2012-09-29 1 103

Location

Along Jalan Setia 3/1, Taman Setia Indah, Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Participants

Expedition

I was initially on the fence for this one. It was a fairly straightforward sort of hash, easily accessible, but I was rather apprehensive about going to Johor on my own for the first time. My mum had accompanied me for the previous border geohash, but I couldn't expect her to accompany me for this one too. Anyway, I already had a Border Geohash achievement, did I need another one?

I was woken up early this morning by my mum asking me when I was going, I realised it was raining rather heavily so I just mumbled "Later." and went back to sleep. I wasn't feeling up to it with such weather, if it rained here it was probably raining in Johor as well.

I made the decision to go around 1pm, figuring I might have enough time to make it there by 4pm if I left by 2. Before I left, I knocked on my parents' door to tell them I was going out. My mum, who had just woken up, immediately said she'd quickly get dressed and go with me. I was annoyed at first, because I'd have to wait for her to finish dressing and her pace of walking was slower than mine, and I sulked for the first twenty minutes of the journey. At the end of the day, though, I'm awfully glad she went with me, because I realised at some points my lack of knowledge about the Johor transport system would've screwed a little with my expedition.

There was a horrendously long line of lorries leading towards Woodlands Checkpoint when we got out at Kranji MRT Station. Apparently this traffic jam of trucks happens every Wednesday and Saturday - once when they enter Singapore, and again when they exit. Both 170 and 160 seemed to take ages to arrive (and probably would take ages) so we decided to board a bus to the old Woodlands Checkpoint and walk into immigration from there. Went through immigration on both sides smoothly. At JB Sentral we boarded bus 10B, which would take us directly to Taman Setia Indah. Very convenient!

After about 45 minutes we entered the Setia Indah estate, and I was very surprised to see a security post guarding the roads entering and exiting the area. The roads were also well-paved, the grass neatly manicured, the hedges trimmed to a tee. Most of the houses in the area were large, double-storey bungalows, all surrounded by fences - it was quite a shock to see after passing through the grimy city area and the cosy yet rundown villages, or kampungs.

Thankfully, the buildings around Kompleks Setia Indah were more in tune with what I was used to usually seeing, with small town shops and eateries, and auto workshops thrown into the mix. I felt relieved to see a couple of teenage boys zipping around on their motorbikes, a common sight in the kampungs. We wandered around for a while before going out in search of Jalan Setia 3/1. Found it easily enough, at 4.35pm I walked down to the hashpoint and snapped a few shots. I couldn't use the GPS on my phone to verify the coordinates, but luckily I had saved the Google Map image of the area, which was good enough. I didn't make the official Saturday 4pm meetup time, but what the heck - after all that I couldn't be bothered. We then spent the rest of the day at the complex, taking the opportunity to eat a late lunch and go grocery shopping at the local supermarket.