JB Malaysia

Last weekend I spent Sunday in Johor Bahru, Malaysia (called JB for short). For those of you who don't know, JB and Singapore are connected by a causeway, so it is an easy day trip.

Before I went, I heard a lot of mixed rumors about the city. It's dangerous, some said. Its boring. There are only shopping malls. There's nothing worth seeing.
Well before my little trip, which I took, by the way, with my friend Heather and her husband, Jim, I did a little research. Google, people. I wikitraveled (Did I just verb that? Yes.) it and...presto! A whole list of stuff to do and see.

So after making it across the causeway, the three of us started out towards the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque. We hopped on a bus (literally, hopping over the sidewalk rails which is where buses choose to wait, for some reason) and rode until the driver told us we were there.

Check out those doors! They looked like they were painted with gold or something! We weren't allowed to go inside here...I am actually not even sure exactly what this building is. It was right next to the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque, so it might have been another building more recently built, or just somethign else all together.
Anyway, so we walked up the hill a little ways and found the Mosque we were looking for.

Nice building, right? We poked around a little, but didn't really do anything here. We weren't allowed into teh Prayer Hall, of course, but we thought we might be allowed to go in other parts, but the place was pretty deserted... perhaps because it was Sunday, and sometimes things close then. We did see this interesting sign, though...

We headed around back and over a couple of streets, skirting past a local selling his wares. Heather discovered he was an Elvis fan, and he became entranced with the fact that she was very familiar with Graceland. It was then that we spotted the Zoo.

It looks kind of cute and quaint, right? Not much there? Wrong. We started at this bird show (those of you familiar with my Road Trip blog from when I was in Spain might find that fact a little comedic). The Bird guy didn't speak in English for most of the show, and so we had no idea what he was talking about most of the time. Towards the end, he started translating some into English for us... but only during the parts where we had completely figured out what he was talking about already. Figures.
Anyway...
The more we looked around this place, the more we began to realize just how huge this zoo was. They had tons of animals! One thing they seemed to have an excess of was Lions. They had grown lions, cubs and...teenage lions? So many! Oh...and camels!

I wanted a picture with the camels, but I was afraid they would bend down and lick me or somethign. Noooo thank you! I don't want that nasty looking mouth anywhere near me!
All in all, I was really impressed with the area...especially since it cost about the equivalent of $1 (USD) to go in!




After the zoo? Lunch, then an Electronics Mall stop, and then we were on our way to our next destination! Arulmigu Sri Rajakaliamman Hindu Temple. Try saying that 5 times fat!... Or even just one time correctly, for that matter. Anyway, this is known as the First Glass Temple in the World. It was so...shiny! The entire thing was covered with glass! So cool!

All of interior was covered with glass! Really! But, that is not even the most interesting thing about of little trip here. There was a wedding going on!

The ceremony had already finished, but everybody was still gathered around the Temple area and were eating in the well... Fellowship hall, we would call it back home. Cafeteria? Well... the place the Temple had for eating.
Everyone insisted that we join in too! We were ushered into the room and sat down at tables with all the wedding guests. They served us a traditional wedding meal, apparently. It was on a banana leaf and we ate it with our fingers and everything! Some of it was a little spicy for my mouth, but it was still really good. Cool, right? I am so glad we went to that Temple! One more pic of it, just for good measure...

Let's see... for me, that was really the highlight of the day. Our other destinations included an old Chinese Temple, a trip into the mall that is right next to the border, a walk through some local shop area outside the mall, and another Hindu Temple. This one was completely different from the glass Temple.

So that was pretty much my day in JB! So what did I learn? There is definitely stuff to do and see there besides just shopping (consult wikitravel these and other options). Also, it is not as unsafe as some people seem to think it is! We stayed together and didn't do anything stupid, and the three of us were fine. I think that as long as you remain aware, you should be fine there! Glad I went, it was a lot of fun!