Oh my gosh, I missed you so much JB!

It has been about 3 years since I last saw you.

And no, I’m not referring to Justin Bieber, or my GOT7 bias, Jay B, but my closest neighbour, Johor Bahru!

Getting There

We took the train. Quite easy to purchase your tickets – online or through the app. All you need is to ensure the details you fill in are exactly the same as your passport, and be there physically with your passport. You don’t need to refer to the receipt sent to your email.

Entry starts about 30 to 45 minutes before train departure on both sides of the causeway. The officer will scan your passport using their phones or through the automated lanes, and then you head on to clear both Singapore and Malaysia’s immigration. Gate closes 20 minutes before departure in SG, and 10 minutes in MY.

Tip #1: Queue at the physical counter at Singapore’s immigration, cause it is way faster than the automated lanes.

Tip #2: If there are no officers at the bag-checking machine, skip it. There is no need to put your bags through the machine at an unmanned machine.

Tip #3: If you are using a wheelchair, Singapore ICA officers will bring you to the room at the corner so you don’t need to stand to to scan your fingerprint and face. But it takes a very long time because there are other people too. So, before they lead you there, just say you can stand up for a while and do it at the normal manned counters. They will prioritise the elderly to skip the queue.

Tip #4: It is free-seating, but best is for you to just stand at the doors of the train, so you can easily get off upon arrival on either sides. The train ride is only about 5 minutes.

Tip #5: At CIQ, when you are allowed to board the train, head dowm from the escalator, turn right and go to the back half of the carriage. That is where the entry to immigration will be located upon arrival in JB.

Note: I believe that currently you are not able to use the Immigration e-gates at JB checkpoints if you are travelling by train.

Accomodation

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre.

It was a short walking distance away from CIQ, and is housed above a (bit dead) shopping mall, and right beside another shopping mall. Very satisfied with the room and service.

The staff kindly offered a room that is more accessible because she saw us with a wheelchair. The room came with a wheelchair-friendly entrance, a chair near the door, handles and a seat in the toilet. It also comes with a sofa. Overall, clean and spacious room, with clean amenties incuding a gym, swimming pool and sauna.

The art around the hotel was also aethetically pleasing.

Things to do

For this trip, we wanted to get our items on our grocery and raya list, so we had specific places in mind. This is probably not a super comprehensive list, but it is a sufficient itenarary for three days (you could probably squeeze more places in if you want to).

#1 The Mall, Mid Valley Southkey

It feels a bit like Ion + Jewel, not only because of the variety, but how you also observe more patrons on basement level (cause we are average Joes). The mall is great in the sense that there are lots of common seating areas, toilets were clean, and the mall was not crowded at all on a weekday.

My only pet peeve was the availability of halal restaurants – quite a number of retaurants especially in the upper levels were not halal (although I wish they were). I thought Chaiteraise would be halal in MY, but alas, still spotted some of their products with pork gelatin.

Most of the halal ones are at LG floor. It was also difficult to spot the halal ones as they subtly display the logo in the shop, as compared to in SG, plus we reached way too early to see the lunch crowd.

But to be honest, the main reason I headed to this mall is for…..DIN TAI FUNG! It is always filled with people, and the chefs (whom we could see through the glass window) were continuously working on dumplings. (Note: It is muslim-friendly, not certified halal)

Also ate the nice-looking croissants, mochi, sushi, and some fried korean chicken. Yummy!

#2 Angsana Mall

This is the go to place for all things raya + a bit of entertainment (bowling and live music).

There were some empty shops at the top half of the mall post-COVID, but there were still lots to see. Managed to get some pretty clothes for raya, and even some cute smart casual outfits.

Got our kek kukus at our usual store, beside the supermarket. Food-wise, there is nothing much to eat here (but I didnt check the open-air food court). And there was only one bubble tea shop, which didnt look too apppetising. I tried the drink at O2 cafe, and it was average.

Tip #6: There is a pasar malam on Fridays held right outside Angsana mall in front of the parking lot, which comes with live music.

Tip #7: You can also explore the shophouses down the street from Angsana Mall. There are some boutique stores, Jakel, and some street food and cafes.

#3 Larkin

Head over to Pasar Larkin, located at Larkin Bus Sentral. We headed there early at around 7.30am on a Thursday. Traffic was smooth and there were no crowds at all (the peak period was after 8.30am).

Both wet and dry goods can be found here. While we were able to purchase our groceries from our regular stalls, not all shops survived the pandemic. There were some stalls that were permanently closed, while some that were temporarily closed due to the floods which affected the agricultural products.

You can get breakfast the food stall in the middle of the market which sells quite nice food, and there’s also a row of food stalls near the carpark, where the taste can be hit and misses depending on the food you buy.

Tip #8: Right across Pasar Larkin, there is an open-air food court which is also a popular choice amongst the Pasar Larkin patrons. It is located along the streets filled with shophouses.

#4 KSL

There are many cafes in that area that you can explore, and based on their instagram accounts, the presentation looked beautiful and tasty. One popular cafe is Nimmies Pastry Cafe, an instgrammable cafe known for their Nasi Lemak Croissant!

“𝑁𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝐶𝑎𝑓𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙” (@nimmies.pastrycafe) • Instagram photos and videos

#5 Komtar/City Square

There are a few shopping malls located right across the immigration building, and the easiest to get to are Komtar and City Square. Unfortunately, a lot of the shops closed down during the pandemic, so you will see a lot of empty shops in the malls. It was a little depressing to see a run-down Inner City at City Sqaure, and even Miniso and Action City had no customers. You could probably only see the crowds at the restaurants and food stalls.

Prices were generally still affordable, including Tony Roma at Komtar which still had large servings. Famous Amos kept running out of chocolate chip cookies (we saw them put freshly baked ones from Level 2, and by the time we rushed over, someone else had already bought it all). If you walk out of the mall to cross the street, there is a tasty self-serve nasi padang place too at the shophouse directly facing City Square. The malls are generally skippable, but still a good resting spot before you depart back to Singapore!

Tip #9: The new hot spot would be the 24 hour food court, at the back of Amari Hotel (near Holiday Inn too), which is a walking distance from the area. A lot of people hang out there till late.

Tip #10: You can walk to Jalan Dhoby/Tian Hiok Nee, which is a few streets down the road. There is a thrift store and if you visit in the evening, Pasar Karat will be opened. Nice to soak in the vibes and squeeze with the crowd once in a while. There’s lots of cafes too. But I heard that Salahuddin Bakery’s quality has dropped since (opinion only).

#6 Pisang Goreng Mawar

This place is super well-known among locals and Singaporeans alike. The queue is always long, but it moves fast. Their pisang goreng comes with sambal kicap, and it’s so good. They also have other food like what they sell at pasar malams. The shop is also clean and simple, and you will catch many families hanging out. The carpark is also spacious.

Sometimes, you may spot children going around selling things like keropok, cotton candy, and mango. They are regulars roamers at popular food spots, so you might see the same people in other places. While they are not local (usually from neighbours countries like Myanmar/Combodia), their Malay sounds really good, albeit with a bit of accent. Sadly, they spend their childhood doing this, and they do not go to school 😦

Adress: Off Jalan Sungai Chat, 80100 Johor Bahru (opposite construction of Southern Tiger Indoor Training Ground)

Will you visit these places?

I think Pasar Tani is still ongoing, but I didn’t drive to JB, so we gave it a miss. That is also another exciting place to be!

Unfortunately, it was rainy season when I was in JB, so I did not mange to visit Austin Heights (again!). Can someone bring me there, please?