Johor

Friday, April 08, 2011

Last Tuesday, I went to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Skudai, Johor with my grrlfriend to do some research... I've never been to Johor before but a few of my colleagues said stuff like, "Owh, from Melaka to Johor is like just two hours drive..." and "No sweat la... It'll be like driving to KL..."... Therefore, I expected that the journey wouldn't be quite a hassle...

It turned out that it took us more than three hours to get there... Dang... My grrll kept on saying "Never again! I'm never driving to Johor again!"...

Gemuk la gila...

UTM Skudai was kinda isolated... Thanks to the GPS that grrll lent from her father, finding that place was easy... Getting there was a pain...

I have to praise the management staff of UTM because they were all very friendly and helpful... except one pakcik in the Library of Education Faculty... He scolded me for bringing my bag inside the library... He could have just told me nicely... How was I supposed to know about the rules there... I was a visitor... Besides, bags were allowed at the main library... Shishh... Anyway, overall, my grrll and I were satisfied with the treatment we received from UTM... Thank u so much for being such a help...

Since it was our first time ever being in Johor, we thought of doing some exploring... So, we called up a few Johorian friends or someone who's familiar with Johor... Firstly, we called Yate... We asked whether the place she's currently staying is near or not from Skudai and if it is, maybe we could meet up... But, she said her place is not near to anything and kept on repeating about how that place is such a hell hole... That's how miserable she is being at such an isolated place - Bandar Penawar... I guess it's not a "bandar" at all... Hehe... Poor Yate...

She suggested us to go to Zainal Mie Rebus... and we're like "Whatt???... Is it hip?? What's interesting there? Mi rebus only??" Grrll and I are not fans of mi rebus... However after much discussing, we went there anyway... The verdict - "Mi Rebus mama lagi sedap..."... Nothing special there for us...

Grrll tried calling one of her debate friends, Avinash who's currently studying in UM if I'm not mistaken, to ask where else should we go but he didn't pick up... I texted Ridhwan and he replied, "Their Jusco quite okay. And try laksa johor. JB isnt much different from malacca"... Pftt... Jusco? Unfortunately we weren't looking for shopping malls...

We asked a guy at a petrol station about interesting places in Johor Bahru and he simply replied "I don't know" with a big grin... Gosh...

As we were about to decide whether or not to go to the famous Danga Bay to see what's so cool there, I remembered about another friend of mine who's from Johor Bahru - Najwa Karim... Ini dia, anak jati JB... Judging from her voice on the phone, I guessed she was sleeping when I called her... but she denied it...

I should've called her earlier because as soon as I told her that we're in JB now and we're looking for something cool, she suddenly got excited and "Pamie, jangan pergi Danga Bay, barang kat situ mahal... Pergi la Jalan Dohby, ada cafe comel-comel kat situ~"

Cafe comel-comel? At first grrll seemed a bit skeptical about it but when Jua explained that the cafe is like old school and as historical as Jonker, she got excited... The problem was, we had no idea where we're supposed to head... Jalan Dohby? Kotaraya? Owh no... It's raining cats and dogs!

GPS was our life-saver... Utilizing the satellite technology, we drove and reached JB... Then, the fun began... Jua instructed us to look for a pink building because the comel-comel cafe is around there... We didn't find it and ended up being in JB City Center... From the outside, the building looked majestic... From the inside, it's just an ordinary mall... Therefore, we walked out of it and explored the surroundings by foot...

I saw an old building from far and was attracted to just see it up close... It was drizzling and we left out umbrella in the car but we didn't care... By the time we reached the main entrance to the building, we decided not to get close as it looked more like a government office building instead of a historical place... The building is actually Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim...

Hey! The pink building that Jua mentioned was near to the Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim... The pink building is Kotaraya - a dull looking mall I thought... The cafe comel-comel must be nearby... We walked further and further but nothing we found... Thus, we headed back to City Center...

Under an escalator~

In City Center, we found a place to sit which was under an escalator, near J.Co and Starbucks... We were about to give up on finding the cafe comel-comel and I was about to suggest that we go home... Then, I thought of an idea - why dont I just Google the location via my Sony Ericsson phone... Utilizing Starbucks' free wi-fi, I Googled "Jalan Dohby" and found that it was not far from Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim!

Our spirits were lifted up again when we got the map to Jalan Dohby... Using the map in my phone, we traced every single landmark and road names in order to get to our hidden destination... From Jalan Weldrum to an Indian temple to Jalan Trus...

At Jalan Trus, we tried asking directions from a guy... "Bang, tumpang tanya..." and before grrll had the chance to finish her sentence, he suddenly pointed out the way... We were left speechless... I thought he had telepathy or something...

After around 15 - 20 minutes of searching, we finally reached Jalan Dohby and the cafe comel-comel!!! The name of the cafe is Roost Juice + Bar... Click here for more info about it~

Where's the "S"??

The entrance door~

The cafe was so awesome... The interior design was so old school and creative...

We ordered two of the fruit juice selection which were Mango Tango and Strawberries Trips... They were heavenly and extremely delicious! Mango Tango was so thick and rich with mango flavor while Strawberries Trips had a bit of banana taste in it... They were like fun mix of fruity flavors served fresh from the blender... Take a look at this! They were served in these little buckets~

At the second floor of Roost Juice + Bar, there are two more shops... The first shop which is a bit bigger than the second one, sells vintage bundle (used) branded clothes... My grrll went crazy up there because she's really into vintage stuff... I said, "Honey, next gaji ya..." and she was like, "YESSS~ We should definitely come back here again~"

Below are the pictures of the front balcony of Roost~

Besides that, they also offer a makeover service...

Next are the pictures of the back balcony of Roost~

What attracted us the most the second shop - Miss Ireen Handmade... Miss Ireen, the owner, was very friendly towards us where she let us try all the things available in her shop... She sells handmade women accessories like beaded necklace, earrings and hair pins... She also sells vintage dresses that she collected during her travel... Again, my grrll went crazy~ Check out Miss Ireen's blog here

After we had finished exploring Roost, we went to another cafe comel - comel suggested by Jua - That's Cafe... I think the attraction of the cafe is its design which is quite cute, artistic and vintage... Though we didn't have the chance to try out the food because we're stuffed... kenyang daa...

Beside That's Cafe, there is a small shop, My Little Corner, that attracted our attention... It's a place to cut ur hair and also a bundle shop... The shop is also kinda old school... Wow... I guess most of the places there in JB are old... It's a bit like Jonker... We love it...

That wraps our adventure in JB... Next was a long and tiring journey back to Melaka... Getting out of JB was quite difficult because the traffic was massive... It's like there were cars, lorries and motorcycle everywhere! Making it worse was the GPS malfunction... We were led to an unknown place instead of the highway... Luckily, the GPS was okey after I rebooted it... Shishh... Bikin cemas...

All in all, thanks to Jua, our trip to Johor was worth it... We got the thesis that we're looking for (hehe...) and we got to know the interesting part of JB... Yes, we will sure come again next time... Yoshh~