A different slice of Johor Bahru, Malaysia - Little India

Disclaimer: I wish I could bring my better Nikon camera but I didn't dare to tempt the gods, so I stuck to my shitty Canon. So pardon me for the badly taken fotos. 

Strung up fresh chrysanthemums perfect for hanging up in  your house

Some Saturdays ago (I am getting really bad at writing my blog), instead of playing CoH, I went JB with Ms Bear, and got to check out a different side of Johor Bahru. Usually I always hop onto the bus to go directly to the shopping mall. But that week, I got to appreciate a different side of JB, the Little India.

I just wanted to go out and walk about so I was totally cool with accompanying Ms Bear as she ran her various errands. In return she accompanied me to Jusco (which she wanted to know how to go anyway) and checked out various famous eateries which happened to be the Little India area. So it was a win-win.

We walked past Sri Mariamman temple. While waiting for her to exchange money, I gave money to the old Indian lady begging just outside the money changer. It was near the Indian harvest festival, and somehow she reminded me of my late grandmother so I gave her some. Instead of putting the money in the plate in front of her, I handed the money to her. She grabbed my hands in appreciation and whispered something with a toothy smile, which made me sadder. 

While Ms Bear was busy in the shop, I was busy admiring the handsewn embroidery on this blouse

Ms Bear made a blouse at a tiny dressmaker shop along the road (shown in above picture). She said that you would make a similar blouse in Singapore for the same price (RM55), but save so much money here instead due to the exchange rate (I think it was 1SGD to RM2.445, the Onkel at the money changer was very friendly, but usually we change in Singapore because the rate is higher there). 

Ms Bear buying prayer stuff and flowers for the harvest festival

Indian Tidbits

Ms Bear is bloody strong, I'd tell you now. She hauled BOUQUETS of flowers, kaya buns, tidbits, prayer stuff all the way from Jalan Dhoby to Jusco back to City Square (with loads of new clothes, frying pans, etc- I forgot the rest) then over the Causeway (think of it as a massive u-turn of several miles on foot) to her home on the other part of Singapore. I wanted to drag myself to some barn and shoot myself between the eyes to escape from the exhaustion and I bought barely half the stuff she did. I was in awe.

She then brought me to an Indian accessories shop (you know, if she wasn't there, the likelihood of me going in would not be very high), because I asked her to. And then we walked to Hua Mui to lunch on their famous fried chicken chop, before walking around the Jalan Dhoby area.

Buses to popular shopping malls in Johore Bahru
Jusco Tebrau City  (see my earlier post)

KSL (the new shopping mall near the Causeway) - Take bus S1 from the bus interchange downstairs (building next to the customs and JB train station).