Johor Bahru GPS friendly travel and food guide (part 1)

If you are traveling to Johor Bahru for a short vacation by car, you may refer to this simple traveling guide as where to find a hotels, foods, shopping and attractions with GPS coordinates. (if you don't have a GPS device, just key in the coordinates into Google map in the smart phone, it'll navigate you to the destination)

There were many friends of mine visited JB from other state of Malaysia and also from Simgapore during school holiday and long weekend. Most of the time, they would like to try out different hotel and especially foods around Johor Bahru area, my simple guide is to share the popular area in JB where you can stay, shopping and eat.

I divided into few areas, like JB Town, Century Garden (include Pelangi, Sri Tebrau and Sentosa), Skudai area (include Nusa Bestari and Bukit Indah), Nusajaya (include Gelang Patah), Johor Jaya (include Molek, Desa Tebrau, Gaya, Mount Austin and Setia Indah), Permas Jaya and Kulaijaya.

Johor Bahru Town
Which is close to CIQ, Causeway to Singapore, and also Johor Bahru Sentral where all the ground transportation located.

Travel distance to CIQ - approx. 2-4km.
Travel distance to Senai Airport - approx. 30km.
Travel distance to Nusajaya, Legoland and others -  approx. 25km

Recommended Hotels :-
*  Puteri Pan Pacific (4*) (N1.46099 E103.76171)
*  Hotel Aman Sari (N1.46421 E103.76201)
*  Tropical Inn (N1.46545 E103.76068)
*  Double Tree Hotel (4*) (under construction) (N1.46560 E103.75980)
*  Thistle Hotel (5*) which is less than 5km from town. (N1.46169 E103.74320)
*  Grand Blue Wave Hotel (N1.46082 E103.76898)
*  Suria City Hotel (N1.46056 E103.76857)
*  Sentral JB Hotel (N1.46165 E103.76913)
*  Zon Regency Hotel (in duty free zone) (N1.47088 E103.78299)
*  Straits View Hotel (just refurnished recently) (N1.46056 E103.73742)
*  M-Suite Hotel (N1.46479 E103.73046)

Shopping Complex nearby :-
*  City Square (N1.46183 E103.76353)
*  KOMTAR (which is under upgrading now) (N1.46352 E103.76263)
*  The ZON Duty Free Mall (N1.47075 E103.78314)

Attractions :-
*  Jalan Tan Hiok Nee (historical street)
*  Johor Bahru Chinese Heritage Museum (N1.45590 E103.76323)
*  Royal Abu Bakar Museum (N1.45504 E103.75656)
*  Art Gallery Johor (less than 5km out of town area) (N1.46667 E103.74765)
*  Johor Old Chinese Temple  (N1.46069 E103.76304)
*  Danga Bay (N1.47680 E103.72388)

Recommended Foods (based on local's favorite) :-
Breakfast
*  Hwa Mui Kopitiam (which is the first Hainanese kopitiam in JB) (N1.45732 E103.76432)
*  Qin Garden (N1.45700 E103.76434)
*  Yong Mui Beef Noodle (N1.46086 E103.76722)
*  Ah Heng Char Koey Teow - 7am - 3pm (N1.46863 E103.78055)
Lunch
*  Mei Hua Bak Kut Teh (N1.46084 E103.76754)
*  Johor Bahru famous Stulang mee rebus (N1.46309 E103.77426)
*  The Roost Juice Bar (N1.45707 E103.76401)
*  Waterwork Laksa (N1.47157 E103.73658)
Tea break
*  Goreng Pisang Mawar (N1.46176 E103.74192)
Dinner
*  The Teow Chew popular fish noodles (night) (N1.46378 E103.77188) 
*  Yong Yong Ikan Bakar (night) (N1.46090 E103.73847) 
*  Lazio Italian Restaurant and Bar

Century Garden (include Pelangi, Sri Tebrau and Sentosa)
One of the popular and crowded area in JB which contain of 4 residential area - Pelangi, Sri Tebrau, Sentosa and Century, it has lots of good foods within.

Travel distance to CIQ - approx. 8km.
Travel distance to Senai Airport - approx. 28km.
Travel distance to Nusajaya, Legoland and others -  approx. 24km

Recommended Hotels :-
*  Crystal Crown Hotel 3* (N1.48674 E103.76593)
*  Grand Paragon Hotel 4* (N1.48112 E103.76166)
*  KSL Resort 5* (N1.48590 E103.76291)
*  Mutiara Hotel 4* (N1.48800 E103.75759)
*  Holiday Villa (under construction) (N1.48706 E103.76190)
*  11 Century Hotel (N1.48652 E103.76147)
*  Grand Sentosa Hotel (N1.49268 E103.76883)
*  Hallmark Regency Hotel (N1.48090 E103.76209)
*  New York Hotel (N1.47879 E103.76104)
*  Hotel Selesa (N1.47777 E103.76297)

Shopping Complex nearby :-
*  Holiday Plaza (N1.48828 E103.75969)
*  Pelangi Plaza (N1.48053 E103.76504)
*  Leisure Mall (N1.48384 E103.77396)
*  KSL Mall (N1.48551 E103.76291)
*  Sentosa Plaza (N1.49281 E103.76855)
*  Danga City Mall (N1.47427 E103.75525)
 
Attraction :-
*  None

Recommended Foods (based on local's favorite) :-
Breakfast
*  Poh Kee mee pok - 宝记Teow Chew Koey Teow  (N1.48076 E103.75686)
    7.30am - 2.30pm, rest on alternate Thursday.
*  Hainanese pork congee 海南猪肉粥 - Multi Mart Kopitiam 7am-2pm. (N1.48506 E103.76010)
*  Ah Hwa Koey Teow 亚华粿条 7.30am - 4.30pm (N1.48562 E103.76102)
*  Ho Seng Kee Wantan mee 何成记云吞麵 8am - 4pm. (N1.48670 E103.76058)
*  Koey Teow Kia (粿条仔) at Ka Hoe Kopitiam (N1.48079 E103.76673)
    6.30am - 12.30pm, rest on alternate Wednesday.
Lunch
*  Nyonya Curry Fish head and curry pork ribs at Mui Sheng stall. 11am - 3pm (N1.49092 E103.76233)
*  Menu Please Bistro 11am - 10pm, rest on Monday. (N1.48083 E103.76612)
*  Soon Chiang Bak Kut Teh  顺江肉骨茶
*  Ah Soon Bak Kut Teh 8am - 3pm, rest on Monday.
*  Ah Seng Steam Fish 8am - 3pm, rest on Monday.
*  Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh 顺发肉骨茶, Jln Sutera (N1.49410 E103.78239)
*  Yew Swee Laksa 友水辣沙 8am - 4pm, rest on Sunday (N1.48294 E103.76486)
Tea break
*  Dong Hong Traditional Chinese kuih 东鸿糕粿 (N1.48701 E103.76803)
    5pm - 10pm Business on Sat, Sun, Mon and Tue. Many different type of traditional Chinese snacks which called 'kuih'.
Dinner
*  Century Curry Fish Head 世纪沙煲咖哩鱼头 at Cedar Point Hawker Center (N1.48126 E103.76296)
    5pm - 11pm, rest  on Monday.
*  New Storey Seafood Restaurant (N1.47833 E103.77514)
*  Tsuki Japanese restaurant (N1.48207 E103.77496)
*  Kim Chi Korean BBQ Restaurant (N1.48170 E103.77479)
*  The City Cafe (N1.49719 E103.76284)
*  Kong Inn Seafood Restaurant 港一海鲜餐馆 (N1.49348 E103.77278)
*  Penang Hokkien prawn noodles hawker 槟城福建虾麵 (N1.49305 E103.77090)
*  Lemon Tree Restaurant 12pm - 11pm, rest on Monday (N1.49135 E103.76201)

There are still many more delicious foods within the area that I cannot list all of them, this is just a simple guide for you if you want to travel to Johor Bahru by car.

I will continue on the next post for other area. Stay tune!

(I will update this blog post from time to time, please feel free to visit back. Thanks.)

The Kulaijaya popular and famous Char Koey Teow during the evening

The nameless yet famous char koey teow stall (N1.65992 E103.60263) is located along Jalan Ibrahim of Kulai Besar. It's easy to spot the stall by coming through Jalan Ismail (which is the street on the left from JB direction after KFC, Maybank and BSN Kulaijaya), once turn in...the second turn on the right. Another landmark same row with the stall is Clinic Chai which is 2-3 shops away...

The stall is open around 5pm, and the owner set his own target daily and the rice noodles finish very fast around 7.30-8pm. Even their business hour stated 4-9pm, but hardly can see the wok continue to fry after 8pm due to the local demand.

The nameless and famous char koey teow stall in Kulaijaya

We were there around 7.30pm and luckily the owner said the koey teow still available, and we only ordered 2 plates because we had to spared some space in our stomach because of our Kulai food trail in that evening.

I noticed the skillful old man keep frying the koey teow non-stop since we stepped in...

Even he was trying to posed to my camera, but I missed it!...

The pleasing plate of Char Koey Teow spread out the nice aroma when it served on the table, it was a simple flat rice noodles fried with eggs, bean sprouts and cockles without the chives and lards. I like the fresh cockles very much, unlike many stalls in JB providing the frozen cockles which totally kill the sweetness of it...

Char Koey Teow of Kulaijaya street stall

There's actually still rooms for intense "wok kei" (literally breath of wok over the high heat in Cantonese), maybe it was due to the local preference of the taste.

From the short chat with the owner, I realized that the stall had been operated since 39 years ago and been through the third generation. It must be the magical taste that kept the long history of the local delicacy - Char Koey Teow.

Do drop by if you happen in the area during the stall operating hours, it might surprise you by the plate of delicious Char Koey Teow of Kulaijaya.

Kulaijaya Char Koey Teow Stall

Along Jalan Ibrahim of Kulai Besar

Business hour : 5 - 8.30pm

Rest on every Tuesday

GPS coordinates : N1.65992 E103.60263

Location map of the Popular Char Koey Teow stall in Kulaijaya.

My trip to the Machapking Durian Farm at Machap, Johor.

Visited the Machapking Durian Farm (N1.90353 E103.24766) on the end of March 2014. We reached the farm around 10am and met up with the farm owner - Mr Cheng who is a humble, polite and knowledgeable guy. According to Mr Cheng, his farm has about 50 acres, one thousand of durian trees, palm oil trees and many more...
It's located quite a distance from the main road of the Machap town, and only 4WD is able to drive through. We were riding on Mr Cheng's 4WD into the farm...

He was explaining all the way since our farm trip started, and he introduced to us the different types of Durian trees one-by-one...

The Machapking Durian farm at Machap, Johor

 

This is the famous Musangking durian tree

After a while, he stopped the car and let us enjoy the aromatic durian's flower...that was a great moment during the trip!
The photo below was the very initial stage before the flower...

Before blossom...

The photo above showed that all these will be blossom in the evening around 5-7pm...

And some of them were beautiful with flowers...

Another type of the durian flower

After the flowers withered, the branches are going seeding...

The whole area was so beautiful and this was my first time in life surrounded by durian tress and flowers!

Normally the blossom session will be in the evening, and most of the flowers will wither after 6-7am. If you be able to witness during that moment, it's just like watching a flower rain! I can only visualize the beautiful scene...too bad I can't be there during the flowers rain...

The flowers were everywhere in farm...it was a wonderful scene!

Durian's flower

According to Mr Cheng, sometime they will collect all these flowers and cook for dinner, it's just like stir fried the vegetables, and it's delicious! Said Cheng. I would like to taste it too if I have a chance...

We even tasted and drank the nectar, it was really sweet!

Robin had his first try on the durian flower's nectar

Mr Cheng said, basically he only concentrated on the four (4) main species which are : Musangking 猫山王, Machapking, Tek-kah 竹脚 and Kim-Hong 金凤. Beside that, he also has D24, D78, nai-you-bao 奶油包 (his own creation) and many more...

There are also other fruits in his farm, like Philippines rambutan, mangosteen and many more which I didn't manage to get the name...

The flowers of the rambutan tree

The baby cempedak...

And this...I didn't get the name of the fruits...

Mr Cheng showed us another hut which produce the 'enzymes' which use as the 'fertilizer' for all his fruits in the farm.

The enzymes produced by Mr Cheng own recipe...

The enzymes

The water supply for all the trees in the farm is also designed by Mr Cheng himself, once he power on the motor from the water source, the water will goes to all his trees in the farm automatically! Fully automated for the whole fifty (50) acres, amazing!

Mr Cheng visit his farm 3 times a day to monitor and observe the grow of all the fruits, it is become his hobby to take care the trees and the fruits. He 'generously' shared with us his past experience since the day one inherited from his father.
We were having a precious lesson on that day and definitely worth the trip! I will be back to the farm again during the 'golden season' when all the trees full of fruits, before the harvest season.

His durians will be selling at many area within Johor Bahru, his own stall is at opposite the Daily Point Kopitiam, Tmn Molek. And all his durians will be available start from middle of June till August.

Mr Cheng - the owner of the Machapking durian farm

The location of Machapking Durian's Farm in Machap, Johor

Thailand : Bangkok - Rotfai Night Market

The most retro night market in Bangkok - Talad Rot Fai

"Talad" means market and "Rot Fai" means train in Thai. It literary means train market. It was previously located at an old and abandoned railway station near Chatujak Weekend Market. It is now moved to Seacon Square - not near any BTS station so better to take a cab there.

This place definitely is now one of my must go places in Bangkok. It is not the normal night market you see in Bangkok, instead it is a hottest retro lovers' hangout!

I would visit this place again to search for:
vintage collectibles
old paintings
antique furnitures
old classic vehicles
childhood games and toys
(*ok probably not unless my house theme is vintage-zen-retro-classic)

Turn in when you see this big signboard along the roadside.

This is the start of the night market where started the vintage atmosphere already! This is just a very small glimpse of what you going to see later.

My favourite Vespa~

First, we were greeted by these rows of stalls which sells snacks, cheap clothings and accessories. I have to admit that we were a little disappointed because we thought "huh, that's it? This is the retro night market?" We still continued walking... 

What I see is sugar, sugar and sugar...

KRISPY KREME??? 

Then we passed by this mini bar and saw this Mr Rilakkuma chilling lololo..

Super spacious night market!

childhood toys 

There was a crowd at one stall, of course being a typical Singaporean, I quickened my steps and to be a busybody. 

No wonder so crowded lah! These mad cute puppies were for sale! 

ahh so cute..they deserve another picture lol

What is there an abandoned train part doing here?

Then we continued walking.... then we saw.........

Oh man! The retro party finally started and so psyched that we did not give up half way and go home!

Love this sight - nicely lined up varieties type of antique cars cum stalls. Where could you ever see this sight in Singapore? 

This is my favorite vehicle of the day! It looks very new and sleek and I could just drive it off without to worry I would run out of beers lol

With the mini colourful disco ball, this place immediately transformed into a hip happening dining place!

Seems that I was in the "Back to the future" movie~

Out of nowhere... lol not suit the vintage theme leh..

Someone's home?

I was very overwhelmed about all the vintage stuffs that night. This totally can be the perfect spot on place  for "Back to the Future" sequel.

Rotfai Night Market

Opening hours: Saturday and Sunday 5pm onwards till 12mn
Address: Srinakarin Soi 51, behind Seacon Square. 
No nearby BTS station - best to take a taxi and tell driver to go Seacon Square if unsure.

Nearest BTS station: On Nut station but not walking distance

Around 150 bahts from platinum mall (by meter)