Going East

Kota Tinggi - Larkin - Mersing

I really do have no plans, except for an intention to move northwards, no bookings beyond the hotel I’m staying in, not even a flight home (I have no idea where I will fly home from). So when I realise that the J10 bus that has brought be to Taman Melodies carries on all the way to Kota Tinggi, I go there. It’s about an hour north of Johor Bahru, through a lot of palm oil trees, on the banks of the Johor River, and has a population of a bit under 60,000 people. It was badly hit by floods in 2006 - the water is reported as being up 5.45 meters. The whole town was underwater for two weeks! There’s a waterfall 17 km northwest of town which seems to be closed to allow for mining operations (it’s hard to tell, because people keep reviewing it). There’s a firefly park an hour away in the other direction. Otherwise, it appears to have no touristic appeal at all.

I visit thanks to Tash Aw’s lovely book, South. It is set in a failing orchard just outside Kota Tinggi, but the characters spend a fair amount of time in town, frequently lounging by the river. It’s set in 1997 so no doubt things have changed, but the mention of the bridge fixes the location of their lounging quite clearly outside my hotel window. Chuan works in the nearby 7-11, and sends Jay there to get beer: I think it is the same 7-11 from which I buy beer. Jessie is a hairdresser. I think a lot about these characters (and the others in the book) as I wander around Kota Tinggi.

The building on the right is the Hotel Seri Kota Satu - it doesn’t look like much, but I get an impressively warm welcome when I get there and the room is big and clean, with a view of the river (which proves to be a hassle at around 11 at night, as hordes of noisy motorbikes pass under it - the window, not the river). Opposite is the Chinese restaurant recommended to me by my hotel when I mentioned I wanted beer. The menu is simply a big sheet of paper on the wall with lines of Chinese characters. My phone does a good job of translation, and I get a mutton soup claypot.

Overnight, I discover that Malaysia’s second biggest fishing port, Tanjung Sedili, is 37 km away and there’s a bus to get there, so I book another night’s stay. None of the three decent coffee shops are open before 11, so I go into the one place that’s open (“Malaysia’s leading F&B brand”) and receive an undrinkable cup of mildly coffee flavoured hot milk. More bad news at the bus station - there is a bus, but it’s a free bus for Malaysians only, paid for by the Johor State. A taxi would be around $30, but I could get stuck in Tanjung Sedili. I flag the idea. The museum is a 30 minute walk away, so I start there. It is very focussed! All of the walls are taken up with pictures and descriptions of the Johor Sultans (the Sultanate was established here in the 1500’s) and a few supporters. A couple of pictures show what happened to people they didn’t like.

These are both from the time of Portuguese occupation. There was a plan to kill the Portuguese but they found out about it and killed the ringleade, by throwing him off a tower. The Portuguese sent a messenger to the Sultan to inform him of this event: the messenger met a similar fate. Apart from the Sultan exhibition, there’s a large collection of knives, particularly the kris, and a random selection of Chinese pottery.

For lunch, I find a really nice place - the Laughing Cantee - where I have a Mee Siam Ayam: it’s too big!

I find the local library, which is an interesting experience. It’s a small white two-storey building, with just a security guard. The upstairs is blocked off and I see no librarians. It’s very austere inside - to one side, a room full of child siazed table and chairs, and normal sized ones to the other. I have to take my shoes off and leave them outside - not put them in the shelves inside, that’s for my bag. Complete silence the whole time I’m there - I see a lot of shoes when I leave. I stay until the battery runs out on my tablet, reading Asako Yuzuki’s Butter.

I think that, since I’ve made a start, I’ll explore the East Coast but am dismayed by the weather forecasts: rain and thunderstorms everywhere I look. But someone on Tripadvisor reassures me that it’s probably not going to be as bad as it looks. I grab an umbrella when I get my morning coffee but agree with myself that if it’s raining hard when it’s time to check out, I’m staying. It’s actually pretty fine. I do feel sad to go, even though there’s nothing to keep me here.

There’s no bus north of Kota Tinggi, at least not one that will pick me up here. All of the bus ticket offices in the station have closed down and no online service has a departure from here so I have to go back to Johor Bahru, where I find no departures until 8:30 p.m. This makes it easy to stay put at the Larkin bus station. It’s ringed by hotels, shops and eateries - I love the Chocolate Dream I get from Loaf Adam Patisserie.

When I was in China, I developed a habit of getting an ice cream from Mixue, and have picked it up here - it’s just a snowfreeze for 2 ringgit. The shops are really for infants - they have the Snow King, and play an idiotic jingle quite loudly (“I love you, you love me, Mingxue Ice Cream and Tea”). It’s continuous with the only variation being that it switches to Chinese. But the ice cream is refreshing and they make lemonade that tastes exactly like the lemonade I’d make as a child (six lemons, a cup of sugar in a half gallon flagon of water). At Larkin, I find Bingxue - a competitor with a quieter jingle. More importantly, for my 2 ringgit I get more ice cream and a cone that doesn’t crack, plus they put the cobe into a card disk to catch drips. Momoya is a local equivalent, but their ice cream lacks structural integrity.

My first destination as i head up the East Coast is Mersing, at the head of the Johor River. It’s a bit bigger than Kota Kinggi, with around 80,000 people, The bus creaks and groans for the two hours it takes to travel the 120 km to get there. My hotel here, the Daily Inn, is also riverside but I don’t have a view of the river - in fact, I have no window.

It’s a short walk to the beach - there are a few families in the adjacent park and a couple of guys flying kites but no one is actually on the beach.

I didn’t plan to have KFC for dinner, but when I go in to get a couple of egg tarts, I add a few extras and end up with too much to eat. These tarts are the best thing KFC has ever made. Fact!

In the morning, I book for another night and set out on something that becomes more of an adventure than intended. That’s for next time.

Cheers!