Johor 2025 Day 5: Around Kluang (居銮)
- Rick
- May 31
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 1
Day 4: Mersing to Kluang (居銮)
Saturday, 31st May 2025
Someone checked-in to Be Boutique Hotel at around 4am and closed his / her room door loudly, waking me up from my dream. Subsequently, most of the guests who left their rooms after 6am also closed their doors loudly. Was it an issue with the doors? I did not notice any issues with the door the day before but I found out that the walls were wooden partitions. There was no sound-proofing at all.
When I left my room at 9am, I closed my room door softly without a bang — it was the issue with inconsiderate guests!
The sky seemed cloudy in the not-too-far distant but the sun that hovered above Kluang Town was scorching hot. I made a beeline to Old Pasar Kopitiam (老巴刹古早味食阁), which I had always wanted to visit. It was quite crowded but not without vacant tables on a Saturday morning. I took up a table and ordered Hakka Mee from the nearest stall, 阿妈客家面 (translated as "Ah Ma Hakka Noodle"). The presentation and taste of the Hakka mee was really nice.
Before leaving the coffee shop, I checked out the other stalls too. It would take me many more visits, maybe years, to try them all.
I had walked through the lane of street arts along Laman Kreatif without paying much attention to the murals the day before. With lots of time to spare this time, I checked out all the murals, and noted there were several new murals since my last visit to Kluang in September 2024. Of course, some of the old murals were gone.
I revisited Old Kluang Station too before strolling to Kluang Bus Terminal at around 10:30am. Remembering that I had not reserved any accommodation in Batu Pahat yet, I booked a 3-night stay in Batu Pahat, via the Agoda app, since I had gained an extra day with just 1 night in Mersing. There was no long-distance buses between Kluang and Batu Pahat, so no booking of transport was required.
On the second level of the bus terminal, I checked the bus schedule for Johore Motor Bus 56 to Air Hitam / Batu Pahat from Kluang. The latest schedule of the bus service was on a handwritten note below the old schedule.
10:45am, I was back at the hotel. The cotton half-pants that I had put on was nearly drenched with sweat. It was a mistake to pack clothings that absorbed sweat too easily when travelling in hot seasons. I had replaced my travel tees with cool tech / dry-fit materials but did not apply that condition to half-pants for travel use. Anyway, that gave me a new objective for the afternoon, I would shop for a new half-pants that had quick-dry properties. I put on another half-pants and left the room 30 minutes later.
Walking slow and under shades as much as possible to reduce sweating, I came to On the Road Cafe, which served a series of really special cheesecakes and traditional local fares as main dishes. As it was time for lunch, I had a Rice Wine Mee Suah Soup and Green Tea Cafe Latte. It was my second wheat vermicelli dish with rice wine in two days — I love them. After finishing the noodle, I tried their highly-recommended Sweet Potato Cheesecake too. At just RM10, it was not too big so I did not feel too full. I wanted to try another cheesecake but had to stop myself from over-eating.
1:20pm, I left the cafe and made my way to Kluang Parade, a shopping mall in Kluang, town centre. There was a Parkson departmental store where I shopped and gotten a black half-pants for RM49. The material felt like the other half-pants that I had — would not absorb sweat easily. I exited from Kluang Parade and noted that it was only 2:20pm. That did not help me to kill more time.
I was thinking to have some light desserts but most dessert shops, that I could think of, served desserts with soya pudding. I remembered Daddy Cendol, which serves cendol along Laman Kreatif. It was closed on Friday and was supposed to be opened on Saturday at 10am. I returned to the "Street Art Lane" to take a look.
Yes! Daddy Cendol was opened. I had an Ice-cream Cendol (RM8) that was less sweet than Melaka cendol and the coconut ice-cream added more coconut flavours to the cool dessert.
The cloudy sky since morning had nurtured into dark clouds and threatened to release its load. I returned to the hotel to take a shower and rest as usual. But there was no heavy rain, just some drizzling and the sky cleared.
6:30pm, I headed out for dinner. I followed Google Maps to a spot, near Foo Man Tang Food Paradise, which supposedly had a food stall serving beef noodle but the stall was nowhere to be seen — too many inaccurate information on Google Maps. Anyway, I remembered a restaurant that I had walked past twice in the two days in Kluang and decided to go for it — and it was not on Google Maps.
I reached Zao Wan Jian Mian (早碗见面) at around 7pm. The restaurant served beef noodle too but it was spicy. I decided not to have spicy food for dinner so I ordered their char kway teow (炒粿条) and a small-size pork gyoza (锅贴). The dishes are tasty and delicious. I had found another great place for nice Chinese food in Kluang. I took a couple of photos of the restaurant and its opening hours and added it to Google Maps.
I had to top-up my Touch n’ Go eWallet at 7-Eleven again. More shops in Kluang used personal transfer via TnG rather than DuitNow QR, and I could not use SG payment apps to reduce the use of my cash. I had used up all my RM100 notes, so if I needed to top-up TnG eWallet again, I would try to use YouTrip, which had better exchange rates (328.8).
8pm, back at the hotel. An Indian woman was talking in an adjacent room and I could hear her clearly, but lucky for her, I could not understand Hindi. I faked some loud coughs to let her know that any sounds could be heard through the walls, but she continued talking. Fortunately, she stopped before I got into bed around 11pm.
Day 6: Kluang to Batu Pahat (峇株巴辖)
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