"I wanna go overseas," I whined sometime in May last year. My friends, being the genies they are, whisked me off to Johor Bahru. Again. Naturally, we settled our lunch in Johor Bahru due to the favourable exchange rate. The first order of business was a hot pot of Malaysia's herbal bak kut teh.

Despite all the years I spent in Singapore, I never got used to Singapore's peppery bak kut teh.

Address: 43, Jalan Serigala, Taman Abad, 80250 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening hours: 9am to 9pm daily


Bought an ice cream to quench my thirst in the hot day while we were on our way to begin our cafehopping.

Churros with chocolate ganache dip

Address: 33, Jalan Dhoby, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday 10am to 10:30pm | Friday, Satursday, Sunday: 9am to 12am


Enroute to City Square, we stopped by Big Bites Cafe, which I frequent because of its convenient location, for an oreo popsicle.

Big Bites Cafe

Address: 18, Jalan Ibrahim, Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours: 9am to 7pm daily


People are weird. I actually never really drank Gong Cha when it was in Singapore, until it left. I guess humans just crave for what we can't have. Anyway, my usual order is a large cup of milk tea, sugar level 50%, less ice, add pudding.

Gong Cha (City Square)

Address: Johor Bahru City Square, 108, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours: 10am to 10pm daily


My favourite cheesecake at only RM11 (~SGD $3.50). Buy buy buy!

Mika (City Square)

Address: Lot No MF – 01 & 02, Level 3, Johor Bahru City Square, 106-108, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.

Opening Hours: 10am to 10pm daily

Johor Bahru street food and neoprints. Nothing beats Malaysian food.

Returning home after filling our stomach with cheap but yummy food. We left Johor Bahru at about 8:30pm and the bus was clear! All four of us got a seat. Amazing, considering how the bus is always packed like sardines.

Prior to leaving my full time job, I had two days of leave to clear so I travelled to Johor Bahru with with Chelsea whom I travelled to Hong Kong with, in 2016. It was one of Chelsea's rare few days in Singapore and we haven't spent a full day together since we both started working!


We initially wanted to satisfy my cravings for Malaysia street food but ended up getting ignored T__T I have no idea why because we were polite, and I spoke to the auntie in my Malaysia-accented Chinese. After an hour, we finally lost our patience and walked into a random cafe, hunting for any food that would fill our tummies T___T

Flowers in the Window

Address: 9, Jalan Dhoby, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours: 10am to 8pm daily | Closed on Tuesdays
Contact No.: +60 7-222 7489

I must be one of the few Singaporeans who have never been to Johor Bahru — or at least, I hadn't till a few weeks back. Following the abundance of cafehopping in Johor Bahru guides written usually by Singaporeans, I tagged along Nat and JX's date for a short trip away from Singapore.

I'd expect most Singaporeans to know this route by heart but for reference's sake, we took Bus 950 to Woodlands Checkpoint, then Bus 160 to Johor Bahru Sentral, linked to City Square Mall. If you don't know your way, just follow some Singaporeans and you'll probably reach Johor Bahru in no time.

Since everything was within walking distance, we didn't find a need to splurge on cabs despite the burning sun. However, much to our disappointment, the cafe we initially wanted to dine in, Replacement Cafe, was strangely closed although it was supposed to be opened daily.

By this point we were famished. Helpless without internet connection, we decided to just enter the first cafe we saw, Big Bites Cafe, to begin our Johor Bahru cafe hopping adventure.


Big Bites Cafe

Address
18, Jalan Ibrahim, Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Opening Hours
9am to 7pm daily

Telephone Number
+60 7-221 1475

Upon arrival, the weather was sunny and hot but still great and the photos turned out vibrant and pretty! But it started raining about two hours later and the rain never stopped so we were soaked to the bones :( I would say that checking the weather forecast before travelling is really important since the rain stopped me from taking a lot more photos.






A staff volunteered to take this series of photos for us which turned out beautiful! The staff at Legoland were really friendly, always smiling and chatting with us, which made our experience 100x better. And that is coming from me, who absolutely hate any kind of small talks. Yay for good customer service!









Another pleasant surprise was how empty the whole theme park was! We specially choose to travel one week before the secondary school holidays and it was evidently the right choice because we didn't have to queue AT ALL. Compare this to some of my friends who went on public holidays and queued up to two hours for some rides :O

Because of this, we also got some "special treatment" from the staff there. For example, we didn't have to get off the rides and we could go again and again and again! When we took The Dragon, the biggest roller coaster in Legoland Malaysia, the guy controlling the roller coaster even made our roller coaster 2x faster! That was awesome, honestly. No other words for that.



I think we went on Aquazone Wave Racers at least 10 times a day because it was sooooo fun! In the beginning, only Joanna realised that we could steer the wheel so that the water wouldn't hit us so we were all soaked. We had so much fun after that because we found out that releasing the steering wheel quickly allows your cart to move quickly! I have no idea how to explain this properly, and I think you just have to experience it yourself.


We also went on Project X several times and I think it's one of the best rides in Legoland for teenagers. I guess it's considered fast compared to other rides in the theme park and there was one steep slope but that's it so don't expect rides like USS' Mummy or Battlestar Galactica or you'll be very disappointed.

Headed over to Star Wars Miniland after that. I actually expected to be very impressed and awed by the exhibitions but I wasn't at all. Maybe it's because I'm not a fan of Star Wars or maybe I was just too looking forward to the other roller coasters.























Went to Lego Kingdom for Dragon's Apprentice and The Dragon! I must say again that the staff were all really friendly and cheerful and they made the rides so much more enjoyable! We rode both roller coasters more than once without having to get out of our seats because of how empty the whole theme park was :')











Decided to go for a meal before continuing our Legoland journey! We were quite cautious of which restaurant to dine in because YC went to Legoland a month ago as well and he said the food was "disgusting" so I didn't have much hopes about the food there. In the end, we decided to eat at King's Grill because it smelt amazing from afar and it very near to The Dragon!

I don't really expect much from theme park food because of YC's previous experience plus I've been to USS quite a few times and their food is quite meh. But the food was awesome! Especially the nuggets!!! You must try the nuggets from King's Grill I swear. I usually don't even like McDonald's nuggets but I couldn't stop eating their nuggets omfg craving for them again now T_T


What happened at King's Grill was that the lady taking the order asked me if I wanted fries or French fries wtf. Apparently none of my friends got asked that question so I guess the weirdest things only happen to me. I said French fries by the way.

When we were eating halfway, it started pouring. Like not just a little drizzle but really hardcore raining cats and dogs :( We tried waiting for the rain to stop but it only stopped for a while and kept coming back. in the end, we all decided to just brave the rain in the name of fun.










This was before the staff told us we have to take one ride per person because we're considered adults. Despite Jes protesting that I look like a kid and I'm a kid.






Headed to Lego Studio where we caught the Legends of Chima 4D movie, which was a total disappointment to be honest. The only 4D effects were some rain falling on us and some miserable green smoke. We were all expecting the chairs to at least move when the Lego figurines were riding on some transportation but they didn't. Might have been the show we watched, but the Shrek Adventure at USS is a lot better compared to this.





Played a fishing game for RM30 and I won this purple lion cub / koala with Joanna's help. We all thought it looked more like a lion cub but the staff told me it was a koala bear?!?!?! LOL. When I returned home and showed it to my mom, she said it looks like a pirated version of Stitch from Lilo and Stitich wtf HAHAHAHA.

There was also an orange version of this lion cub / koala soft toy but I thought I prefer purple. On second thought, I should have gotten orange to annoy my best friend because she absolutely hates orange.

This is the third biggest soft toy they have there and I actually wanted to pay another 5 rounds to win the biggest one which was half my size but I figured I'll have no place to put it and it'll be a burden to bring back to Singapore so I settled for this.

Anyway, RM30 actually entitles you to 4 rounds of fishing but the guy was nice and offered to give us one extra round hehehe. Tip for those going to Legoland or planning to go -be nice to everyone there and they will be nice to you too :-)






My friends started being kids too wtf. But I swear that place was heavenly without anyone else disrupting our fun!!! Brings us back to our childhood and I'm sure kids these days wouldn't even appreciate all these playgrounds anymore because all they want is iPad iPad iPad. I feel like a bitter old grandma but it's true T_T
Went on Lost Kingdom which was a ride providing laser guns for you to point at the dots and shoot. Was fun but tiring because it took so much strength for me to press on the gun. Apparently nobody had that problem except me wtf #weakling