Nice Food in Johor Bahru

During our stay in Johor Bahru, we tried some very nice food, credit to our JB friends and http://johorkaki.blogspot.com/ for their recommendation. You might like to read about our experience in Legoland Johor Bahru, as well as places of interest in Johor Bahru that we have visited in our previous trip.

On our arrival at JB around 11:30 am, we went to Kam Long but the queue was too long. So, our second choice, Restoran Ya Wang for lunch. Restoran Ya Wang is easy to locate at Segget Road, some 50 meters away from Wong Ah Fook Road.

Restaurant Ya Wang is easy to locate for its unique outlook. It is not easy to miss the enormous hanging roasted duck outside of the restaurant.

We tried the roasted duck, chicken, and pork (commonly considered as char siew). All of them taste nice. 

At night, we enjoyed our dinner at the market located at Keris Road, by Tebrau Highway. The market is located 3 km from Johor Bahru Central. The market might not be easy to access without our own transportation. There is a hawker centre in the market selling many types of local dish. We found very nice seafood. Fresh and delicious. Do expect a large crowd and parking space is quite limited during the dinner time. The ventilation system in the market was not well designed, trapping smoke from the cooking in the building. Which stall is the best? We can't remember the number of the stalls, but we do have a thumb rule- follow the crowd.

The market is easy to locate from Keris Road (upper left), with many food stalls under one roof (upper right). Fried oyster with egg (lower left) and fried squid with sambal (lower right) were two of the dish that we tried there.

Learned from our experience a day before, we visited Kam Long Restaurant for fish head curry in early morning around 8:45 am. There was less crowd there, and we found a place to sit without waiting a second. The cook started to prepare the dish only when the customer has placed the order. That might be the reason of the queue during lunch time. Personally, we feel that the curry was nice (a bit sweet instead of hot and spicy), but it was not until the extend for us to queue for it. Anyway, if you visit JB and by chance found that there was nobody queuing in front of the restaurant, please grab this once in a while opportunity. This restaurant is located at Wong Ah Fook Road, on the same side with City Square.

This is how Kam Long Restaurant looks like from outside (upper left) and inside (upper right). The fish was really fresh and sweet, served with vegetable and dried tofu (lower right). The ingredients for the dish were all displayed in front of the restaurant.

Some said the restaurant is hidden in the middle of sign boards. Well, this is how the restaurant looks like from Wong Ah Fook Road.

We went to Meldrum Road for our dinner, after an exhausting day in Legoland. Meldrum Road is located beside City Square, in between Tun Abdul Razak Road and Wong Ah Fook Road. There were many stalls scattered along the road, with many hidden behind the shop lots. Indian food, Chinese food, seafood, halal food, non-halal food, the choices were many. As recommended by our friend, we tried the seafood, fresh and cheap. One of the stalls selling fried kuey teow attracted many locals. However, we found the taste was not that good, too salty with no cockle. The condition around Meldrum Road was not appealing as many of the stalls were located just beside the drainage system, with some pests like mosquitoes roaming around. However, if you trust roadside food in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Yogyakarta, or Bangkok like us, then you will have no problem adopting yourself into this parade of local delicacies.

 

A scene at the walkway behind the shop lots with many food stalls (upper left and right). These are the food that we ordered from the stalls, char kuey teow (lower left) and roasted fish.

Of course JB has many other nice food. Please follow us to our latest update about more food in JB.

[Legoland Johor Bahru] [Attractions in Johor Bahru] [All Our Destinations]
[Food Along Tan Hiok Nee Rd & Eight Lido]

Legoland Johor Bahru

No doubt, Legoland is a must visit place in Malaysia. Legoland has been a strong magnet that attracted us to visit Johor Bahru for the second time, even though we were not big fans of Lego toys. That is the first Legoland in Asia. The Miniland alone was built with more than 30 millions of Lego bricks. Seven fun packed themed area with more than 40 rides, attractions, and shows. All these magical statistics have lures massive crowd into the park.

The entrance fee for adult (12-60 year old) is RM 140 (USD 47), and RM 110 (USD 37) for child and senior citizen. Online ticket is available with 25% off but booking has to be done 7 days in advance. So, why not book the ticket online? Click here for more ticketing information. We stepped into the Legoland around 10:50 am and had stayed until 6 pm.

Hot and humid. That's the price to pay in order to get some fun, besides the entrance fee. Hat, umbrella, comfortable clothes and footwear, small towels, sunblock, extra clothes, enough drinking water (or enough money to buy drinks inside the theme park), we brought all of them. We advise that you bring at least a few of them, if not all. An umbrella, at least. The theme park just started its operation few months ago, the trees and the shrubs were not grown big enough to provide shades. There were limited shelters as well. So, an umbrella is necessary to protect ourselves from blasting UV or soaking rain.

Now, we would like to walk through the Legoland with our photos. In clockwise direction, the areas that we visited in were The Beginning, Lego Technics, Lego Kingdoms, Imagination, Land of Adventure, Lego City, and Miniland.

This is the main entrance of Legoland 10 a.m. in the morning. As you can see, massive crowd is fluxing into the park.

Long queue formed in front of ticketing counter (upper left), with many of them have to wait under the hot sun for their turn to buy the tickets.

The beginning in fact is a small square right after the entrance, with several shops selling food, souvenirs, and providing other services.

 We visited Lego Technics as our first station.  Mindstorms and Lego Academy are two attractions for the kids (not for us). Other than that, three rides and a cafe. There was a giant red octopus fighting with several Lego heros at the middle of area (upper left). The entrance of Mindstorms and Lego Academy is marked by a huge Einstein sculpture, made by Lego (lower left). Two robots were standing in front of the cafe (lower right).

The photos showed two of the rides that we took- Technic Twister (upper left) and Project X. Project X is the roller coaster with 4-passenger cars (lower left). We queued for almost one hour for just a ride- the longest waiting time in Legoland.

 

This signage on hill from Lego Technic area (this photo was edited with Photoshop).

Legoland Kingdoms is a medieval themed area.

Lego Kingdoms is well decorated with different Lego characters. The area housed two roller coasters- Dragon Apprentice and Dragon. We took a ride on Dragon Apprentice, which is a junior roller coaster (upper right). We left Dragon, which is more intense and thrill packed aside.

The royal castle at the deepest side of Kingdoms.

The Lego Castle doesn't host Sleeping Beauty, but serves as an entrance to Dragon roller coaster.

Lego Imagination was the third area that we visited, where we went for 4D movie (lower right). We missed the observation tower as the ride was closed due to the technical problem.

  Musical fountain at Lego Imagination area.

Next to Lego Imagination is Lego Adventure. The Lost Kingdom Adventure (inside the building with Pharaoh's sculpture, upper right) is the ride that we would recommend to all.

Lego characters on the Dino Island in Adventureland.

Dino Island ride is somewhere that you will get wet.

Lego City is designed for kids. This photo was taken from The Beginning, showing a scene of Boating School.

 Legoland Express offers a five minutes ride around Legoland. However, we couldn't really see much nice view along the ride.

The Market Restaurant is the most interesting eatery in the theme park. It was decorated by many cute Lego chefs, busy preparing food for the customers.

The last area in Legoland- Miniland was built with more than 200 millions Lego bricks. Can you imagine they actually built the mini Putrajaya with Lego bricks?

Mini Kuala Lumpur. The streets were decorated in details with little Legoland citizens and cars.

These are the models of the attractions in China (upper left), Cambodia (upper right), Indonesia (lower right), and Brunei (lower left).

Clarke Quay Singapore. Photo taken with miniature mode.

We stopped for a while at Castle Games booth, tried the shooting game, and smiled all the way out with this big cute sheep.

Legoland is definitely a must visit place in Johor Bahru. There is still room for improvement, and we really hope that the park will get better in future. For instance, starting from 10 am sharp, we joined about 60 others in the ticketing queue. We should give more chance for the newly established theme park to improve. However, we really felt that, as an international theme park, wasn't 45 minutes too long for them to serve a crowd of 60? The car park is very much exposed but we think, the condition will get better when the shrubs and trees grow bigger. Revisit? Yes, of course. But hopefully, with some of our family and friends. 

Map, detail about ticketing and entrance fees, operational days and hours, and other information about Legoland is available at Legoland official page. We will write more JB's food in our next post. Stay with us.

Our older post about Johor Bahru is available at Southern Tip of Peninsular- Johor Bahru. Or click here to go to all our destinations.

[Nice Food in Johor Bahru] [Southern Tip of Peninsular- Johor Bahru]
[All Our Destinations]

A Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Chaotic traffic, unstable electricity supply, and unsafe street with beggars and street children roaming around in mobs. That was Phnom Penh through our reading. However, after we stepped into the city by our own, we realized that the city was not as terrible as the hearsay.

We spent 4 days 3 nights at Phnom Penh. As we ventured into the city, these are what we have learned about the capital of the Land of Wonders. First, the street was safe. We strolled around with backpack and sling bag across the city without losing anything (however, that doesn't mean that we don't have to stay alert and take care of our own safety). Our night walk, from Landscape Hotel to whole area beside the river front, from Central Market (Psar Thmey) down Street 63, we met none but the peaceful and polite locals, gathered at the stalls by the roadside to enjoy their time after a long working day. Several of them had tried their very best to help us with the direction, with their very limited English.

City blends with modern and traditional architectures. The construction of high rises are eye catching in the middle of existing lower buildings.

River front at 6 pm. The busy Preah Sisowath Quay is a strong contrast to leisure and relaxing river front.

We encountered beggars and street children only once in a while. They left us alone after a polite rejection. We were advised by Travelfish.org not to give them money, as the blind Samaritan deed would encourage them stay in poverty for the rest of their life. Several short term of electricity breakdowns occurred daily, without much effecting us.

The traffic however, was in total anarchy. That was true. Vehicles in all sizes might turn to any direction, without any signals. Bikes stopped in the middle of the road, blocking half of the traffic, just to wait for the chance to sneak across the road. Heavy vehicles parked and blocked half of the street and paralyzed the traffic. These were just a few real case that we had seen. We took time to adapt ourselves to the traffic condition there, on a tut-tut. Accident? Nope, as long as we could see. Maybe they have their own "hidden rules" to keep themselves from knocking down someone else.

During our stay in Phnom Penh, we were surprised by flash flood during our visit to the Royal Palace. A nearly one hour downpour turned the palace compound into one feet deep swimming pool. We were forced giving up our plan to visit the national museum, which is located just a few hundred meters away. Well,  besides the traffic, the unpredictable flash flood should be the next thing that we should keep an eye on.

A scene from tut-tut.

Shopping around night market with motorbike is nothing new for locals. So, we have to get used to this new shopping experience.

During our stay, we visited infamous Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek Killing Field, followed by the majestic Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, and Angkorian themed National Museum. Walking along the water front by the junction where great Tonle Sap meets Mekong River was an unforgettable experience. Delighting food (both Western and Khmer styles) and warm service offered by Daughter of Cambodia and Romdeng were great. We spent some time shopping at busy Central Market, Suriya Shopping Centre and night market. We were a little bit disappointed by predominant "Made in China" labels.

 Infamous interrogation room in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Now, the best part of Phnom Penh- the leisure atmosphere and the people. Unlike many cities, people here were living with a slower rhythm. In late afternoon, many people gathered at the parks around the city, talking, walking, jogging, playing around with football or badminton, or even dancing together. Many  gathered at the temples and shrines as well.  People we met were polite and kind. They always smile. We couldn't really catch the hardship that they had experienced on their face. That's what we need to learn from the people in Phnom Penh- smile, even in hard time.

This photo explained much about friendliness of Cambodians. As we waved, these workers waved back with big smiles on their face.  Photo taken at river front.

English is not a common language in Phnom Penh. Even many police could only communicate in extremely simple English. Body language helped a bit, but not much. The best way to cross the language barrier- get a tut-tut driver as a translator. Most of the tut-tut drivers speak simple English, and were willing to translate for free. Mass public transports were next to zero there. Getting a taxi was hard as well. Tut-tut was the most convenient transport that we could find in the city.

Daily expenses can be low in Phnom Penh. If you are willing to take tut-tut, the fare is around USD 0.75 - 1.5 per trip within the city, depends on the distance. If you don't mind to sit under a fan squeezing with the locals, then you can enjoy a Khmer style meal within USD 2 - 3. From what we could know at Tripadvisor, top 30 hotels in Phnom Penh had offered 4 stars' service to their customers. So, we had a variety of choices there.

Tut-tut is everywhere in Phnom Penh.

Next, we will share our experience at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek Killing Field. Follow us now.


[A Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia]  [Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Cheoung Ek Killing Field] [Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda, and National Museum] [Food in Phnom Penh]  [Shopping and Accommodation in Phnom Penh] [All Our Destinations]
You might like to read about our sharing on our Siem Reap trip too.