Johor 2025 Day 9: Batu Pahat to Tangkak (东甲)
- Rick
- Jun 4
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 2
Day 8: Eats at Batu Pahat (峇株巴辖)
Wednesday, 4th June 2025
For past two mornings, I had took the "long and tedious path" to Taman Banang to have toasts and coffee at Han Kee Cake & Cafe and Macau Kopitiam. This morning, I went the other way towards GN Food & Biscuit. Most of the shops were yet to be opened at 8:30am, whereas some eateries, including San Yuan Gourmet, were closed for the day. Fortunately, a noodle house was opened — it was closed the day before.
I walked into Ko Zao Bi Noodle House (古早味云吞面), which served traditional wanton noodle and others. I ordered their wanton noodle with mee pok and a kopi-O siew dai. The wanton noodle was flavourful and very good.
In Batu Pahat, kopi-O tended to be on the sweeter side. When I ordered kopi-O siew dai (less sugar), they still tasted sweeter than expected. There was no standard definition of how much sugar to add for "less sweet" and largely depended on the coffee maker’s interpretation of sweetness. Kopi-O kosong was still a better option to overcome such sweetness issue across different eateries and also regions.
10am, I checked out from 888 Boutique Hotel and e-hailed a Grab car to Batu Pahat Bus Terminal. The journey took less than 20 minutes. I went to the Mayang Sari Ekspres counter to get my bus ticket but the staff was not there. I decided to find lunch along Glutton Street before coming back at least 30 minutes before the departure time.
I combed through the Glutton Street along Jalan Pantai, most stalls were closed or were already closing, a couple of stalls were still gearing up for lunch time. There was a new noodle house along the street too. I decided to give it a try and it also seemed like a good place to stay out of the sun and chill until it was time to go back to the bus terminal.
In Kluang, there were 一见小面 (Yi Jian Xiao Mian) and 早碗见面 (Zao Wan Jian Mian) restaurants, and this noodle house was called 楼下见面 (Mee Downstairs). I had their signature Stuffed Tofu Puff Mee (酿豆腐面) and added a stuffed eggplant. Forgotten that I had to ration the intake of water before taking long-distance buses, I had an iced drink and nearly finished it.
11:30am, I walked back to the bus terminal and went to the Mayang Sari Ekspres counter again where I got the bus ticket and pay RM1 as fee — this was new. Running low on small notes, I bought a packet of candy from one of the convenience stores in the terminal. I would need the small notes when taking the local bus from Muar to Tangkak later.
The Mayang Sari bus to Muar embarked from Pontian. Bounded for Kuala Lumpur, it would stop at Batu Pahat and Muar along the way, so it would not be at Batu Pahat Bus Terminal at precisely 12pm. It came at 12:12pm, stopped at the bicycle stand outside the terminal, swapped passengers and departed.
1:15pm, the bus arrived at Muar Bentayan Terminal, the express bus terminal. Despite knowing that there would not be buses from the terminal to Tangkak, I asked a staff standing outside the ticket counters just to confirm. He pointed me to Maharani Bus Terminal and gave me the extra information that the bus service would use the bridge between the two terminals to get to Tangkak.
I hiked the 600 meters to Maharani Bus Terminal. My backpack was 1Kg heavier with a full bottle of water, a can of coffee and the pastries I bought in Batu Pahat. I would reduce that load in Tangkak.
On reaching Maharani Bus Terminal, I saw a North West Johore (柔西北巴士公司) Service 65 at the bus bay. It was bounded for Segamat and would stop at Tangkak Bus Terminal. The fare was RM3.20 — the bus driver did provide change — and the bus departed at 1:30pm. As I relaxed on the air-conditioned bus to Tangkak, I was amazed by myself for executing the journey so smoothly, even though it was my first time going to Tangkak.
Ideally, I should have stopped at Muar for 2 nights, next to Tangkak for 2 nights, then Malacca. But information on getting from Tangkak to Malacca was non-existent. One workaround would be to go to Tangkak first, then back to Muar, followed by Malacca —actually, I could travel from Tangkak to Muar and then to Malacca within a day but I did not thought of it before I booked the accommodation in Tangkak.
The North West Johore bus stopped at Tangkak Bus Terminal at 14:12pm, taking about 40 minutes. I checked out the bus terminal, other than information on express buses to Johor Bahru Larkin Sentral and Kuala Lumpur TBS, no other information were available. There used to be more services, including to Malacca, but were withdrawn.
I walked from the bus terminal to Tangkak Greenville Homestay (绿园民宿), which was about 800 metres away and would take just 11 minutes. But the route generated by Google Maps went through a school and I had to backtrack 100 metres at one point and find a new path.
I reached the homestay at around 2:40pm and managed to catch the owner, Mr Koo, just as he was about to leave the house. As a homestay, only cash or Touch n’ Go personal transfer was accepted. I used up whatever was in my TnG eWallet and nearly all my cash — with the bulk of my travel budget in YouTrip.
After a short rest, I went out to town to look around and to find an ATM and withdraw some cash in ringgit using my YouTrip card, which waived all fees below S$400 per month. Then I found a 7-Eleven convenience store and top-up my TnG eWallet again. In short, to top-up TnG eWallet from YouTrip, one would need to withdraw cash from an ATM and purchase a Reload PIN.
Tangkak Town gave me a very familiar vibe. The pre-war structures, with wooden walls and zinc rooftop, and bird droppings along the corridor reminded me of the old streets in Penang’s Georgetown, Ipoh Old Town, etc. Tangkak Town was indeed an old town too with a history dating back to 1901.
I came to a McDonald’s and decided to take a break from the heat, had an iced Milo, ate an apple pie and used the WiFi — sounds familiar? I rested for nearly 2 hours.
For dinner, I walked to Tangkak Kopitiam (东甲咖啡店), one of those places that were highly recommended by locals. It was also quite near to the homestay. There was a temple beside Tangkak Kopitiam, called Kian Hoon Kiong Temple, which was colourfully lit at night. A banner outside the temple highlighted that the temple was having a grand celebration for its 129th anniversary.
I was early at 6:30pm and not many tables were taken up. I had a Siham Kuey Teow (鲜蛤炒粿条) and a Longan Aloe Vera iced drink. The fried kway teow tasted delicious with its own characteristics but the saltiness level was on the high side for me. The portion was slightly larger too.
When I was leaving the kopitiam, I saw a number of elderlies gathering at several tables, some having coffee while others just chat or watched whatever that were broadcasted on the two large televisions. Although Tangkak Kopitiam was named as a traditional coffee shop, it was more cafe-style and prices were on the higher side. It was unusual that elderlies would gather here and at night.
I walked past several eateries and food courts along the way back to the homestay, and most of them had similar gatherings of elderlies. In most other parts of Malaysia, elderlies would usually gather in the mornings for some chats over coffee, seldom in the evenings since most coffee shops would close for the day by evening time. In Singapore, coffee shops would usually open till late but gathering of elderlies in the evenings were rare. Different lifestyles, I would say, or Tangkak had more close-knitted communities.
I returned to the homestay at around 8:30pm and the other lodgers, a solo traveller and a couple who drove, were just about to leave for dinner. They came back at around 10pm. And all was quiet through the night.
Day 10: Tangkak (东甲)
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