Walkway

And still another cell pic from my late-night walk in Johor Bahru.

Restoran

Another late-night cell pic from last week in Johor Bahru.

Isotonik

Cell pic, taken late at night on the way back to my hotel last week in Johor Bahru.

Still Lucky

So I decided to go out and get those beers I was talking about in the previous post. Really, it only took me about 20 minutes, but it was time well spent (least not for the fact that I got more beer).

Wandering from one's hotel after midnight in a foreign country is always an adventure (note: Canada/USA excursions only count in very special circumstances--ones that I've never personally experienced and therefore doubt the existence of...). I wasn't 30 seconds from my hotel when I observed some police (or so I assumed) giving some whistles of appreciation to a young woman walking down the street just in front of me. It was a bit surprising to me that, what had been a hive of activity a few hours earlier was now pretty much a dark and deserted place. The police didn't do anything but whistle from across the street.

Not much else happened on my way to the 7/11. Inside the shop I picked up some beer and potato chips and placed them on the counter. The young woman working the cash rang in my purchases and then pointed to some sort of snack food on display on the counter. "Buy 2 of these and get 1 free [something]," I gathered from the signage and her talking. Feeling generous in that half-drunk kind of way, and knowing that it wasn't really going to cost much, I said "OK!" I pay for my purchases, and the young woman puts them in a bag. She passes me the bag and then beckons me to follow her. "Ah," I think to myself. "I'm going to get my 'free' stuff." She walks out from behind the counter over to a soft drink fountain. She gestures, asking me what soft drink I prefer. I've got a sack of beer in hand, so soft drinks are not really on my agenda. She's nice, though, and I don't want to seem rude or ungrateful. I scan the selection and say, "how about a 7-Up?" She seems pleased by my selection, and proceeds to pour me my drink, put a cover on it, and place a straw into the top. She hands me the drink. I thank her, and I'm off.

Now I'm walking down the street, sack of beer and snacks in one hand, and cup of 7-Up in the other. I hate to waste a free drink, so I'm taking the occasional sip. All of the other shops are closed and there's only darkness in the doorways as I walk. It's like this for a couple of minutes--darkened doorways, windows, darkened doorways, windows, darkened doorways, windows...

Then I see a pair of feet. The feet begin to step out from the darkness and I begin to see a pair of long-looking, dark legs. As the legs come out from the darkness I also see a white skirt.

I'm still walking. It only took a few seconds.

As the legs and skirt emerged from the darkness, so did a hand. The hand slid down the right leg and then hiked up the skirt. A voice said, "hey, baby."

I'd already walked past...

Lucky

My work buddy and I gave our presentation today here in Johor Bahru. It went pretty smoothly and several people spoke to us about it when we were finished.

We took a cab to a different part of town and went to a Thai restaurant where we had a very good meal. One dish, a soup, was really fucking spicy--I mean burn your heart and lungs out spicy. I had two bowls, mainly because I'm an idiot, but also because it was really quite tasty. (If that makes no sense to you, well, maybe you should get out a bit more...)

Right now I'm sitting in my hotel room drinking beer that I purchased at a 7/11 down the street from the hotel. I'm listening to Social Distortion on my PC and posting to this blog. As I'm pondering whether or not to venture out to get a few more beers, it occurs to me that I'm one lucky bastard. Or privileged. Same thing, really.

Qiblat

On the ceiling of my hotel room:


I've always understood the idea, of course. Now I know the word for it.

Sikh Temple

A few minutes walk from the hotel. Click to enlarge if you want a better idea of the detail.

Johor Bahru: The View from My (Dirty) Hotel Room Window

I can tell already that the next few days are going to be different from my brief experience in Singapore. A couple of minutes walk in any direction from the hotel takes me to another world. The faces of the people, the clothes they wear, the sights, sounds, and smells... Wow.

It's hot and humid here. That, coupled with the food I've been eating (very spicy!), gets me to working up a serious sweat. It doesn't feel bad at all, although I'm glad I brought a few changes of clothes. Had dinner this evening in a dumpy little Indian restaurant. The guy serving us had just enough English to be helpful (and he was also quite friendly). Since there was no way we could have ordered from the menu, he just gave us plates and invited us to go behind the counter and help ourselves to whatever looked good to us. It was all good.

I think, now, I'm really in Asia.

More later... (Cell phone pic.)

WTF!?

Damn, these Malaysians sure know how to make a Canadian boy feel at home! I arrived in Johor Bahru to find this in the lobby of my hotel:


The real story.