This is definitely not a new thing in town, but it was reopened or the idea was revisited recently. Taking train over the causeway for some shopping and convenience. So I finally got a ticket (thanks to my cousin) for a day trip to Johor Bahru (“JB”).
If you’re curious about the price, I paid SGD$7 for return tickets on a Saturday. Before we get to the train, here are the steps required to get the “legit” ticket.
- Book your ideal time online
- Pay (“of course”)
- Print and get ready for the trip!
- Queue up to change for the real ticket at Level 1 of the Woodlands Checkpoint. (BEWARE: The wait here can be long, as there’s only 1 counter open at the point of my visit)
- Get the “legit” ticket and pass 2 customs (SG & MY) all in one goal
- TADA~~~! Here’s the train!
So here’s the first glimpse of the train, closer look for the first time. Honestly, I did not dare to really put down my legs and sit properly on the seats due to the “hygiene” pump of thoughts when I’m on the train. But luckily, it’s just a less than 10 minutes ride.
In less than 10 minutes, we arrived at the JB’s checkpoint. The benefit of taking the train despite higher cost compared to the bus, WE CAN SKIP THE QUEUE! Unbelievably fast and we save more time for shopping and exploring the new mall.
As usual, I will just follow the crowd and we started the day by dining in Dragon-i in the new KOMTAR JBCC for food.
Here’s the chef slicing the Peking Duck for our table of 10. Well, he did roll his eyes for a second when he saw the no. of cameras (phones actually) pointing in his direction. But I think it should be a norm.
This is my favourite dim-sum dish, the Panfry Red Bean Paste Pancake. It cost RM10 which I need to spend at least SGD$8 in Singapore to get it. (Or if you know where else I can taste this beautify dish at an affordable rate, please let me know!)
Overall, the dishes are very yummy. Whether if I will patronise them again? Well, probably only for the Panfry Red Bean Paste Pancake. But no doubt, the rest of the dishes we had are nice, just not exceptionally delicious.
After the first meal, we went on separate ways for shopping. It is really hard to get 3 families shopping at the same pace and time. Honestly, it’s already a challenge for my family. But managed to go Sephora, Victoria Secret, the Padini (MUST GO!) etc in KOMTAR before we met the rest and head over to City Square Mall.
Personal preference, I feel more comfortable shopping in KOMTAR. Reasons:
- Spacious
- Way less crowd
- More variety (just pity there’s no WATSONS) for shopping
Still, we can’t miss City Square Mall for their food. We went over to shop, mainly for WATSONS and GUARDIAN as the price is really good for certain products in RM.
Had an early dinner (around 5:30 pm) so we have more time to buffer before the train back home. Randomly chance upon the Japanese Restaurant [Dontaku どんたく] and enter purely by the interior design of the restaurant.
But I let the mosquitoes enjoy a good meal while I’m having my dinner. Probably the overly decorated bamboos attract the unwanted flies and mosquito. I won’t step into this restaurant again on top of the variety of insects, the service and the waiting time for food is really long. I mean really long.
Here’s my takeaway from Lavender bakery in City Square, the neverending queue but you will still go back again for their bread, cakes and macaroons.
I’m not a bread person, so I go for their macaroons and cheese cakes (bite size and really nice). Their cheese tarts are not-bad but the price point is definitely good compared to BAKE or the norms you can find in Singapore.
Ended the trip by taking a train back to Singapore. But this time round, you will go through the standard 1 custom at a time.
Till next shopping trip.
xoxo