Cruising Notes – Malaysia
Weather –
there are 4 seasons.-
Nov – March – Northeast monsoon – dry season, NE winds 10-20 knots, frequent calms. This is the recommended time to travel north up the Malacca Strait.-
April – May – Transition – many calms, flat seas, wind variable direction if any, hot, sultry.-
June
– September – Southwest monsoon – wet season, SW winds 10-25 knots, humid,
squalls with heavy rain and calms. Sumatras (line squalls with winds up to 60
knots lasting 15 minutes to 2 hours). The old-timers hang out in
Singapore/Malaysia south end till early November then head north.
October - Transition again. Same as April/May.
We used Cruising Guide to Southeast Asia Vol II and the
cruiser notes floating around. The electronic charts were accurate.
Johor Bahru –
Anchorage - on the north side of Singapore Island,
EAST of the causeway. There is a long customs dock sticking out perpendicular
from the shore. Go past that and anchor just west of it. You will now be between
the big customs dock and the little police dock. (Cruising Guide to SE Asia Vol
I recommends the west side, but nobody goes there and there is no place to
land your dinghy)
Facilities - You can leave your dinghy safe at the police dock, no need to lock it. There is water available from a tap, ask first to be polite but they won’t say no. You can even take a bucket ashore and do your laundry there.
The dinghy dock is not great (as you can see from the photo
above) and the river water is dirty and so
is the air so don’t catch any rain. We did and it fouled our tanks. That’s
all there is for facilities, but it’s a good place to conveniently get to both
Malaysian side and Singapore side for shopping. Laundry service can be found but
its some blocks away, they do it for you for pick up the next day. I did mine in
a bucket.
Customs & Immigration - is a short walk up the
driveway from the marine police area – a blue building – just ask anyone.
Check in is free and ask for a 3 month stamp in your passport. They will
probably ask you to go see the port captain and you will need to take a taxi there
(about 1.50 US one way). When you go by bus from here over to Singapore you will
use up a page in your passport with all the stamps again, and when you
return to
the Malaysian side, get them to stamp you for another 3 months.
Getting the bus to Singapore –
If you can, try
to go with someone who has already done it. But failing that, I will try to
explain this very confusing process:
(You can also get a regular bus that takes you to the “MRT” Singapore transit system but it stops a lot, and if you are just going to Sim Lim, take the express because it stops right there.)
Shopping – Prices here are in Malaysian Ringgats. E
Exchange rates – the ringgat is fixed to the US dollar at 1 R = .38 cents US.
- the Singapore dollar at the time we were there was 1 Sing $ = .59 US
Most things are more expensive in Singapore. A lunch in Singapore will cost $3.50 Sing, and in Malaysia 3.50 Rg so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out it is twice as cheap in Malaysia. Clothing same thing, and bus fare too.
Singapore: 
Electronics - There is great shopping for electronics in Singapore – TV’s and stereos, Cameras, Computers, computer accessories and electronic components like connectors & wire, GPS’s & radios- at two huge shopping complexes called Sim Lim Tower and Sim Lim Square. You will go nuts – and you will need at least a day to see it all. It is almost like a Trade Show – displaying all the latest electronic gizmos.
But you can get equally good or better deals on the Malaysian side – we shopped around Sim Lim first to see what is available and new, then compared prices in JB. For example, we purchased our flat screen LCD monitor here in JB for $100 Sing less than it would have cost in Singapore. Our advice would be to go to Sim Lim, spec out exactly what product and features you want and then comparison shop for the exact same thing in JB. If you need components like bare-bones computer CPU’s so you can build your own system, motherboards, connectors & terminals, chips, hard drives, wire, cable ties, power supplies and things of that nature, get them in Sim Lim Tower; we have not been able to find these things in JB.
Marine Electronics – At Sim Lim Tower, in the basement, is a place called Blazer Electronics. A big Russian guy runs it, and he knows cruisers. He can fix you up with things like Kenwood & Icom Radios, radars, antennas and probably most anything related to cruiser electronics, sale or repair. If you have something broken, or need something new, start here. His email is sales@blazer.com.sg, website http://www.blazer.com.sg.
Honda Generator – In Singapore, we found a 1000 watt portable gasoline Honda Generator, (220 Volt) for $1000 Sing – much cheaper than in North America, and about $45.US cheaper than available in Langkawi, the next cheaper area. He started off at $1200 Sing but Ed talked him down to $1000 Sing pretty easily. Bring your boat stamp to all these places including the electronics stores – it will save you the 4% GST.
So if you need one here’s the address:
Kheng Moh & Co Ltd, 401 Jalan Besar (St.) Singapore Tel 62-982-112. Jalan Besar street is easy walking distance to Sim Lim, just get yourself a street map.
Satellite Radio – This is a pretty nifty little toy that gets satellite radio stations like CNN & BBC, and music. Cost $165 Sing at a place called UF Technology, unit 03-69, 3rd floor Sim Lim Square. It works great. (CNN, BBC news crystal clear!!)
Chandlery – Marine Tech marketing in the Jalan Besar area, a 15 minute walk from Sim Lim. Address is 101 Kitchener Road, unit 02-12 Jalan Besar Plaza, Singapore. The lady who runs the little store “Jessie” can find any boat parts or services you need, but the prices we thought are sky high. But if you need it, you need it…..
Along Jalan Besar street and the area nearby, are many hardware and mechanical shops & services so if you need anything else, just start asking people.
P.S. Don’t forget your umbrella if walking around Singapore and Malaysia – it rains often!
Johor Bahru, Malaysia:
Copied software and movies are available on the Malaysian
side, not in Singapore. (6 Rg a disk for software and $13 for DVD movies (but
can be easily bargained DVD’s for buy 10 for 10 Rg each & get one free). There
are also movies in a format called VCD, which will play on your computer; these
are $6 Rg each.
There are many excellent modern shopping malls. The 2 we used most came recommended by other cruisers who have been here before:
Holiday Plaza – away from the downtown and the convenience for the shoppers coming over from Singapore, prices are much cheaper here than downtown. It costs 6 Rg one way by taxi or you can try to figure out the bus system. This is the place for copied movies & software. Some clothing and shoes and stuff too – all the usual mall stuff. A real Pizza Hut!
City Square – right downtown, walking distance from the anchorage. A nice, 3 story mall, full of clothing stores & the usual mall stuff. A nice big bookstore with lots of English language books. A very fast, inexpensive & nice Internet Café on the ground floor called “Time” – they also have a phone card and booths where you can call places like North America & Australia for .99 Rg a minute.
Outboards – In JB, there is a Yamaha dealer (there are probably all other makes around JB too). We priced a 3hp for 1850 Rg, and a 15hp Enduro for 3950 Rg. We were not serious so did not start to bargain. They do repairs here too. Alas, we lost the guy’s business card so you will need to ask around if you are serious about getting one.
Provisioning – Most of the malls have a grocery store attached. City Square is walking distance, but for big provisioning, go to the Pelangi shopping center (6 Rg by taxi) to the supermarket called “Giant” very modern & clean hypermarket.
There is a fresh produce market at the end of the main city bus line – just go to the central bus station (right at the anchorage, at the end of the causeway) and ask people, they are most helpful to us tourists!
Adult Beverages – Beer is pretty expensive at 100 Rg for 24 cans so we are drinking our home brew from the kits we bought in Australia. Wine is very expensive and reportedly undrinkable, so we have not bought any. We have not priced liquor yet.
In Langkawi we have heard prices are:
Beer – 25Rg for case of 24
Wine – 10-12Rg/bottle
Rum, Gin – 25Rg/bottle
Our advice would be to stock up duty free in Australia enough to get you to Langkawi.
Dental – Ed had a filling which had fallen out a couple of weeks before, and we found a dentist (recommended to us by an optician in the Holiday Plaza) – Dr Yang Sai Teng at 34-A Johor Harimau Tarum, opposite the Pelangi Plaza. Tel 07-334-2746. He was an excellent young dentist, clean modern office albeit upstairs in a seedy-looking building! - and replaced the filling for a whole 32 Rg. He can do crowns but they take 10 days to get made up so time it accordingly if you need one – and one cruiser who inquired said the crown would cost one tenth of the cost of one in the USA. We just went there without any appointment, and he saw Ed no problem.
We have heard there are also good dentists who look after cruisers at Port Dickson, and Mrs Dr Chiu at Kuah, Langkawi.
Get your dental work done in Malaysia.
Eyeglasses – Julie got new glasses at Holiday Plaza at a place called Sun Ray. Glasses everywhere are inexpensive so if you need some, stock up! Regular frames 250R, titanium 450R. My coke-bottle prescription with graduated bifocals, ultra thin and regular frames were 550R including polarized magnetic sunglasses to go with them, and a free eye exam.
Radar Repair – Our JRC radar went crazy (can only “see” behind the boat!) so we contacted JRC in Singapore at
jrc@mbox.ntti.net.sg - who then got us to call a repair guy here in JB. His name is S.V.Nathan, tel # 607-236-0400, email racomjh@tm.net.my . Unfortunately, he was not able to fix the display, but troubleshooted it down to the actual problem for us. He came all the way out to the boat to look at it, and was not going to charge us because he could not fix it. We made him take some money for his time and gas. Nice guy.
Marinas-
Sebana Cove Malaysia – comes highly recommended, and at about 160R a week is Ľ the price of Raffles in Singapore. It has all the great facilities including a nice pool. But it is in the middle of nowhere and is a 40R ferry ride to Singapore. The cruisers who have been around here stop at the JB anchorage to do their shopping and running over to Singapore then go back to Sebana Cove – it is only 26 miles between here & there.
Raffles Singapore – is posh luxury and expensive, but they did a promotion this year to get yachts to come. Actually we have heard since, that they do this promotion EVERY year, which begs the question as to whether this is a ‘special’ at all! They supposedly lowered their prices and made a ‘stay 7 get 3 free’ days deal. But it still was twice the price of Sebana Cove. It is first class and they throw in a free shuttle to the MRT (public transit system). A lot of cruisers stayed there this year due to the special promotion of cut rates.
Changi Sailing Club – on the north side of Singapore Island. Charge is $15. Sing a day just to anchor, plus $25. per week membership. The wake from the passing ferries will roll you gunwale to gunwale but reports from one cruiser said he likes it there and it is convenient to Singapore, and the club is nice and friendly. A branch of the Marine Tech chandlery is there.
