Blogs from Johor, Malaysia, Asia - page 3

Friday, 20th February 2015 Second day of Lunar New Year. We were on our way to Johor Bahru this morning to spend a short weekend staycation. The traffic at both sides of the Causeway was incredibly smooth as we took minimal efforts to clear the customs. Our bus ride to the url=http://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g298278-d4227651-r255587765-Renaissance_Johor_Bahru_Hotel-Johor_Bahru_Johor_Bahru_District_Johor.htmlRenaissance Hotel at Permas Jaya took a little more than 30 minutes as it made its way across the waterfront along Berjaya Hotel. By 11.15am, we were greeted by the beautiful hotel lobby. Since our room could only be ready after 3pm, we popped over to a nearby coffeeshop for our brunch. Surprisingly, there were quite a number of Chinese eateries opened for business even though today was a very important festival observed by the Chinese. It ... read more

Amazing food, thoughtful hosts, and great friends.. .a relaxing and fun weekend... Thanks to the Ho family for looking after us!... read more

Sunday, 28th December 2014 On the afternoon when we were supposed to return home from Johor Bahru, we decided to hop onto one of the 5 train services to cross the busy Causeway. It was 2.30pm on Sunday afternoon and like all weekends, the Malaysia Customs was getting really crowded. H suggested that we turned back the tide and try riding the KTM train back to Singapore. This was a good decision since it would minimise the overcrowding and delays at both sides of the Causeway. Each ticket costs RM3 on the 5 minutes journey into Singapore. Ticket sales started 30 minutes before the trains arrived on a first-come first-served basis. As a train buff, this was a pleasant ride for me to beat the queues and crowds on a weekend afternoon. For Sundays crossings in ... read more

Saturday, 27th December 2014 After breakfast at Coffee Valley, we took a walk around the historic downtown core before hailing a taxi to Holiday Plaza for my massage routine. For the weekend, we chose to stay at Hotel Tebrau CT as it was right opposite Jusco Tebrau City and 5 minutes to Tesco Hypermarket. The meal choices we picked today were quite sensible ranging from Vivo pizzas to Japanese hotpots. In between meals, we found time for a somewhat expensive coffee break at Lavender Café. This was a great weekend for us to try out new eateries and stay experiences. Our hotel stay turned out to be rather forgettable even though the train ride back to Singapore the following afternoon was quite a pleasant surprise.... read more

It’s almost two weeks since we arrived in Puteri Harbour Marina in Johor, Malaysia. We have been thrown back into civilisation. Our immigration process couldn’t have been much easier - filled out a form and then later that day taken over to the nearby ferry terminal by golf buggy, sat in the deserted waiting room briefly before having a couple of electronic fingerprints taken and we were done. Curiously, this huge modern international ferry terminal is a new addition to the area, planned for transporting people across to Singapore. However it has spent most of its time empty as it only gets one boat per week from Indonesia as the Singapore port authorities have snootily told them the Malaysian boats are not up to standard. This marina is a new development and the state’s government buildings ... read more