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

Sapporo, Hokkaido Trip (Day 11)

21st May 2019, Tuesday

Today, we are leaving Lake Toya and heading to Sapporo. However, it was raining in the morning and we got lazy to wake up. So we dragged ourselves up only past 9 am and packed our luggage to check-out the hotel. We drove down to Lake Hill Farm for breakfast and bought the cheese and puddings before we leave. We bought a pizza to share, orange juice and a coffee. We took our time to have our breakfast and bought the cheese we wanted. Then we hit the road to go to Sapporo, it was a 3 hours drive. We drove down on route 230 on the highway and took me some confusing time to drive to the correct hotel as there was another hotel with the same name. But the hotel staff told us we had went to the wrong hotel, so we drove around the city to find the correct one. Not very easy to drive in the city as there was so many signs and cars. Eventually, we managed to find the hotel along a road and it was like a small building in between bigger buildings. My friend went in to do the check-in and asked for the parking space. But the hotel don't provide free parking, instead we had to park in the public car park opposite the hotel. We had to pay $1200 yen per night for the parking too and the staff gave us 5 parking tickets which he told us to exchange in the parking office to full day tickets.

Our Breakfast

Pit Stop

Our bedroom

Bathroom

Basin Area

After we settled the car, we brought our luggage and went up to our room. The room was soooo small (standard size as in Tokyo) and the sink was facing our bed. But they still managed to have a bathtub inside the bathroom even though it was small. Anyway, i was having worry that i might have forget to lock the car so i went back the car for a check. And, i really forget to wind up the car window after winding down to take the car park ticket. After winding the window, i went back to the hotel lobby to meet up with my friend. After that, we walked down the street to explore the city. We walked to Orini park and saw it was having some food event. So we turned in to check it out and there were booths selling bbq meats, seafood and wines. Since we did not have lunch yet, so we bought some of the bbq food to try and there were quite a lot of crows fighting for the food placed unattended on the tables too.

BBQ Food Stalls

Food Stalls

BBQ Seafood Stalls

BBQ Giant Crab Legs

BBQ Meat Skewers

BBQ Corn

The park was quite big and long too, it was covering almost 3 streets and as we walked further in, we saw there was a ramen competition. There were a few ramen stalls representing from different regions in Japan and you have to buy a ticket and order the ramen you want to try from the ramen stalls. So we bought a ticket and checked out the ramen stalls in line.  We decided the ramen from Kyoto and queued to buy a bowl of ramen to try. You also top up some cash to add on eggs, ramen and the pork pieces.  After that, we continued to walk on the street and we walked to the Pokemon Centre which was inside Daimaru building. We went to check out the supermarket level and there were fruits, sashimi, cheese and seafood available. After that, we went to the upper level and to the pokemon centre. It was smaller compared to the one in Tokyo but best thing was there was not many customers there to squeeze with you and fight for photo-taking of the pokemon statues.  We bought some pokemon socks and there were new version of pokemon tetra machines at the back of the shop. So we played on the machine for some time (100 yen per game). The tetra cartridge was longer and the game was totally different from the current ones played in Singapore.

Ramen Show Entrance

Rules for the ramen voting

Speciality ramen from Kyoto Seabura Shoya

Pokemon Centre

Pokemon Tetra Machines

After playing, we walked back to find a popular bar in the city named Meshiba Ookami. It took us some time to find the place as the GPS was not able to direct us in the correct direction. Finally we managed to find the place and it was a small place which allowed guests to drink and eat plus smoking inside. So we tried to ask if we can take away their speciality, chicken wings. Well, one lady told us it was possible so we ordered some honey and salted chicken wings to go. We waited for some time before the wings were ready. Then we headed back to the hotel to have our chicken wings with coke (it was just a few minutes walk to our hotel)....hohoho...The salted chicken wings were quite salty, not to our liking and the honey chicken wings were sweet but still not so bad. After that, we took to shower and rested for the day.

Meshiba Ookami Entrance

Interior

Speciality Chicken Wings

Places visited:
Lake Hill Farm (Address: 127 Hanawa, Toyako, Abuta District, Hokkaido 049-5724, Japan)
Orini Park
Meshiba Ookami (Address: Japan, 064-0804 Hokkaido, Sapporo, Chūō-ku, Minami 4 Jōnishi, 6-chōme−8-3)


--> Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Vista Sapporo Odori

Muroran, Hokkaido Trip (Day 4)

14th May 2019, Tuesday

Nakajima Shrine

Shrine Gate

Sakura trees

Today, we headed out for a road trip and drove to Muroran which was about 30 mins away. Of course with my slow driving, it took us almost an hour to reach there. We stopped by Nakajima Shrine but it took us round and round to find the entrance to the shrine. It was quite empty when we arrived, it even looked like the shrine was not open. We stayed there for a while and there was some sakura trees too. We did went in the shrine to have a look and it was quiet inside.

Entrance Gate

Jellyfish

Giant Crabs

Fishes

Bbq Shell fishes

Sotong?

Penguins

Seals

Next, we headed down to Muroran Aquarium which was some distance away. We bought the entrance tickets and went in. There was a small area with some amusement rides and the aquarium was quite small with some fishes, starfishes and jellyfishes. The fishes look bored in their tanks. Outside, there were some seals and penguins. After walking for some time, we stumbled upon a stall selling a funny looking shell type seafood (like giant gong gong). The lady in the stall was telling us this is only available in Muroran, no where else. So we decided to buy one to try. Then we went in a resting area to rest our feet and eat the shell fish. After that, we went exploring the outside enclosures where the seals and penguins were. We also tried to google for a nice lunch place.

Restaurant Entrance

Soba with Fried Ebi

Soba with Chickem

After that, we drove out to city central itself and headed to a restaurant which is famous for their handmade soba and was only 9 mins away. I parked the car in a corner and we went finding the place by foot. It was challenging to find the place as google was showing the name but the building we walked past didn't not have the name of the place. We saw a building with a curtain with the word,  縁 on it. So my friend popped her head in and asked the people inside if they are from the restaurant we were looking for. Luckily we found it and that was the place. The name of the restaurant is 手打ちそば処・縁. We ordered 2 sets of soba with chicken and fried ebi. It was really yummy, the soba was very smooth and it was not expensive. 

Shopping mall

Strawberries

Salmon for sale

After lunch, we decided to go for a walk in the mall across the road (haven't been walking during the day since we were driving and there was no shopping mall in Noboribetsu). The mall has quite a few shops, cafe and a big supermarket. So we headed to the supermarket and kaypo the products available. We bought a packet of red strawberries and bought a hot chocolate from a cafe opposite. But it was so funny, the lady in the cafe did not really sell hot chocolate drink but my friend asked her if there is. The cafe lady still let us to buy a hot chocolate drink. So when we sat down and sat how the lady prepared the drink. The lady basically poured some packed chocolate drink into the cup and then she put the drink into the microwave oven to heat it up. Then she told us the drink is ready..hahaha...and that's our hot chocolate. 

Next, we left the place to go to Cape Chikyu. The place was like at the end of the world and we did have a small argument while trying to navigate the directions. I got frustrated when my friend was telling me to turn into one of the roads on the expressway but it was too late to turn and there was another car turning out to cut in front of our car. Luckily i was driving at low speed and was able to react. Without thinking, i just shouted at my friend for informing me late to turn at the junction. Plus, the junction was weird as there can be cars turning out or going straight and cars can also turn to the opposite side of the junction with no traffic lights control. Of course, my friend was upset and keep nagging she won't be able to see the cape. After i calmed down, i decided to have another attempt on the junction so that we can turn to the right direction. So i exited out from the next exit and did a long u-turn to get back to the expressway and had another go. This time, we managed to turn into the right direction and was able to reach the cape safe and sound. But it did took us a long while to reach.

Cape Chikyu

Bell of Happiness

Globe

We parked the car and went up to see the famous cape chikyu on the cliff. The wind was blowing strongly as we were facing the sea. There was a white lighthouse on the cliff and a bell of happiness which you can ring for your happiness. There was also a silver globe there. The scenery was really beautiful, the sea and sky were so blue. We spent about half an hour around the place to have some photos taken and enjoyed the strong wind.  After that, we left the place and headed to Wakasalmo, a place my friend die die wanted to go for their sweets snacks. So we drove back to Noboribetsu as the sweets place was quite near to Norobribetsu. We managed to reach the place around 5 plus before the place close. However, their restaurant was closed as we saw good online reviews on their food and wanted to have our dinner there.

Goodies from Wakasalmo

So we walked around the shop and checked out their sweets. They really have a lot of sweets, cheesecakes and most importantly, they sells puddings too. Without thinking, we just grabbed the sweets and puddings we wanted to try and bought back. After the shopping, we drove back to the hotel but the hotel parking staff wasn't letting us to park in the car park and kept telling us it was full. So we had no choice and i parked the car in another small public car park behind the hotel. Then we took our goodies for the day and went back to the hotel to rest before we headed out to get our dinner.

Tomato Ramen

BBQ

We left the hotel slightly late for dinner and we just walked along the streets to see what to try. We decided to head into a bbq restaurant (forget to note down the restaurant's name) for dinner. The place was really crowded with people and smelled of bbq. We had to queue for our turn and we could see every table having bbq even though there was option not to have bbq. Having to wait for some time, we managed to have a table and we ordered a tomato ramen as recommended by the staff and scallops and pork belly for the bbq. The seafood and pork was quite nice. After the dinner, we thanked the staff and headed back to the hotel. We had our puddings and cheesecakes as our supper, after which we rested to prepare for the next city tomorrow.

Places visited:
Nakajima Shrine
Muroran Aquarium
手打ちそば処・縁 (Address: 2-2-16 Chuo-cho, Muroran Hokkaido)
Cape Chikyu
Wakasalmo Honpo (Address: 96-6 Nakanoboribetsucho, Noboribetsu, Hokkaido 059-0463, Japan)


Hotel Stayed:
Takimoto Inn