JB Adventure

It was the first time am spending birthday on a foreign land. I made a quick trip to a neighboring country which is accessible by bus.

Johor Bahru or simply "JB" is the capital city of Johor southern Malaysia. JB is easily reached from Singapore. There are so many options to get there. You can travel via car, SBS bus or coaches. I opted for the cheaper one, I took the SBS bus and used my EZ link card to pay.

I rode bus 950 in Woodlands bus interchange. All passengers got off from the bus in a checkpoint area for immigration purposes on the side of Singapore. From there, I took the bus 170 which brought us all to JB Immigration dept. I had my passport stamped and surrendered my embarkation card. I didn't ride the bus again after that, I just went straight to JB sentral and nearby malls. Took a walk in Jalan

My palate wanted to try Malaysian cuisine but it seems all spicy so I settled with something familiar. :) I just ordered noodles which seemed it tasted good in the picture. Well, the picture fooled me as it tasted bland.

There was a group of high school girls in the food court and I asked them for some directions how to get to the places of interest in JB.

Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malay has similar words to Filipino Language. Though most of the road signs and boards are written in their language, I didn't feel completely lost because of its similarities to Tagalog. Here are some words that mean same thing to Filipino language.

Bus - bas - bus (in Tagalog)
Taxi - teksi - taksi
Rice - Nasi - kanin (in tagalog), nasi (in pampango)
Door - Pintu - Pinto (in tagalog)

In my short trip to JB I learned few Bahasa Malay words.

Terimah kasi - Thank you
Keluart - Exit
Selamat Datang - Welcome
Masuk - Entry
Sotong - Squid
Ikan - Rice

I am glad that most Malays can understand and speak English. In Indonesia, I had difficulty going around because taxi drivers can't speak little English. I took a taxi going to Istana Besar but unfortunately it was closed.

I also walked along Jalan Wong Ah Fook hunting for some souvenir items like t-shirt and fridge magnets. I noticed there are lots of indian who sit on the road and selling trinkets or offering i think palm reading. I got almost tempted to have a palm reading session. :) Saw a lot of street food but didn't dare to buy.

Around 4pm I decided to go back to Singapore. Had no problems in Malaysian immigration but I had been questioned a lot at Singapore checkpoint. The immigration officer asked for my plane ticket going back to Philippines. I had none to show. I told the officer it was my birthday and just decided on a spur of moment to visit JB. The immigration officer granted me entry to Singapore but warned me that next time I should bring my ticket. I was saying a prayer during the questioning time that he would allow me to go back to SG as all my things are in my apartment.

Going back to Sg, I took bus 950 again and then from Singapore checkpoint I boarded bus 160 to go back to Woodlands Bus Interchange.