May 17th,2010

Puteri Harbour Marian, Johor, Malaysia

Hi All,

  I haven’t written for a bit, but then I’ve not had much to write about.  We were here in Puteri last year about this time for the Malaysia Rally.  Things haven’t changed at the marina but there is more construction evident and now there is a Tesco near the Jusco for our Thursday shopping trip.  The marina provides transport on Tuesday evenings to Gelan Petah for the night market and on Thursday we go to the Jusco Mall for grocery store shopping.  The transportation is free and that’s a very nice service.

  This past Thursday Randal left for the Philippines to visit our friend Dean who is vacationing there.  Dean helped us during our passage from Hong Kong to the Philippines in 2007.  He has a 382 Diesel Duck that he travels with along the East Coast of the US.  Randal and Dean are spending the week swapping stories.  Randal will be back this Friday.  I’ve spent the time cleaning the boat, reading, walking, painting and just relaxing without feeling that I should be out exploring.  Our friend Liz from Blue Tango is coming to visit me tomorrow for a few days and we’ll practice our painting together.  It’s really nice to have an art buddy.  Before we leave the area Randal and I hope to take a bus to Singapore to visit with Marie-Louise too and hear about her 3 week trip to Vietnam. 

  Not real sure what our plans are but we have to make them soon or there will be no time.  We’ve talked about Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and also China and Tibet.  But so far we have no plan. 

  Each morning I go out and walk for about an hour around the whole complex as it exists now.  Randal and I have biked into Gelan Petah, the small town about 8 miles from here.  It’s nice to have our bikes and now I have the old-fashioned pedals again so I can wear my sneakers and not have to walk around in my bike shoes with the clips that slip on tile shop floors.  I used to ride in saddle shoes because of the stiffer soles so will have to get a pair when we next come home.  Anyway, here are some photos from my walk with some info describing the complex where the marina is located. 

Ru

Doramac

Puteri Harbour http://www.nusajayacity.com/sdev_puteri.php

“Puteri Harbour is the jewel of Nusajaya. This waterfront precinct, is an integrated waterfront and marina development that spans 688 acres offering a panoramic view of the Straits of Johor. Puteri Harbour redefines luxury living and offers boundless real estate benefits to the astute investor. Located adjacent to Kota Iskandar (Johor state new administrative centre), Puteri Harbour will be a unique luxurious lifestyle community, offering the experience of exceptional waterfront living, dining, entertainment, the arts and culture in a safe and picture postcard natural setting.

It is an ideal location for global or regional commerce and events, with state-of-the-art facilities and a business-friendly environment that will create world-class personal or business investment opportunities.

Puteri Harbour’s development components comprise waterfront residential (prime waterfront properties), commercial development (offices and retail shops), FAME ( Food & beverage outlets, Arts, Music and Entertainment), transportation hub (water transport terminal for water taxis and ferry, bus terminal, tram and LRT station), a marina (berthing, chandlery and accommodation facilities for boaters, yachters, boat/yacht charter owners/operators and water sports owners/operators) and a Cultural Park initiated and owned by the Johor State Government” from Puteri’s website

Kota Iskandar http://www.nusajayacity.com/sdev_jsnac.php

Kota Iskandar (Johor state new administrative centre) is a 320-acre integrated development comprising Johor State and Federal Government offices, set amidst landscaped gardens and parks. Kota Iskandar’s milieu of state and federal government complexes within one area will contribute to facilitate the government machinery’s efficiency befitting the status of a modern and progressive administration. With improved facilities, connectivity and efficiency, the public sector administration will offer enhanced support to existing business within Nusajaya and to attracting companies that have greater positive impact on the economy and quality of life.

The components that will establish Kota Iskandar as the seat of Johor’s government are the Johor State Assembly, Chief Minister & State Secretary Complex, Dataran Mahkota Plaza and the State Government Departments Complex that will be completed during Phase 1. The development of the Federal Government Department Complex is scheduled for completion during Phase 3.

Nusajaya – The World in One City http://www.nusajayacity.com/nusajaya_main.php

What it all looks like now as I walk around the complex.

What it looks like now.

I’m just starting out on my walk around the complex. It takes me about an hour to walk around perimeter of the complex with the buildings that exist now. Some are very modern looking structures and some remind me of Ali Baba stories. I like the Ali Baba ones better. With my shorts on I was allowed into the modern one to eat at the small cafeteria, but wasn’t allowed into the others. Fair enough. I do know the rules and didn’t expect to go in. Randal and I were out biking and that’s why I had shorts on when we stopped at the cafeteria to eat. It is for the government workers but they let us eat too. It was good and cheap.

This is one of the areas within the complex. I was told that the domed building is a mosque.

Across the circular drive from the mosque is this building.

There is some stadium seating here too; just a small area so outdoor events must take place here. Maybe flag raising and lowering ceremonies.

A waterfall inside the mosque building and this is one of the domes. It was early in the morning and no one was around and at this point I didn’t know it was a mosque.

The domes from the outside.

Another building complex with gardens and fountains.

It’s quite lovely but too hot to enjoy during the heat of the day. I can’t imagine being dressed in all of those clothes and working in the heat but they all do.

Two vastly different types of architecture. If form follows function it would be interesting to know what types of activities goes on inside.

The hills across the way are actually Singapore across the Straits of Johor that looks like a narrow river separating the marina from Singapore.

Red Warning Sign.

Behind those trees is some kind of Singapore military base and you can hear live rounds being fired. When I started my walk the other day I left the marina parking lot and started up this road. More berthing areas are being built here. All of a sudden I heard a siren and then from a megaphone, Attention! Attention! Then came a warning in at least 5 languages, English the second, that live shooting would begin in the area and everyone needed to be away. Of course the shooting was on the other side of the river not aimed our way so there was nothing to fear. What I thought about was how diverse the population was so that the announcement needed to be made in so many languages. The official language of Singapore is English and children are taught in English. In Malaysia it depends where a student goes to school and what subject it is and it must cost a fortune to have a population that needs materials written in so many languages. I understand a bit of French from years of it at school and have a Spanish book that I am supposedly going to teach myself. Since we’re planning to stop in the Middle East I should try to refresh any bits of Hebrew I can dredge up.

This is the small marina complex. There is a small but pretty good restaurant, a small shop with things like peanut butter and other staples, boat stuff, and gifts too. Upstairs is a chart room with a paperback collection where cruisers bring what they’ve read and try to find something they want to read to take away. So far I’ve donated but haven’t found anything I want to read. Luckily I stocked up before we came.

This shot is from the bow of our boat looking at the marina office building.

From the back of the boat ongoing construction.

We really do seem to be in the middle of nowhere.

A bus trip to Johor Bahru

The marina drove us to the middle of the complex area where we caught a bus to Gelan Petah the small town about 8 miles from here where we go for the Tuesday Night Market. There we changed buses for Johor Bahru. Altogether it took almost 3 hours. It takes about 30 minutes by taxi. By boat along the river Strait it’s about 5 miles.

Ladies at lunch in the complex cafeteria.

It did occur to me that I was a bit under-dressed in my bike shorts and sleeveless top. Luckily they are the walking shorts kind of bike shorts rather than the lycra kind. But no one really took notice of me so that was good. But next time I’ll wear leggings too which I bought the other day just for the purpose of not offending anyone.

Red Sox on MLB on Astro satellite TV.

Thank goodness the Sox beat the Yankees that day. I have been spending half of each day cleaning the boat since there are no tempting places to walk to like in George Town. Everything needs to be cleaned because the entire interior is teak. I can honestly say I didn’t worry about washing walls at home but here, walls, ceiling, everything has to be cleaned because during a passage the whole boat is open and salty air and grit gets everywhere. It takes forever and It definitely isn’t my favorite thing to do. Randal does the outside and I do the inside. At least you don’t get sun burnt cleaning the inside.

We finally have put up our American flag convinced that most folks around SE Asia actually really like Americans. Interestingly the Malaysian flag also has red and white stripes, but 14, and a blue square though with a yellow crescent and sun on the blue square. There are 13 states but the federal government gets a stripe too. And the sun has 14 points too. Wikipedia calls it a star but it looks like a sun to me. The crescent represents Islam. Because we are guests in Malaysia we fly the Malaysian flag higher than any other.