I love my public transport senior citizen concession card. I can travel anywhere in Singapore for 99 cents on a single journey regardless of how many changes in MRT/bus I make. To push this concession to the limit, I travel to Johor Bahru (JB) by MRT/bus with this card for 99 cents.
Take the North-South MRT line to Kranji Station. At the station exit, there will be a queue for bus 170X on the right hand side.
Do not be discouraged by the long queue. The bus comes every 10 minutes, and it fills to the brim with about 100 passengers each trip!
Get off at the Singapore CIQ complex, follow the crowd up the escalator one level to the automatic passport clearance turnstiles, then one level down the escalator to the queue area for bus 160/170X (look for the signage) to continue the journey.
Buses 160/170X/960 all have to travel from Singapore immigration complex and the Malaysian immigration complex. All 3 bus services recognize our concession card for the continuation of the journey.
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Johor Bahru (JB) Immigration Clearance
Now comes the tricky part of the journey. At the Malaysian immigration complex, long queues start to form from about 11am. The first 2 counters (Counters 1 and 2) are for senior citizens, which will likely have shorter queues.
Get your passport stamped, and you are on your way.
Recently, you can apply for the Malaysian Digital Arrival Card (MDAC) online up to 3 days before arrival.
- At the checkpoint, go to the 2 counters on the left side of counters 1 and 2, which says “MDAC”.
- Register there with your passport. This allows you to use their automatic passport clearance turnstiles from that day onwards.
- You only need to register once at the counter, but you need to e-register each time to go to JB.
This beats the hassle of the long queues at the JB immigration counters each time you travel there. However, these two counters are open only from Mondays to Thursdays, from 8am to 7pm.
It is NOT compulsory for Singaporeans to apply/use the MDAC, but I find it very convenient.
MDAC is available only at JB land immigration complex and KLIA. All other entry points, such as Penang airport, Kota Kinabalu airport, do not have this system yet, at the time of this article.
Coming back to Singapore, just backtrack.
After the immigration clearance, take the first escalator on the left down, make a right U-turn and walk to the end for the bus 160/170X queue. There is usually no queue before 4pm.
On the Singapore side, after immigration clearance, please look for the queue for 170X back to Kranji MRT station, or other SBS buses going nearer to your destination – bus 160 goes to Jurong Town Hall Interchange.
After Immigration Clearance at JB
Follow the crowd. It is a covered walkway out of the complex. There will be travellators and escalators leading you to JB Sentral.
This is where the train station and bus station (to the various towns in Johor state) are located.
Walk through the building to the other end, and you will exit this building to City Square and Komtar, both huge shopping centres. It is covered all the way.
- City Square, JB
This is the all-time favourite of Singaporeans. Mine also. You can spend a day or two, or three, just in this shopping centre alone. Just to mention some of my favourites there.
- Food – Dragon-I, Souper Tang, Meng Meng Roast Duck, AK Noodle House, Lavender Bakery, Mixue ice cream, etc. There is food from Basement 1 all the way to level 6.
- Pharmacy – on level 2, there are 3 pharmacies side-by-side (Big, Watsons, Guardian) and Caring directly opposite. Browse-compare-buy.
- Shops – Decathlon and Uniqlo have price tags in Singapore dollars and Malaysian Ringgit, assuming that they only tag their products once for sale at both countries. You will find that the exchange rate used for most items are even better than the official exchange rate. I also love Mr DIY and Popular Bookstore.
- Komtar, JB
This is not as exciting as City Square, but it has Marks & Spencer, Tony Roma’s, Daiso, Skechers, FitFlop, etc. The Dragon-I did not taste as good as the one in City Square.
Food outside City Square, JB
At level 1 of City Square, exit Burger King to Jalan Wong Ah Fook. Turn left and walk down this road. After crossing about 3 side roads, there is Kam Long Ah Zai Curry Fish Head. It is open 8am to about 3pm. Be ready to wait in queue for more than 30 minutes.
Two doors away is a shophouse selling roast meat –roast duck, char siew, roast pork. This shop even sells suckling pig at RM88 per serving, and it has a large cooked food menu.
If you are not willing to wait 30 minutes at Ah Zai’s, head to Kam Long Curry Fish Head, on Jalan Meldrum, directly behind Ah Zai, and opened by a disgruntled ex-employee of Ah Zai’s. The curry fish head is just as good, but no queue. It also sells bah kut teh.
On the other side of Jalan Meldrum, you’ll find lots of street food. Not famous but very local and very few Singaporeans there.
Between Jalan Wong Ah Fook and Jalan Meldrum is a back lane for the shophouses. This lane comes alive in the evening selling mainly Malay food. It was a lot more vibrant pre-COVID, but the Chinese stalls did not survive the COVID period.
Cross Jalan Wong Ah Fook at Ah Zai’s and lots more good food await.
Starting with Ya Wang (which claims to be the consultant for Dian Xiao Er’s roast duck), Restoran SeKee, two doors away selling kuay teow soup with pig’s liver and kidney, Hiap Joo Bakery for the banana cake, IT Roo Café for the chicken chop, Nyonya Dynasty for Peranakan food. You can really put on weight in this area alone.
A Singapore favourite is Haidilao on Jalan Wong Ah Fook directly opposite Komtar.
Hotels in JB
We normally stay in JB for 2 nights because “if we do not stay, we only eat 1 meal (lunch). If we stay 2 nights, we get to eat 7 meals,” my wife reasoned.
Our favourite hotels are Suasana Suites (S$95/night) beside Haidilao, Amari JB (S$103) next to Suasana Suites, and Holiday Inn JB City Centre (S$128/night). Located at one end of Komtar, next to City Square – how much more convenient can it get?
We have managed to get offers on booking sites for Suasana Suites (S$66 room only, S$79 room plus breakfast for 2 pax), and Holiday Inn JB City Centre (S$125 room and breakfast and set dinner for 2 pax), so it is important to check for offers.
With the exchange rate of S$1 to RM3.55 at the time of this article, let us have some fun eating ourselves silly, buying non-essentials, and contributing to our neighbour’s economy and our sense of satisfaction.
