Saturday 10 September 2016

Johor Bahru Day Trip

Would have posted up this much earlier if I had wifi at home but the wifi at home is down and my dad is overseas so I have no one to help fix this problem and it has already been a dreaded one week, while I leech wifi at my cousin’s place.

Wasn’t able to travel out of Singapore immediately after my exams as my passport was held at the travel agent for my China Immersion Trip in less than a week’s time and only got it back last Friday so me and my friends planned for the trip to be the Monday after that. Our problem was the jam we would face as it was the Monday of the start of school holidays and we were anticipating some massive crowd entering JB.

Planned to meet 9.30 at Woodlands MRT to take 950 but everyone was late (great) and the queue for the bus was really long! But bus frequency was much higher than usual. There was a slight jam on the highway from Singapore to Malaysia but all was fine as we had seats. The queue at JB immigration wasn’t exactly all a shocker as we had experienced such long queues before. But we have also experienced queues where there was like only max 5 people in queue.

So I haven’t really done any JB posts before and I have to say it is relatively safe and all. Nothing has happened to me or my friends on our trips to JB. If you are very afraid of venturing to JB you can always just stick to visiting City Square and Komtar JBCC which is linked by sheltered walkways to checkpoint so you are technically under the shelter linkway the whole time and you wont have the risk of getting robbed or something on the sidewalk.

We headed to City Square to get our fix of KIMDO BBQ. This is something we discovered when we were at Sutera Mall the other time and it was really really good ! And ever since we have been visiting the City Square outlet when we are there.


They have a wide selection of like different foods and you just have to pick the food items you like and they will bbq it for you ! (But you have to get a minimum of 3 items!)


They had wifi previously but didn’t manage to connect into any this time when we went. L Seats are also super limited and space is really constrained there so expect yourself to be walking and eating it.

Next we went over to the spectacle shop located in City Square as well as Syirah had broke her spectacle frame while she accidentally sat on it and needed to get a replacement. She had gotten the frame from that shop which is why she wants the exact same frame back. The frames are all super pretty and very affordable. The style which they operate is a little like OWNDAYS in Singapore and their prices are around the same as OWNDAYS BUT IN RM SO THAT IS LIKE 3X LESSER ????


I wasn’t really going to grab any ice cream from baskin robbins as I was on my period and experiencing cramps but BASKIN ROBBINS was like having a 1 for 1 promotion kind of thing so why not.


Got myself the usual flavours of strawberry and pralines and cream ! The prices of baskin robbins here are also lower than Singapore’s. Singapore’s is like $5 for the Value scoop if I am not wrong and even with Pink Wednesdays 1-for-1 it is still more expensive than the 1 for 1 we get !


Everyone got a cup each and apparently cookies and cream is the favourite. Also seems like Café Benne is opening soon !


Went over Famous Amos to buy back some cookies as it is also way cheaper than Singapore. Got chocolates instead as I wasn’t really in the mood for cookies but everyone else bought cookies back.
And they were also having some promo going on.


We decided to grab some banana cakes before we started exploring other parts of JB. The must go place to get some good banana cake would be HIAP JOO BAKERY. It is of walking distance from city square and it is around the stretch of cafes which is in walking distance. The queue was actually pretty long when we visited which was quite different as there would usually be no queue ! Their butter cake is also a favourite in my family but got to know that they only sell it on Thursdays !


We took a grabcar there although it was of walking distance and took another back to JBCC and it was only RM3-4 ! The drivers were also extremely friendly and awesome ! Mentioned in my KL post that it you would like to explore JB but you don’t have a car and is afraid of getting extorted money from exhorbitant cab drivers then you should totally try out grab car ! The prices will all be based on the quoted one on the app! Problem is you would require an internet connection for this! Got to know from kelvin that it cost RM40 for a 4GB SIM card which is a pretty good deal ! You can get it from the telco shop in city square J If not you can always just to go any café and leech on their wifi and book your grab from there !Got to know from the drivers that there is the night market or pasar malam opened at KSL that day as it was a Monday !


We decided to head there at night for dinner instead and go over to visit Mount Austin for the first time. The amount of cafes there is just so extensive and the place is so vast and huge that you would need more than one day to explore the whole area. Our drivers also were slightly unsure of the location which shows that you might need an exact exact address keyed into the app.
We dropped off at ATLAS COFFEE EMBASSY. The service is 100% super friendly and helpful staff! The place was also very aesthetic !!!!


Food choices aren’t very extensive and I got myself mozzarella cheese sticks to share with Syirah as I was still quite full.


The others got Waffles and some breakfast sets and Leo was super satisfied with his eggs benedict.


We walked around the area and there were many stores which resemble miniso where they sold inspired 100% Korean beauty products. Actually came across the Skin Food Wash Off Masks but wasn’t sure if it was exactly authentic so I didn’t get it. They had like other products for example Innisfree’s Volcanic Pore mask in the exact packaging like Innisfree but the brand was theirs. Which was just a plain rip off. And there were many of such similar stores on the same stretch.

We had to jay walk over to another side to buy the Uncle Tetsu Cheesecake which I came across on Instagram. Grabbed some cheese tarts back as well.


Didn’t really enjoy the cheesecake as I still prefer the traditional cheesecakes and pablo’s cheese tarts are still 100x better. I think my taste in cheese tarts are so ruined by Pablo because they have set the standards so high.


We decided to visit one dessert place before we left the area so we went into SANGKAYA which is a shop that sells coconut ice cream. Didn’t get any as I am not exactly a fan of coconut ice cream. But this place has WiFi which is a big plus !!! The staff there is also very friendly !


Headed over to KSL and went over to their pasar malam. The amount of people was immense and the heat was pretty horrible. Got myself a cup of corn but it was with icing sugar and condensed milk which felt a bit weird to me. And I guess I am too used to eating like frozen corn that the corn was a bit too corny for me if it makes sense HAHAHHAHA


Queued for some JB Carrot Cake but kinda disappointed overall. It tastes more of reminiscence to Fried Kway Teow as there were bean sprouts. The carrot cake was also too soft and ‘nua’ (mushy) just not what we are used to eat in Singapore.


The pasar malam had all sorts of things ranging from fish, to vegetables, fruits and even beauty products and clothes so it is worth the experience but the food wasn’t all that great.


Bought some roasted chestnuts for my grandfather and he said that it was good ! So maybe that was the only good thing from the pasar malam

The must try from KSL would be KONEST CHICKEN. It is really da bomb. The sauce is so different and so damn good. Got the rice cakes and it is still as good, the fried chicken is also really nice.


Leo got some liquid nitrogen biscuit thing but forgot to take photo of it ! It is really more for the fun of it I guess as it had like lots of smoke coming out from it.

Headed back to Singapore and there was slight jam on the highway but still manageable ! Didn’t get train tickets as the queue was very long when we had reached.



Here comes to the end of my JB post and I hope it was informative enough HAHAHAH.