:: JB oh JB ::

The only one thing that I have some 'connection' with our Northern neighbour of Malaysia is Johor Baru (or romanised Johore Bahru or glam name JB).

I am unfortunate by not having any relatives who are Malaysians, and was often envious when my school friends would 'balik kampong' or visit their relatives (who have wide open spaces and places to run, play ball, hide and seek in the villages) during the school holidays.

Now back to JB.

My old pal and now-neighbour - KC and I would often drive to JB in late hours for these two reasons:
1) Top-up petrol (who cares about 15% discount at Bukit Timah petrol stations, when the ones in JB are 50%)
2) Car wash (with internal vacuum, tyres waxes) for only RM$8.00 only - so very cheap hor....yeah, cheapskate me.

From where we are staying, it will only take about 15 minutes to clear the immigrations and customs in both sides (sans traffic and/or inefficient civil servants).

Other than that, we would contribute to JB's economy by eating good food at Tebrau, buy cigarettes (I don't like Singapore's ugly health covers..hee2), some chewing gums and other 'vices' which are not good for the intellectual property - you know I mean?

Anyhow, tonight, while waiting at the usual car wash, we decided to check out the pub which has already been a centre of curiosity for us. We saw many fashionably nice people going in to a particular pub for a couple of times already, and tonight...cannot 'tahan' to find out why.


::first to carwash, then to booze::

The pub's name is called "Orang-Orang" which means many people in Malay, and it reminded me of the old pub in Holland Village called Chaplin's. It was rather familiar - both in ambience and music. They have outdoor areas (with those water mists and fan combi machine) and indoor ones. The music played reminded me of Hard Rock Cafe with the usual rock and roll fares like (Mony Mony - Billy Idol, I Love Rock N Roll - Joan Jetts and the Heartbreakers, Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams) well, you get my drift. All TV sets were tuned to the sports channels - ESPN's EPL games, Astro Sport's Olympics, Star Sport's Bowlings, etc etc.

In other words, it was a nice pub for smokes, macho talks, girl watching and drinks. But there is ONE important thing that is special in this pub. You see, the waitresses are beautiful and elegant (well, at least 80% anyways). They wear stylish evening gowns, short skirts and mostly in their Julia-Roberts-high-boots-in-Pretty-Woman-outfit and they have a NUMBER TAG.

Hmm...it is not a hostess club, or nightclub or KTV, but they have number tags? I asked 101 - a beautiful and trendy Malay girl called Wati from Kulai, JB, what the number tag is for? With her hands on my shoulder and my hand, she said that if I want her to serve me drinks, I just called for her number, and if I want to buy her drinks, she will sit with me until the drinks are finished.It's that simple, she said and her job is to make sure that we drink until we cannot 'tahan', she added...with a laugh.

That sound interesting, but then, it was the closing time. I did not realise that it was already 2.30 am. KC and I have decided that for the next boys' nite out, it will be this place. I will let you know about the number tag experience in about 2 weeks time ;-)

Maybe, I will do a business analysis of why most nite spots in Singapore sucks big time then.

Cheers....hic..