Weekend Khakis – A mid-night trip to Johor Bahru

In this week’s Weekend Khakis, we took our wheels out and headed to Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Johor, or JB an acronym that we call the country, a place that many Singaporeans visits for grocery shopping, refuelling petrol, car wash, massage or just for a meal.  Simple as it is, we’re just 3.3km (Google Maps) away from each other, better still? it’s just SGD1.20 (Land Transport Authority) to get into Johor Via the Woodland’s Checkpoint.

MORE!

Currently, the exchange rates as of 3rd Aug 2013,  SGD to MYR is at 2.49 for SGD100 and above, so what’s stopping you? NOTHING!

So, last night, we decided to drive-in to JB for a massage cum car-wash kinda thing. KSL, Holiday Plaza and JB Sentral these are just some examples of the common places we Singaporeans visit. This trip, we headed further down from into Taman Sentosa and decided to stop-by Tianyu Foot Relaxing Centre (address at the end of the post), for some of you who are more frequent travellers into JB, you probably would have known this place, it’s actually one street down from the usual makan place at the Hawker Centre that serves fantastic “Zi Char” just beside Shell Petrol Station, a 5min drive down from Holiday plaza and probably 3min drive from KSL.

What can you get there?

Well, if you’re afraid that your car will go missing during a car wash, especially with all the negative news you hear about your friends losing their cars in Johor, but you’ll still like to grab a cuppa traditional coffee and toast, then this is the Place to go!

Just less then 50metres away from Nanyang Kopitiam is a 24hour car wash service that i reckon is one of JB’s best car grooming centre. With just MYR10, you get a snow-wash, vacuum, dusting, etc… Yes, i know the other car grooming services in JB does that as well, but trust me, i’ve went to quite a number of them this year, especially with my frequent visits to Malaysia, but this particular one beside Nanyang Kopitiam deserves to be listed as one of my top choices!

My apologies, as it was really late at night, i didn’t really take a picture of the exact place, but fret not, once you’ve found Nanyang Kopitiam, it’s just beside it, clearly visible and obvious – possibly the only one at that area.

Nanyang Kopitiam serves up delicious local delicacies that goes as low as MYR3 per “small bites” , you can enjoy the traditional Kaya Toast, noodles, rice dishes, etc… Most importantly, for the smokers, you can smoke anywhere at the alfresco area, while looking at the car groomers washing your car!

Oh Oh Oh!! Yes, just in case you’re wondering if you’re short of MYR, there’s a couple of Money Changers just along the Nanyang Kopitiam, in fact there’s one just beside it!

Right after we left the keys and the car with the groomers, we headed-off to Tianyu Foot Relaxing Centre, just across the Nanyang Kopitiam. Again, apologies for the lack of Pictures because by the time we were there, it was already past Midnight!!

This time round, after our previous experience doing the full-body massage, we recommended our Khakis to try-out their massages there too! No complaints at all!! They enjoyed it!

But my recommendation is, if you were to visit them, try out their Chinese Massages instead of the Thai Massage. It’s not that the Thai Massage is bad, it’s just that the employees are made-up of mainly the PRCs, and many of them were previously trained in Chinese Massage and TCM in China, having said that, i think my point is rather obvious which to choose right?!

* try getting these two masseuse, [123] & [118]… they did our full-body massage for Ms Small Girl and myself and we thought that they were really good!

One more hint!

Try going there earlier… recommended to go around 12pm to 5pm. As per what the masseuse said, it gets busier at night, and they do get quite tired because they only work one shift, which is from 12pm – 2am (last call)… meaning if they have a client coming in at 2am for a massage, be prepared to be cursed and swear-ed by them while you “enjoy” your massage!

After the Massage, if you’re feeling a little hungry, Don’t worry!

If you’re there early, street stalls just beside the Tianyu Foot Relaxing Centre opens for business at around 6pm, mostly local Chinese delicacies, you’ll be overwhelmed with choices such as the Chinese “Zi Char”, Ba Kut Teh, Fried Kway Teow, Wonton Noodles, Chicken Wings, etc… approximately a 100-150m stretch of street stalls serving up piping hot food that could easily satisfy your cravings!

For our dearest Muslim friends, do not fear, there’s definitely something for you too! Just directly opposite the Chinese Street food Stalls, or directly along the stretch of where Nanyang Kopitiam is at, there’s also a whole stretch of street food stalls that serves only Muslim Food! Things like Nasi Lemak, Gado gado, Satay, etc… literally the Simpang Bedok of Johor!

However, if you happen to finish your massage past 1am, which we did this time round, at the first floor of The Store (a shopping centre) in Taman Sentosa, there’s a franchise of the Old Town White Coffee which is 24 hours! Serving hot coffee and comfort food, you never have to worry about being Hungry! If that doesn’t satisfies you, you can always make a trip back towards the food stalls behind Shell Petrol Kiosk, 2 minutes from KSL for your abalone noodles!

Well, i hope i’ve fed some of you with some useful information about our trip to JB for the Weekend Khakis, if there’s nothing else, i’m attaching a map to guide you into where the places are and i hope you’ll enjoy your short little trips to Johor like how we did!

Address:

Nanyang Kopitiam

63, Jalan Sutera, Taman Sentosa, 80150 Johor Bahru

Tel: +607 333 1788

Old Town White Coffee (Taman Sentosa)

Plaza Sentosa, Lot 8-10, Block A, Ground Floor, Jalan Sutera, Taman Sentosa, Johor Bahru

Tianyu Foot Relaxing Center

34, Jalan Sutera 2, Taman Sentosa, 80150 Johor Bahru

Tel: +607 332 8898

 

* Pictures of VW are compliments of Mr Drummer!

 

To all TDMers, have a great weekend and I’ll see you end of next week!!

Flying-off to Ho Chi Minh City on Monday!!! On a spree of Holiday Moods!

WEEEEeee!!!