This bakery in downtown Johor Bahru has excellent breads and great prices. It is downtown in the historic district. It is on the same block as the Masjid India (an Indian Mosque).
Bread at Johor Bahru Bakery
Related posts: The Village Briyani Cafe in Johor Bahru – P1 Broadband Wimax in Johor Bahru, Malaysia – Hotels and Accommodations in Malaysia
Muffins and breads
When looking at smart cell phone options in Malaysia the choices really boil down to iPhone v. Android (in my opinion). Here I will look at some Android options. Celcom, Digi and Maxis are the largest service providers in Malaysia (U-mobile is another option). For me the Celcom monthly prices seem to high. I am not planning on being a heavy user, they may make more sense for heavy users.
Samsung Galaxy S2
4.3 inch screen. 1 Gb of RAM. 16 Gb of included memory, can add another 32 Gb. Runs Gingerbread, Android 2.3.
Digi: 12 month, RM 48 plan (1Gb) RM 1,699 upfront payment – 24 month, RM 68 plan (3Gb) RM 1,349 – RM 88/mo (RM 1,349 upfront). Digi offers unlimited data roaming for RM 36 a day in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and more.
Maxis: If I understand RM 58/m (500Mb), RM 78/m (1.5 Gb), 88/m (3Gb). Additional RM 500 deposit for non-Malaysians.
HTC Sensation
Digi: 12 month, RM 48 plan (1Gb) RM 1,799 upfront payment – 24 month, RM 68 plan (3Gb) RM 1,399 – RM 88/mo (RM 1,349 upfront).
Maxis: If I understand RM 58/m (500Mb), RM 78/m (1.5 Gb), 88/m (3Gb). 12 month 78/m RM upfront payment RM 1,799. Super deal if you go for 88/m and 24 month contract RM 999. Additional RM 500 deposit for non-Malaysians.
Comparison of hardware and performance between Samsung Galaxy and HTC Sensation.
HTC Wildfire S
Digi: 12 month, RM 48 plan (1Gb) RM 849 upfront payment – 24 month, RM 68 plan (3Gb) RM 499.
Maxis: If I understand RM 58/m (500Mb), RM 78/m (1.5 Gb), 88/m (3Gb). 12 month 78/m RM upfront payment RM 899. 78/m and 24 month contract RM 599. Additional RM 500 deposit for non-Malaysians.
Huawei IDEOS X3 is a decent looking budget Android option (RM 599). Review at LiewCF. It runs Gingerbread (Android 2.3). 3.2 inch screen.
The cell phone providers don’t seem to offer the Huawei directly so I guess you need to buy it and then get a plan with them separately.
Related: P1 Broadband Wimax in Johor Bahru, Malaysia – Kindle DX with New E Ink Technology – Droid Incredible
Update: P1 is unreliable, do not consider them for anything but a backup. Once they provide historical and real time uptime and real speed data from a 3rd party then you can think of considering them. In 6 weeks they have been down multiple days for multiple hours. One day for 1 hour would be bad. Being down several hours in a month would be very bad. They have been that unreliable and down multiple weeks (I think 50% of the weeks) for multiple hours a multiple days. Extremely poor. They don’t even have bother to apologize and explain each failure (at least 3 long term very serious failures in 6 weeks). As I stated in the last update, that tells you enough them to avoid P1, if you are smart. And it also explains why they keep failing over and over and over (when they don’t even acknowledge the causes of the failures, maybe they don’t even figure them out).
Finding a decent provider isn’t easy, the reviews online make it seem like P1 is as good as any provider (maybe Unify is best but it is offered on in very limited locations).
I needed broadband internet for my condo in Johor Bahru. In looking at the various options they seemed pretty similar. P1 offers the highest speed I saw 5Mbps and 30Gb a month (for the RM 139 a month plan) and so that seemed best to me. They also offer a 7 day trial period which was nice. And you can use it in 2 hours (after some setup by their system to activate your modem), which is nice. You can check out if your area is covered.
My speed was pretty bad at first. I was able to get support through Twitter. After awhile they said they would monitor the modem from their side. Then they said they made tweaks to the modem and things actually do seem better. I really wonder what they do to speed it up? The speed is still not near 5 Mbps. If I average 1.5 Mbps I would be surprised. I have only had it for about a week now so I do need to get more data. Today it has been above 2 Mbps for much of the day so if that continues it could be good (I even had 2 tests where it was nearly 4 Mbps – the average today may well be above 3). But it does seem 5 Mbps is much more a marketing gimick that what you can expect. But I don’t know if p1’s difference from their marketing is any more exaggerated than anyone else. Also I probably need close to 30 Gb so that factor matters to. If I could average 3 Mbps and had very little downtown (99.5% uptime) I will happy.
I have had several 10 or 15 min times already where I was trying to get online and couldn’t. I am hoping that is maybe initial setup issues (though really that doesn’t make much sense which is why I am just hoping). p1 has been good enough that I am passing the 7 day mark without cancelling, hopefully I won’t regret it.
I think I would have gone with Unify. They are a land-line provider which should be more reliable (historically the problem with landlines has been slow customer service and high fees, Unify is meant to address these issues and seems to be doing better on those scores). Unify’s VIP 5 plan offers 5 Mbps download and 60 Gb per month. Really I think if I was smart this is what I should have done. It takes awhile to setup and I think the upfront charges are more. I might even get Unify on top of p1 (just because I am so reliant on the internet to do my job). I really can’t have outages or it can be a serious problem. Probably it would have been smart to get the Unify package and then the a cheaper p1 plan. Oh well, trying to do all the things I have to do to get setup has been pretty stressful, making a few mistakes isn’t so horrible. I’ll just have to earn more money so I can afford to add Unify (or maybe I’ll find just P1 is enough).
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I wrote about the Malaysian Residence Pass for Skilled Professionals previously. I found some up to date links to the official site, with some updated information (do see my original post, as the post shares information I don’t see on the official site now – that information may not be official but it does provide some good ideas on what was being thought of when the program was originally announced).
One part of the plan for long term economic growth is to focus on workers with highly valued talents globally: technology, engineering (oil production, construction, manufacturing…), higher education, health care… From the official TalentCorp site (this is the organization the government is putting in charge of implementation of the efforts to attract and grow talent):
a nation’s economic growth would hinge on its ability to attract, nurture and retain top talent. Malaysia has thus far achieved some success in steering its economy to current levels. Going forward, talent is expected to play a key role in supporting Malaysia achieve its objectives of propelling the economy to a high-income status.
Major cities around the world have thrived because of talent and their ability to capitalize on the best and brightest minds around. Malaysian professionals from abroad and top foreign talent complement the Malaysian talent pool, providing variety and diversity in terms of expertise and experience. Our local pool must be enhanced with the best skills and talents that can be tapped globally.
We welcome talent to Malaysia, which offers a host of opportunities for talent to develop and enhance their skills and experience in key sectors of the economy. The Malaysian Government has rolled out various initiatives and programs to engage top foreign talent in the long term.
As I mentioned the Residence Pass (which offers a long term visa without being tied to 1 employer – for skilled professionals) program was signed in April of 2011 to attract and keep top talent in Malaysia. Since my original post the program is officially providing the new passes. However, at this time, it is limited to those expats already with a current visa and having been in Malaysia on such a visa for the last 3 years.
Obviously this is a very small percentage of the talent available globally. So the program will obviously need to expand to be more useful. But I don’t see any details on when that will happen. I have asked but have not received a response yet. Please share information you have that others would find interesting.
As I said before, I think this effort to attract, retain and encourage the development of internationally valuable talent is a very wise move by Malaysia. I have written about the importance of science and engineering to economic development on the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog for years: How to Build a World Class Technology Economy (2006) – The Economic Benefits of Engineering Excellence (2007) – Keeping Out Technology Workers is not a Good Economic Strategy (2009) – Science and Engineering in Global Economics (2006) – Asia: Rising Stars of Science and Engineering (2007).
Related: Penang Condo Market – Strong Singapore Dollar – Singapore Ranks Highly as an Expat Destination
January 2012 Update: The store is now closed at this location. I have a new post about the new location in Permas Jaya.
The Treasure Book Store, Danga City Mall, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
The Treasure store offers thousands of popular and rare used English language books at the Danga City Mall in downtown Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Malaysia (as well as Singapore) have very high book prices. 50-100% above those in the USA for the same books. While I was exploring I found this nice bookstore with a source of interesting reading: which was a very nice surprise. I was actually contemplating starting a used bookstore, if I couldn’t find one. The Danga City Mall seemed to have lots of available space (so I was thinking it might not be expensive) and for a good English language bookstore, I was thinking you might be able to draw customers (rather than relying on foot traffic – which seemed like it would be problematic).
Even prices for used books are high in Malaysia and Singapore, as much as new books in the USA. Treasure Books has thousands of used books for sale and rent in English. Authors include: John Grisham, Michael Crichton, David Baldacci, Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson, Ken Follet, Dan Brown, Danielle Steel… You pay the purchase price but when you return the book you will get a refund minus a 5 Ringgit (or so) rental fee.
The owner is quite friendly and the inventory doesn’t fit in the shop so let her know if you have special requests. Also, I don’t think the store has regular hours, so you would be wise to call ahead and make sure it is open before making a trip.
I was excited to find so many interesting books and hope we can make the store popular and keep in in business. The Danga City Mall in general is nice but if you visit it is obvious the traffic needs to increase to sustain the existing stores and bring in more merchants (there are tens of empty store spots). The mall has a very good IT section with many stores and also has a bowling alley, paintball field and grocery store.
Related: Good, Cheap, Johor Bahru Hotels – Online Resources for Living in Johor Bahru – Malaysian Residence Pass for Skilled Professionals
View an interactive version of the map.
I took this photo while walking from Batu Feringgi to Tanjung Bungah on Penang. There were some nice views, like this one, but it probably isnโt very smart to walk that path as considerable distances have no sidewalk at all and you have to walk within a foot of where cars and trucks zoom by. And even when there is a sidewalk you have to be watchful for huge holes, feet across and several feet deep, you could easily fall through.
The lack of consideration given to pedestrians in the design and operation of Penang is a big reason I don’t think I will live there. The buses were very convenient, and cheap, for the Georgetown to Batu Feringgi corridor, that part of the urban planning has been done very well.
See more photos from Penang.
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I head over to Kuala Lumpor in just over a week. Here is a photo of me on what may have been my first trip to Malaysia. I appear to be looking to jump over the railing.
Perhaps my first trip to Malaysia (I am on the left)
This photo is actually a photo of a slide projected on the screen, which was my brother’s suggestion for a quick way to digitize some slides. It works amazingly well (for posting images to the web) and is very quick and easy.
Recently I have been looking into Kuching in the eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Boreno. So far I am very impressed. Kuching is the capital of Sarawak with a population of 600,000. Malaysia’s portion of Borneo is about the same size as peninsular Malaysia. As an added bonus Kuching is also know as cat city (Kucing is cat in old western Malay, I read, though from what I have found it may be more likely the city got the name from the Chinese word for port (“cochin”) coupled with the Malay name mata kucing (cat’s-eye) for the longan fruit, a popular trade item.
Kushing is a popular point for tourists to use as a base for visiting the Borneo rain forests full of many wonders one of which is the orangutan. Kuching is the largest city in Borneo and the 4th largest city in Malaysia, after Kuala Lumpor, Penang and Johor Bahru.
Related: Living Life in Malaysia as an Expatriot – Orangutan Attempts to Hunt Fish with Spear – Bornean Clouded Leopard – First Lungless Frog Found
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The Residence Pass program officially launched on April 1st. I still can’t find much information on it. If I am reading things right, Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd has been tapped by the government to lead this effort.
The Residence Pass was a new immigration instrument which offers 5 to 10 years of residence and work in Malaysia. Unlike other employment passes it is not tied to a specific employers so it allows workers to move between jobs much more easily. For the initial phase of implementation, Residence Pass applicants must hold a valid Employment Pass. The Residence Pass is targeted at world-class talents and thus, to secure approval, applicants must demonstrate a high level of professional achievements, supported by possession of relevant qualifications and work experience, especially in key economic sectors, as identified under the Economic Transformation Programme.
Currently, only those with current employment passes are eligible to apply (but eventually it will be opened to others). To requirements/materials needed to apply for the RP Talent pass are:
My understanding (though I could definitely be wrong) is that the last two will be removed at a later date, I believe, allowing those who have not worked in Malaysia to apply. I believe the idea is to retain and attract new talent, therefore the last two requirements don’t seem to make sense. My guess is they are just using it, initially, as a way to control applications.
The Residence Pass Talent Application Form is required only for manual submission of applications. Required documents include: copy of passport, updated resume, and a copy of educational certificates. It seems to cost 2,000+MYR to apply (about $700).
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Johor Bahru is right next to Singapore on the Southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia. Many working in Singapore live in Johor Bahru for the substantially cheaper rents and costs. Malaysia has create the Iskandar Development Region to focus on creating economic success in Southern Johor.
Singapore and Malaysia have been moving to encourage cooperation on projects that cross the border. The 2nd link added additional capacity for car, truck, motor bikes and buses and they are now working to add MRT (Mass Rapid Transit trains) link between Johor Bahru and Sinapore.
Here are some resources I have found online for those interested in considering a move to Johor Bahru:
Blogs about Johor Bahru
Sites useful for moving to Malaysia