My Story : Trip to JB Part 1

Arrived back safely in KL at about 8:45pm last night after a 6 hours and 45 minutes journey on a return train from JB. The train made an unexpected long stop at Gemas station causing our delayed arrival. We took the economy class coach instead of the 1st class coach we boarded on the journey to JB. My my my...it was a real double standard between those 2 coach types. My advice if you have extra bucks to spare on a train trip and don't mind spending double ticket price, do take the first class...less noise, more comfortable seat and leg rest, cleaner coach and toilet, fully functional automatic coach door and PA system...and you might not have to watch "live" X-rated reality show of a malay college couple making out from the front seat...seriouslyy! I feel like putting the video in here so you can watch it too hahahaha.

Well there are so many things I wanna write about but hardly know where to start. My cousin Pidah, my mom and me left KL on a 8:30am train for a 6 hours journey to JB. It was our first trip on a 1st class coach and we were enjoying ourselves taking photos. We were really excited. The 6 hours went so fast that we didn't felt like it was a long journey. The train made a 10 minutes stop at Gemas Station and we arrived at JB at 2:40pm.

Fist thing we did once we set foot on JB soil was looking for a hotel. First we went to this hotel called A Vista Merpati infront of train station. There was no tripple bedroom available so we moved to find another hotel. We went to Grand Paradise Hotel, previously named Causeway Inn at Meldrum street, situated next to a police station. We paid RM70 for a tripple bed room (RM90 with RM20 government rate discount). Don't expect much on a budget room but the room is big for 3 of us tho a bit run down. THe hotel is strategically located where taxis are available infront of the hotel and train station is only 5 minutes walk away.

We only started our touring in the evening where we walked around the city for food and ended up at mamaks we me and Pidah ordered Mee goreng and mak had roti telur. I found that here in JB city centre mamaks are everywhere. Then just continue walking down the street and made a quick hop in the Guardian to buy some stuffs. While we were inside there was this chaos that I didn't understand at first. Then I realised that there was a bashing happening outside the shop. Around 20 teenagers aged not more than 17 kicking and punching a boy around their age. Everyone just stand still and stared and Ohhh...Noo...Ahh...Heyyy....Eeeeee without doing anything including me. Everyone don't have the guts to butts in and tried to help and I don't blame them. These kids just terrified us. This group had helmets and sticks gripped in their hands...I believed they don't mind bashing anyone who tried to help. Police were around the city but no one was there when the incident happen. I just can't believe my eyes that I saw this thing happening right infront of me...I only saw this on TV. I'm in JB, in my own country...not in New York or Manchester. Even in KL I never seen such brutal fight. What happen to JB residents? Is this the price they paid living next to Singapore? Can we blame Singapore for things that happen to JB? I've no answer but seeing what I just saw made me wanna left the city instantly.

I asked a local lady a place for a seaside view and she recommended this place called the Zone. We hailed a taxi...The fare was RM6 (not using meter). It is a duty free zone but we're not here in JB for shopping so we just walked along the concreet shore and snapped photos and enjoying the sunset view. Later we took a taxi back to Hotel for Maghrib before going out again for dinner. Me and Pidah were craving for Ikan Bakar. We asked every taxi drivers but no one could provide us info on the best Grilled Fish/Ikan Bakar in town. I read earlier from the Internet about Yong Yong and Tip Tip Ikan Bakar but none of the taxi drivers suggested the place. So we went to a recommended "Singgah Selalu" place since it is at Danga Bay. I thought its a seafood restaurant but turned out to be a food court situated across the street from Danga Bay. To our GREATEST dissapointment the ikan bakar sucks...big time!!!! I wouldn't call it ikan bakar but Sambal Ikan. They don't have cicah KICAP or just plain kicap!!! Dang dissapointed again after an earlier dissapointment at Kuantan last month. I came all the way from KL for this?!! No way!!! Even Ikan Bakar Jalan Bellamy is better than this. If I got another night in JB I'll definately go to the first place in mind, the Tip Top Ikan Bakar at Tepian Tebrau. I said to Pidah that we need to go to Umbai and tried the ikan bakar coz people keep giving good reviews of the place. If Umbai still didn't satisfy my appettite...I just have to set-up my own business for Ikan Bakar. I remember Pidah made the best Terubuk bakar with cicah kicap cili last ramadhan...the wonderful aroma of smokey fish grilled on charcoal and not on a pan like most ikan bakar places these days.

Forget about the put-off ikan bakar and let me continue the story of our trip to Danga Bay at night right after the dissasterous dinner. Even the live telecast of Man United vs Arsenal couldn't brought myself to enjoy the meal. We left the food court right after Rooney scored the first goal. Although I was a little hessitant to leave after the goal...I've to moved on coz I'm on tour and there were places to visit that night. Crossed the street to anga Bay. There was fun-fair there and me and Pidah bought 5 game tokens for RM10. Failed to win anything heheheh...and I still owed Pidah half of the paid tokens. We later walked along Danga Bay Street Mall and I bought Rojak Buah for super munchies. Then we paid RM10/person and entered a tanglong festival site to snap photos of beautiful tanglung designs. Actually the site was more beautiful from outside view than from the inside. We watched a short acrobatic performances and left the area. Mak Looked so tired so we decided to went back to the hotel and relax. It was a beautiful view of old buildings along the Lido beach on the way back to the city.

OK I'll stop here and continue later kay...