Me and Mark go roadtripping Part 1

I had looked forward to taking Mark on a short trip around Malaysia before he went off to do his National Service. It didn’t quite happen that way as I was overseas at the time. Then early this July we finally managed to get away together for a few days. Not the full-blown trip I had wanted but it was close enough.

As is my wont, I chose a circuitous route through Johor that went around Kota Tinggi and we found ourselves in Kluang at lunch time. We stopped at the railway station and had a simple nasi lemak meal at the stall next tot he station. After lunch we wandered around the station itself and found the Kluang Rail Coffee outlet.

The staff were really friendly and invited me step behind if I wanted to take pictures - an offer I took them up on. Stuck in the hustle and bustle of Singapore, the slower pace of life and the natural warmth and friendliness of Malaysians is always such a welcome contrast and relief. Despite not patronising the outlet, the staff were never less than friendly.

 They sell their own brand of coffee too if you like.

Kluang isn’t such a small town of course though my contact with the town has been limited to my brother Francis living here some years ago when he worked at  Endau Rompin National Park, and my meetings with Kimberley Clark whose 26-acre factory nearby once contemplated buying my LED lights.

In many ways Kluang is the kind of Malaysian town I like - busy enough in the town centre but quieter in the adjoining residential areas. And of course, just a few minutes’ drive and you’re in rural Malaysia.

If we walked along the tracks to the left, we'd eventually reach Singapore. And to the right would be KL, assuming we took the right track at Gemas which is the main junction for the west-coast and east-coast tracks. 

The old ticket office sign - The sign remains although there is now an air-conditioned area just around the corner.

Mark on the Kluang platform.

From Kluang we got back on the highway (which I usually dislike, but the need to be speedy was becoming more pressing). The PJ house was as it has been these last few years, though the missing garden wall was puzzling… As were dislodged slate tiles form the driveway… Hmmm had there been some calamity in the months I had not visited? Turns out it was just repairs and refurbishments.
The garden fence, mounted on a low concrete base, had begun to lean so was being replaced with something sturdier. Meanwhile some of the slate tiles had, as slate is inclined to do, cracked or sloughed off layers and were also being replaced.

What hadn’t changed was the reception my old dog, Cookie, gave me. She is all of 9 now but still greets me like she used to when she was a pup - by trying to jump on me and lick me to death. Her tail whipped up a little whirlwind of dust and shed dog fur as she excitedly strained against her chain. To be honest I was as happy to see her as she to see me.

I adopted her from the SPCA in 2003 when living alone had begun to wear me down a little and they say the ones you adopt know you’ve saved them from a potentially nasty fate and have a strong bond with you. Whoever ‘they’ are, they know what they’re talking about. Even though she’s now lived longer with my sister, Rosemary, in PJ than she did with me in Singapore, Cookie still gets all excited when I drop by. In fact, Rosemary remarked that she doesn’t wag her tail when Cookie greets the PJ House residents, but she does for me when I visit.

Good dog… heh heh

Next: Eating our way through PJ...