked inside the museum either on foot (the women) and socks (us guys). Much of the relics inside were of the countless furnitures, kitchen items, weapons, jewelries of the sultan and his large royal family. One particular exhibition we were so fascinated with was that of the sultan's museum of hunted wildlife. You could say it's both an interesting and grotesque exhibition of stumps of elephant feet turned into umbrella cases, or unidentified animal skulls turned into amalgamated ashtrays, or numerous deer antlers turned into trophy displays and even hunted and killed water buffalos, tigers and crocodiles preserved for display.

Mini-Christmas trees?
These small trees lining a pathway remind me of little versions of Christmas trees bright with reddish leaves.

A large building with beautiful architecture
I like this building for its cultural architecture. We could see these from the large field of the Royal Museum. I don't know what this building's name is.

And now for some crazy and stupid moments...

Stupid crane kick
I was doing here a stupid rendition of the Karate Kid's crane kick in front of the Royal Museum, oblivious of the fact that some guards were already watching me and my friends.

I don't know what my friend was doing here
Here's my friend doing something I could not discern. I just suddenly spotted him posing for his wife (who earlier did a "Sound of Music" pose complete with wind-blown scarves) who's taking his picture. I just took a photo of him from afar, at a different angle.

3 comments:

rmacapobre said...

i see that the crescent is present in both the flags of singapore and malaysia. it was taken from the sassanid empire which used the same symbol to represent its power. then by coincidence (or not), in pre-islamic arabia, there was one of the gods worshipped named hubal. the moon god .. but today the crescent is identified with mostly the moslem culture. i thought singapore was a secular state. what is the sysmbol of islam doing in the flag of a secular state?

Sidney said...

Food and sights. The perfect trip! Nice pictures to go with your travel entry.

jio said...

For your question, Max.... I don't know. Hehehe. Who cares? I say, we've got a more well-designed flag.

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