Heritage Walk with a family from Austria

 

When I received an enquiry from Manisha for a Heritage Walk in Downtown Johor Bahru, my first thought was about the prevailing unhealthy air quality where people were discouraged from staying outdoors due to the haze.

 

At the OCBC Bank end of the Tan Hiok Nee
Heritage Walk in Johor Bahru

Manisha explained that her visitors were from Austria, a couple whom she and her husband met some years ago and they were visiting Singapore and Johor Bahru.

 

After two nights in Johor Bahru, they were booked for another two nights’ stay in Desaru Coast. In view of their limited time in Johor Bahru, Manisha had a specific date in mind to share with them, a bit of culture and heritage in our city.

 

Manisha told me she is Malaysian from Kuala Lumpur who came to Johor Bahru on a job transfer and have lived here since 1993. While she was familiar with the city’s landmarks and able to show her visitors around, she knew they would better appreciate the outing when it was complimented by my storytelling.

 

Potted gambier plants for public viewing 
at the Segget Promenade

I was much encouraged to learn that she heard about my Heritage Walks from mutual friends who had benefited from their Walk experiences with me and felt that it would be ideal if her visitors could have a similar Walk experience with me.

 

The next part of our chat was mainly about the haze condition and my reluctance to expose visitors to such an unhealthy outdoor experience. After due consideration, I enquired about the participants’ ages and health, and finally agreed to go ahead with the Walk on that specific date with a plan to limit our time spent outdoors.

 

Because of their keen interest in Johor culture and heritage, I was prepared to accommodate Manisha’s request for this family from Austria with two young children aged seven and 11, to have a Heritage Walk experience with me.

 

Manisha with the banana cake
bought from Hiap Joo bakery

Over the next few days, I kept a close watch on the skies and was pleased to see that the haze condition was vastly improving. However, the weather forecast for that day of our Walk was, Drizzle, so I reminded Manisha to come prepared for it.

 

No, I am not afraid of a little bit of rain as this is typical of our tropical weather.

 

On my Heritage Walks, the group will proceed outdoors armed with caps/hats and umbrellas but I will defer our Walk only in the unfortunate event of a heavy downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning.

 

I agreed when Manisha asked for a later start time than what I proposed, as she was seeking allowance to manage the young children and their travel distance from Skudai to our Meeting Point in Downtown Johor Bahru.

 

On that cloudy Thursday morning, I was at our Meeting Point ahead of the appointed time to await the arrival of Manisha and her visitors. While I have not met Manisha before, I should be able to recognize her because she will be with a European couple with two young children. And there they were, walking up the Segget Promenade to join me at the Meeting Point for the start of our Heritage Walk.

 

A photo opportunity with
the landmark Red House

It was a pleasure to meet with Manisha, Alfred and Helga with their children, Aurel and Asaria, visitors from Bregenz, Austria. The youngsters were shy and reticent, probably due to the early start in the day and being unsure of what to expect ahead.

 

While Alfred and his wife were conversant in English, I observed that Helga took time to translate my commentary to her children in their own language, Austrian-German.

 

Hearing this language again gave me a flashback to October 2023 when I had the pleasure to meet with a group of German-speaking media who were visiting Johor from Austria, Switzerland and Germany, at an event hosted in Desaru Coast.

 

[When I documented this experience in October 2023, I recalled that it was October 2021 when I shared insights into Johor heritage with His Excellency the German Ambassador to Malaysia, on his visit to Johor Bahru. It was just uncanny that in October 2026, I was leading this family from Austria on my Heritage Walk!]

 

A family photo next to a wall mural at
the Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Walk

Standing next to the river, I asked them to picture a bygone era, where the Segget waterway was the only means of transport, and discussed the early activities around the river mouth. As the Johor jungles were opened for plantations and the timber floated down the river, this brought about Johor’s first industry, a steam sawmill from which Jalan Sawmill earned its name.

 

Mindful to limit our time outdoors, our Walk kicked off with a brief introduction to how Johor opened for the planting of pepper and gambier, an agricultural activity that resulted in putting Johor on the world map as the world’s largest exporter of gambier in the 1800s.

 

While most people were familiar with the spice trade, white and black pepper and pepper plants, not many have ever seen a gambier plant.

 

More of that yummy
banana cake, please?

It was as recent as 2013 when the Johor Bahru Tiong Hua (Chinese) Association sent a team on a mission to Indonesia to carry out extensive research into the cultivation of pepper and gambier and uncover how it contributed to Johor’s economic development.

 

The team made two visits where they discovered that farmers on Kundur Island were still using traditional methods with very little mechanization in the process to harvest, boil young gambier leaves, press them to extract juice and dry the juice concentrate before it was shaped into a block, cake or cube form.

 

In September 2015, their findings were presented in the Johor Baru Chinese Heritage Museum in an interesting exhibit themed, Sharing of Hardships.

 

This exhibition shared the important link between the Chinese and Malay communities in the pioneering era and how pepper and gambier earned its place of honour in Johor for its role in boosting the state’s economy.

 

After his father signed in the
Guest Book, Aurel also signed in,
at the Johor Bahru Chinese
Heritage Museum

In 2017, the gardening plots in some schools here were cultivated with gambier plants to introduce this important plant to the younger generation as they learnt about its role in Johor history from their school syllabus.

 

Recently in September 2026, a collaboration between Wong Ah Fook Tourism and the Johor Bahru City Council presented live plants in jars set up on the Segget Promenade to offer the public easy access to see what gambier plants looked like.

 

I was pleased to show these live plants to our visitors as I shared about how these first economy crops earned its place of honour in Johor.

 

While the Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Walk was not car-free on a weekday, I was glad to see the absence of roadside carparking at the OCBC Bank end of the road, which not only presented a much more walkable route but also a more pleasant sight to visitors.

 

Asaria also took her turn to
sign into the Guest Book

When we reached the entrance of Hiap Joo, the traditional baker which uses a woodfire oven, Manisha took advantage of the lack of a queue to stop and buy their famous banana cake for the visitors to have a taste.

 

It was funny to observe that while we waited for Manisha, a queue suddenly formed behind her, waiting for their turn to be served at the tiny window of this popular old bakery.

 

Personally, I was just pleased to see that business continues to be brisk at this bakery. This was because I had the privilege to document their story in my book, My Johor Stories 2: Interesting Places and Inspirational People (MPH Publications 2018).

 

This portion of banana cake was a timely snack for the visitors and the children, in particular, could not resist having another helping of the cake. And before we reached the opposite end of the Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Walk, Aurel and Asaria asked for yet another piece of the cake and happily finished it all up!

 

A photo memento with the majestic
Sultan Ibrahim Building as a backdrop

Having been to Europe, I am aware that Austria has their fair share of landmark buildings and a rich heritage preserved in museums and monuments.

 

The visitors’ limited time and the prevailing hazy weather, however, were not an ideal setting to show more to them outdoors so it was essential for me to share as much information as possible while staying indoors in the Johor Bahru Chinese Heritage Museum.

 

While I am aware that the visitors may not fully understand the significance of the points shared in my commentary, I was encouraged that Manisha could relate to it and often mentioned that she was learning much from what I was telling them.

Carved sedan chairs in a foyer linked
 to the Johor Old Temple

She was also impressed to learn about the strong relationship established between the Johor royal family and the early Chinese, Indian and Sikh communities who came to settle here, a tradition which continues to this day.

 

I also shared about Johor Bahru’s Street of Harmony where the early multi-racial community lived together in harmony with their various forms of worship.  

 

This long street, marked by places of worship, started from Jalan Gereja that links to Jalan Trus, pass Jalan Ungku Puan and round to the Mosque at Jalan Duke.

 

A family photo in the 
Indian Heritage Center
 

The places of worship included the Church of Immaculate Conception (built 1883) and Holy Light Church (original chapel 1886), the Johor Old Temple (1870) and the Sikh Gurdwara Sahid (circa 1921) across the road, with the Arulmigu Raja Mariamman Devasthanam Temple (1911) next to it. 

 

Then when it was time to leave the Chinese Heritage Museum, we stepped outdoors to see that the drizzle had turned into a light rainfall.

 

So out came the waterproof jackets for the children and with umbrellas opened, we walked out to Jalan Duke to reach the foothills of Bukit Timbalan and captured a photo memento to the backdrop of the majestic Sultan Ibrahim Building.

 

Throughout our Walk, I often made reference to road names and shared the stories behind these names. My story on, A rich heritage in road names, was documented in My Johor Stories 3: Proudly Johor, Then and Now, (MPH Publications 2022) the third and final instalment in the trilogy of My Johor Stories.

 

I must commend Manisha and her visitors who braved the rain as we walked along the route to visit the Johor Old Temple and the Indian Heritage Center in the compound of the Arulmigu Raja Mariamman Devasthanam Temple.

 

Nothing will stop us from enjoying our
Heritage Walk - not haze, not rain or sunshine!

I was pleased that along the way, the children warmed-up to the adventure and even happily posed for photos. Well done, everyone!

 

This is the right attitude of visitors who do not mind the weather when they were keen to explore and experience a new place to learn more about its culture and heritage.

 

Many thanks Manisha, for the privilege to share a bit more about Johor with your visitors from Austria. My best wishes go with you as you and your visitors explore the sites in the eastern coastal region, enjoy the hospitality of international brand hotels in Desaru Coast and bring home many meaningful memories.