Today we woke up early and had worship at the Guesthouse before taking the MRT to the bus station. We stopped for breakfast before going down to the bus loading dock. Thank goodness! We were running out of food in our room at the guesthouse, so the breakfast break was greatly appreciated. I stopped at a place that served make-your-own rice balls. You pick the type of rice and fillings you want, then they press the rice around the filling to form a shape that resembles a miniaturized Chipotle burrito. I chose purple sticky rice and pickles, veggie duck, and carrots, green beans, etc. It was so good! Downstairs, we boarded a bus to the customs station that sits at the very edge of Singapore. We briefly exited the bus to go through customs before reloading the same bus again. Next, we drove across a bridge through no man's land, and reached another customs station at the Malaysian border. After we went through Malaysian customs and got some lunch, we dropped our bags at the hotel.
We visited a Sikh Temple where we were given a tour of the worship area and treated to a cup of piping hot Chai tea. Even in this heat and humidity, it was a nice treat.
Once outside the temple, a woman introduced herself to us and started pestering us with questions. She began with the typical questions one might ask of a tourist. "Where are you from?" "What brings you here?" "How long will you be staying?" Then she began to tell us more about herself. "I used to draw portraits of Bill Clinton while I was studying at UCLA." "Oh really?" we replied. (Note the thinly veiled skepticism.) Then she cornered several of the girls and told them of various homeopathic remedies they could use to make their acne go away. We thought she was Sikh, but she proudly corrected our assumptions. "I'm not a Sikh! I'm a Methodist!" We pretended to be in a hurry and quickly scurried off.
We walked around Little India and dropped the group off at a Hindu Mosque before Dr. Perumal and I went to get the cell phones activated. On the way, we made reservations at an Indian restaurant for dinner. As we were leaving the restaurant, the same Methodist woman from the Sikh temple found us! She began arguing with Dr. Perumal and pestering us that we hadn't given the Sikhs a big enough donation and now they were all very upset with us. Dr. Perumal and I tried to make it clear that this was not the case, but she was extremely belligerent. We raced across a street just as the light was changing, leaving her on the other side of a busy stream of traffic. I looked back to see her pacing back and forth on the corner where we left her, then wandering towards an open-air market. I think she completely made up the story about the Sikhs being mad at us, but Dr. Perumal went back to give them a donation anyways.
We found the cell phone shack and were able to buy some SIM cards. It took quite a while to get all the phones up and running, mostly because they had to be registered with the government. At any rate, by the time we were done it was time for another meal.
We went back to the Indian restaurant, and were presented with banana palm leaves. They served us mountains of rice and endless curry, lentils, etc., and we got to eat with our hands for the first time on this trip! We all got two rounds of their delicious limeade. And with all this amazing food for 18 people, our bill came out to around $65 USD. Food is so much cheaper here! Get with the program, America!
After dinner, we walked through a shopping mall and then headed back to the hotel. We rested for a little while, then went to see the Glass Temple. It is a Hindu temple covered in millions of tiny squares of red, blue, green, yellow, and white mirror. As you might imagine, it is overwhelmingly sparkly. The most exciting part of the temple is actually the journey to and from its location. It sits in a ravine that is somehow secluded from the hustle and bustle of the border town that is Johor Bahru. To get there, we walked for a while through dimly lit city streets lined with hotels, then businesses, then auto repair shops. We crossed a bridge over a busy boulevard, and came to a dirt road where cars slowed down to get a closer look at us tourists. From there, we followed the dirt road into a dark valley, aptly named by Victoria Belliard as the "Valley of the Shadow of Death." After an hour's walk through the darkness (ok, it was only 10 minutes) you reach a brightly lit, sparkly building that is the temple. It was a bonding experience.
The Fantastic Four
Finding the Glass Temple on the other side of the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
There was even a statue of Jesus in the Glass Temple. They also had statues of Buddha and Mother Teresa.
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