Johor Bahru: September 13
我們在新山吃瘋了！ Malaysia - Truly Asia (Johor Bahru '13 Edition)
Johor Bahru (柔佛州新山) is located at the southern state of Johor, Malaysia and it is near Singapore shore. If there is no traffic jam, you can probably reach there from Singapore in about 30 minutes? I am not sure about the time but it's really a short distance.
It was a normal weekend where people went out for their weekly routine movie dates, K box sessions and etc;. This Saturday, 14th September 2013, I met up with Eileen and we braced ourselves to embark on the journey to Johor Bahru, Malaysia for an eating and shopping feast. The whole trip was a fun and fruitful one. Note, this is also my first time to Johor Bahru with my friend so it was quite a memorable one.
Anyway, it was a long wait to enter the custom and pass through the checkpoints. Buses after buses, we spent a total of 2 hours to reach the shore of Malaysia. Although, it may seems so near to us, still...it took that long. If you are heading to Johor Bahru from Singapore during the weekend, be metally prepared that the waiting time is really not short. :(
Waiting for bus at Kranji MRT station
Reached Johor Bahru loh!
Putting that aside...our first stop, Eileen and I went for a brief lunch at Old Town White Coffee Cafe @ City Square. We actually went to the cinema's box office to check out movie timing first. However, there are no movies which we would like to watch so instead, we went around the mall to slack and rot. Hahas. At Old Town White Coffee Cafe, we ordered several dishes to satisfy our hungry stomach(s). Our table was filled with coffee, rose syrup, fries, noodles and bread toast which all of these totalled up to around RM$27 (Approx. S$10.50).
Old Town White Coffee Cafe
Pretty Eileen and our drinks.
My butter toast.
We stayed at the cafe for about 30 to 40 minutes which include the waiting time for our foods. Overall, the service was alright and the price is definitely good. We also took photos and of course, chatting during our visit. We were discussing on our next destination and etc;. It was a nice place to slack around if you got a lot of time to spare. Next, we went around the mall to burn away some calories. We came across one of the snack vendors which sell Hong Kong's street snacks. We bought the peanut and chocolate flavoured egg waffle (雞蛋仔) from the store and we ate it while we were walking around the mall. The waffle was nice and tasty, baked straight from the toaster machine. I believed it is one of the must-eat in the mall, it cost us RM$4.90 (if I still remembered correctly).
Funny shot of the day!
The Snack Store, Megastar (大咪司).
Egg Waffle (雞蛋仔)
Our number one reason to visit Johor Bahru is because we wanted to get the mooncakes where it is much more expensive in Singapore. Well, in my opinion...Singapore has almost everything priced more expensive than any other countries which I had visited in my entire life (Excluding those essential stuffs like drinks and foods). We went for the mooncake roadshow to recce for cheap and nice mooncakes while walking around the mall. We took our time because we were thinking of our dinner first before buying the mooncakes.
The Roadshow.
After that, we headed to Starbucks to slack till around 6:00 PM before we went for our dinner. At Starbucks, I bought my tumblers and Java Chip Frappuccino. Hmm...the ambience was nice and relaxing. The cafe provide free wifi services like most of our Starbucks in Singapore has. Anyway, the drinks here aren't cheap, each venti-sized frappuccino cost RM$16.95 (S$6.60) after taxes. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed my stay here and i will definitely drop by Starbucks again soon.
Magazines and drinks to pass the time.
Our second stop, we took a taxi ride down to Taman Sentosa Market Place. The trip took about 5 to 10 minutes from City Square mall and cost about RM6 to RM7. The market place is similar to our Chomp Chomp Hawker Centre at Serangoon Gardens except that the place is much run-down. There are a variety of food stores here from Malay's Satay stores to Chinese's Zhi Char (煮炒) stores. You will definitely be happy here with all the tasty foods.
During my visit, Eileen and I ordered 5 dishes at one of the seafood stores. We had soup, prawns, string-rays, vegetables and egg. As for the drinks, we ordered the "Ba Long Long". It is a local beverage that tasted a bit of sour and sweet, it taste pretty weird at first but it is overall a nice and digestive drink. I guess that we went a bit overboard as we ordered quite a lot for a dinner for 2. Hahas, overall we totally loved the foods and all the foods were tasty. I will definitely recommend my friends and family to dine here the next time. The whole dinner cost us around RM$69 (S$26.80) which is really worth it. Note: Beware of stray cats. There are a lot of them here. ;)
Our seating view.
The "Ba Long Long"
Overview of our dinner.
Highlight of our dinner, the BBQ String-Ray!
Our bill.
After our dinner, we cabbed back to City Square to grab our mooncakes back to Singapore. There are 2 main local brands that you shouldn't miss, one is Season and the other, Lavander. These two are the mainstream and popular ones in Malaysia. I bought one box of snow skin mooncakes from Season and I totally love them, the mooncakes were tasty and nice. As for the price, I paid a total of RM62 (Approx. S$24). So, you decide for yourself whether is it worth it not. Hmm...there are also some new brands like Mika. Mika is one of latest cake brands in Malaysia. It sells swiss rolls, cakes and cream puffs. These desserts were equally tasty and nice, so bought some back home too. :)
Mika spotted!
Lavander Mooncake's booth
After our shopping spree, we packed up our stuffs and checked out of Malaysia then went back home happily. In conclusion, I spend about S$150 in total which includes 2 Starbucks tumbler. I am a happy boy but my pocket is not happy though. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my day and I hope to back soon again next time for more foods. Thanks to Eileen, I really had a great weekend this week and yup, catch up soon! :)
My haul of the day! Spent a lot... :(
Happy Us! I totally ruined the photo using Photoscape... :(
Story Closed on 15.09.13.
Johor Bahru (柔佛州新山) is located at the southern state of Johor, Malaysia and it is near Singapore shore. If there is no traffic jam, you can probably reach there from Singapore in about 30 minutes? I am not sure about the time but it's really a short distance.
It was a normal weekend where people went out for their weekly routine movie dates, K box sessions and etc;. This Saturday, 14th September 2013, I met up with Eileen and we braced ourselves to embark on the journey to Johor Bahru, Malaysia for an eating and shopping feast. The whole trip was a fun and fruitful one. Note, this is also my first time to Johor Bahru with my friend so it was quite a memorable one.
Anyway, it was a long wait to enter the custom and pass through the checkpoints. Buses after buses, we spent a total of 2 hours to reach the shore of Malaysia. Although, it may seems so near to us, still...it took that long. If you are heading to Johor Bahru from Singapore during the weekend, be metally prepared that the waiting time is really not short. :(
Reached Johor Bahru loh!
Putting that aside...our first stop, Eileen and I went for a brief lunch at Old Town White Coffee Cafe @ City Square. We actually went to the cinema's box office to check out movie timing first. However, there are no movies which we would like to watch so instead, we went around the mall to slack and rot. Hahas. At Old Town White Coffee Cafe, we ordered several dishes to satisfy our hungry stomach(s). Our table was filled with coffee, rose syrup, fries, noodles and bread toast which all of these totalled up to around RM$27 (Approx. S$10.50).
Pretty Eileen and our drinks.
My butter toast.
We stayed at the cafe for about 30 to 40 minutes which include the waiting time for our foods. Overall, the service was alright and the price is definitely good. We also took photos and of course, chatting during our visit. We were discussing on our next destination and etc;. It was a nice place to slack around if you got a lot of time to spare. Next, we went around the mall to burn away some calories. We came across one of the snack vendors which sell Hong Kong's street snacks. We bought the peanut and chocolate flavoured egg waffle (雞蛋仔) from the store and we ate it while we were walking around the mall. The waffle was nice and tasty, baked straight from the toaster machine. I believed it is one of the must-eat in the mall, it cost us RM$4.90 (if I still remembered correctly).
The Snack Store, Megastar (大咪司).
Egg Waffle (雞蛋仔)
Our number one reason to visit Johor Bahru is because we wanted to get the mooncakes where it is much more expensive in Singapore. Well, in my opinion...Singapore has almost everything priced more expensive than any other countries which I had visited in my entire life (Excluding those essential stuffs like drinks and foods). We went for the mooncake roadshow to recce for cheap and nice mooncakes while walking around the mall. We took our time because we were thinking of our dinner first before buying the mooncakes.
After that, we headed to Starbucks to slack till around 6:00 PM before we went for our dinner. At Starbucks, I bought my tumblers and Java Chip Frappuccino. Hmm...the ambience was nice and relaxing. The cafe provide free wifi services like most of our Starbucks in Singapore has. Anyway, the drinks here aren't cheap, each venti-sized frappuccino cost RM$16.95 (S$6.60) after taxes. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed my stay here and i will definitely drop by Starbucks again soon.
Our second stop, we took a taxi ride down to Taman Sentosa Market Place. The trip took about 5 to 10 minutes from City Square mall and cost about RM6 to RM7. The market place is similar to our Chomp Chomp Hawker Centre at Serangoon Gardens except that the place is much run-down. There are a variety of food stores here from Malay's Satay stores to Chinese's Zhi Char (煮炒) stores. You will definitely be happy here with all the tasty foods.
During my visit, Eileen and I ordered 5 dishes at one of the seafood stores. We had soup, prawns, string-rays, vegetables and egg. As for the drinks, we ordered the "Ba Long Long". It is a local beverage that tasted a bit of sour and sweet, it taste pretty weird at first but it is overall a nice and digestive drink. I guess that we went a bit overboard as we ordered quite a lot for a dinner for 2. Hahas, overall we totally loved the foods and all the foods were tasty. I will definitely recommend my friends and family to dine here the next time. The whole dinner cost us around RM$69 (S$26.80) which is really worth it. Note: Beware of stray cats. There are a lot of them here. ;)
The "Ba Long Long"
Overview of our dinner.
Highlight of our dinner, the BBQ String-Ray!
Our bill.
After our dinner, we cabbed back to City Square to grab our mooncakes back to Singapore. There are 2 main local brands that you shouldn't miss, one is Season and the other, Lavander. These two are the mainstream and popular ones in Malaysia. I bought one box of snow skin mooncakes from Season and I totally love them, the mooncakes were tasty and nice. As for the price, I paid a total of RM62 (Approx. S$24). So, you decide for yourself whether is it worth it not. Hmm...there are also some new brands like Mika. Mika is one of latest cake brands in Malaysia. It sells swiss rolls, cakes and cream puffs. These desserts were equally tasty and nice, so bought some back home too. :)
Lavander Mooncake's booth
After our shopping spree, we packed up our stuffs and checked out of Malaysia then went back home happily. In conclusion, I spend about S$150 in total which includes 2 Starbucks tumbler. I am a happy boy but my pocket is not happy though. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my day and I hope to back soon again next time for more foods. Thanks to Eileen, I really had a great weekend this week and yup, catch up soon! :)
Happy Us! I totally ruined the photo using Photoscape... :(
Story Closed on 15.09.13.
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