The Mouseketeers Go “Abroad” to Johor Bahru

During our previous food trip, we came up with a slew of activities that Yves wanted to do before her impending year-long assignment in a yet-to-be-determined other country.

“Let’s go do them all, then. Tomorrow, you want?” I joked.

“Sure, we can even go abroad if you like,” Arlyn rode on my joke.

“Of course we can go abroad! You mean JB, right?” I replied. We all burst out laughing then.

JB pertains to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, which is right next to Singapore. It’s so near that you can take a bus and get there in an hour or less, depending on the traffic. Yves liked the idea so much and planned the itinerary. That’s where we went yesterday.

We met up at Woodlands and queued up for bus 950. The glare from the sun prompted us to put on our sunglasses. Arlyn loved the way we looked and got inspired to take a picture. We tried to look as glamorous as possible, and that meant that we shouldn’t smile. Right?

mouseketeers turned three blind mice

It was at around this time that Yves handed me a Charles and Keith bag which turned out to be a birthday gift from them. It looks so glamorous, perfect to be worn with sunglasses. Is this the theme for this trip?

this year’s birthday bag

The bus eventually arrived but we were so far down the line that we had to stand. It was so crowded and hot and the traffic was so bad that it took us a while to reach the Singapore immigrations.

After that we had to queue and wait again for another bus 950 and crawl at a snail’s pace again. A child got so dizzy that he threw up, and the smell only added to the discomfort of the ride.

Finally, though, after what seemed like a really long time, we arrived at the Malaysia immigrations.

It was Betchie’s first time in JB, but Yves and Arlyn had been there years ago and they were amazed at the huge change. Apparently the immigrations area had not been connected to the City Square Mall before. They had to cross a bridge and ride a cab to get there before. Now it’s so convenient.

Once we got to the mall, we exchanged our Singapore dollars to Malaysian ringgit and searched for a restaurant at the basement. We were supposed to go to Sushi King but got more interested in a place called Stone Grill. So in we went.

Their menu is composed of steaks, meat or fish served raw with two side dishes and a hot slab of stone. It is your job to cook your own steak. I’ve always found this the fun part. When we were done cooking, we all agreed that the food was really good. The steaks were tasty and tender. The proof that the entire meal was good was in my empty plate afterwards. I can rarely finish a meal with rice. We each paid around 30 ringgit. Not bad!

Arlyn and Betchie order a mixed plate for sharing

Yves gets a ribeye, I get a “surf and turf” – ribeye and prawns

My food is nearly cooked. Can’t wait to eat!

Secret Recipe cakes

We enjoyed our lunch not only because of the food but also the conversation interspersed with laughter, this time over idioms that Singaporeans are fond of using, like:

• take it with a pinch of salt
• the pot calling the kettle black
• it’s like pushing a cow
• go fly a kite

Soon we had established names for each other based on these idioms. Haha.After polishing off our lunch, we walked around the mall for some shopping. There were lots to see, like row upon row of shoes. I didn’t buy any, though, as I’m not really a shoe person and I think I have enough shoes already (though I’m sure any shoeholic would beg to differ). I forgot to take a picture of the shoes, but I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of these lovely lamps.

lovely lamps

What I ended up buying was this pair of purple heart-shaped earrings that matched my iphone case. So cute! They only cost 4 ringgit. The case, meanwhile, cost me 12 sgd in Totally Hot Stuff in Cathay, Singapore.

pur-fect match

Here is our only complete picture – in the toilet, of all places. Haha. There was just one stall whose toilet was not on the ground, so we all lined up there. We suddenly missed the nice Singapore toilets.

After shopping we decided to take a break in Starbucks, where I ordered the seasonal creme brulee frappe. They had wifi there, so I was able to check my email where Yves had sent the details of the massage place we were supposed to visit.

The name of the place is Fizzio and it is located at No. 17&19 , Jalan Keris, Taman Sri Tebrau, 80050.

We called to ask if they could accomodate us and they said yes, so we found a cab to take us there. “Jalan Keris,” I told the driver. He didn’t know where that was, so I showed him the address.

“Kris, not Keris!” he scolded. Well duh, it was spelled with the E in there. How on earth was I supposed to know that it was pronounced without that? Once the pronunciation gap was out of the way, he got us there in a short time, our meter amounting to 6 ringgit.

When we walked in, we found out that they had booked us for a 5-in-1 treatment instead of body massages. A miscommunication. We said we wanted body massages but they said they were fully booked. They eventually gave us 6pm slots though.  Whew.

We took a walk outside and Yves got a haircut (not a child’s one, Betchie) before we went back.

The massage session started with us washing our feet with warm water in a stone basin. As we washed our feet, we looked around and got bothered that the ones doing foot massages were all males. The ones doing the body massage were female, though.

They asked us to strip and put on shorts before lying facedown on the massage beds. It turned out to be such a delicious massage – totally worth all of the 68 ringgit (once again, half the price in Singapore). We were so satisfied that we made plans to come back, and this time, to stay for a seafood meal across the street.

at the Fizzio reception

Unfortunately we had to cut our trip short because I was due in Singapore at 9pm. So we flagged a cab, asked the driver to take us to immigrations, passed by an unfamiliar route and got scared for a brief moment that he was taking us to the airport, if there was one. He took us to the right place, though, thank goodness.

The ride back to Singapore was more comfortable and shorter than the one going to JB. We were seated and there was no traffic. Yey. Our first trip “abroad” was definitely a success and there would definitely be more to come. 🙂

Other JB posts:
All over JB
Christmas decors and curly fries