Johor Bahru
About 9.00 in the morning the taxi fetched us at our hotel in Singapore where we began our journey. We drove to Johor Bahru, it took about half an hour and cost us 40 Singapore dollars. The first mistake we made was not reading the address thoroughly. The address was only the name of a building, the Pan Global Plaza in the Wong Ah Fook Avenue. Logically when we arrived the taxi driver couldn't find out where that building was. Furthermore the rather scared taxi driver began to suggest that if he wouldn't be back fast, Malaysian taxi drivers would mind. So we were left stranded at the taxi stop on the Wong Ah Fook avenue with all our luggage and no idea where our destination was. So next time make the deal to pay only when dropped off at the right address.

Meanwhile, don't be afraid to ask… Someone should know… it was that building over there… So we hailed a taxi, no deal, it was too close for the taxi. Money talks, I'll pay you twice and the deal was on. So we came with luggage etc. to the building and had to look for the Pacific Car hire office suite 214. This was an entirely different setup than we were accustomed to in the states where you just drive in and out of the carhire agency building. Ok, so hiring cars isn't common (yet) in Malaysia.

After half an hour we could drive away in a Malaysian Proton Wira (Mitsubishi 1.5 engine). It had clocked over 160.000 km's and the documents actually accounted for numerous scratches and dents on the car. It had a right hand drive steering wheel and was quite loaded with all kinds of electrical gadgets like a sunscreen on the backwindow. The most important was the aircon of course. Getting out of the rather low positioned seat took a bit of gymnastics until I found out how to adjust the steering wheel.

How's driving right hand for a left hander? To tell you the truth, I was so occupied with finding the way and looking out for other drivers and driving an unknown car that I didn't notice the difference.

There were numerous Rest & Recreation havens along the highway. Premises and toilets were usually clean, tidy and free. Some havens had restaurants, prayer rooms and some had gaspumps. The restaurants offered usually low fare but tasty asian meals like laksa, soto, noodles etc. One even had a Mac Donald.

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