Today we did something a bit different, and took a day trip to Malaysia to see another new country.
How to visit Malaysia from Singapore
Before our trip we had looked at various options for a day trip to Malaysia and found all sorts of ones on offer including organised shopping trips, pre-booked coaches to the town just across the border, and even longer full-day trips to Malacca. They all looked interesting but we decided that the best way to visit Malaysia, since we were just going there to see something different without any real purpose, was to just do it ourselves.
There are two ways that you can cross the border. Most people either drive or take the bus across the causeway, which is the more flexible option, but we opted for the more stress-free option which was to book tickets on the hourly train which runs a shuttle between Singapore and Johor Bahru in Malaysia.
Our journey to Malaysia
We had to leave early to get our train, as the station is at the other side of Singapore, and so we were out of the hotel at 07:30 for the hour-long journey from our local MRT station to Woodlands which is the closest station to the train station.
From Woodlands it was a short bus ride to the train station, where we entered the building and joined the queue waiting for check-in and passport control to open – which it did around 15 minutes after we arrived.
The first step in the journey was to show our tickets and passports at the check point. Most people travelling were Malaysian or Singaporean, who don’t need to do any additional paperwork. If you’re from another country then you need to complete an arrival form for Malaysia online in advance, and so when we showed our passports the officer made sure that we had done that.
All of the passport formalities take place on the Singaporean side and so we quickly proceeded through both Singaporean and Malaysian passport control before making our way onto the train.
The whole process was rather smooth considering it was a busy border crossing, and we were all on board with time to spare and the train left exactly on time.
The journey between stations only takes 5 minutes and, during the journey, we could see the long queues for vehicles so we were definitely glad that we decided to book the train and not to take the bus.
As passport formalities had been completed in Singapore we walked straight out into the city as soon as we arrived, and spent the next few hours exploring Johor Bahru.
It seems like a lot of people come here for shopping, judging by the long line of people wheeling suitcases that went straight from the train to the shopping centre across the road, but as we didn’t have much of a plan we just walked off into the city to explore.
Exploring Johor Bahru
Our first stop was at the Heritage Food street, near the water, which is an area full of older more traditional buildings that is full of cafes, coffee shops, bakeries, and other independent places like this.
We took a seat at a small café where we had a coffee and some cakes as a quick brunch, and they were really nice – and not that expensive compared to Singapore.
As we didn’t have much of a plan for our time in Malaysia we spent the next couple of hours just walking around and exploring – taking in sights such as the 0km marker and VOA monument, among others.
It was nice to get out of Singapore for the day, to see a new place, but other than shopping and temples there isn’t much to do there so, once it got to the hot part of the day, we decided to head back to the shopping centre near the station to get out of the heat and grab some lunch.
A terrible lunch and terrible toilets
One of the only places with available seats in the shopping centre was KFC so we decided to head in and take a seat. Once our food arrived we found out why it had seats available – I have been to many KFC in many countries but this was by far the worst I have been to. The food was cold and greasy, the fried were undercooked, the drinks were flat and warm because they poured lots in advance and then just left them until people ordered them, the staff were rude, and the tables were covered in rubbish.
I don’t often review things online, but I made sure to leave it a 1 star review on Google before leaving – which, it appears, a lot of other people had done so it’s a shame we didn’t check reviews before heading in.
The toilets in the shopping centre weren’t much better, and they were flooded with water, and had a really bad smell – nowhere near the clean standards of Singapore which is only a few miles away.
Luckily the shops were a lot better and so we spent a little while shopping before heading back to the train station.
Travelling back to Singapore
When we arrived the station was packed, it turns out that the train before ours had been cancelled because the Orient Express was late departing Singapore which caused delays because there is only one platform.
This made the process going back to Singapore a lot worse as there were two trains of passengers panicking and trying to make sure they got on board, which almost caused a crush at the top of the stairs down to the platforms due to people pushing so much.
In the end, everybody got on although a few people did have to stand for the short journey back to Singapore.
Overall I would say that I’m glad to have done the day trip, to add Malaysia to my list of countries that I have visited, but there is nothing about the city that really stood out for me so I don’t think I’ll be back next time I visit Singapore.
Exploring more of Singapore
This afternoon, after getting back into the centre, we spent a couple of hours exploring the area around the river checking off some more sights that were on our list for our time in Singapore.
These included the Merlion, the Victoria Theatre, the statue of Raffles, and the other statues that lined the river that depict various key moments in the history of Singapore.
Dinner at Boat Quay
After our bad lunch experience in Malaysia we were keen to make sure our dinner was a lot better. When I was in Singapore last time I had a great meal at a restaurant on Boat Quay and, since we were in the area, we thought that this would be a good place to go since there were lots of options to pick from.
In the end we picked an Indian restaurant that we liked the look of, and the food was so much better than the KFC in Singapore. Not only was it hot, and tasty, but the quality was really good. Plus it had great views of the river and we enjoyed taking in sunset from our table.
After dinner we walked around for a little bit to change our Malaysian money into Singapore Dollars, and grab an ice cream, before catching the bus back to our hotel – arriving just after 9pm.
Tomorrow we have another full day planned, starting with a trip to the Singapore Zoo which should be a lot of fun.