Johor Bahru, Malaysia
This was day one of "the tour"...really. We finally packed our bikes and cycled out of SIngapore. The direct route was a 6 lane road through the city nation...quite busy, lots of construction, and us tootling along on the edge (there are no shoulders). It was very warm, very muggy, and we are not yet in shape, so we were slow. But then we're slow anyways...what's the rush?
"Love your bikes!"
"Where are you going?"
"We're cycling to Beijing!"
"Holy crap!!!"
We cut the day short and stopped in Johor Bahru. It was 2:30, I was overheated (oh, those hot flashes!) and a storm was on the horizon...so we found a cheap hotel ($35/night) and checked in. This place just opened, but the hotel is old with a new face. The staff is so cute and attentive. The told us to just keep our bikes outside in the entry way and the security guard would keep an eye on them. When we came down later for dinner, they had put plastic bags over the seats for us! Now that's customer service!!!
Ordering dinner is always an interesting process. Trying to recognize something on the menu. Trying to find vegetables...lots of them. We often get one of each and share dishes which expands our exposure. Here everything had noodles in it. But the best was the honey dew juice...yum!
I can't forget to mention an amazing couple of encounters. First, while touring the Gardens by the Bay - domed gardens, I ran into Catalina and Maria, the mother and daughter I spent the first night with at the airport. How incredible is that? In a city this size, what are the chances??? We maysee them in Kuala Lumpur too.
And yesterday we also had a hook-up...the touring definition...when a friend gives you a contact in a city you're traveling through. Sylvia has an older friend in Oregon that knows a young woman in SIngapore (internet conection over Jack Russels, no less). So we met up with Ching yesterday. She grew up in Kuala Lumpur and lives in Singapore now. She shared tons of info on traveling through Malaysia with us from getting hotspot SIM cards for wifi to eating breakfast...and I can't remember the dish name, but I took notes:-/
I left home with a list of foods to try in Singapore and Sylvia and I had done a good job of finding and eating most of them. Ching offered to take us out to a place to sample some more foods and then we could go over to the zoo for the Night Safari. Now, mind you, S and I had just finished a large lunch only an hour meeting up with Ching, so we weren't really hungry...yet. But not to miss an opportunity, off we went. Spring rolls, chicken rice, rojak (crispy fruit salad) and char kwai teow (a noodle dish). Really tasty even if you're not hungry. The skies opened up and that canceled the tour for us, but we had an adventure just finding our way back to the hotel using the subway and then walking down Orchard St where all the shopping is.
Ok...enough said, ...tomorrow's another day...
BagLady
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