♥what I have been doing (Sunday, January 04, 2009 / 1:35 pm)
I'm taking a break from my Japan trip post again (yup, I'm super backlogged....)
For the 2nd day of 2009 (Friday), I met my host family who came to Singapore for holiday. And I accompanied them to Johor for the day.
We visited the beautiful Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque, Johor Zoo and ate a seafood lunch at the seafood restaurant. The seafood was too delicious but the bill turns out to be almost 500 ringgit! Gosh, it's abt $200 over.
(And I din pay a cent...hehe...)
I was their English-Chinese-Cantonese translator for the day. Since I couldn't speak Malay, I tried my best to approach only the Chinese in Malaysia for directions. And my host family almost got conned by this Malay guy who could speak English and he kept promoting his tour package to drive us around for 2 hrs sightseeing for 120ringgit.
So expensive lah. I had to drag my host family away and the guy kept following us. Later, I found a Chinese taxi driver and I asked him how much he usually charges for 1hr sightseeing. He said it's only 25 ringgit. He told me to beware of a man who likes to station outside the checkpoint and offers his tour package. Super heng lor.
Weather was super hot that day. And it was unbearable for us especially after the lunch, we walked to the mosque from the restaurant. The waitress told me it was near and walkable but it turned out to be a half an hour walk. Somemore the road did not have pedestrain pavement and there was no taxi in sight but all motorcycles. It was super scary to walk on this road with all the bikes driving at a fast speed beside you. I was afraid of encountering snatch thief on the bike too. And then, I realised how lucky I was always in my comfort zone back in Singapore where everywhere is extremely safe and accessible by trains and neatly planned with pedestrians pavements, traffic lights etc.
-this is the sultan abu bakar mosque, beautiful but it was a friday, so non-muslims could not enter-
-and then the johor zoo, entrance fee was only 2 ringgit. though it was cheap, it was obvious that it was a vast difference from Singapore Zoological Gardens.
Animals were not fantastically groomed or well-caged. Their habitats were of low quality and I was amazed how the lions' cage was just adjacent to the monkeys' living area.
I bet such a sight would not be seen in Singapore zoo.
Furthermore, there wasn't impressing animal species around. Tigers were of the normal ones. I only saw lioness, the common black fruit bears. There were lots of monkeys and birds though.
Ai with her high enthusiasm in riding ponies in Johor zoo. She rode one in Singapore zoo too.
i feel soo proud of our Singapore zoological gardens and i feel like visitng it soon...haha
the way back to Singapore was long. as I hold Singapore passport, I could take the express check-in lane but my host family took almost 40 minutes to check into Singapore. *faint* lol....
and I sent them back to city hall where they requested to eat at restaurant. So they chose to eat Lerk thai and bill was $100 over again. *faint*
then, they asked me to go to their hotel room together coz they got gifts for me from Japan. They were staying in Swissotel Stamford and when I entered the room, it was a big wow for me.
the night view was spectacular. there was a balcony outside their hotel room (guess they like balconies alot...lol) and there was esplanade, ferris wheel, merlion, st andrew cathedral, supreme court. everything nice about Singapore scenery was almost in view from the balcony. no wonder, they told me that the night earlier, they could watch the fireworks very clearly.
they had a working desk for laptop and there were 3 beds in the room. the hotel is fantastic.
something that touched me alot was they brought the big calendar all the way from Japan to Singapore for me. the big calendar was actually a gift they wanted to give me when I was at their home in hiroshima but my luggage was too many for me to carry the calendar home. It was soooo sweet of them to bring it to me this time round. Japanese are always so thoughtful.
and of course, they brought me some other food and little gifts.
by the time, i got home that night. i was very exhausted and my legs were soo sore too. lol
I tried to rest early as the next day will be Shan's 21st celebrations. updates on this will come later...
