7/01
Today we boarded the plane to Singapore with Bici professionally boxed under the reproachful eyes of Garuda Airline staff: "should have gone cargo". When we landed at 6:30 pm, we rebuilt Bici and looked for transport into the city and our hotel. The train system would not allow the bike and there was no alternative system to drive us, but according to a delightful man at the tourist information we should ride the expressway and it is free, lit all the way, with a shoulder and safe. I would never have believed we would enter such a big city in the dark by bike, but we did and arrived exhilarated! Singapore is clean, safe, and gorgeous in the dark. With temperatures well into the 80's and we wet from our 20km ride into town, a bar and a beer were in order. In little India people are our walking, talking, riding, shopping. We met a young lady who was riding a funny bike as part of a cycling circus troop on a long tour coming across Russia, China, and Southeast Asia to arrive here. Our bike garnered all sorts of interest and invitations to stay in Bangladesh and South Africa - all this in less than four hours. I can't wait to see Singapore in the daylight!
1. Girl on big bike
2. Preparing temple offerings
3. Buddist temple details |
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7/4
Last night we spent wandering for food and ended up in Chinatown. Amid a festive night market, we enjoyed sausages from Austrian street vendor Erich at his Wuerstelstand. We learned from Erich that we were 128km north of the equator, so now our seasons match the US again.
Today is Independence Day for US citizens. Singapore is an interesting place to celebrate this day because freedom of religion is alive and well here. Singapore is one of the wealthiest per capita countries in the world and the numbers of shops, restaurants, galleries, and financial institutions attest to that. In 30 years this city transformed itself, through strict laws and rules, cleaning its rivers and harbors and building modern transport corridors between modernized housing and tourist facilities. Locals that remember the old Singapore feel it is too sanitized today, but as we drink the tap water, ride our bike among courteous buses and newer cars without pollution issues, visit world-class museums and eat foods from every culture at thousands of restaurants, street stalls and mall food courts, we relish this modernization. Every area that is not paved in wandering bricks or stones is landscaped and groomed. Orchids are often one of the favorite landscape flowers, the national flower of Singapore. Most things here are first class, safe and clean! And most people speak English, some with heavy accents, but English just the same. As a center for Asian exports, Singapore attracts foreign businesses and people from worldwide. A very exciting city state.
7/5
After a leisurely breakfast we rode through Singapore, over the causeway and entered Malaysia in the steamy rain. Customs was simple. At lunch we asked some locals about hotel possibilities in some of the smaller towns along the west coast towards Melaka and learned that our Rough Guide was correct in listing no decent accommodations until Batu Puhat some 100kms. north. So we turned back into Johor Bahru to stay in a nice place we spotted: the Straits View Hotel. We were unable to wash or get laundry done in Singapore, so we did our own today.
Malaysia is already interesting as we pass gorgeous big mosques, a palace of one of the nine Malaya Sultans, lovely gardens and beautifully dressed Muslim women in their colorful, silken saris. After several days of am to pm sight seeing, we both welcomed a rest this afternoon. Room rates in Singapore for a tiny room: $80US; a big room across the river in Malaysia $30US. Both are equipped with A/C, hot water, comfortable beads including breakfast. Meals will be correspondingly different, too! A nice dinner with a drink each was about $80US last night in Singapore (although there were many less expensive options, none cheap); tonight a lovely dinner in a superb restaurant cost about $20 with drinks. Another reason we will enjoy Malaysia!
7/6
Out of Johor Behru we got lost in Malaysia. The signage was difficult or the map was not correct and with all the construction we found ourselves at one point riding against traffic on an expressway! At 1:30 and 60kms, so hot (90's in the shade and 90% humidity) that the sun fried Judee's bike computer so that it read 8888 - we stopped for lunch and realized the next potential hotel was 70km's north. So we checked into the Hotel Pontion to cool down, re-hydrate and nap. We are going to take it easy in this tropical heat. Thank goodness this wonderful hotel was here - not in the guidebook, though!
7/7
Today was a gift. We awoke to a cooling rain that let up by the time we finished a buffet breakfast with an enormous selection of foods. The clouds covered us all day and at times we had a slight tail wind. We are getting use to Malaysia. The roads are wide, often with a dedicated shoulder for motorbikes and the traffic is cautious of us, plus we are greeted with constant thumps up, big smiles and laughter. The Malaysians are a warm and kind people. We quit today in a riverside town, Batu Pahat, with plenty of energy for a couple more hours on the bike, but the next town was 60kms, 3 to 4 hours for us. Tomorrow we hope for another cool, cloud cover day!
1.Chinese cemetary
2. Muslim cemetary
3.Sign for prayer room
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We are often asked why a tandem bike (as opposed to a car, motorcycle or even two bikes). As we passed over a small river, both of us caught a glimpse of a huge monitor lizard adrift in the water. Art went back to photograph him, but he submerged his 4-5' body. Art also sees snakes, but doesn't tell me until we are well past. Today he saw a 6' black and white snake and a Cobra, both dead - thankfully. There are over 100 snake species in Malaysia plus countless other reptiles, many poisonous.
We are learning about local and religious customs so we don't offend these gentle Muslim folks. We don't touch people with the left hand (used for toileting) or on the top of the head (spiritual center), and Art will try to discern where he whizzes and not pee in the ceremonial basin, like he did yesterday at the gas station. The prayer rugs should have been a sign he was in the wrong room?!
Cemeteries have always held an interest for us, seeing how different cultures treat their dead. Here we have seen Muslim cemeteries with head stones for a person, close together (head and foot? toward Mecca); Chinese burial plots like the one we saw in Lombok, a mound of land held back by a semi-circle of concrete embellished with designs and personage designations; and lastly, Christian sites with the familiar cross and parting messages. Cultures, here, do not clash, but honor and respect each others differences.
7/8
Riding to Melaka, the birthplace of Malaysia, was a treat! The architecture was so distinctive! We passed old traditional longhouses (we learned the long, thin house was to avoid high taxes); new, snazzy wealthy homes; and middle-class moderate stucco houses. We stopped to photograph a lane that followed one of the frequent irrigation ditches along the palm oil groves, when above me I heard crashing sounds in the trees and there appeared a troop of eight to twelve monkeys! WOW!
The roadside vendors are selling many unusual fruits, among them the durian. Art was told by a Kuala Lumpur couple at breakfast that we must try them since this is the fruit season. Behind our hotel, we came upon a large family sharing durians (not allowed in the hotel) and we joined them. One needs to understand that this fruit STINKS! It smells so bad, we thought we were passing garbage dumps on the road until we identified the actual source of the putrid smell. So, here we are eating the custard-like sweet and sometimes bitter-sweet meat off the huge stone pits inside. It isn't bad like the smell but the flavor stays in one's mouth for a long while after eating. Perhaps, it is an acquired taste, like avocados or oysters?
Two houses and a mosque |
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Art is resting on the bed, looking at the ceiling as I write and sees the familiar arrow. We laughed at reasons for this queer practice - until now! Of course, it is the direction of Mecca. So many new things to see and learn!
7/10
Our time spent in Melaka has been fun, interesting and intense. Many museums and old buildings dating from occupation of first a Hindu Prince from Sumatra in 1300's; followed by Chinese settlers and then Islam traders in the 1400's; Portuguese occupation in the 1500's; Dutch in the 1600's; the British in the 1800's; with a brief Japanese invasion during WWII and then Independence in 1957. Many religions have erected churches, Cathedrals, temples, shrines, and mosques here, but the most interesting and inviting are the Chinese temples that blend Hindu, Buddhism, and Taoism. We are also enjoying the decidedly Malaysian architectural styles of the traditional houses: each ethnic, regional or merchant group employing distinctive design features.
1. Chinatown entrance
2. Chinese temple detail
3. Chinese shoes for "bound feet" |
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We did a bit of window shopping in fancy modern malls and tiny outdoor stalls. We try to take photographs, but the camera is having difficulty between a/c and the humidity, fogging up and taking blurry pictures. After a full day of wandering, we had a few things still left we wanted to see and do, so we are going to stay an extra day.
1. & 2 Baba & Nonya houses on Millionaires row
3. temple doors |
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