Johor 2025 Day 1: Singapore to Kota Tinggi (哥打丁宜)
- Rick
- May 27
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 2
Tuesday, 27th May 2025
It was a hot and humid day to start a trip — I sweated even while eating breakfast at 6:30am. I called this period the "hot embrace by Mother Nature" and her "warm tears" of the mid-year monsoon season might not be able to cool it. I decided to embark on another backpacking trip in the state of Johor, West Malaysia.
Similar to my West Malaysia journey in 2024, I would be spending around 2 nights in a city or town before moving on to the next destination and so forth. My first destination of this 2.5-week unplanned trip would be Kota Tinggi. Then, I would travel counter-clockwise through most of the districts of Johor and ending the trip on Day 17 — I had some matters on the day after. And, I would be meeting my sister and her family on Day 13 & 14 of this journey in Malacca. After that, I would continue on the circuit around Johor.
As per most of my trips that started on weekdays or during off-peak travel seasons to West Malaysia, I had no train, bus nor flight to catch, just a hotel reservation for the first 2 nights. I just had to get to Kota Tinggi Town, next to Johor Bahru District, by the end of the day.
9:15am, I arrived at Kranji MRT Station for going over the border via Woodlands Checkpoint and withdrew S$200 from an ATM. My intention was to exchange S$100 for ringgit in cash, keep the remaining S$100 as backup and use cashless payment methods whenever possible throughout the trip — an objective of mine on this trip would be to test if I could survive the journey with minimal use of hard cash.
As usual, the queue for SBS Transit 170X was quite long after 9am. I crossed the road to the bus-stop opposite the station, waited 4 minutes and boarded SBS Transit 178 to Woodlands Train Checkpoint. Even though I was carrying my big backpack, it would not stop me from walking from the train checkpoint to Woodlands Checkpoint.
9:35am — Reached Woodlands Checkpoint
9:40am — Boarded bus to JB CIQ
9:45am — Reached JB CIQ
9:50am — Cleared Malaysia Immigration
Carrying a big backpack, I was required to have it scanned after clearing Malaysia Immigration. The money changer in JB CIQ indicated its exchange rate as "325" — but I skipped it. YouTrip’s rate was around 328 on this day.
At the bus platform below JB CIQ, I joined the queue for SBS Transit Service 170 to Larkin Sentral since it was cheaper to continue on distance-charging and I had all the time in the world. Causeway Link CWL to Larkin would cost RM2.60 on boarding regardless of destination. An empty Singapore-Johor Express (SJE) bus came along and accepted passengers for RM2 per person. The queue that I was in shrunk from 30+ pax in front of me to less than 10.
10:15am, a Service 170 arrived, I boarded it and it embarked for Larkin Sentral, reaching the intercity bus terminal in 15 minutes. The usual drop-off bays for buses from Singapore was having some improvement works so we were dropped off at Platform A. Instead of waiting for myBAS T10 to Kota Tinggi at the same platform, I walked to Selera Johor in Plaza Larkin.
I had made it a point to try one Johor-specialty dish or any local dish at the Muslim food court whenever I came to Larkin Sentral. I had Mee Rebus Stulang Laut Special (RM13), with fried abalone mushroom and big fried prawns, at a stall named "Mi Rebus Stulang Laut" (Stall 1).
10:58am, I was back at Platform A of Larkin Sentral but a myBAS T10 had just left the terminal. The next service would be around 30 minutes later — bearing in mind that the bus service between JB Sentral and Kota Tinggi was touch-and-go at Larkin Sentral.
11:20am, a T10 service came along but it was bounded for JB Sentral — I noticed that the bus was coated in pink colour and carried the branding of BAS.MY instead of myBAS. 7 minutes later, another T10 service bounded for Kota Tinggi came but stopped at a bus bay near the other end of the platform, and I nearly missed it if not for someone shouting "KOTA TINGGI". Using my ManjaLink card, I boarded the bus without having to ask the driver how much was the fare to Kota Tinggi Bus Terminal. The bus departed at 11:30am.
25 minutes later, the bus passed by AEON Mall Tebrau City and IKEA Tebrau before continuing to Kota Tinggi. myBAS T10 was an alternative bus service to Toppen or Tebrau City when myBAS T14 from JB Sentral was outside its operation hours.
12:45pm, the bus arrived at Sri Lanang Bus & Taxi Terminal in Kota Tinggi Town, taking about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I alighted and noted the bus fare was RM4.50 after tapping my ManjaLink card on the card reader. I also noticed that I had just RM4.40 left on my card — I would need to find a way to top it up since there was no ManjaLink Service Counter in Kota Tinggi Town.
I explored the bus terminal but not much information on bus services to Desaru was available, not even a bus schedule. Taxis had fixed rates to many places in and outside Johor, printed on a pricing board near the taxi bays, but not sure if it was updated. The ticketing counters for long distance buses were on the second level but all destinations listed were to places outside Johor, except for Mersing.
At 1pm, I walked past Hotel Cascada, where I had booked a room but check-in time was after 2pm, and continued walking to Laughing Canteen (啦枫食堂) round a corner further down the road. The kopitiam was not crowded on a weekday afternoon. I got a table and ordered their Today’s Special, Wat Tan Crispy Noodle with Prawns, and Kopi Iced with Ice Cream — double “iced” since it was a very hot day. I enjoyed the meal slowly while allowing time to tick away.
2pm, I left Laughing Canteen but took another path to the hotel, hoping to find a money changer in the vicinity but there was none. I proceeded to check-in to Hotel Cascada (凯胜酒店).
The 9-year old hotel looked new with its new coat of outer paint and the lobby was clean. I had booked a windowless Standard Double room, as usual, to cut off traffic noises. The room was just mopped and cleaned but there were some cobwebs dangling under the table and on the ceiling. Small issues. I fed my phone some amperes while taking a cold shower — with lukewarm water from the pipes.
While looking up for places to go in the evening, I noticed that most prominent eateries on Google Maps would close by 6pm. I was not expecting anything exciting in the evening, just wanted some nice dinner options but it seemed to be quite limited in the capital town.
3:50pm, I left the hotel. I needed to burn some calories before dinner and also to settle some monetary matters for this trip. I noticed that the sky was pretty dark but the direction that I was heading still had some sunshine.
I walked into a 7-Eleven store and searched for a Reload Card to top-up my Touch n’ Go (TnG) eWallet but was told that the "Reload" function was via a receipt with PIN and only cash could be used. So, ultimately, it was still cash. The staff also pointed me to a money changer near the bus terminal so I headed back to the terminal where I had arrived earlier.
Near the bus terminal, a red signboard above a row of shops said "Merchantrade" and "Money Exchange", which I had missed when walking out of the terminal earlier. I headed towards it. The heavy rain came suddenly. The moment I felt a big raindrop on my head, heard the deafening roar of a thunder and approaching splattering sounds on rooftops, I sprinted towards the row of shops and its shelter but 5 seconds were all it took, I was half drenched.
The island of shops were not connected to other buildings and I was marooned. I sat outside a self-service launderette and waited for my clothes to dry a little — I wished I could dry my clothes in the dryer.
The deafening loud thunders and torrential rain continued for nearly an hour, the drains were drowned and cockroaches started surfacing from their hiding places — this reminded me of the flood in Pekan Muar several years back, fortunately, I did not see any rats here. Seeing that my clothes were not so wet, I went to find the money changer. It was called Abd Wahab bin Abu Bakar and located just behind the launderette. The rate offered was 323, which was poorer than in JB CIQ. Since I had already missed that boat and no other changers were available nearby, I changed S$100.
I waited again for the rain to subside to a drizzle. Then, I returned to the 7-Eleven store, bought the Reload PIN for TnG eWallet with RM100 cash and learnt how to top-up. The process was easy and I chose the transferable option with 1% convenience fee. The non-transferable option was for payment in shops only. Anyway, 1% on RM100 was only RM1, and the option would give me a chance to try topping-up my ManjaLink card via TnG eWallet.
With TnG eWallet and cash ringgit settled, I browsed Google Maps again for dining options nearby. I saw a Kota Tinggi Food Court, opened till 11pm, not far away and decided to go there.
I came to Medan Selera Muafakat Kota Tinggi, or Kota Tinggi Food Court, at around 6:15pm, briefly checked through the few stalls that were opened and decided on Stall 36, named "Ng Sock Fah", that served several dishes. I ordered a chicken feet noodle for RM7, saw that they used TnG QR code, fumbled with the TnG eWallet app and made my first payment — after all the troubles I had gone through to set it up.
The portion of chicken feet noodle, with 3 meat dumplings in a bowl of soup, was not too big and just nice for me since I was not able to burn more calories due to the rain. The noodle was tossed in wet and pleasant-tasting dark sauce with well-braised chicken feet skins that separated from the bones easily. It was a nice dish and cheap.
It was still drizzling slightly after dinner and I decided to head back to the hotel since there was not much for me to do. I would not go into shopping mode in the early stage of the trip.
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