Category Archives: Living

The 9th Johor Bahru Arts Festival Packs the Calendar Events For the Month of September

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JB Arts Festival includes many events during the full month of September. Most the events are free, some require purchased tickets. It does take a bit of work to find out what you want to know using the web site, but it looks like it is worth the effort.

A calendar of events lists the events by day (it is a bit hard to read – just a jpg image file so it doesn’t increase in size very well). Separate pages provide details on the many arts related events (but those pages don’t tell you when or where the events are). Some highlights:

photo of dancers for Culture Malaysiana
Culture Malaysiana showcases and represents the vibrancy and richness of the Malaysian community, and truly achieves unity through the arts. The seamless transitions between the many dances are also representative of how elements of each culture are mixed together to create a unique Malaysian culture, a whole which is truly more than the sum of its parts.

Maskara Shorties is a marathon screening of short films curated amd selected by Sindiket Sol-jah. Sindiket Sol-jah is an arts activist group based in Rumah PENA (Persatuan Penulis Nasional Malaysia / National Writers Assosiation Malaysia). The event will showcase rarely-seen short films for your viewing pleasure produced and directed by passionate filmmakers from Malaysia and Singapore.

photo of 24 Festive Drums

The inspiration for the 24 drums was based on the 24 festivals in the Chinese lunar calendar throughout the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, which has guided the traditional Chinese agricultural community for thousands of years. A full troupe therefore consists of 24 drums, each bearing two bold Chinese characters representing each of the 24 festivals. The music and choreography are arranged to harmonise gracefully into a performing art that depicts the cycles of the 24 seasons in music, calligraphy and the rhythm of life.

From its humble beginnings here in Johor Bahru, the 24 Festive Drums has garnered recognition and acclaim both locally and internationally. The performing art is not only popular in Malaysia, but has also become popular and gained a following in Singapore, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States

photo of Akasha (Malaysia music group)

Using various instruments, Akasha ventures into many different genres, including blues, bluegrass, latin, bossanova, middle eastern, classical, old western and Irish.


AkashA is a 7-piece Malaysian band, playing world fusion music with a distinctly Malaysian twist. Like Malaysia itself, AkashA is a fusion of four cultures โ€“ Malay, Indian, Chinese, and Western. Watch YouTube video highlights of an AkashaA performance.

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Blogs and Forums Related to Malaysia

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When I was considering moving to Malaysia one of the things I tried to find were blogs and forums to learn from others what experiences they were having. And living in Johor Bahru now I still seek such information. I have a directory of Malaysian blogs and forums with quite a few good sources of information.

Some of my favorites are:

Hopefully you will find some of the many wonderful blogs interesting and useful.

This is an interesting documentary on recent USA graduates teaching English in Malaysia; via the Fulbright Malaysia blog.

Inconsiderate Behavior

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Moving to a new culture you have to be willing to adapt and accept things different from what you may be familiar with. Most everything in Malaysia I have no problem adapting to. The biggest thing I find very annoying consistently is noise.

Noise at my condo – loud noise from temples (very loud bells, loud sound systems), firecrackers (a alot – early in the morning at 4 AM this last week over 30 loud gunshot style ones for example, which is the worst but alot of firecrackers at less unreasonable hours too). And very loud speakers blasting on the street or in malls. But that is something that is just the way it is. I can accept it and just understand that it annoys me, but you don’t get to have everything the way you want.

My philosophy is much more that: you limit very much things you do that are inflicted on other (once what you do infringes upon others rights you make consideration for others primary). I notice in Malaysia the more primary thing seems to be the willingness to just tolerate whatever others are doing. Which is a good trait to have, if you don’t let things bother you, you are much happier. I think the in West people think of Asia in general as people being more considerate, it seems to me it is really instead people being more tolerant. Just accepting that things are the way they are and if you are not powerful you can’t expect others to worry about your desires.

The condo below me started massive heavy construction last week – without any notice. I find this incredibly inconsiderate. The effect is essentially like having someone jackhammering in the room next to you (the only different in the heavy construction being inside my condo right now I have no dust). The idea that I should be given warning of such a massive disruption to the ability to use my condo seems foreign. The condo office won’t even respond about how much longer I can expect to have similar disruption (4 days last week this happened – Thursday was fine for some reason). My rental agent just says I am suppose to keep begging the condo office and maybe eventually they will tell me something.

I don’t really understand this attitude. It just seems so silly. The construction requires advance approval from the management office. But the management office gives no warning to those that will be impacted. And they don’t even respond to requests for information.

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Taxi Between Johor Bahru and Singapore

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Iskandar Regional Development Authority chief executive officer Ismail Ibrahim on transportation improvements:

The land transport authorites of Singapore and Malaysia are studying a rapid transit system (RTS) link between Singapore and Johor Baru. The architecture and engineering consultancy consists of two phases. Phase one is expected to be completed by year-end.The Joint Ministerial Committee for Iskandar will decide on the option to be adopted in phase two. Taxi services between Johor Baru and Singapore are also being improved.

Effective June 1, commuters taking cross-border taxis will be able to board and alight anywhere on the domestic leg of the journey.

For example, a commuter that takes a Singapore cross-border taxi can board or alight anywhere in Singapore. Similarly, a passenger taking a Malaysia cross-border taxi can board or alight anywhere in Malaysia.

But commuters need to board and alight at the designated terminals when they are not on the domestic leg, i.e. a commuter that takes a Singapore cross-border taxi can only board and alight at PasarBakti terminal in Johor Baru and likewise, a Malaysia cross-border taxi can only pick up or drop off commuters at the Ban San Street terminal in Singapore.

The transportation improvements are critical to the success of Iskandar-Singapore success. Currently the delays on the current links are bad and increasing. It seems that the estimates for how much traffic would be generating have been far too low. The addition of the second link is recent and yet the delays keep getting longer on average days (not even holidays). This seems to me to be a serious problem, especially when you consider that in the next 2 years there will be substantial additions in Iskandar, Malaysia that would increase cross border traffic. But with the delays already unacceptably long it seems there will be serious problems.

If there are process improvement and manpower adjusts that can help address these problems they should be a top priority (and why they haven’t been done already would be very puzzling). It seems to me a 3rd link is needed as soon as possible. In addition to the MRT and an expansion to the existing causeway capacity.

The tweaks to allowing taxis to pick up passengers anywhere at the first leg of the journey (which is my guess at what is said above though I am not sure really) is good thing. This doesn’t do anything about capacity issues or long delays at the links but it is an improvement in the previous operating process (which required taxi pickup at 1 or 2 specified spots only in order to cross the links). Hopefully the restriction on dropping people off can be eliminated soon also.

I don’t really understand the sense of the taxi process. There are cars that will pickup and drop off anywhere (for crossing the links) but are not painted up as taxis. I don’t quite understand the value of having different rules for cars depending on if they have meters inside or are considered something else (but do the exact same things a taxi does, but probably can’t pick up passengers on the street – probably they are only allowed to respond to phone calls).

Anyway, at least the taxi process is improving.

Related: Taxis in Johor Bahru – Taking the Bus Between Johor Bahru and Singapore – Johor Bahru Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine Complex (CIQ)

Minimum Housing Prices for Foreigners Investing In Malaysia Rise to RM 1,000,000

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Excerpt from a speech by the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, 19 April, 2012:

As a first step to protect the interests of local Malaysians, the state government is proposing to increase the minimum limit for foreign purchases of all properties from the existing level of RM 500,000 to RM1 million with a higher limit of RM 2 million for landed properties only in Penang island and retaining the present RM 500,000 limit for Permanent Residents.

In 2010 and 2011 there were 774 and 890 property transactions involving foreigners. These transactions constitute only 2.98% and 2.26% respectively of the total number of transations in Penang. However to protect the interests of locals to ensure that they enjoy priority for less expensive properties, this restriction will help to provide a level playing field since foreigners have the advantage of a higher currency.

The Penang state government stresses that we welcome foreign participation in our economy including our property market. The state government feels that foreign participation can be profitable to both Penangites and foreigners in the higher end market where they can add value by helping Penang to transform itself into an international and intelligent city.

We would like to get feedback and opinions from NGOs, property developers, foreigners and the public on this proposal. The state government hopes to implement this proposal the earliest by 1 June 2012 or the latest by 1 July 2012.

It would be good to know what percentage of the sales from RM 500,000 to RM 1,000,000 for condos, and RM 2,000,000 for landed properties were purchases by foreigners. But it seems like an overly drastic measure given a 2.5% rate of foreign purchasers. To slow the rise in prices I believe increasing the downpayment requirements (including the extremely minimal downpayment requirements on housing in the process of being built. To be effective this should be done on all purchases (not just foreigners).

Without more focused data on the foreign purchases in the ranges being targeted however it is hard to determine what the impact of any measure could possibly be.

Participants in MM2H (as well as permanent residents) are permitted to buy/own 2 properties at the RM 500,000 minimum level; which could definitely increase the applications for that program. That could be one of the reasons this action was taken.

Related: Penangโ€™s Economic Gains – Penang Condo Market – Considerations for Investing in Iskandar Housing

Postal Delivery Needs Much Improvement

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Sadly, for the second time, a parcel mailed to me that didn’t fit in the mail box was just not delivered. They just leave a note instead saying you should pick up the parcel at some far away post office (not even using the post office that is close for some unknown reason – my guess is it is easier for the post office so who cares about the customers). One of the benefits of being in a apartment, normally, is that parcels can just be delivered to the office and tenants don’t have to waste time on pointless trips to pick up mail that didn’t fit in their mail box.

For some reason the Malaysian post office doesn’t take this step to make it easier for customers. I am not sure if the building office would object to helping out their tenants. I doubt it, but it is possible that the building just refused to help.

This also means if I were a business that was mailing packages to my customers in Malaysia I would make sure that I considered the poor mail delivery practices. Foisting on your customers the burden of going to a far away post office to pick up something you mailed is potentially going to annoy them (especially things they didn’t order – which I haven’t done so…).

To deal with this systemic weakness, you have to be pro-active and waste resources to notice if you are mailing to places that are likely to have this problem. Then proactively contact those customers and explain the problem with mail delivery and work out a solution (before you mail something – obviously this is a big hassle but it is a necessary one given the constraints of the system if you care about your customers). Sending the material to their condo office or something.

I am not sure if the private delivery companies are more customer focused. If so, that would be another option – just use a company that will not result in you annoying customers instead of helping them. Poor package delivery practices are quite common worldwide. That doesn’t mean customers should accept such bad practices when they encounter them. The web has provided quite an outlet for bad delivery practices from companies like UPS and Federal Express.

Given the problems caused (all I get is notices that something, that I have no idea about, has to be picked up at some far away location) I would not suggest using your address for any mail you don’t think will fit in your box. Talk to the office of the condo and make sure they will let you just have it sent to them and then you pick it up from the office. The post office will just make it very difficult if you are not available the time they choose to deliver it. Both times I called to have it delivered at a time that would work, or to the office and both times they said they wouldn’t try to deliver it a second time. So they expect you to go way out of your way to pick up some unknown package. How silly.

Related: Great and Cheap Cell Phone Plan – Taxis in Johor Bahru – Paying Bills Electronically in Malaysia

Basketball Courts In Johor Bahru CBD

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It has taken me a while to get around to figuring out the basketball court situation here. There are neighborhood associations that have what amount to neighborhood parks. Some of these have basketball courts with roofing. I imagine the courts are used for other events and the roofing really helps given how much rain there is (it also keeps you in the shade).

I wasn’t really sure if these were closed parks, or what. But the best I can tell they are basically open to the public. That is what people seem to tell me. One of the things I have noticed, after a bit of time here, is the English pronunciation is much better than English comprehension. The lack of comprehension is exacerbated by people being polite and smiling and indicating they understand when I now see they may not. So that is why even after several people saying the parks are open I am not 100% sure. Several of the parks are complete surrounded by fences (which adds to the air that they are not public).

Anyway I am glad to have been able to get some exercise myself, just shooting around. I also have once played some pickup games. I’ll try to get in a few more pick-up games.

View JB CBD basketball courts in a larger map

Dewan Serbaguna Dato HJ Mohamed Khaled Nordin is what the sign in Taman Century says at the covered court right next to KSL Mall. The other one only a couple blocks from the other side of the mall is a bit smaller but also covered.

In Permas Jaya there is a recreation association court (this place even has a pool). I tried to find out if I had to pay. The board seemed to say you did, but their was also information on annual passes. After quite a bit of time I still couldn’t figure out what pay was required for. I am not sure if it was required just to reserve the court for private play, or what. If I remember right it was something like RM 4 – 8 an hour? The court is not covered. It is a maybe 2 or 3 km from Straits View Condo, Jusco Mall is on the way between the condo and the court.

Related: Swimming is Good Exercise – Big Lizards in Johor Bahru CBD – Johor Bahru Zoo

Treasures and Books Store: Used English Language Books in Permas Jaya

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Treasures and Books Store in Permas Jaya. Johor Bahru

Treasures and Books Store in Permas Jaya. This photo is taken as you exit McDonald's.

The Treasure Store has a new name and new location. The store has moved to Permas Jaya (where the Straits View Condos are) from the Danga City Mall in Johor Bahrus’ CBD. The new Treasures and Books Store is strait ahead as you step out of the McDonald’s. It is on the same block as the Time Hotel.

It is a great book store for anyone interested in English language books in Johor Bahru (they also have Chinese language books). Books cost quite a bit in Malaysia and Singapore. I am not exactly sure why. I would imagine maybe due to tariffs of some kind, and maybe low demand. Though the book stores seem busier than the average stores in malls, not just for browsing but for purchases. There are very few used books stores (that I have seen) which is odd (since the high new book prices should stimulate the used book market.

photo of books on shelves in the store

Inside the Treasures and Books Store

The Treasures and Books Store has a great selection of “beach reading” (light, enjoyable, escapism) and also offers many used books (which saves money). And you can return books and they will buy them back (for a bit less) so if you read quite a bit you can save a lot over buying new books and just stacking them up in your room.

The store has lots of books by authors such as: John Grishham, J. K. Rowling, Jefrey Archer, Robert Ludlum, Tess Gerritsen, James Paterson, Robert Harris, Sue Grafton, Michael Crichton, Douglas Preston, Stieg Larsson, Richard North Paterson.

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Big Lizards in Johor Bahru CBD

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Large lizard (over 1 meter)

Large, thin, lizard (over 1 meter)

Two days ago I saw this big lizard and managed to get a photo. It is at least a meter long from head to tail (probably longer, the tail is really long). Still it isn’t huge since it is very narrow (more like a snake with legs than anything else).

A few months ago I saw a really big lizard 1 block from the CIQ. It was easily 2 meters long (head to end of the tail) and quite large (stout). I was standing for awhile looking at this cool patch of wild greenery. All of a sudden I heard a noise and looked down; this large lizard probably got tired of me standing so and moved quickly into the brush. I hadn’t seen it. I would guess it was sunning itself, before I wandered over. Too bad I didn’t have my camera ready.

close up of the large, thin, lizard

Close up of the large, thin, lizard (shown above)

A few weeks ago I saw one in between the size of those 2 (more like the stout one) that leaped into the undergrowth before I got a good look.

And today I saw another one (like the one in the photo) in a park near KSL Mall. It was maybe 700 cm or so. That is it for my large lizard spotting in Johor Bahru. I do see these little guys in my condo occasionally.

I do wonder what the largest ones eat. People keep chickens and feed neighborhood cats (as far as I can tell they are stray cats). I would think those lizards could get young chickens and cats maybe. I also wonder if the cats get any of the young chicks. I would imagine people wouldn’t like that too much. I guess the adult chickens are pretty good at keeping the cats at bay. They mill around right next to each other and I haven’t seen any cat stalking them. I see the cats stalking each other a fair amount (the young ones).

I haven’t seen lizard or snake on the menu anywhere here. I’m sure it probably is I just haven’t noticed it (in a bunch of places they don’t have menus in English. I have seen frog and deer and wild boar (and of course squid is common and I really like it). When I have had alligator or snake I have liked it. Nice lean meat.

If you know what type of lizards are in the photos (and what the larger one might be) please mention it, in a comment.

Pasir Gudang World Kite Festival in Johor Bahru: February 15th to 19th, 2012

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The above webcast is of the 2011 International Kite Festival at Pasir Gudang, Johor Bahru. The 2012 festival, will run from February 15th to February 19th and is the 17th year the kite fair has been held. This looks like quite an enjoyable event.

Their web site says that last year over 180 international kite flyers from 25 countries came to Pasir Gudang. It also say 100,000 spectators cheer the opening ceremony. That number seems amazing to me. The web site also offers a schedule of events.

There is also a Kite Museum.

I am pretty sure the taxi rate they list on the festival web site it out of date (it would be more now). If you know the buses that can be taken from JB Sentral to Pasir Gudang, please add a comment?

Related: Johor Bahru Zoo – Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpor – Tourist Attractions in Kuala Lumpur

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