Post-Trip Recollections - Day Tripping in Johor Bahru
Johor Bahru (JB) is located at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia and is connected to Singapore via the Causeway, across the Straits of Johor.
Due to its close geographical proximity to Singapore, as well as the favourable currency exchange rate between the Singapore Dollar (SGD) and the Malaysian Ringgit (RM), many Singaporeans and Malaysians working in Singapore, typically made day trips to JB via the Causeway.
During these day trips, most travelers will dine and shop. It is not uncommon to see folks returning to Singapore from, JB in the late afternoons and evenings, laden with shopping bags. This happens on most days, not just the weekends. Although during weekends, the crowds crossing the Causeway are noticeably larger.
Being someone who does not really enjoy being in a crowd, I mostly stay away from such day trips. On occasions when I drove across the Causeway, it was mostly to travel further inland into Malaysia, either to Kuala Lumpur or to Ipoh.
But on one weekday afternoon in June 2025, I decided to brave the crowds and made the day trip to JB. This, after much cajoling from colleagues to join them for the trip.
Timing ourselves to avoid the peak hour commuting crowds, we arrived at the Woodlands Checkpoints on the Singapore side of the Causeway at around 10am. Clearing immigration was fast and we soon found ourselves in the public bus bays queueing to take the bus for the short hop to the Malaysian side of the Causeway.
Due to our "strategic timing" and mainly because it was a weekday, the crowds were rather thin and we crossed officially into JB after breezing through Immigration and Customs. This was my first trip to JB in 6 years!
Our first stop was to walk to a nearby mall for brunch. Feeling both hungry and greedy at the same time, I ordered a set of nasi lemak and a toast set of bread with butter and maple syrup.
Nasi lemak is a traditional Malaysian dish made of coconut milk-infused rice and is usually serve with a rich selection of compliments including fried chicken wings, ikan bilis (fried anchovies) with peanuts, fried egg and freshly sliced cucumbers. The main condiment for this rich plate of delicious food is sambal, basically chilli paste made from dried chilli that were fried with onions, garlic and oil.
Having satisfied our stomachs, we walked around the mall before crossing the roads to another adjacent and larger mall. Here, we had an hour of relaxing foot reflexology. '
My colleagues soon started on their shopping sprees and being the good sport that I am, I had to join in. I bought shampoos for my partner (who was not on this day trip with me), bread for supper at night and breakfast the next morning as well as cakes.
Our shopping sprees continued for at least a few hours and seeing my colleagues return from their respective forays into the shops, laden with bags full of stuff, I suddenly felt ashamed that I had bought so little. But this was not a race to see who could buy more. This was a relaxing day trip and I had really enjoyed the trip.
Shopping done, we left the malls and walked to the nearby rows of shophouses where we had our afternoon supper before heading back to the Immigration Checkpoint at the Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) CIQ (Customs, Immigration and Checkpoint) Complex to cross the Causeway back to Singapore.
By 4pm, just before the next peak hour crowds start, we we back in Singapore and I was on the local train on my way home.
An awesome day trip to JB thus concluded.
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