A flash back from our arrival in Johor Bahru - Malaysia, the second country as we sailed west through Asia, just over a year ago.
So many milestone events had occurred in the last week, we had crossed the equator for the first time in a sailing boat, visited our last Indonesian city and were now sailing away from Indonesia for the short 30nm crossing of the Singapore Strait to arrive in Malaysia, the second country on our adventure.
The Singapore Strait is a tricky piece of waterway, our maps identified lanes for direction of travel, eight lanes in all and a turning area just at the entry to the Johor Strait - our target. It was like a water freeway all chopped up with waves and intensely filled with enormous cargo boats and we had to make our way across it without getting in the way of these boats that travelled at such speed, they really meant business. The Singapore authorities said that we were only to cross using motor, though we sailed for some of the way until the typical midday windlessness set in. Dodging cargo boats that were steaming south at about 15kts, we were crossing to the west and trying to make the jump across lanes without getting run over by any ships, 'look left', 'look right' and all that trying to figure out how fast a moving boat was travelling.
The first thing we noticed was the smell, a not so subtle fragrance of diesel fumes that hung in the air and left a fine layer of black soot on any horizontal surface. The next was the sky; a grey haze filled the atmosphere, a combination of heat haze and pollution caught in the inversion layer. The lack of any discernible colour or differentiation from east to west or north to south was a big difference, we were definitely in the doldrums now - the place adjacent the equator, notorious for little wind and hot hot heat. And it was hot. We were melting as we slowly chugged our way west. The next noticeable thing was the plastics littering the surface of the water.
We marvelled at the sheer number and size of ships and the business that revolved around it. Imagining the days when the waterway was filled with sailing boats waiting for weather systems to change or to pick up supplies kept us entertained on the slow hot crossing.
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| Shipping infrastructure in the Johor Strait |
As we made our way up the Johor Strait the immense size of the cranes and other docking systems that supported the shipping was mind-boggling. We were skirting the edges of the Singapore island and far removed from the internal busyness of the goings on in the city. Next was what would become a common sight, huge barges and accompanying conveyor belts, sending thousands of tonnes of sand shooting into the water for land reclamation.
Our anticipation was mounting for our arrival to Malaysia, just across the 2nm wide waterway (the Johor Strait) from Singapore. We landed in Danga Bay marina and promptly made our way via the convenient local bus service into Johor Bahru town for the first of many local Indian food gorge-fests. Lights glimmered at us from tv sets booming Bollywood movies into the street from the Indian quarter and we were drawn in like moths to a flame. The food was very exciting, a big change from the standard rice or noodle dishes of Indonesia. Dozens of curries were on show in huge vats, no information on what was in the mix and I just pointed and tried to make some assessment of what would be a good dinner. I would try to ask the attendants if it was panas (hot) or not and find out if it would blow my head off. Unfortunately my understanding of what was 'hot' was not theirs. Time would show that my judgement on what looked hot or not was not always on song and on more than one occasion I would have smoke escape from my ears as I was overwhelmed with the amazingly hot dish. There seemed no limit to the level of mouth burning chilli that the locals desired.
The big change from Indonesia was stark, Johor Bahru (JB) was just a short bus ride from Singapore and it seemed that the city was looking up to its modern neighbour and had embraced the cosmopolitan feel and modern features of a land that they were at war with for so many centuries. Large, modern unit blocks filled the streetscape and new luxury condominium developments were sprouting up where there was water last week via the land reclamation work. Progress was happening and nothing was going to stand in the way of JB reaching for the same status that Singapore held. The proposed Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) line that would come through JB soon was bound to increase the value of Malaysian land for Singapore commuters that could not find housing there.
The arrival to a new country was most satisfying and lit the flame of excitement and intrigue just as we had felt a few months previously on our approach Indonesia.
24/11/2014
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| Land reclamation that happened day and night to get the sand dumped and manicured into shape, hopefully before the daily rain downpour |
Our anticipation was mounting for our arrival to Malaysia, just across the 2nm wide waterway (the Johor Strait) from Singapore. We landed in Danga Bay marina and promptly made our way via the convenient local bus service into Johor Bahru town for the first of many local Indian food gorge-fests. Lights glimmered at us from tv sets booming Bollywood movies into the street from the Indian quarter and we were drawn in like moths to a flame. The food was very exciting, a big change from the standard rice or noodle dishes of Indonesia. Dozens of curries were on show in huge vats, no information on what was in the mix and I just pointed and tried to make some assessment of what would be a good dinner. I would try to ask the attendants if it was panas (hot) or not and find out if it would blow my head off. Unfortunately my understanding of what was 'hot' was not theirs. Time would show that my judgement on what looked hot or not was not always on song and on more than one occasion I would have smoke escape from my ears as I was overwhelmed with the amazingly hot dish. There seemed no limit to the level of mouth burning chilli that the locals desired.
The big change from Indonesia was stark, Johor Bahru (JB) was just a short bus ride from Singapore and it seemed that the city was looking up to its modern neighbour and had embraced the cosmopolitan feel and modern features of a land that they were at war with for so many centuries. Large, modern unit blocks filled the streetscape and new luxury condominium developments were sprouting up where there was water last week via the land reclamation work. Progress was happening and nothing was going to stand in the way of JB reaching for the same status that Singapore held. The proposed Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) line that would come through JB soon was bound to increase the value of Malaysian land for Singapore commuters that could not find housing there.
The arrival to a new country was most satisfying and lit the flame of excitement and intrigue just as we had felt a few months previously on our approach Indonesia.
24/11/2014
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