Hotel Rasa Sayang Johor Bahru

... take my flip-flops off then headed up the stairs to the dining room, which had a number of low tables each surrounded by cushions. The place is run by a husband and wife, and the husband came up and took my order. He was a very friendly and helpful Indian bloke who spoke perfect English and had a great sense of hunour. The restaurant operates a spice scale with levels from 1 to 6 (with 6 being the hottest), and when you order you have to choose the number. I ...

... street work setting up for the GP next month.
The Pan Pacific Singapore is very swish - located on reclaimed land near the waterfront - and we were checked in and in our room in no time at all. The room is lovely, with a great view and a nice balcony which we only spent a moment on because it was so hot and humid. Our camera lens quickly fogged up, such is the humidity.
We unpacked our ...

... toons cartoons featuring Sylvester and Tweety and then some pink-filled, unrealistically cheesy Hilary Duff Lizzy McGuire tripe with Heather Locklear playing her mother. Bizarre. Especially because, as far as I could tell, there were no children in our carriage... Especially those who would find Lizzy McGuire appealing. Thankfully, the train was so loud I couldn't hear any of the film but the plot wasn't the most complicated.

Periodically during the journey, the train ...

... on eating and eating. So we decided to walk around the center and find something else to eat. Well, we got sucked into trying a fresh crab. Actually, after the fact, we were not "sucked" into anything. First, we got to pick out the live one that we wanted and would cook fresh for us. Then, we choose to have it in chili crab. After we sat and had a beer, we waited for our crab, the first crab that my new friend would try in his life actually. Here is a guy who has tried brains and blood and ...

... one was a Chinese one, and playing really good (for the location). Price for a pint of beer starts at 11 to 12 SGD (Singaporean Dollar). Divide by two, and you get the price in Euros. Today on Saturday, we all went to Elin's and Kai's wedding, following a muslim solemnization ceremony. Very interesting, very nice, indeed. Tomorrow, the ceremony will continue! The weather in Singapore: a bit more than 30 degrees, high humidity. No rain until now.

... way to the border with Malaysia, although the first taxi driver didn't understand us too well and dropped us off at the bookstore Borders. After getting out of that taxi and into another we got a driver he decided he'd do nothing but whinge about how close it was too knock off and how he'd have to work overtime if he were to take us to Woodlands Checkpoint, although he wouldn't let us change into another car......... It's funny ...

... Singaporean currency. The daily traffic congestions at the immigration checkpoints attest to the increasing number of Malaysian workers in the city-state as well as the growing influx of Singaporeans into Johor for business, entertainment and leisure.

It may not yet have the sophistication that neighboring Singapore is known for, but Johor Bahru still has the conservatism that is fast disappearing in ...

... countries around the world. Well...except for helping the Americans illegally occupy Iraq, but I digress.... I was sat next to a French guy on the flight, was nice enough, could speak English pretty well but understandably he wasn't completely fluent. Still...it gave me a chance to practice how to speak English in a way that non fluent speakers might understand it better, as I speak pretty quick at the best of times. There ...

So last night was so relaxing and so restful in the airport.... Not so much. Anywho, I did actually rest a bit here and there, and it wasn't freezing like the airport in Bangkok was when I spent the night there about a month or so, what seems ages and ages ago. *But* sometime around 1am or 2am, I started coughing really bad, and I noticed there was something *really* weird in the air, and I got scared that maybe it was some sort of insecticide **** or ...

Again, Singapore provided us with an amazing hotel for 3 nights ... YES that was 3 NIGHTS in the SAME bed!!! How exciting. Plus the hotel atrium had some very cool lanterns thingys ... again I think the colours attracted us! Our hotel also had a cool 'infinity pool'. After some chill and 'down'time, we were recharged and ready to face the m,ultitude of malls lining the streets of central ...