Travels

Singapore and the the path up to JB
and Melaka

What can I say, I like to travel.  I don't get a lot of opportunity for it compared to a lot of people that travel for business and that is probably why I still like it.  I like to experience other cultures and see different sites that the world has to offer, but most of all I like to taste the different foods.

Earlier this year I made the usual trip to a supplier in Malaysia (they always pick us up from Changi Airport in Singapore even though there is a samller airport in JB) but this time I got to spend more time down in Johor Bahru (JB) and I actually spent part of the weekend there which I had never had the justification to do in the past.

View from my room

The supplier there takes pretty good care of us and has an agreement with the local resort that they tell us to use for a really good rate (~$60 per night) and since Intel has no qualified hotel in the area we typically stay at that resort.  The area is very tropical and really pretty.  They have a golf course I would like to play on some day and as you would expect it is beautiful as well.  I've heard the cost of playing it is fairly inexpensive and my plan was to give it a try on the Saturday that I was there with some rented clubs, but the supplier I was visiting had other ideas.



View of Golf Course
from my Room

A couple of the guys I have developed pretty good relationships with at the supplier I was visiting took personal time from their weekend to take me to the famous old time port city of Melaka though it's not really a port city any more because of the development of Singapore, to the south, and Penang, to the north, years go. On the way we stopped at the local zoo and walked around for a while and I got to snap a few pictures.

 

We saw a lot more than I took pictures of but add to the fact that I'm not very good about taking pictures that I'm not a big zoo fan and the pictures were very limited.

We continued travelling to the port area and inside the city they have a historical area famous for what is called baba y nonya which was for teh mixing of the local Malay (Muslim) culture with the Chinese culture.  It's famous because nowadays the chinese person in the relationship would be required to convert to Islam but back then they weren't and are still exempt from the law.  We went to a restaurant that merges the food of the cultures and it was very good.  They talked me into trying a drink that they call "The Michael Jackson" and it was okay.  I would drink it again except that since coming back have learned that it is most often made with black tea and while I'm not 100% sure that the one I had was made with it, I'm greater than 50% sure it was.  There is an actual name for the drink but they call it the Michael Jackson because it's black and white.  I thought it was funny.

We saw a lot more but given my picture taking "prowess" I didn't think to take nearly enough pictures.  They took me to a restaurant for dinner that they claimed was really famous and apparently it was because when we go there they had a line about 50 yards out and we decided to try one nearby that did the same type of food (basically it was a fondu restaurant and they were really impressed with this new style of eatery) and it was pretty good but they said the other restaurant would have been better.

After that it was time to back to work.  I flew up to Penang to meet back up with my boss for a day before he flew out to China.  Evidently he and our other travelling companion had a good weekend as well but tehy went snorkelling off of another island about an hour boat ride from Penang and both of them weren't burnt like lobsters.  That night we went to dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant that was all-you-can-eat, but the BBQ isn't as good as most places.  The following night we made our typical pilgrimage to Bali Hai that I have spoke of in a previous blog with lots and lots of seafood followed by some of the greatest fruit on earth.  My favorite is the Jack Fruit, but I love the Mango and Papaya that comes out with it all on ice.

The rest of the trip was all business, but while staying at the G Hotel I was within walking distance of a lot of restaurants and shopping.  I had to make a trip or two to a Nasi Kandar (Rice on Wheels) and get my typical Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Masala, Roti Chanai, and Naan Bread.  I love that restaurant and make it a point to visit the place everytime I'm there.  Usually it's with other people and I don't get as much of a look about the food order as I do when alone like I was this time.  To be honest it was a lot of food for one person and while I still wasn't entirely full (the rest would have jsut been over-indulgence) I didn't dare order more.  All told though the meal was less than $20 so I wasn't feeling guilty about it.