Jalan Dhoby JB – The hidden delights of an age gone by.

Assalamualaikum dear Brothers & Sisters,

As promised, I am sharing with you more photos that I took of the hidden old town enclave in bustling and busy Johor Bahru City or JB as it is affectionately called by its inhabitants.

I captured these scenes along Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru, along the same stretch with Salahuddin Bakery which I featured before this article here in my blog.

Narrow streets at JB Old Town

The following scene has many different perspectives to it. I just snapped this scene instantly without realizing what a poignant moment it has successfully captured!

A poignant moment captured

The sight of this old Indian man looking forlornly at the foreground, waiting patiently for customers. Sad but beautiful, won’t you agree?

I am sure that his business will pick up once the Deepavali shoppers throng the area. Hopefully.

Update
Due to fulfilling a wish by one of my readers and a fellow blogger, Intan Suzana Ahmad of Eskapisminda, here is a B & W visual of the image above as she wanted?

Hope you are happy now Intan. 🙂

JB Tailors

I then came across this Pakistani male tailor, busy stitching his customers orders, probably trying to finish the orders of his Deepavali celebrating customers.

I took this picture of two busy tailors operating in another shop. I guess tailors get pretty busy come every festive day here in Malaysia. Business peaks during these times because those who can afford it surely will want to wear new clothes and look good during their respective big days? ‘Mesti mau nampak lawa aa!’

Heritage Buildings in JB

This impressive looking building harks from a glorious era gone by. You don’t get to see such buildings preserved that much nowadays. Greedy developers always smash and demolish such quaint artistically architectured masterpieces today.

Instead of such elegant buildings, they raise humongous skyscrapers made with cold steel and impersonal glass facaded structures, meant to make the most of space jutting upwards, void of any human creativity and creative impulses such as those shown here in the magnificence of the JB old town heritage. I do hope that this building is preserved for the sake of future generations. It will be a shame and huge loss to lose this classical heritage.

Petition Writers and Commissioners of Oaths
One thing I noticed around this area is a plethora of petition writers and commissioners of oaths.

Hehehehe…I guess with the current spate of Statutory Declarations and Statements being issued by concerned citizens, bloggers and whoever has a vested agenda in the turn of events especially those politically infused happenings affecting the ones in power and the obviously impatient hungry for power ones out there in the Pakatan Rakyat leadership, these commissioners of oaths would have been kept busy by those folks, day in, day out, eh?

JB’s Commissioners of Oaths are ready at your service! 🙂
Got anything to swear by?

Hehehehehe…Saiful swore upon his arsehole that Anwar was the one who buggered him but that did nothing to stop the PKR Supremo and PM wannabe from winning the P44 Permatang Pauh Parliamentary By Election recently.

PI Bala swore that Najib had something to do with the Altantuya Shaariibuu case where Razak Baginda gave the order to C4 the Mongolian model cum translator but that sworn Statutory Declaration has not dislodged even a nostril hair from the designated Prime Minister so far and now Bala has become the missing PI.

All these turn of events must surely be keeping our nation’s Commissioner of Oaths very happy. Come on everyone else, surely you must have something to swear? Hehehehe..

Daily swearings
I figure that millions of my fellow Malaysians swear like hell everytime they pass through the dysfunctional Malaysian Checkpoint at JB’s Causeway everyday and night as they dodge the potholes on their way to seek their keep in Singapore. 🙂

The Malaysian Immigration, Customs and Police checkpoints are manned by ghosts who never seem to materialize when we Malaysians pass through but they will briefly show up the minute a Singapore registered car drives up. 😛

So, I swear upon them for tarnishing our nation’s image. @#$%^&!

Hehehehehe………..nang buti nang, kui buti kui…trang tang tang tang tang…cak pong!…

Major Reasons why Singaporeans come to JB?
Malaysia may never be as advanced and well kept as Singapore is today but it surely has enough attractions of its own to keep them Singaporeans swamping JB everyday.

The cheaper price of petrol here is a major attraction for them to wait in patience for the daily crawl through Woodlands Checkpoint and evade the nasty potholes at our JB Malaysian Checkpoints to save lots of their Singapore Dollars by filling up over here at the JB petrol pumps.

Petrol is sold at S$1.97 per litre over at Singapore which comes up to RM4.60 per litre in the island republic. Based on an exchange rate of RM2.34 to S$1.00.

Exchange Rates

Talking about the exchange rates. I strongly advise those of you who are Malaysians to change your Singapore Dollars at the Woodlands Town Centre in Singapore where the majority of the Singaporean Moneychangers offer much more better rates than the Malaysian ones at JB!

The average exchange rate they offer at JB is just RM2.34 for every Singapore Dollar there whilst the Singaporean Moneychangers at Woodlands Town Centre give you RM2.365 for every S$1.00!

That’s it for now folks.

Catch you later with more updates of my recent travels down to JB and our short holiday in Singapore.

Have a blessed day!

Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

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