Friday. I stepped out of my flat at around 7am and it started pouring heavily — the year-end Northeast Monsoon season had already begun. Not knowing if the wet weather would last throughout the day, I would just go over to Johor Bahru and alter my itinerary along the way. The worst outcome would be to call off the plan to go Pontian and switch to explore Johor Bahru for more local eats like what I did on the last trip.
I had several day-tripping plans to outside of Johor Bahru for the next few months and they allowed some flexibility for me to adjust my activities for the day, so long as there was no pre-bookings.
Plan A: Visit Pontian & Kukup Village
Plan B: Visit Pontian & Pekan Nanas
Plan C: Visit Kulai & Kelapa Sawit, and so on...
I took a detour to Woodlands Train Checkpoint and cleared both Singapore and Johor Bahru checkpoints in less than 20 minutes. I stepped out of JB CIQ at 8:50am. It was a little late for Plan A to Kukup Village — which needed me to be at Larkin Sentral to catch the Pontian-bound bus at 9am latest (more details after I execute the plan). I activated Plan B.
I walked through JB Sentral, saw that the exchange rate at the money changers was 3.28 and changed S$100. Actually, after I started using cashless payments via DBS Paylah! app, my usage of hard cash had drastically reduced. A small amount of cash was still necessary in case online payment was not accepted at some shops — I still had not topped up my Touch n' Go Wallet, which I had thought of doing since 6 months ago...
JB City Square was opened at 8am to serve breakfast daily, so I went to OldTown White Coffee for breakfast since it was the nearest to JB Sentral. I had a Supreme BBQ Chicken & Fried Wanton Dry Noodle and OldTown’s signature white coffee. The noodle and coffee were really good.
I finished breakfast at around 9:45am and walked back to JB Sentral. The next bus heading towards Skudai would be at 10am. After a quick visit to the washroom, I came to the bus terminal and boarded a waiting myBAS T30 that was bounded for Kulai.
10:00am - myBAS T30 left JB Sentral
10:20am - alighted at bus-stop opposite Paradigm Mall
10:43am - another T30 went passed
10:47am - Pontian-bound T50 arrived
I had missed the 10am myBAS T50 from Larkin Sentral and waited nearly half an hour at the bus-stop for the next bus. Regardless of whether I switched buses at the bus-stop or took a bus to Larkin Sentral, I would still end up taking the 10:30am T50 service. If I had boarded the 9:40am T30 bus at JB Sentral, I would have caught the 10am T50 bus. The early morning rain was to blame…
The rain had stopped when I was at the bus-stop opposite Paradigm Mall and the air was cooling under a clouded sky. As the T50 bus travelled down Skudai-Pontian Highway, the sun was fully exposed and its beam really burned the skin even inside the bus.
For info, I spent 3 days 2 nights in Pontian about a month back but did not write about that trip because I missed all my primary objectives to visit a couple of places. It ended up as a trip for local food, coffee and traditional pastries in Pontian. Thus, the main objective of this day-trip was to visit a farm that I had missed on that trip.
11:15am, the bus reached Pekan Nanas and I tried to find the locations of physical bus-stops along the road — there were many "invisible" bus-stops along Skudai-Pontian Highway and it was difficult for travellers to know where to board or alight.
11:40am, seeing that I was getting closer to The Cookies Factory, I pressed the bell but the bus continued moving and stopped outside NR Foodcourt, about 200 metres further down the road. I had to retrace back to The Cookies Factory under the hot sun. A check on Causeway Link's website showed that the designated bus-stop was indeed at The Cookies Factory but there was no physical bus-stop — "invisible" bus-stops were at the bus drivers' discretions.
5 minutes later, I came to The Cookies Factory. I was the only customer at this time of the day. I browsed through the store and decided on their homemade cookies in plastic containers, which were cheaper than those in nice packagings meant as gifts. For self-consumption, I bought two containers of almond biscotti with different flavours — a matcha and an orange — and a container of red velvet cheese biscuits. After paying, I noted that all the items had 20% discounts — weekday promotions?
The cookies were RM55.20 in total. As I would be buying some local products on this trip, I kept the receipt for custom inspection — just in case.
I left The Cookies Factory at 12pm. It was 1Km to my next destination, along the same highway towards Pontian Kechil, and would be just a 10 minutes' walk for me. It was too short a distance to Grab a car so I walked despite the hot noon sun. I passed by Pusat Perniagaan Kota Emas, a new commercial estate with shops, eateries, a Target Supermarket, Ten Ten departmental store, etc, which I had not explored before.
5 minutes later, I came to New Dawn Hotel (旭阳酒店) where I had stayed for 2 nights on the last trip. Econsave Pontian, a supermarket, was behind the hotel. Most items sold in Econsave were cheaper than supermarkets in downtown Johor Bahru. Despite it being cheaper, it might not result in much savings to travel this far to shop here after taking into account transport cost. However, since I was in the vicinity, I should not miss it. I spent about 35 minutes in the supermarket, mainly to enjoy the air-conditioning, and bought few items for RM68 — my backpack was already half-filled with cookies.
After exiting from Econsave at 12:45pm, I crossed the Skudai-Pontian Highway to Kampung Atap. The highway was just a normal trunk road connecting Pontian Kechil, the town centre of Pontian, to Skudai Highway in Johor Bahru. There were no pedestrian crossings nor pedestrian walkways along the highway in Pontian. The only way to cross the roads was to open both eyes, check for vehicles in BOTH directions — some drivers took shortcuts by going in opposite direction — and jaywalk.
Less than 5 minutes later, I walked into Yearn Cafe, which I had spotted on the last trip too. The friendly lady owner ran through the menu and recommended a couple of their specialty dishes. I went for their Suan La Ban (酸辣拌), a crunchy and sour-spicy cold dish, with avocado yogurt blended. I had wanted to add-on a 10-piece Chinese dumplings dish initially but felt unable to finish it after the meal, so I added a piece of tiramisu instead. The vibe and food of the cafe were so nice that I would plan to revisit it again soon.
I left Yearn Cafe at 2:30pm. It was just a 2 minutes' walk to the bus-stop opposite New Dawn Hotel but I felt like I was melting under the burning sun. The 2:30pm myBAS T50 from Pontian Bus Terminal arrived at the bus-stop at 2:39pm and I was on my way to Pekan Nanas. Knowing the schedule of the service made it easier for me to time the buses.
In the rush to catch the bus, it slipped my mind to get some traditional pastries from Chai Huat Heng (再发兴饼家) about 500 metres from Yearn Cafe. I really liked their biskut wangi, or heong piah (香饼), which were not too sweet and nice to chew on. The biscuit had short shelf-life and I could not buy a lot at one go, so it was always two short tubes a time. I would make sure to get it on the next trip.
The journey to Nictar Pineapple Park in Pekan Nanas was not so smooth. On Causeway Link's website, there was no stopping point for T50 near the pineapple park. As a result, I alighted at the last designated bus-stop in Pekan Nanas and attempted to hike the last 2Km to the park. But the weather was so hot and there was no pedestrian walkway along the road. Deeming it too dangerous to walk along the road, I e-hailed a Grab car, but Nictar's location was not on Grab app. I selected a point called "SK Batu 24" on the map that was the nearest to the park. The Grab car dropped me at a school and I had to walk back 300 metres.
3:30pm, I arrived at Nictar Pineapple Park, which was managed by a family. The owner told me that there was a bus-stop outside the park but only for buses from Pekan Nanas. There was no bus-stop on the other side due to road barriers along the road. He had also tried to add the park's location to Grab app but had been unsuccessful — all facilities in the area, including the school and the florist opposite the park, were all off the Grab app.
In the park's retail section, I paid the admission fee of RM10 to see the pineapple fields. The fee included a bottle of chilled pineapple juice. They had two flavours for the juice and I chose the one made with pineapple flesh and peel. After a brief introduction to the different species of pineapple, I toured the park freely under the hot sun and I was the only visitor.
I spent about 30 minutes in the pineapple park — it was a "park" because it was setup to manufacture products from pineapples and for visitors to learnt more about the fruit, the real farm was at another spot in Pontian. At the end of the visit, I had a free plate of cut pineapples while resting. Their pineapples were really sweet.
Before leaving the park, I bought a box of pineapple tarts, a bottle of non-spicy pineapple chilli sauce, a jar of pineapple jam and another bottle of pineapple juice — without the peel to try the different flavour. My purchase was RM76.50. With a full backpack, I had to carry these products in a carrier.
I exited the park at 4:40pm and walked to the bus-stop — it was an old hut and the floor was covered by heaps of dead leaves. I stood outside the hut and waited for myBAS T50 service to Johor Bahru — worried that the bus would not stop for me as it was not a designated stop.
At 4:55pm, the bus came and, true to my worries, it nearby missed me. It was about to go past the bus-stop when the driver finally noticed me flagging him and stopped the bus 20 metres after the bus-stop. Lucky. If I were to visit Nictar Pineapple Park again, I would plan it in a way to go for a meal in Pekan Nanas or Pontian and take bus from there to the park.
5:35pm, I alighted at Paradigm Mall instead of going all the way to Larkin Sentral. I had initially planned to have dinner in Pekan Nanas, but that would require me to double-back to Pekan Nanas after visiting Nictar. Since I had dropped that idea, I would find something nice to eat in Paradigm Mall.
I checked out Paradigm Mall's new slide that was said to end in mid-air but a huge canvas had already been laid out to catch challengers. Anyway, it was just a slide. I spent some time in Kaison browsing for something nice to decorate my home, but, as Christmas was approaching, most items were for the festive season. 30 minutes in the store and I exited empty-handed.
After going one round in the mall and checking out most of the restaurants, I settled on Go Noodle House (有间面馆) on the ground floor. Go Noodle House had an outlet in JB City Square too, which I had wanted to try for quite some time. They had quite a wide range of traditional noodle dishes and I decided on the Beef Combo Noodle Soup with a bottled snow pear drink. Their homemade noodle was really good.
7:25pm, I exited Paradigm Mall and boarded the myBAS T32 bus that came along to JB Sentral. Traffic was still a little slow on the Skudai Highway but the bus exited the highway 5 minutes later and traffic became smoother. Then it got stuck again along the road to the bus terminal at JB Sentral. As it was a Friday night, the road was packed with vehicles — buses, taxis, e-hailing cars, private cars — going to pick up family members, love ones, customers, etc, returning from Singapore.
8pm, the bus finally arrived at the bus terminal and I went straight to JB CIQ. On Friday evenings, more people were going into Johor Bahru than to Singapore. And Malaysian workers going to Singapore for their work-shifts would have cleared the customs by around 7:30pm. So 8pm had always been an easier time to return to Singapore on weekdays. I was through both customs in less than 20 minutes.
With total purchases of approx. RM200, not exceeding S$100, I did not have to declare them for GST at Singapore customs and I had kept all receipts as proof.
8:25pm, I was back in Singapore and on the bus home. This ended another easy day trip to Pontian.
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