State of Johor, state of Johor

On our Labour Day holiday a couple of months ago, a group of us from church decided to take a road trip to Johor. Some of us like to drive north, some of us just like to drive, some like to hike, and all of us wanted a break. The date was set for 5 July. The preparations intensified as it drew closer - supplies were purchased, maps acquired, tyre pressures checked and partners assured.

An early start meant meeting at Woodlands Centre at about 5.30 in the morning, and by then the Causeway was already starting to get clogged up. Breakfast we took at Taman Sentosa on the other side of the Straits of Johor in a familiar setting amidst Singaporean number plates and accents. At about 7.30 we began our journey to the east coast.

Our first destination was Hutan Lipur (Recreation Forest) Gunung Arong, to scale the 274 metre hill that lends it name to the reserve. It was a pleasant two-hour drive on Highway 3 all the way to Mersing. For long stretches, we saw little else but oil palm and rubber plantations - the wealth of the ersatz British Empire and of the State of Johor. We also passed several unused pillboxes, reminders of the feeble attempt by the British at imperial defence over seventy years ago. To the north, on our left, hovered the hint of greater adventure in the shape of the distant southernmost peaks of the Titiwangsa range.

Below: Palm riches along Highway 3.

As we searched for the trailhead once past Mersing, a right turn brought us to the tranquil beach of Tanjong Resang. We arrived at low tide to a gloriously empty stretch of sand. Eastwards on the horizon stood the faint silhouettes of the Seribuat islands. Jayson, after a brief survey, decided to bring his Subaru Forrester down to the beach. Allan followed and coaxed his own car down the same way. Soon we had two cars cruising along the coast and revelling in the wide open space before us.

Below: posing with our tank, Jayson humours us.

Below: Rally at Tanjong Resang.

Later we resumed the search for the trailhead and retraced our way to the highway. We found the visitor centre shortly after, only to learn very belatedly that the gates to the reserve were closing in an hour (noon) and that we needed a permit to actually enter it (no mention of it in the online accounts we read of people making the climb previously though). This permit could, apparently, be obtained either at Johor Bahru or Mersing, and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the relevant office closes at noon. We were told of another closer option - that of getting to the top of the hill from Tanjong Resang where we gamboled earlier, and where a similar permit can be provided by a nearby resort. There remained the small issue of finding the trailhead, which we failed to earlier. And so Gunung Arong had to wait. We adjourned to Mersing for lunch, and decided to head back towards Kota Tinggi after that.

Mary and I had long known about the waterfall at Kota Tinggi, amongst the closest to Singapore that we could get to. Our lack of familiarity with Johor and the paucity of transport conspired to put off a visit until that weekend. There was a water theme park feel to the whole place, with weirs built across the stream to create wading pools and fibreglass slides installed along the concrete banks for human tubers (stuffed in a float ring this is what people generally look like) on rubber tubes. The main falls, however, remain blissfully unmolested.

We also saw little of the attraction's fabled weekend clutter, where both throng and trash were concerned. On a quiet Ramadan afternoon we could still manage photographs of the falls without people, courtesy of some creative positioning and the grace of our fellow visitors who lent us their spot in the sun for the half-minute we needed for our vanity.

Below: reliving our childhoods, note where it says Awas.

Below: the main falls from the top.

Rain started to fall when we drove out of the waterfall carpark and back towards Johor Bahru. As a grim grey evening descended, it was almost natural to recall that the thick jungle and tall hills all around were the scenes of the most recent conflicts in our short history. The images of the highway pillboxes earlier in the day returned to my mind, as did the single-minded fortitude of the Japanese soldiers who advanced so rapidly over such terrain all the way from northeastern Malaya. Later on, I was also reminded that Kota Tinggi witnessed fighting during the Konfrontasi too. The 8 1SIR soldiers who were ambushed whilst on patrol duties lost their lives just north of the waterfall.

Back in JB, we re-learnt a sobering truth over dinner at the Aeon Shopping Centre in Tebrau City. Security warnings aside (these were of course legion), we were turned away from a near-empty Manhattan Fish Market and waited for an hour for our order at Nando's despite being amongst the earliest to arrive.

There is a State of Johor. And then there is a state of Johor. It is a beautiful place, beyond the alarm which the name of its capital raises amongst some Singaporeans. We will visit again, of course. But we won't linger in JB.