Singapore & Johor Bahru

Masjid Sultan Abu Bakar Johor Bahru

Finally I had a chance to go to Singapore and Malaysia. After all this time, with $56 dan RM150 I went to Singapore and Malaysia :)

It was started with a Wira's friend wedding, Najib, in Johor Bahru. Najib is one of Wira's bestfriend back in medical school in Padang. He came from Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Wira already booked a flight long time ago to Johor Bahru with Air Asia. And I just booked mine only a few days before wedding day, so I bought flight to Singapore instead. The flight was cheaper than going straight to Johor Bahru with Air Asia.

So here I was going to Singapore by myself. The planned was I went to Johor Bahru from Singapore and will be pick by Yasin, another Wira's friend, somewhere in Johor Bahru. And then we'll get Wira at the airport in Johor Bahru.

The flight was quite nice. No bumpy ride along the way. And the immigration went smoothly. I took MRT from airport to the closest station to the border. Just like a tourist, I took time to learn to used MRT ticket machine. Something new for me, since in Indonesia we bought train ticket at ticket box. That's OK since I had plenty of time. I also learned how to get to closest station to the border. Where I had to change MRT and then took bus. I planned to sightseeing for a while in Singapore before crossed the border but unfortunately it was raining when I got of the MRT. So I decided to continue to go to Johor Bahru.

I got off from MRT in Kranji station and continue with bus number... to Johor Bahru. Ticket for the bus can be paid inside the bus. You can pay with Singapore Dollar or Malaysia Ringgit. Or you can buy 'touch and go' card and use it for bus ride by touching the card to the machine and it automatically debit some amount credit from your card. If I wasn't mistaken, I paid RM2 for the bus.

On the way to Johor Bahru, we will crossed 2 immigration. One for Singapore immigration and another one for Malaysia immigration. And I have no idea about this :). Suddenly I saw people got off the bus and running so fast. I just followed them and I just realize that people are in such a hurry to get to immigration counter. Since I wasn't in hurry, I just walking instead of running to one of the line. After you passed the immigration, people started to run again to get to the bus line. Yeah...you get back to the bus to continue the journey. And you don't have to get on the same bus as long as you took the same number. Just show them you ticket. A few minutes after that, people start to get off the bus again and running. Just like before I followed the flow. This time for Malaysia immigration. After got the stamp on my passport, I went out. This time, unlike Singapore immigration that has a good flow to direct us, I felt like coming to Blok M. where people sit on food stalls and other stall sells goods. Yes...I lost my bus that supposed to take me somewhere. I lost the people flow, because they just spread away. So I decided to walk a little bit and found out a landmark so I can tell Yasin where to picked me up. Unfortunatelly, he still out of town and I have to wait before he can pick me up. I finally found Plaza Kotaraya and wait there till Yasin pick me up.

The first thing I heard when I reach bus stop in Johor Bahru was people shouting "blok M...blok M...blok M..." just like when you wait for the bus to Blok M in Jakarta. Well... I supposed they didn't say Blok M but it sounded like that :)

I waited more than one hour until Yasin pick me up and then we went to pick Wira up at the airport. Tonight and tomorrow night we will spend the night at Yasin's house. 

On the second day of our trip, we went to Batu Pahat to attended the wedding. Yasin and his mom, Wira and me went to the wedding. First time for me to go to traditional wedding ceremony in Malaysia. Went we get there, the family accept us in big room and told us to start eat. Kinda weird for me to see this because the bride and groom weren't there yet. After asking Yasin's mom about tradition in Malaysia we start to eat. In Malaysia, on wedding party, the bride and groom will came later and they will eat together with their parents on long table and cut the cake after that and then mingled around with guest. The one quite different was the dress. The groom using traditional costume but the bride using a gown. When we went home, they will give us goody's and boiled eggs.
We also take pictures with bride & groom. Wira and me were the only Najib's friends from Indonesia.

After the party, Yasin took us to Danga Bay but before went there we went to Angsana Plaza first. Yasin had something he need to find there. Enjoying the view at Danga Bay and took some pictures there. And then we had dinner.

The next day, Yasin has to go back to work early in the morning. He was working in Singapore. Yasin's mom took us around the city. We went to Masjid Sultan Abu Bakar Johor Bahru. This is a nice mosque, build in a hill with the view to the sea & Singapore. With white wall and blue roof this mosque look pretty and clean. In here we take pictures.

Not much to see in Johor Bahru. So we continue our journey to Singapore. Today we will stay in Singapore. We reached Singapore by noon. After we got off the bus, we went to Clark Quay area. In here we walked by the river. Resting a while to eat our snack. We brought the boiled eggs we got yesterday and Yasin's mom also give us her's. There also puddings in goody bags and drinks. Taking plenty of pictures in some landmarks such as Esplanade, Merlion statue & Cavenagh bridge. We also walking to Asian Civilization Museum. When we felt like our feet couldn't handle walking anymore, we decided to find out place to stay. With a little bit reading the guide we decided to stayed at Mayo Inn at Mayo Street. The price suitable with our budget and the place quite nice. On the ground floor of the building, we can found Indian restaurant that sell bread and curry. Since we only had snack for lunch, we decided to ate before doing some more walking. Before that, we rest our feet first at our room.

On the night we went to orchard road. Just for sightseeing and ate es potong. This time I used a wrong shoes. It didn't support walking long distance. So my feet felt really hot and hurt. So when we got back to our room, I got foot massage from Wira :) Thanks dear.

Last day in Singapore, we check out around 10 a.m. and had breakfast. After breakfast we walk a little bit at Bugis Street and then we went to IKEA. My sister asked me to bought cups, plates and bowls for kids in IKEA. After searching the closest IKEA to airport, we went there. There's a shuttle from the train station to IKEA. Because the time wasn't much, I didn't have much time to browse IKEA. From IKEA, we went straight to airport. After I check in, Wira went back to Johor Bahru. His flight was delayed for quite a long time. He arrived at home at 3 a.m. the next day.

This are some pictures from my trip.