A Day Trip to JB

17th Oct 2022, Monday

Woohooo!!! Finally decided to go JB with my friends with KTM train today. We bought the train tickets a month ago to avoid not getting the date we wanted. We all woke up around 5:30 am to get ourselves prepared and met up in Woodlands Interchange. We had took Bus 911 to go to Woodlands Checkpoint but the bus was going round and round and round within woodlands. It eventually went back to Woodlands Interchange again and it went another BIGGGGGG round before it actually reached Woodlands Checkpoint. It took us about more than an hr to reach the checkpoint in the end.

When we went up to the checkpoint, there was already a queue waiting for the customs to open for departure. Apparently, the customs will only be opened 1 hour before the train's departure time. And it actually took about a hour to clear both Singapore and Malaysia Customs before boarding the train. Luckily, it wasn't really very very crowded in the two customs but there were still a large number of Singaporeans travelling to JB today. There was still a 5 or 10 mins wait before the door was opened for boarding. The train carriages were having seats facing in opposite directions, so you may be facing backwards. We were lucky to get seats, there were people standing at the train doors cos they don't want to seat separately or not able to get the seats they wanted. 

KTM Shuttle Train

The train left the station slightly later than the actual departure time and it just took 5 minutes or so to reach JB train station. By then, it was already 10 am and everyone was just dashing out to start their day in JB. We too figured to exit out and walked to our first stop - Restoran Hua Mui in Jalan Trus area. The walking journey took us about 15 minutes to reach the place and we could see a long queue outside. So we decided to give up eating there and we went to Flowers in the Window cafe nearby. Their signboard is so small and we can't make out the cafe name on their signboard. And, their menu was quite limited and decided to go for The Replacement cafe opposite the street as it had more choices (Slightly expensive than Flowers in the Window). It wasn't crowded and the customers were the ones who got the same train as us.

Flowers in a Window Cafe (Quite creepy, right? >_<)

We decided to share the food and go over to  Restoran Hua Mui to try their Hainanese Chicken Chop after that. So we ordered a big breakfast and a French toast with hot chocolate, latte and coffee for each of us. The food arrived quite fast and we took our own sweet time to finish the food while chatting. The food was quite tasty. After that, we decided to walk Salahuddin Bakery which we thought there was a distance to digest our bunch. But it was just like 50 or 100 metres away from the cafe. ^_^. It was a old looking shop owned by an Indian, selling breads, cakes and curry puffs. Ended up not buying anything. After that, we walked around the area and walked past Hiap Joo Bakery which was famous for their banana cakes. We decided to skip buying too as the queue was crazily long and had to stand under the big sun. 

Hot Chocolate

French Toast

Big Breakfast

So we decided to go back to Restoran Hua Mui and there was no longer any queue but the place was still crowded with people. We sat a table near the window and discussed what we should order there. We initially wanted to order 2 plates of their "famous" Hainanese Chicken Chop as we saw a lot of the customers ordered and it was recommended by other bloggers online. But we ordered 1 plate of the chicken chop and a plate of Otak Nasi Lemak. By look, the nasi lemak wasn't appetizing and the otak was quite small. Whereas, the chicken chop was big and it came with potato wedges and colesaw. It turned the batter of the chicken chop was not crispy enough and it doesn't taste good to what we were expecting. And the potato wedges were all cold. It was quite disappointing for us and it felt like it was over rating for the chop. We found the nasi lemak is much better than the chicken chop. However, these were just our own personal preferences on the chicken chop. 

Otak Nasi Lemak & Chix Chop

After that, we took a grab car and headed to KSL shopping mall. The grab driver took some time to reach our waiting point and there was a long queue of cars on the road we were waiting. The driver told us it was his first day driving grab and keep apologizing that he was being slow in the driving. We walked around and did some shopping in the mall when we arrived. After walking around, we crossed the road outside the mall to Avery Day Convenience Concept Store which was just opposite the mall. It was another disappointment to go to the store where it was just selling some normal tibits and the prices were not so much cheaper too. There were some food carts at the last basement of the mall too. There wasn't anything interesting there, so we took a grab car back to City Square mall after buying Auntie Annie's. 

 Avery Day Convenience Concept Store (Opposite KSL Mall)

When we reached City Square mall, we walked around and i was glad my favourite BBQ shop (Kimdo BBQ) had not closed down. So i just went ahead and bought 3 chicken wings to satisfy my cravings. After which, we went to buy some breads from Lavender and there was a queue of customers buying the cookies and breads. I went over to another bakery shop named Seasons and bought two red beans breads and a croissant which cost around $8 plus ringgits. After buying the breads, we went up to the last level and rested at Miyakori Coffee. There, we ordered some drinks and rested our feet from the walking. 

Kimdo BBQ

Hot Chocolate...Again!!

We rested till around 4 pm, then we headed around the mall to get to Meng Meng Roasted Duck restro for our dinner. It was located very far inside of the mall and there were only 2 or 3 shops remained open. We wanted to order some dim sum but to our disappointment, the items we wanted were all sold out. In the end, we ordered 3 roasted meats (duck, char siew and roasted pork), a dumpling soup and a veggies with rice. I personally found the roasted pork quite salty but the char siew and duck were not too bad. The dumplings soup was also tasty. After that, we made our way slowly to the entrance to the Malaysia Customs and to board the train. As usual, there was already a long queue waiting for the gates to open. We just sat down and waited. The gates were only opened around 5 plus and the queue moved slowly as the people tried to scan their passports on the gantry for entry. As there were people who did not know how to scan, there was only one KTM staff and he was walking to and fro to help the people to scan successfully. After that, we had to clear the Malaysia Customs and it was dashing and queuing for everyone again. 

Meng Meng Roasted Duck

Once we cleared the customs, we headed to the train and some of the carriages were already packed with people. Some were even standing inside the carriages. So we walked towards the carriages behind where there were more empty seats. We reached Singapore 5 mins before 6 pm and we had to clear Singapore Customs when we alighted. There were quite a lot of people at Woodlands Checkpoint as people had knocked off and were rushing back to JB. Some were like us, rushing back home after coming back from JB. We went and boarded the same bus number 911 to go back to Woodlands Interchange where we went on our separate ways home. It was a fun and relax day after 3 years of no travelling. Taking trains to JB is really easy and less squeezing than buses. Hopefully, it can remain like this and no more lockdown globally.... ^_^

Places visited:

1. The Replacement
2. Salahuddin Bakery

3. Hiap Joo Bakery

4. KSL Mall

5. Avery Day Convenience Concept Store

6. City Square Mall

7. Kimdo BBQ

8. Miyakori Coffee

9. Meng Meng Roasted Duck

2 Days' JB Chi Chi Trip

Kimdo BBQ @ City Square

Went to JB with 2 of my friends from 16th to 17th March 2013 for a yum yum tour. We met up at 11am at Kranji MRT station. Then we queued up for bus 170, it was a super super long queue...we waited for at least half an hour before we can board the bus. Crowded bus..we finally arrived at Woodlands Custom..past through Customs, it was long long queue again for the buses to cross over to JB customs. Can't even see which queue is for which bus, everyone was just queuing in all the lines and it was super hot too. Finally we got to board the bus and travel over to JB customs...At JB customs, everyone was rushing to queue at the counters....After we cleared the customs, we were free to find nice and yummy food around JB. First, i brought my 2 friends to a BBQ stall in City Square, called Kimdo BBQ as starter snacks. It sells nice and good BBQ food, like bbq chicken wings, bbq sotong, mushrooms and many others. After that, they bought some cooling tea from Share Tea. Then we walked around in City Square as we were not hungry yet for lunch.

One of our dishes @ Teck Sing Restaurant

After walking around in City Square, we took a cab down to our destination for lunch - Teck Sing Restaurant at Taman Sentosa, where we had a nice herbal paper baked chicken (whole), a whole fish and a plate of vegetables and each of us had a lime plum drink. The meal only cost us RM$77.30...and the food was nice...the chicken was very tender and the herbal taste was not so good, which i like it..kekeke...After the meal, we walked down to find a cab to go to our hotel for a night's stay - KSL Resort. It was the same hotel we stayed previously, when we came over with a Legoland trip. When we got the hotel lobby, it was packed with people. There was a long queue waiting to check in for individuals and a separate queue for tour group check-in. It was horrible, we noticed that there was some notice at the counters, saying that they were doing some system upgrade and there may be some delay. Ya, some delay...it wasn't a 15 mins delay...it was 2 hours' delay!! We just stood there and waited to check-in..the queue wasn't even moving at all....so I went off to KSL shopping centre to get our movie tixs for the night while my friends waited at the queue. When i came back, they were still queuing...-_-"...And as the check-in queue got longer, people started to get frustrated..people were started to complain...even when they got the turn to check-in, people were shouting angrily...due to the long wait...and some guests who had checked-in came down and scolded the staff, that there were already people checked-in the same room..Finally it's our turn, the staff who attended us took our booking paper and disappeared for at least 10 or 15 mins...the lady beside us was also complaining to us, saying that the staff had told her that there wasn't any room available for her now and will call her once they have the available room for her...She was so angry...after the long wait, the staff still can tell her no room and she had also booked a triple room. (which was same with us)...She told the staff off angrily and asked them to get her a room now.

Our super yummy dinner @ Chez Papa

Finally, the staff who attended us came back..my friend asked him whether he went up the levels to check whether there is available rooms...That guy was still joking with us, saying that there were no rooms for us. I think my friends were going to throw tables at him already...all of us were already tired of standing there...for 2 hours..and he still had the mood to joke with us...Finally we done with our check-in and went up to our room. It was located at the last room of the level, and when we entered, there was no ac...it was like not even on...so we tried to set to the lowest level...but after some time, we still found the ac wasn't strong enough. Anyway, we were all too tired and hot to do anything. We just found ourselves a place to sit and rest, watched tv...kekeke...We sat until it was time for dinner...ohh!!Creme Brulee!!...We took a cab from the hotel down to the resturant - Chez Papa. It was located at Taman Maju Jaya and it was a french restaurant with a nice homely feel. We ordered 2 a dozen escargot, 1 bowl of mushroom soup, Lamb Shank, Chez Papa Sampler, Foie Gras and of course, creme brulee (1 for us each..kekee)...and their baguette which was complimentary was also yummy too!! I had a super nice dinner there, the staffs were also friendly..they had their special dishes written on a white board and they will show it to every table during order taking...So happy to have my dinner there... :P

After the fantastic dinner, we went back to our hotel to rest and shower before our late night movie. When we came back to the hotel, the ac was still not cold enough...so we called up the housekeeping to come help us check..Anyway it doesn't help much...haiz...we just took turns to shower....When it's time for the movie, we made our way down to the cinema in KSL shopping centre...The movie we were going to watch is "Princess and the 7 Kungfu Masters (笑功震武林)"..it was a hongkong movie, released recently. One thing good to watch Hongkong movies in Malaysia (other than is cheap) is the movies are shown in canto, instead of Madarian. We had a super great laugh from the movie...It was a funny show and everyone was laughing so hard while watching it. After a good laugh, we walked back to the hotel and we saw there were people still queuing up to check-in...and it was already like 11 plus...Back to our room, we watched tv and one of my friends entered sleeping first...so mi and another friend continued watching...Later in the night, i heard there was sound coming from my left side and my right side (as i was sleeping in between the 2 of them)...hahahaa...the one sleeping on the same side as mi complained my hands were like ice...hahahaa...Anyway, i didn't sleep much, as usual....and we just slept and nua till 11am plus.....

Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh

We got up and got ready to go buy some snacks home. We went to walk around in KSL shopping centre and bought alot of snacks back..kekeke...By the time we done our shopping, it was already 1 plus. So we went back to the hotel to do our last packing and checked out the hotel..Again, it was a long wait to do check-out..-_-"....we waited at least half an hour or more, just to get to our turn..During our wait, we saw a lady having conflicts with the manager (looks like)...think there was some dispute on the amount needed to pay...not sure of the whole contents...but the lady got the manager to print at least 3 times on the receipt....luckily it was quite fast for us to do clearance..except for the long wait in queuing...Then we got on a cab to Taman Sentosa again, but this time it was for the famous bak kut teh - Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh. It was like a 5 mins ride from the hotel to the place, except there was a traffic light which felt like super long. Once reached there, we saw there was a queue that was like out of the place and the staff doesn't even attend to you. Anyhow, i walked in to see whether there was any empty table where we can sit. Luckily we got a empty table after some time. We ordered a 2-pax bak kut teh, 1 salted vegetable, 1 you tiao and a ma you ji...The ma you ji was nice, it would be better with frog's legs...kekeke...Like the sauce too...Don't really find the bak kut teh nice...it was herbal style...but doesn't taste nice (to me lah)....the salted vegetable was nice too...My friends like the ma you chi sauce so much they just put the you tiao in it....hahahaa......

After the meal, we made our way down to City Square to cross over back to Singapore. We took AC-7 bus which ended the ride at Yishun Interchange from Woodlands Checkpoint for a flat ride of RM$2. After we reached Yishun, we went separately back home which ended our JB trip.....Kekeke.....

Places went:
City Square
KSL Shopping Centre
Teck Sing Restaurant
Chez Papa
Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh

Hotel Stayed:
KSL Resort

LegoLand Again!!

View from our room

Went Legoland again from 24th Nov to 25th Nov. This time, mi and my friends bought tickets from Gamrket. It was a 2D1N package with coach and legoland admission included and we paid $118 for each person. We all met at the pick-up point, which was at near Ang Mo Kio MRT station. Then the bus left for Woodlands Checkpoint. There was abit of jam from Woodlands Checkpoint to JB Checkpoint, but we still managed to reach the hotel at around 4pm. The hotel we stayed was KSL Resort, it was stated as 5-star hotel but it wasn't that fantastic. The lifts are super slow, although there are 4 lifts running. We didn't managed to get connecting rooms for our stay though. Anyway, we went to the shopping mall beside the hotel and bought our movie tickets for the night - Rise of the Guardians 3D (It costs only RM$18 each, for a 3d movie).

 Then we walked around to look for some snacks, as i am started to feel hungry. We got durian puffs, which is not so nice to eat and pizza in a cone, which is nicer and ice-cream. After that, we got some taiwan snacks, which is also not so tasty. Then we went for a walk around in the mall, and back to the hotel to rest for awhile before our dinner - Chez Papa Restaurant. Later, we took cab down to the restaurant. Ohh!! It was a cozy place (looks like those European restaurants, though there are lizards sound), where they had put 3 Christmas trees inside and cute stuffed toys are hang on the trees. Then when we sat down, the waitress took their daily specials white chalk board menu and placed beside our table and placed another small size menu on our table.

Creme Brulee (Ymmy!)

We ordered Escargots, Mushroom soups, Mussels, Goose liver (Foie Gras), Codfish and Seafood Baked Rice. For the desserts, we ordered Cream Brulee and Faming banana. The mussels dish is not nice, it kind of got over-cooked. The best we liked are the Escargots, Goose meant and Cream Brulee (Yummy Yummy!). The waitress also kept forgetting our plain water, we had to ask for it 3 or 4 times. I almost died of thirst! lol....but overall, the experience is good. Will go back for the Escargots and Creme Brulee again if got the chance. ^_^
After the nice dinner, we got a cab back to our hotel and we rested while waiting for our night movie to start. We saw lightning flashing down from our hotel room, and so we spent about 15 to 20 mins standing at the window, to try taking lightning photos...hahhaa...the photo didn't work out well, but we did saw some cool lightning flashing down. After which, we went for our movie. It was a nice movie..and i enjoyed it.

Next morning came, and we went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It was packed with people and there wasn't any available table. We had to wait for it, luckily we managed to get hold of a table and had our breakfast. It wasn't that wahh for their breakfast...but anyway, we had and prepare to check-out the hotel and make our way down to Legoland.

Queue in LegoLand

We reached Legoland at around 10am, and we saw a super long queue of people waiting to get in. We went for the queue and we went in. We went to deposit our bags and went to look around in the lego shop.Next, we went to Lego City and went into a playground, where we played there for a while.
We took the fire engine ride, where we need to 'exercise' to make the vehicle to move and 'pump' the water out to put out the fire.lol....tiring sia....Next, we walked down to Adventureland, where mi and 1 of my friend went for the water roller coaster. My other 2 friends said wanted to help us take photos, so we went to queue for the ride. When mi and my friend were on the ride, i was asking my friend y cannot see my the other 2 friends. Hahaha....We saw them only after we had done with the roller coaster ride.They 2 were so stunned that we had actually finished the ride, they had went to buy some drinks and missed our photo-taking. The ride really got mi and my friend wet, my pants was so wet when i came out of the ride.lol....

After that, we walked to the 4D movie, where we caught one of the lego shows - Clutch Power. It was fun sitting inside and watching it. It was also cooling inside with all the effects. hohoho.....
After that, we went in to build and test. It was a place where you can build your own car and buildings and test it out. We spent some time inside, to play with the lego and to enjoy the aircon.
Then, we walked down to the game stalls, where we played some games. My friend got an angry bird home.hohoho...Then, we went for the dragon roller coaster ride..Hahhahaha....After that, we went to have our lunch.

Singapore Flyer (Lego Form)

After lunch, we went to take the lego express train ride. We waited for awhile, and we got abit sleepy while waiting.lol...it started to drizzle too. Finally, we got aboard. It was a super bored ride, which really can make you sleep. After that, we walked down to Miniland to see their miniatures. My friends took out the 'plastic bags' raincoats and wore (really looks like having a super big plastic bags covered on them...hahaha). After walking around, we decided that to go catch another 4D show as our last stop but it was super queue when we got there. So we decided to go do our lego shopping instead. We each bought a Lego Christmas choo choo train (RM$29.90) back to play. After that, we went to wait for our bus to pick us up to go back to Singapore.


Places went:
KSL Shopping Mall
Chez Papa Restaurant

Hotel Stayed:
KSL Resort