And now, a quaint look at Johor Bahru!

Yep! As the title says, after doing the last posting called A quaint look at the town of Pontian , let's see the bustling city of Johor Bahru from the slightly uncommon eye and perspective, perhaps with a tinge of art and nostalgia... Perhaps...

Good lord... Having had a quick look at the previous article, now only do I realise that I started this article with almost the same wordings... Unintentionally though... I just followed what came out from my thoughts, spontanously that is...

OK... To be frank, you could say I'm writing this article just for the heck of it. There's no serious reflection involved or is it? Don't let those simple facade and way of story-telling fool you...

On thing's for sure... I feel the need to let go of the story of my recent Johor travel covering the state's main 8 districts of Muar, Batu Pahat, Pontian, Johor Bahru, Kota Tinggi, Mersing, Kluang and Segamat... And Tangkak @ Ledang if you count it as a separate individual district... I still consider it as part of Muar but people say, it has now been officially announced as a separate district although I have yet to see it pointed that way in the maps currently available...

Anyway, after pitching some stories in my blogspots (remember, I have three including this one), it is now the turn of Johor Bahru to feature in the spotlights. So I've decided to split a set of pictures, one for the blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU and another for this.

But I've decided to write this article first... So to stick with the title, a quaint look at Johor Bahru, let's have a look at the above picture. Bear in the mind, it is taken right in the middle of the city next to the bustling Jalan Wong Ah Fook... Hmm... If I could describe the place in my own words, I'd say it is in JB's very own little India.

While walking around, I saw this old red building and plenty of pigeons... Somehow it touched an artistic string in me...

On the opposite side, lies this walk, across Jalan Wong Ah Fook that is... I think it's called Persiaran Meldrum or the Meldrum Walk...

Actually I was walking around looking for a cheap hotel to lodge at. While walking along Meldrum Walk, I saw a certain hotel by the name (if memory serves me right) Hong Kong Hotel! And somehow, my heart says just check in there...

It is not as cheap as I thought it would be. I had to pay RM38 for a small room with only a window overlooking the inside making me felt rather cooped in. The only consolation is the toilet is inside... I mean some hotels offer cheap rooms but you have to share the toilet outside. That should accomodate my stomach which has a habit of wanting to pass down some 'goods' quite often...

Earlier, I did approach another hotel which looks much smaller, one made from pre-war building which is my favourite type. Too bad it was fully booked. Otherwise I could have gotten a room for about RM20 plus a day.

Anyway, I can't expect to get cheap rooms easy in Johor Bahru or JB as it is fondly known. After all, it is a bustling city very close to Singapore where people come in with currency more than twice the value of the Malaysian Ringgit.

For Singaporeans, it is very cheap to shop in Malaysia particularly JB. For the people here, that made the prices of goods and services go up and thus some say the cost of living in JB is much more than that of the bigger and more metropolitan Kuala Lumpur (although JB folks like to think otherwise, that is their city is bigger and more metropolitan...)....

Oh... I was too engrossed in letting out my thoughts... Forgot to tell, the picture above was taken from the area behind my hotel room looking down at the street walk....

And this is the view from inside a Mamak (Northern Indian) restaurant just outside and across my hotel. After I'm done settling down at the room, it's time to fill the empty stomach...

Then it's time to explore more of mid JB...

Here's a look at the city's tallest buildings... Should be around 40 floors or so...

I stopped by at a small street foodstall... There's something endearing about this old man slicing bananas to be fried to make Pisang Goreng (friend bananas)... The view was made more quaint when contrasted against the background, that is the big blue billboard behind...

I shifted focus on the board. At the same time, another elderly man was walking around, a frail old man who looks like he is dragging himself to get across...

Contrast that against the words on the billboard.... "Dengan Celcom anda berkuasa", literally translated as "with Celcom you have power"... Really? Would the frail old man be able to walk faster and stronger if he subscribes to Celcom? Hmm...

And finally an angle looking down the bustling street of Jalan Wong Ah Fook... In the horizon are the flats in the state of Singapore just across the Straits of Johor. Quite a contrast isn't it to the pictures shown before? That's all ya... :]