Johor Bahru – Singaporeans’ Favourite Getaway

By Thatthep Sae-Lim. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Back in early September, I got the chance to be back in Singapore again. The main reason for my visit was to attend a concert with my friends. However, this blog will not be about the concert or Singapore itself, but about my first time to Johor Bahru.

Johor Bahru (JB), aka “second Singapore”, is the border city between Malaysia and Singapore. The reason why I personally call it “second Singapore” is because this little town is Singaporeans’ favourite getaway. Everyone who live in Singapore would have at least one taken a trip to JB, whether it is just for a day or an overnight trip. It is to the extend that you would have a better chance running into a Singaporean there than Malaysian. Surprisingly, I had never been to JB before throughout my six years living in Singapore. Since I was flying back to the UK in late September, my friends and I decided to go on an one night trip to JB.

I was very excited as it was my first time in JB and it has been at least a decade since I last visited Malaysia. We took an early bus in to avoid crowd at the immigration, since it was a Saturday.

Once we passed through the immigration, we went to Kopiloco. This breakfast cafe is very well loved among Singaporeans, as well as the locals. Everything was so good. There has always had this debate going on whether Malaysian or Singaporean food is better and this was when I realised that the winner is in no doubt Malaysian.

Once the rest of our friends arrived, we went to get sushi for lunch.

We then checked in into our Airbnb, which is so cute and affordable.

On the way to dinner, we ran into this very cute craft store, which sells handmade items. I got myself a very cute croissant keychain and a pin that reminds me of my dog at home!

I was very much looking forward to dinner as we were going to eat loklok. Loklok is a street food unique to Malaysia. It is basically Chinese-style hotpot with variety of fried ingredients on stick. You can choose to eat those ingredients with the spicy powder or with the hotpot soup.

These two ingredients are my personal favourites. The red round looking meat is Bakwa, Chinese salty-sweet dried meat similar to jerky. While the bun is called Mantou, which is a fried bun eaten with condensed milk. It is a very popular Chinese dessert that can be found in most Chinese restaurant.

We decided to take the second day easy and started the day with a brunch. The cafe itself is very aesthetic and the foods were very good. Despite the price being slightly high, considering it is Malaysia, everything tasted so good that it was very worth the price.

We then went to explore the thrifting scene in JB, before returning to Singapore.

Since it was a Sunday evening, the immigration and buses were extremely crowded. It took us almost two hours just to get on the bus back home. We did not even have the time to try the famous Rotiboy as the queue was extremely long.

Overall, it was a very interesting trip. The environment there feels exactly the same as Singapore. The only difference is that it is so much cheaper than Singapore. It is exactly like how people cross the border from Switzerland to neighbouring countries to enjoy cheaper products and services!

Other than the food, we also really enjoyed shopping during this trip. We went there on Malaysian National Day so there were a lot of sales going on. I think I now truly understand why many Singaporeans favour JB, finally.