Another blisteringly hot day, and more bites. I packed and checked out of the hostel. On my way towards the centre passed a book exchange that contained a number of interesting books I would have liked to buy, but settled for The Pillars of Hercules by Paul Theroux. It's a description of a trip he made through most of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. On my way to the express bus-station I took a long detour through Chinatown. Some very picturesque temples.

Had some nasi/ayam at a little Chinese eatery. Stocked up on water and sprite, but while moving things around to make room for this I managed to lose my baseball cap.

The express bus for Johor Bharu left at 2:30--the trip was due to take 3 hours. The bus was comfortable and air-conditioned, and I got stuck into Paul Theroux's book. Some distance before JB we ran into some road-works which delayed us, so we didn't arrive at the bus station until 6:00. Then I had to get a taxi to the centre of JB, or rather, the Shell station where I had arranged to meet Foo. He arrived a few minutes after I did. We grabbed a snack at a fast-food outlet and headed to Julie's sister's house where the family was gathered.

Afterwards Foo took me to the Kastam and the 170 bus-stop for Singapore. After an uneventful ride I checked in again at the Metropole hotel. My flight to Surabaya was leaving in the morning, so I requested an early-morning call.

Before falling asleep I read up on the history of this region, in particular the part played by the Chinese (since I had met so many of them recently). More than 12 million people of Chinese descent live live as tightly knit and and often resented minorities in countries in this region. Through hard work over generations many came to dominate local trade and industry in the Nanyang, as they called these islands of the southern seas. But they looked to China as their spiritual home. They took vengeance on the corrupt Ch'ing Dynasty by contributing funds to the Nationalist revolutions of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek in 1911 and the 1920s. After WW2 many of them joined the Communist cause of Mao Zedong, and waged bloody guerilla campaigns on the Malay peninsula. Due to rising nationalism they often became the victims of race riots. Only in Singapore have the so-called overseas Chinese attained political autonomy.