johor bahru day 2 (part 2) -- pasar karat, roost & chaiwalla

a trip to johor bahru (jb) is incomplete without exploring its unique pasar karat/bazar jb (which is basically a huge night market). there were clothes, second hand items, antiques, exotic pets for sale, food stalls and many more. there were also some makciks berkaraoke in public. it was like a very meriah fiesta. 

yummy cheap food.

the antiques.

among other exotic pets for sale.

again, thanks to foursquare, i discovered an indie cafe called 'roost' and it's the coolest cafe i've visited by far. the place is like a modern art gallery. the furniture and the decorations are made from recycled and repurposed materials. how awesome is that! i had their frozen yogurt which was reasonable and yummy. they also have coffees, teas, chocolate drinks and salads. i really love this cafe i felt like staying there forever.

roost.

place your order downstairs and wait upstairs.

can i live here?

a living room set made by boxes.

everything is made from used materials!

mummy hipster.

yummy frozen yogurt with fresh fruit cuts.

i also went to another popular cafe (also suggested by foursquare) called chaiwalla & co, a container cafe. i had no idea what to order so the cashier recommended that i should try either their famous vietnamese coffee (which was already habis at that time) or thai milk tea. the tea is basically a regular teh susu but more wangi and had an orange-ish colour. it was nice but it's nothing out of this world. later, i found out that they also have a branch at the curve, damansara. 

a container cafe. get it?

thai milk tea.

once we're back at the hotel, i was so frantic cos we're going to singapore the next day and i had not made a proper research about the procedures at the customs. i was also not sure where to go in singapore and how to get to the locations. so cuak ke idok? mesti lah cuak!

we can see singapore from jb!

johor bahru day 2 (part 1) -- kacang pool haji & restoren zz

honestly i didn't really know what to explore in johor bahru (jb). believe me, i googled but i found nothing much to see or do (unless you're interested in masjids, istanas and museums). but thanks to 'foursquare' as i just realised that besides "checking-in" at places, it can also brilliantly suggest you interesting nearby places. and you can actually save the places you want to visit in your to-do list. how wonderful!

what a wonderful app!

with the help of foursquare, i discovered the famous 'kacang pool haji' in larkin. actually, i had no idea what kacang pool was but apparently it's pretty popular in johor. i didn't even know the right way to eat it. so i jeling2 la tengok cara orang lain makan. rupa2nya they olls cicah the roti in the kuah and ate it together with the telur. i don't know how to describe it but the kuah tasted like bubur daging mixed with kacang. it was quite nice. 

the famous gerai makanan in larkin.

rm5 for a bowl of kacang pool and a slice of toast.

mummy insisted that i need to buy a more suitable kemeja for my graduation (since i brought a short-sleeved one). so we went to johor bahru city square, but only to find shops that sell expensive clothes. ain't nobody got money for that! parking pun mahal. menyesal! so we drove to bukit indah's jaya jusco and i found a really cheap cukup-syarat long-sleeved kemeja. thank god!

jb's mid valley. but much much less interesting.

since we couldn't go to restoren zz the night before, we decided to go there for lunch on this day. this restaurant is very popular in jb. it is most known for its sup tulang and mee rebus tulang. in fact, it has appeared in tv shows and newspapers and also visited by many local celebrities.

a must-go restaurant when visiting jb.

i didn't try their sup tulang but i had their laksa johor which was soooo delicious. the price was reasonable too. we also had some pisang goreng cicah with sos kicap (johorean style). it was a bit weird for me at first but later i found it not bad at all. we ate in a pondok where we can just bersila on the floor. very the santai. it actually reminded me of a restaurant in indonesia which has pondoks too (but better looking).  

gambar curik from internet.

the sensational laksa johor.

with filled tummies, mummy and i made our way back to hotel to get some rest before going out again at night to explore jb's pasar karat and some local cafes. more details in my next entry!

johor bahru day 1 (part 2) -- ciq hotel, singgah selalu & danga bay

we stayed at ciq hotel at jalan lumba kuda. it's a budget hotel with helpful staffs that provides clean and comfortable place to stay. we paid rm293 (including %16 tax) for 3 nights. the best thing about this hotel is its strategic location as we can just walk (10 minutes) to the town or jb 's custom and immigration building if we wanna go to singapore. it also has a parking space that is attended by a security guard 24 hours. so it was perfect for us. 

great value for money. (gambar internet)

that night, we planned to have dinner at the famous restoren zz which should only took us about 5 minutes to reach by car. unfortunately, there was this huge chinese celebration in the town and the traffic was congested like crazy. believe it or not, the four-lane road was "turned" into a six-lane road (five lanes of parked cars and only one moving lane). it took us 1 hour just to move sebanyak 3 km. it was really terrible! 

come on! get moving! (gambar internet)

since it was already late, we believe restoren zz was already closed at that time. so we changed our plan and went to another famous restaurant (appeared on tv3's jalan-jalan cari makan) nearby danga bay called 'singgah selalu'. it was pretty meriah as there were a band entertaining the crowd with live music. mummy ate nasi campur and i ate singgah selalu's nasi goreng (rm8). mummy said her lauk was nice but my nasi goreng was tawar hambar and totally not value for my money. their service was pretty quick though. 

tak perlu kot singgah selalu. (gambar internet)

walaupun customers ramai, service kat sini agak laju.

then we went for a stroll at danga bay's harbour to enjoy the night breeze. gitu. there were boats, restaurants with live music and a mini theme park. we were only there for a short-while since there was nothing much pun. plus, we were already pretty tired. so we made our way back to our hotel.

colourful lights.

mummy chilling in front of her boats. berangan kan.

a merry-go-round at danga bay's mini theme park.

it was around 12 midnight when i was driving back to hotel and the road was still congested. so frigging stressful! i think we reached our hotel around 1 am even though the distance from danga bay to our hotel is actually around 6km je. not a good way to start our trip in jb, eh? luckily, our second day here was much better. more about that soon. toodles!

johor bahru day 1 (part 1) -- johor premium outlets & desaru

we loaded the car, set the gps and recited some prayers. at around 8.30 am, mummy and i started our journey to johor bahru (jb). woohooo! btw, i was the driver, a fearless one. so as an anxious mother, mummy felt seriau along the journey because of my driving. haha. sorry, mummy!

sit tight and enjoy the ride, mummy! muahahaha! (gambar internet)

on the way, we stopped by at johor premium outlets (jpo) which is basically a large building with shops that sell international branded items like coach, ralph lauren and other expensive shits that most of us can't afford. sure they had sales and big discounts, but the marked-down price would still be ratus2 or ribu2. nanges tengok harga! :'( jpo actually reminded me of harbour town in gold coast, australia. especially because both places allow people to shop branded items at a lower price. 

mahai gilo bak hang!

mummy didn't get anything for herself although she's really berkenan dengan this bonia handbag. apparently she has too many handbags already. i, on the other hand, got myself a pair of nike sneakers. they're only rm119 after a 20% discount! very affordable for a pair of nike shoes kan. btw, i'm so segan to include this fact but mummy actually belanja me those shoes. hihi. thanks, mummy!

best rupanya travel dengan mummy ni. hihi.

earlier, we saw 'jpo' and 'desaru' on the same signboard. so we thought desaru couldn't be that far from jpo. i wasn't sure apa ada kat desaru but i assumed it's a popular tourist area. so we decided to do a detour to desaru before heading to jb. turned out, it took us 1 hour to reach desaru and another 1.5 hour driving from desaru to jb! the worse part was there was nothing interesting to see or do in desaru. 

toksah datang sini! tak berbaloi! (gambar internet)

it's a resort area with only one public access to the beach but the entrance was rm4. mahal gila! from far, we noticed pantai dia tak menarik pun. how disappointing! so we made a u-turn and made our way to our hotel in jb. 

to be continued...

while in kuala lumpur -- frim, wahab's cendol & kami histeria

while in kuala lumpur, i went to forest research institute malaysia (frim) in kepong with nani and amani. the fee was rm7 per car (including the driver) and rm1 per passenger. we wanted to use the canopy walk but apparently it's only open during weekends. so we could only hike the hill lah :( dah lah the bihun that i brought was basi, we were also "attacked" by wild dogs on the hill. hahaha. but we still enjoyed our time there though, exchanging stories (read: mengumpat) and all. 

mengumpat lettewww.

then pipah a.k.a. kak ariana rose joined us for lunch at wahab's cendol restaurant at sri rampai. nani claimed the place apparently has the best cendol in town (i'm not sure if that's true). we ordered a lot of food but as i expected, we couldn't finish them. kak ariana makan seketui ayam je uolls. tengah buat diet atkins katanya. gituuuu. 

healthy eating. katanya.

iolls rasa sangat bertuah kerana dapat berjumpa dengan kak ariana lagi esoknya. lol. we watched kami histeria together at wangsa walk. actually aku jarang tengok cerita melayu, sama ada di pawagam or di rumah. surprisingly, this movie was not lame like many other malay films. although it wasn't groundbreaking, at least it was well-produced and entertaining. plus fazura was cun gilos in that movie. hihi :p

letops!

anywho, my next post will be about me traveling just with mummy for the first time. so did our different ages and personalities turn our trip into a disaster? or did traveling together strengthen our mother-son bond? haaaa saspender ke idok? haha. poyo je kan. 

bye!

#prayforMH370

sending my prayers to all passengers of mh370 and their families. hope everyone is safe. amin.

(disclaimer: these are not my photos)

road trip to johor bahru -- adhwa kahwin apek

after traveling in penang and perak, i stayed at my sister's place in kuala lumpur (kl) for about one week. while waiting for mummy to come and join me for the second part of my trip, i did some catching up with my friends and explored new places. 

two days after i reached kl, i made a road trip to johor bahru (jb) with amani and pipah to attend adhwa's wedding. it took us about 4 hours to reach our destination. of course we got sesat on the way there. the gps brought us into kawasan hutan that has rumah warga emas. how weird is that? haha. luckily a kind pak cik led us to the right place. thanks pak cik!

adhwa and apek.

btw, i was terkezut beruk when i tet-tet my touch n go card (with rm30 balance) at jb's toll and found out that we actually had to pay rm41.30! so pergi balik dah rm82.60. mahal nak mampus! cost for minyak kereta pulak almost rm90. panik jugak lah masa tu cos i couldn't undur my car cos ada kereta kat belakang. plus i already tet-tet my touch n go. last sekali, terpaksalah sorang pekerja tol ni datang to the booth to get the baki amaun yang tak cukup. nasib baik abang tu baik tak marah2 iolls. hehe. 

at the event, we met our friends (ida, mus, lala, nafis, anis nadiah and mawar) who came one day earlier than us (cos they wanted to attend the nikah ceremony). adhwa's wedding was small yet quite fancy. the main course was delicious too. after taking some shameless selfies, we terus made our way back to kl (this time mawar tumpang my car). even though the driving was long and tiring, i had a pleasant time catching up with my friends. 

sweet kan weolls. hikhik.

#selfieberjemaah

more selfie berjemaah!

lagipun who knows when we can meet each other like this again, kan? 

kuikuikui!

perak (part 2) -- kinta riverwalk, khizanat & hospital bahagia

after having a dinner at his place, aus and his younger sister took me to sungai kinta's riverwalk. it used to be a historic tin mining site turned into a colourful led park (macam i-city kat shah alam tu la tapi versi kecik). there were restaurants at the riverside and you can sewa and kayuh basikal keliling sungai if you want. but nothing much to see or do actually. 

mini i-city.

we also singgah at khizanat cafe (founded by projek rabak) in bandar ipoh which supports local talents such as musicians, writers, penyair, you name it. it was already late so there was nobody around except staffs khizanat. plus, they only have gigs during weekends. i had kopi istimewa khizanat (rm3.50) which looked like kopi warung tapi rasa dia kawww! they also have meatballs, burger and maggi goreng but i didn't try them cos i was still kenyang.

check out the cool mural.

they also sell merchandises.

the next morning, aus drove me around his former tempat tinggal -- the very well-known hospital bahagia at tanjung rambutan. i was really intrigued and curious about the place and its residents. i could actually see some of the patients from far and then secretly imagined what their stories would be and wondered who they were before coming here. fyi, this place is huge! besides the hospital, it also has ponds, farms and parks which i kinda think resembles a resort. maybe it wasn't a terrible place to stay after all?

very resort-like kan? (gambar dari internet).

what a peculiar way to end my stay in perak, kan? i know stalking pesakit hospital bahagia is a weird thing to do but i really enjoyed it. now i sound like a psycho. hihihi (gelak creepy). thanks aus for giving me an exclusive tour! i then made my way to kuala lumpur by taking a 2-hour train which cost me rm35. mahal kan? 

bye, perak!

alhamdulillah. the first half of my trip went quite well. i'll write about the other half of my trip in johor and singapore soon. insyaAllah. 

perak (part 1) -- mee rebus tapah, gua tempurung & plan b

it's my last day in penang and it's the day i headed to perak. pagi2 lagi we walked to weld quay jetty. we took a ferry to cross the laut to get to butterworth bus terminal. it's a good way to enjoy the sea breeze and see penang from a different view. fyi, you have to pay some pengeras to enter the island but to go out of the island (by ferry/car) is free. 

farewell, penang. see you again.

we took the 8.30 am bus to amanjaya, ipoh which should only cost rm15/ person but we kena tipu by this akak cina who charged us rm20. so keji! it took only 2 hours from butterworth to ipoh. my good friend (mustika) drove 1.5 hours all the way from manjung and picked me up at amanjaya to take me jalan2 in perak. so sweeeet! 

we wanted to go to gua tempurung in gopeng which should only took us 30 minutes. but being us the direction-bimbos, we (of course) got sesat and ended up in tapah which is way far from gopeng (like 30 minutes away). no surprise! but little did we know that it was (somehow) a blessing in disguise. we discovered a restaurant which serves tapah's famous mee rebus which is so delicious! 

the super yummy mee rebus tapah.

we turned our way back to gopeng and alhamdulillah we got it right this time! we reached gua tempurung! we were so excited! we wanted to do the extreme tour which involves getting merangkak in gua, meredah sungai and all that tomb raider shit. unfortunately, we didn't dress properly (must wear sport shoes and bring torchlight) and they have limited morning sessions on weekdays. so we could only do the dry tour (number 2: top of the world) for rm9/person. 

gua tempurung people! where you at, where you at?

tow = 'top of the world' tour.

the majestic gua tempurung.

tanggungjawab berselfie jangan dilupakan.

the 1 hour and 40 minutes tour was soooo overwhelmingly surreal! i was blown away by the cave's majestic interior and our sempoi tour guide (abang zaki) made the experience even better! but i tak puas hati tak dapat buat the wet tour so i'm planning to come here again soon for that one. i must!

so surreal!

pembentukan awal kristal.

modern day cavemen.

our sempoi tour guide, abang zaki.

then mus drove us to pekan ipoh because we wanted to chill out at some cool cafe. anehnya banyak kedai tutup. luckily 'plan b' was open. it was an old gudang turned into a minimalist cafe which celebrates yasminism (of yasmin ahmad, my inspiration). the service was a bit slow but my iced mocha (rm13.50) and mustika's iced chocolate was great.

behind me is j.w.w. birch clock tower.

pekan ipoh.

when plan a fails, proceed with plan b.

with my bro, mus.

sedapppp!

pastu mus wanted me to try funny mountain's famous tau fu fa but too bad it was closed :( it was getting dark so mus sent us to aus's place. i stayed at aus's place for a night. before i went to kl the next day, aus took me to some unique places.

to be continued...