That Day, I Went On A Road Trip With Strangers I Now Called Friends – Johor

That was the question that popped up in my mind, when we finalised the people who will be doing this road trip together - Chin, Eunice, Kai Sin, MJ, Sebastian and I. The only person I truly know is Eunice who hiked Tahan with me back in September (read about it here), while Chin, Kai Sin and Sebastian are fellow hiker friends of the Tahan gang (Eunice included). I met both Kai Sin and Chin from a movie outing in October (though we didn’t talk) and only maintained contact through WhatsApp and Facebook, while Sebastian and I have not met each other prior to this trip despite hearing a lot about this “fast leg” from fellow hikers. So how did we end up together?

This trip was initially Chin’s solo road trip as he had wanted to explore the southern part of Peninsular Malaysia, having done most of the northern part and east cost by himself (from his various business trips if not mistaken). This was mentioned to Eunice and she was eager to join since it’s school holiday (one of the perks of being a teacher). Kai Sin and I had previously asked Eunice out for hiking for the same weekend and hence she had invited us to join. And since MJ will be following Chin’s car to Johor Bahru (JB) the week after that for AIA Vitality Men’s Health Women’s Health Night Marathon (phew, that’s a really long name), I asked her to tag along so that they can bond over this trip to overcome any unnecessary awkwardness during the following week’s car ride. The last member to tag along was Sebastian who had previously asked Kai Sin if she had any camping plan for the long weekend, so she invited him to join us. After all, isn’t it the more the merrier?

Day 1 (31/12/2016) : Kuala Lumpur – Seremban – Tangkak - Kluang town – Kahang Organice Rice Eco Farm (KOREF) – Mersing town – Air Papan beach

I stayed at Kai Sin’s house for the night since I was in town for a meeting, and Chin was scheduled to come pick us up at 5 in the morning. From there, we departed to MJ’s house and headed towards Kluang. Sebastian who is from Malacca was driving by himself to meet us there directly while Eunice took bus from JB to Kluang.  On our way towards Kluang, we dropped by Seremban to collect Chin’s battery from his house. Since we were hungry, we decided to have breakfast there instead of the original Tangkak plan.  

Seremban's cuttlefish bee hoon. We find the one from the market tastes better

We then continued our journey to Kluang to meet up with Sebastian and Eunice. Half way on the highway however, Chin had mentioned that there’s a stall at Ayer Keroh Jejantas R&R serving very nice toasts, and so we dropped by for our second round breakfast while making a toilet break. Sebastian had arrived at Kluang by that time and picked up Eunice from Kluang bus terminal. So, we alerted them about our delay and they had their own breakfast at Kluang while waiting for us. 

From left (anti clockwise): Toast at Ayer Keroh R&R, ABC and cendol at Uncle Frog, fried seafood tofu and cuttlefish at Uncle Frog, and thai-style fish rice at Kluang Rail Coffee

We reached Kluang around 11.15am, where we met at Uncle Frog. The place is apparently famous for Ais Kacang , so we ordered 3 bowls of Ais Kacang, 1 durian cendol and some light bites to share.

Lunch at Kluang Rail Coffee (Photo credit: Eunice)

And since we were already in Kluang and our next destination (Kahang Organic Rice Eco Farm) is about an hour away and we will only be having our tea time there, we decided to have our lunch first before resuming our journey. We ended up at Kluang Rail Coffee. 

Arrived at Kahang Organic Rice Eco Farm

Bringing along umbrella because it seemed like it's gonna rain (Photo credit: Eunice)

At about 1pm, we departed to KOREF and reached there at about 2.30pm. Kahang Organic Rice Eco Farm, or KOREF is an organic farm resort located at Mersing. Visitor can do a full day or half day guided tour package which will cost RM70 and RM60 respectively. This will include lunch, tea break, fishing, physical challenge activities and bamboo rafting. Alternatively, you can just visit the farm on your own (what we did) by paying RM20 entrance fee (only tea break is provided). 

Challets by the lake

Obstacle challenges

Mirror of heaven

They also provide accommodation in form of chalets and dormitories for visitors who would like to spend more than a day here. They also have campsite for large camping group. My personal opinion after our visit? – This place is more suitable for company’s team building and school camping activities. And RM20 entrance fee is rather expensive. For more info, visit their official website. 

One of the many challets? dorms? (Photo credit: Chin)

Playing with swings (Photo credit : Chin)

Eunice, the other aquarius baby

It was raining when we arrived, so we waited for the rain to stop before we roamed around. But when we finally reached the paddy field it was raining cats and dogs, so we took shelter at a nearby hut, until the rain stopped. The weather is really not on our side that day. *sigh*

Having rambutans, courtesy of the staffs at the shelter (Photo credit: Eunice)

Not harvesting season I guess

From left: Eunice, MJ, Sebastian, me and Kai Sin (Photo credit: Chin)

Reason why I said it’s not worth paying RM20 is because there really isn’t much to see here. If you want to see paddy field, perhaps Sekinchan is a much better place. And the weather is such a mood killer since the road is damp and muddy after the rain.  

Look at the mud on our shoes

Nonetheless, having good company can lift one’s spirit, and we did have fun taking photos here. Thanks to Chin for being a great photographer, Sebastian for being so playful, Eunice for being so enthusiastic in taking we-fies and of course Kai Sin and MJ for playing along. I would have sunk into gloominess if I’m alone, much like the day’s weather.

Can keep your eyes off me? (Photo credit: Chin)

Photo credit: Chin

Probably my favourite shot of the day

Is there someone you are waiting for?

With my best friend forever (Photo credit: Chin)

Copycat Luffy's thumb up pose (Photo credit: Eunice)

Complimentary tea break at 4pm

On our way to the carpark, we saw a group of visitors (possibly taken the full or half day tour) fishing in the lake, so Eunice went over to have a look while Sebastian hijacked a bamboo raft and played with it. Yay for free rafting! Hahaha. It started to drizzle again soon after and we decided to leave for good and proceed to Mersing town.

Let me curi-curi rafting while no one's looking

Watching other visitors fishing

After about an hour of what felt like a long car ride (where the girls were sleeping in the back and I’m the only one struggling to stay awake to talk to Chin), we finally reached Embassy Hotel at 5.30pm, checked in, and then headed out again to the fishing village. The so-called fishing village is located just several hundred metres away along the river, and we parked our car and took some photos. 

Fishing boats along the river

Behind the scene, where we were taking photos (Photo credit: Sebastian)

We actually walked to the bridge and stand next to the highway to have these photos taken, hence drawing attention from cars and motorcycles that passed by. Even pedestrians gave us a weird stare. LOLs. But my advice? 

From left clockwise: Me, Sebastian, MJ, Kai Sin, Eunice and Chin

Before the sun set, we drove to a nearby beach at Air Papan for sunset. Just navigate Air Papan Beach Resort and on your way, you will see long stretch of public beaches. We stopped at the one next to the resort, with a wooden jetty. Again, too bad for us since the weather that day was too gloomy for photo taking, and we are unable to see the sun set as it was too cloudy. We settled for some beach photos and headed back to town for dinner. 

Air Papan beach

No luck for the last sunset of 2016

Google what to eat in Mersing and a Chinese restaurant called Loke Tien Yuen will surely pop out. It’s a very famous seafood restaurant, a must-try place when in town. Unfortunately, what we did not know is that reservation it was so hard to get a table without prior reservation. We tried to walk in at 7.30pm and was told that they are fully booked for the night. So readers, if you would like to try, do google its phone number to make a reservation in advance. 

Since we couldn’t try this “best Chinese restaurant” in Mersing, we settled for another restaurant just opposite the road, called Ee Lo. While waiting for our dinner at Ee Lo, we actually noticed that Loke Tien Yuen’s door had already closed. I think it was around 8pm at that time. That, is really good business! I was wondering whether they only entertain pre-booking diners now, so if you are really keen to try, I really suggest making a phone call. I’ll definitely try this place shall I ever revisit Mersing.

Dinner at Ee Lo. Too hungry I didn't bother to take nice photos

We finished our dinner around 9pm and then drove to the beach again for barbeque. It’s new year’s eve and we actually planned to have our own private small-scale countdown at the beach, away from the crowd. Chin had brought along a groundsheet, bricks, charcoal, net (for grilling) and a pot (for cocktail mixing). We had also bought some sausages, sweet potatoes, potatoes and marshmallows. Eunice was in-charge of mixing cocktail (longan + sprite + beer) while Kai Sin and I helped grilling sausages. As for Sebastian, we found out that he is an expert at grilling marshmallows. 

From top left, clockwise: Grilled potatoes, sausages, champagne, marshmallows and sandy logan (Photos credit: Eunice)

As the clock struck 12, we cheered with champagne, while wishing for a blessed and prosperous new year. With the glow-in-the-dark band we wore on our wrists, we wrote 2017 with it, while Chin snapped a long exposure photo to capture the light trail.

Writing 2017 with our glow bands (Photo credit: Chin)

It wasn’t a fancy countdown celebration, but one that was full of warmth and cosiness – exactly the type I like. Contrary to how people see me, I actually prefer to celebrate in smaller crowds instead of surrounding myself with loud, blasting music with a sea of strangers in a bustling city. I guess, age is really catching up to me, huh?

Cheers to a wonderful year ahead!

We went back to the hotel that night at 2am, and after taking turn for shower, we went to bed, dreaming for the start of a great new year for each and every one of us.

Day 2 (1/1/2017) : Mersing town – Teluk Buih (sunrise)** – Mersing town - Pekan Nenas - Tanjung Piai – Kukup – Ulu Choh – Johor Bahru

That was what exactly went through my mind before I fall asleep the night before. It’s the start of 2017 and it’s the first day of the new year, so I had wanted to see the sunrise. But reality is so often different from expectation and I woke up at to the sunray shinning on my face. I woke up and saw both MJ and Kai Sin still lying next to me while Sebastian was sitting alone on his side of the bed. The first thing that spurted out of my mouth was “Wasn’t we supposed to go see the sunrise?” 

The early riser who managed to catch the first sunrise of 2017 (Photo credit: Eunice)

Xhin being an early riser and photo enthusiast who would never miss a sunrise opportunity was the first to wake up. Seeing how exhausted we were, he was reluctant to wake us up from our dreamland and hence had went out by himself to catch the sunrise. Eunice woke up shortly after and was downstairs looking for Chin when he texted to inform her that the sun is about to rise. Having no time to wake the rest of us up, she has driven Sebastian’s car to Teluk Buih where Chin was, while the rest of us were sleeping soundly. Well, at least I’ve managed to get adequate rest?

Breakfast at Sri Mersing Cafe

By the time we finished washing up, the sunrise duo had finally returned and we packed our bags and checked out from the hotel. We decided to walk to the Sri Mersing Café, which is an old school kopitiam, where we had coffee, tea, toasts and half-boiled eggs. After breakfast we walked back to our hotel where the cars were parked. We also drove towards the wet market to have our second round breakfast. Apparently there’s a very famous nasi dagang called Nasi Dagang Warisan Kak Ju and it’s located in between the new wet market (pasar) and the bus and taxi terminal. Unfortunately, again, we have no luck with famous local eateries as it’s sold out for the day by the time we arrive around 10am, so we decided to leave town and to proceed towards our next destination. 

While driving out of Mersing town, we passed by the same shop selling cendol and being reminded of the numerous time Chin had looked longingly (like love at first sight) at this place whenever we passed by, we decided to pull over and satisfied our big bro’s craving. Turned out like I’d suspected, he’s a big fan of cendol and he would try any cendol he comes across. That’s true love over there I tell you, and not surprisingly, he had tried almost all cendol in KL and Selangor. *gasp*

Cendol at Al-Hamid, said to be the best cendol in town

We leave Mersing town after satisfying Chin’s “undying love” for cendol, and drove to our next destination --- Tanjung Piai. It’s a long 190km drive and along the way we passed by Kiang Kee Bak Kut Teh. Since it was lunch time, we decided to stop here for lunch before continuing our journey. The place was literally crowded with people since it was lunch hour and possibly the only decent lunch place along the road, so we ended up waiting for about 45minutes for our meal, and it wasn’t that good.

Our Bak Kut Teh lunch

Having delayed by the long lunch, we only reached Tanjung Piai around 4pm, but it was showering. We did pass by Pekan Nenas on our way but we kind miss the turning and the sky was getting dark, so we decided to drive over to Tanjung Piai instead. We initially thought of waiting for the rain to stop but it didn’t seem like it would, so we embraced the weather and went in with umbrellas.

Walking on the boardwalk

Being a cape located in Pontian, Johor, Tanjung Piai is the southernmost tip of Peninsular Malaysia and thus making it also the most southern point of mainland Eurasia. To get to the southernmost point (aka the iconic globe), one would need to pay the entrance ticket which costs RM5 for adult with Malaysian IC and RM20 for foreigner. The place is surrounded by mangrove forests and mudflats, but wooden boardwalk is built for the convenience of visitors, paving the way from the mangrove forest to the concrete jetty where the globe is. There are several other walking trails aside from the one heading to the cape, one leading to an observation tower and the other leading to a wooden jetty. The park entrance closes at 6pm.

Photo credit: Sebastian

There goes my broken sandals (Photo credit: Eunice)

The weather was particularly bad that day that it wouldn’t stop raining the entire 2hours that we were in there. It was hard to even take a decent photo in the rain and I basically just let Chin (the pro) did all the shooting while I kept my camera in my bag, only taking it out for some shots when necessary. And to add salt to injury, my sandals decided to break while we were walking on the boardwalk (of all time!). After struggling to walk properly with the broken sandal, I decided to walk barefoot instead.

What to do when we have a GroPo around? More wefie! (Photo credit: Sebastian)

We spent most of our time taking shelter at the wooden jetty since the cape is not sheltered. While waiting for the rain to stop, we attempted the recently-popular mannequin challenge. It’s not hard to do one there since it was raining and there were no crowd to videobomb us. After realising that the rain won’t be stopping after all, we decided to walk to the cape in the rain, before the sky got too dark for photo and most importantly, before the park is closed.  

Ladies' jump shot (Photo credit: Sebastian)

Malaysia's next top model (Photo credit: Sebastian)

A group wefie before we got chased out by the staffs (Photo credit: Eunice)

We were there for a good half an hour, taking numerous shot with the globe, while being drenched in rain. Finally, at 6.20pm, we were approached by the staffs who had come to chase us out since the park is closed. We left the park at 6.30pm and drove to Kukup for seafood dinner. 

From top left, clockwise: Stir-fry baby kailan, salted egg crab, clams in ginger and wine, marmite pork rib, sambal squid and kam heong clams

We reached Kukup at around 7pm but decided to change course and head to Ulu Choh, Gelang Patah instead. Why? It’s because we had a feeling that all the seafood restaurants in Kukup seem to cater for tourists and hence we would have been slaughtered. To avoid our wallet crying in sorrow, we googled and headed towards Tian Lai Seafood Restaurant in Ulu Choh, Gelang Patah. It’s another half an hour to 40minutes drive from there and the sky was dark and stomach was growling by the time we reach the restaurant. 

Having our seafood dinner (Photo credit: Eunice)

It was almost 10pm by the time we finished our dinner, and Sebastian bid farewell to us and drove back to Malacca. He’s got to work the next day and couldn’t stay another day with us. The rest of us drove to Eunice’s house in JB where we stayed for a night. 

Day 3 (2/1/2017) : Johor Bahru – Mount Pulai - Seri Alam Blue Lake – Batu Pahat (Segenting) - Singapore

As everyone was tired, we decided to forgo hiking Mount Pulai in order to get more sleep. After all, our poor driver, Chin would need to drive all the way back to KL again and we wouldn’t want him to be exhausted. We woke up at 8am and after washing up, Eunice brought us out for breakfast at a local dim sum restaurant.

Breakfast of the day = dimsum

Dimsum breakfast without Sebastian at Restoran Gui Yuan (Photo credit; Eunice)

After filling our tummy with the first meal of the day, we drove to the famous Seri Alam Blue Lake. This lake is named so because it is blue in colour (obviously, duh!) and is located close to University of Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology in Bandar Seri Alam. For a direction to navigate your way to this lake, you may refer to: here

Blue Lake in gloomy weather

Expect to do some easy hike up a hill in order to reach the lake. It’s not steep and it takes only approximately 5-10minutes in total, but it’s recommended to wear proper footwear. Please refrain from wearing high heels or uncomfortable shoes. As my sandals broke the day before, I continued to wear Kai Sin’s Kampung Adidas.

Chin, our driver cum photographer

I did some quick googling and this lake is a former granite quarry. I’m not exactly sure as to why the lake water is so blue, but I’m guessing it’s some sort of chemical reaction playing a part there. During our visit, we note that there was some on-going construction and the water level is slowly depleting. This is confirmed by Eunice who had been there severally times. I’m not sure whether there is quarry mining going on there or they are just sucking the lake water out so that they could proceed with some construction plan, but it seems that this place is going to disappear sooner or later. If you are interested to see this lake, you’d better hurry and do it soon before it truly disappears for good.

Coincidentally all girls wearing black

The sun was out when we visited this place and although it wasn’t scorching hot, it was shining brightly. There’s no shelter, and we were under direct sunlight, and so I actually struggled to keep my eyes open when taking photo of this time. You might want to plan your time of visit wisely if you would like to get some beautiful photo out of this place. Try sunrise or sunset, perhaps? The place is also full with mosquitoes, so if you attract mosquitoes like MJ, do consider bringing a repellent along, and maybe wear long pants to cover up.

It's too sunny I can't keep my eyes opened

We spent about an hour there taking photos and left around 11am. Chin then dropped me at JB Sentral, where I crossed over the causeway to Singapore, since I have a family gathering in the afternoon. The rest of them continued to stop by several eating places in JB before returning back to KL and called it a day.

Epilogue

Johor isn’t a state in Malaysia I ever intended to explore in depth. It’s the biggest state in Peninsular Malaysia, but somehow the northern part of the Peninsular and the east coast makes for a more interesting road trip, in my opinion. If it wasn’t for Chin, I might not have make a trip down to Johor. And after completing this trip, I’m still not in love with this state. I guess I won’t be returning for a long, long time.  Nonetheless, it’s still a trip I enjoyed a lot, not because of the place, but because of the people I travelled with. More fun adventures in the future, I hope :)

Cost breakdown:

Total distance travelled: approximately 697km (until JB sentral, additional 330km for the rest who return to KL)

Petrol and toll: RM45 (+RM32 for return journey to KL which I did not follow)

Lodging: RM15 (RM90 split by 6 person)

Meal: RM110 (rough estimation since I don’t remember)

KOREF entrance fee: RM20

T. Piai entrance fee: RM5

Total: RM195