Vinayagar Temple

My husband and I went on a trip to Singapore for business purposes, we then decided to spend some extra days in south east Asia and visit a good Malay friend of ours in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Nedless to say that food has been amasing all trip through, we delighted ourselves with incredible black pepper crab, roti chennai and hainan chicken, quite popular among Singaporians and Malay people.

While Singapore is an extremely tourist-friendly location (neat, clean and foreigners-oriented) the scenario totally changes by simply crossing the border through the long strait that joins peninsular Malaysia. Nature grows wilder, colours get brighter and landscape offers you the finest examples of real Malay life-style : street markets, food vendors, amasing temples.

We headed off to this little village called Permas Jaya, a housing estate located  northeast of Johor Bahru. We really much enjoyed sharing the real malaysian experience with our local friend, who first invited us for dinner at the Kampong, a fishermen village enterely built on a pier overlooking the strait, and surrounded by a magnificent jungle backdrop. 

Little known is the Vinayagar temple here which sits on hill with a panoramic view of Johor Bahru and Singapore. The shrine is built around a large rock which is shaped like the head of an elephant. The rock was hidden when the area was forested and was discovered by a Hindu woman, guided by the premonitions and visions she had of Goddess Durga. The temple draws a large and diverse crowd of devotees, Hindu, Sikh and Chinese during the annual Vinayagar Chathurthi festival.

There we received the blessing, under the magnificent rock symbolising the Holy elephant. Perhaps one of the most spiritual and intense experience we lived so far.