Endless schoolwork piling? No financial support? No time? That, is the woes of a student. Sometimes, all we want to do is just to get out of this land our feet is on and travel Travel TRAVEL. But the amount of work and the financial limitation makes holiday nothing but a bubble. So to break this monotony of life, le boy and I decided to embark on a one-day johor bahru trip. It's near, cost-efficient and absolutely suitable for a quick getaway! =D
Certainly, taking public transport from Singapore to JB isn't something totally new to us. Been there, done that. Our usual route is to take bus 168>Woodlands Interchange> bus 950 all the way to JB. For somebody who's staying in the east, taking only 2 hours to travel and clear m'sia custom, it's unbelievably quick. But this time, we decided to try out another route: bus 969 to yishun interchange> red-line train to katib> bus 170 all the way to JB. The journey time was similar but the frequency of bus 170 is much higher, which means chances of getting a seat is much higher!
Started our day with basking robbins becuse every single time we told ourselves that we will eat it, we end up forgetting. Well, it's kind of overrated. We had pistachio (green one on the left) which tasted a little like cough syrup, hokey pokey (honeycomb vanilla) which was a little too sweet and macadamia ice cream (the only acceptable one) but i think anderson's ice cream very much surpass them.
Well, the last time we had been to JB was like more than 6 months ago and the place had changed very much. All the renovations to city square mall has given it a whole new look. Was famished and we didn't want to resort to eating fast food so we ended up at this noodle place at the basement. It's really hawker stall in a restaurant style. Well, the price is alike to those in Singapore, but at least they are providing a service. No more spilling or scalding with them serving your food right up at your table! Cant rmb the exact shop name but it's noodle house or something similar. Worth eating! (Y)
And then it was shopping and walking. My must go shop in Malaysia is surely Factory Outlet Store (FOS). Nothing for me! But treasures for my favourite girl. Lots of nice comfy leggings and rompers @3for 30RM. Which means one legging is about slightly less than 5 sing dollars. Good buy! But they used to stock brands like carter's, mothercare, gap baby which was super pretty. Now the brands are kind of unheard of like bundle of joy (anybody?!) etc. But the rompers are still pretty decent with nice prints while for the leggings, you'll probably have to dig around abit more for pretty pieces.!
And to pamper myself, my favourite store is PADINI! It's like giordano in singapore during its more glory days. A local brand, they stock a wide range of selections from shoes, to bags, to accessories and outfits for every occasions. And the best part is i can usually find clothes my size (UK4) and even shoes (US2) Love them to bits! Especially sales racks, they are to die-for. Hidden gems i must say. But it's slightly disappointing this time because half the shop was cordoned off for renovation work. Cant wait for it to re-open fully! But le boy did manage to get good shades with uv protection and polarized lens at a decent prize (bday prezzie for his dad).
And then we got bored of JBCS and decided to head somewhere nearer to our dinner place. It's easy to grab a cab but we wanted to go by the exit which is more along the way so we decided to ask the guy working inside the mac shop. There, we met our nice guy #1 of our JB trip. Instead of just pointing the direction to us, he told us the route that the driver should take as well as remind us to catch a blue cab (SAFER!) instead of the red one. As much as we wanted to, there was NOT A SINGLE blue cab in sight so we had to board a red one. There, we met weirdo #1- cab driver. The journey started out well, with small chats with the uncle. And the fact that we cldnt understand malay probably gave away the fact that we aren't local.
Uncle: Here for holiday?
Me: Ya, come eat seafood.
Uncle: Seafood expensive in Spore?
Me: Ya... Very ex.
Uncle: You two couple?
Me: Ya (tryin to squueze a smile)
Uncle: You two married?
Me: *raise eyebrows*
Le boy: No la!
Uncle: You two slp together?
Me: *rolling eyes big time* OS: WTH
And i swear i just blackfaced throughout the remaining ride and refuse to talk. Especially when he started sharing how Singaporean teenagers are wild child and engage in sex freely and apparently according to him, singaporeans uses the most condoms in the world. Hello uncle, i wonder where your statistics come from. Boy was i glad to finally alight from the cab. SUFFOCATING MUCH.
Was so glad when we reached our dinner place!
see the HUGE stingray! (hmm.. on the drain)
Anyway, we were so full from dinner we decided to walk to KSL shopping mall instead which was SUPPOSED to be a stone's throw away. Well.. well well.. It's probably manageable if you know the way and if the sun was a little more merciful. Went into a provision shop to ask for directions and we met good guy #2. The owner was a indian guy who didn't seem to understand us but this customer, chinese man was nice enough to point out the right directions to us AND remind us to be careful of our belongings around this area. HOW NICE!
First milestone: Crossing a GIANT overhead bridge.
The steps were so STEEP i thght i was on the Great Wall of China
2nd milestone: A long stretch of road along a private area
(the terror of having dogs dashing out of unlocked gates *shivers*)
And the finally! KSL City right behind us!
Warning: A little jaywalking skill needed!
More walking and then we couldnt resist the frangrance when we walked past the stall. It's quite huge, good portion to share between 2 people. And it costs less than $2. Affordable and yummy snack!
the stall was selling fruits too. Displaying the fruits make them look so tantalizing!
But then.. on a 2nd thought, BACTERIA!
And then.. we saw this girl with MODIFIED CROCS. Amazing. Attachable wheels to original crocs and she was skating so seamlessly. lol.
Dinner time! Good food! I polished off the entire plate of lala all on my own n they cost only 8RM!
Veggies only 8RM and the entire meals barely cost $50 SING! But we were so full from eating nonsense the entire day we didnt have enough stomach space to order any more food. What a pity!
Getting cab back to city sqare mall was quite a hassle. Cab drivers were refusing to turn on the meter and demands $10 Sing for a 10min ride which is nonsensical. We refused to hop onto a few cabs but we were running late for our movie it was desperate.
Then, we met good guys #3- a couple. They looked like Singaporeans and they seem to be trying to get a cab too. So, my plan was to approach they n share the cab. Good idea IKR! But they cldnt get any either and kept walking to the main road. We, followed. And then we saw them running for this blue bus and we took a risk and followed them! GOSH! So glad we did bcos the bus ride costs less than $1 SING and we got to where we wanted to in any case. Such an adventure! Logically, i don't think the 2 of us will ever dare to take the local buses on our own.
Caught Wizard of Oz at the theatre there which was owned by Cathay. Hence for a moment i forgot the fact that i weren't in Singapore. Hah. Anw, finished the movie and caught 950 back to Singapore and then 168 from woodlands home!
WHAT A DAY! Thanks nice souls! #faithinhumanityrestored
