Day 18 - Fri 29 Nov: Johor Bahru to Singapore

Fine in the morning with an early afternoon thunderstorm 26 to 36 deg, 80% humidity. The storm came just as we were driving into Singapore.
Walk: 4km

Another early morning walk for me along the river towards the Sultan’s Palace. Although you can only view from afar it looks pretty good and even the streets and parks around that area look neat and clean, unlike most of JB which is fairly ordinary. Massive building projects going on all over the place which add to the chaos. Breakfast in the hotel was passable, cornflakes, fried rice, noodles, white bread, tea or coffee and cake.

Met up with all the guys and crew at 9:45am for farewells and a briefing on the day. As is the tradition on these tours we all tipped each of the staff (Ramish, Malay Guide, Heng, Cycle Guide, Amid, Bus Driver, Hok, Photographer and Hey Bro, Larry Driver) and presented them with their envelopes along with some words of thanks. They tried very hard, although I believe they lack the knowledge and training to carry out their duties to the standard one would expect.

Ramish then escorted us all through the customs and immigration network for Malaysia and Singapore. Malaysia was a breeze to exit but we cannot say the same for getting into Singapore. It took over an hour to get through the rather long queue to be processed in about two minutes. A modern and technological advanced country like Singapore could do with an upgrade of their processing procedures.

Lunch was steamed rice with some chicken and pork at a local restaurant not far from the hotel. Check in took a little longer than expected, back to copying all the passports, finding the extra nights bookings, and allocating rooms. I suspect I ended up with the wrong room but it’s a twin and ok. After settling in the rain started again and the weather outlook was very ominous so I just relaxed in the room for a while hoping it would improve. It slowed down a little, so I made a foray to Chinatown where I picked up a wholemeal bun thingy for dinner. After eating that and wandering around I called it a night.

Early morning walk around JB

Sultan's Palace JB

Lunch

There were many dishes on offer, but we got chicken and steamed rice

The final group photo

My room for the next four nights


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