Spent my second winter break in Brunei, again. This time, we (my family and I) went on a trip to Miri, Johor Bahru and Singapore!
The traffic was smoother than expected. It took about half an hour to cross the border to Miri, Malaysia which is good. As we were a group of really hungry people so we stopped at Banana Leaf restaurant, at Centrepoint, Jalan Kubu before we checked in at Meritz Hotel. Meritz Hotel is in the same building as Bintang Megamall. It is a famous shopping centre for the Bruneians in Miri. Bruneians are everywhere here.
The next morning, we had our breakfast in this hotel and I can say now that, compare to all the other hotels that I will share about after this ( we've been to many hotel!). This is the best hotel breakfast that I had. The buffet serves all the different breakfast that you can possibly think of. English breakfast, Malay breakfast, just cereals, salads and fruits.
We arrived at Senai International Airport, Johor Bahru and immediately spotted Subway. I was really hungry because I just bought a small packet of seaweed on the flight which were not satisfying but we have to immediately took a taxi to our next hotel, Tropical Inn Hotel. We got a room on the 17th floor which have an awesome view of Johor as well as Singapore because Singapore is just on the opposite side of a river that cuts Johor Bahru from Singapore. That is where we are going next the next day.
Anyway, this hotel consist of a bedroom and a living room. I slept alone on the living room that night. I had a really good sleep on the couch. I think that was the nicest sleep I had on this holiday as I was always the one sleeping on the floor ( eldest sister problem ).
That night, we went out for supper on one of the food stalls at Jalan Stulang Laut which is famous for their seafood dish. We ordered crabs, fish, vegetables and Otak-Otak. 'Otak-otak' are fish cakes cooked with spices and wrapped inside a banana leaf which is a specialty in Johor.
On one of these food stalls(not the one that we were at) there was an aquarium of frogs. It's a chinese restaurant. The frogs are sparkling clean. But, I don't want to think deeply about what they do with them.
After that we went to City Square, a big mall opposite to Johor Bahru Central. We went on a stroll on the level 1 and 2, bought pretzels from Auntie Anne's ( mine would be cinnamon sugar flavour, my favourite) then walk back to our hotel, ready to collapse into a deep sleep.
We woke up at 6 for Subuh then I continued my novel until I fell asleep. Again. So what was I reading that switched on my reading mode early in the morning? It is my first Malay fictional book that I have ever read. Magis by Ramlee Awang Murshid. I'm used to reading English Fiction stories, I didn't realize Malay novels are just as interesting. I think I'll be a fan of this author from now on.
At 7.30 we were woken up by my dad telling us that if we start our journey to Singapore at about 8 a.m, we can cross the border about 9.30 or earlier. If later, there will be a massive traffic jam. So sadly we skipped the free breakfast in the hotel but we crossed the border early avoiding the traffic jam. Since it was Sunday, we were told that usually there will be traffic jam around noon. We used a private taxi that brought us straight to our hotel, RELC hotel, Orchard road.
Orchard road is a stretch of road that is lined up with shopping complexes. This road is the equivalent to Oxford Street in London. There are modern shopping centres such as ION that sells expensive brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton. Those type of brands. There are also older shopping centres such as Far East Plaza which have more affordable clothes and serves Malay food.
We went for a stroll around Sentosa Island. We had a choice between Siloso beach or Palawan beach. We chose Siloso. There, I ate my first fresh coconut ice cream from Co+Nut+Ink. It was heavenly! I would love to eat more of those however it was too expensive.
That night we went to visit our auntie who is currently staying in Singapore to undergo chemotherapy in general hospital, Singapore. After ordering food from a restaurant in Far East Plaza, we went back to our hotel. That was the end of the very tiring 3rd day.
4th day, 2nd day in Singapore
Bright and early, we went to check-in on our next hotel in Geylang. Hotel 101. We didn't even take a look at our room because the environment was...... bleghh. It was so inappropriate for us especially for the children. We rushed to find another place in the centre of Geylang where there are many malays. We found a hotel, Hotel Tristar. It is in one building with a Malay foodcourt, Mr Teh Tarik. During the check in process, we met Imam Muda Asyraf and his family who was also checking into that hotel.
That day we went to Gardens By The Bay. It is the place where they preserve plants from all over the world. including Baobab tree. There is this one building with waterfalls in it. It is actually from a building of about 7 floors high and we can go by elevator to the top and enjoy the view. You can see the unique building, Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Flyer from up here. We even enjoyed eating Satay By The Bay. It is a must go place in Singapore!
Food, food, food.
We ate lunch at Haig Road Market, Geylang at another malay food court. There is this one stall which sells Putu Piring. We joined the long queue just to try it. It was worth it.
This is the map to the Universal Studio. Ezzat and I went to all the extreme rides! I think the most extreme will be the The Revenge Of The Mummy ride. It is indoor, dark and fast. I love it!! But my favourite rollercoaster ride goes to Transformers 3D ride. It was more like 4D. As we put on our 3D glasses, we sat on a car which brought us through a dangerous city with some robots trying to destroy our car. We were crashing into buildings,robots and cars. ( Sorry for my bad "Transformers vocabulary". I never watch the movie). One moment we were falling vertically from a really high building. It feels so real. Wheww, my favourite ride ever!
There were very long queues for every rides. We have to wait for about an hour for some rides which only takes about 5 minutes. However, all the rides are thrilling and enjoyable ( That is my opinion.I love all these extreme rides ). I had so much fun, I was too tired to walk after that. My legs are all shaky from all the wait and walk.
Since, it was our last night, I have to push myself. My parents brought us to a large shopping complex, Mustafa located in ethnically rich, Little India. This Shopping centre is open 24 hours! That is what was unique about it.
That night we ate at Mr Teh Tarik food court on the ground floor of our hotel. I ate Mee Soup with Fish Balls which I thought were really nice or was it because I was hungry?
The traffic was smoother than expected. It took about half an hour to cross the border to Miri, Malaysia which is good. As we were a group of really hungry people so we stopped at Banana Leaf restaurant, at Centrepoint, Jalan Kubu before we checked in at Meritz Hotel. Meritz Hotel is in the same building as Bintang Megamall. It is a famous shopping centre for the Bruneians in Miri. Bruneians are everywhere here.
The next morning, we had our breakfast in this hotel and I can say now that, compare to all the other hotels that I will share about after this ( we've been to many hotel!). This is the best hotel breakfast that I had. The buffet serves all the different breakfast that you can possibly think of. English breakfast, Malay breakfast, just cereals, salads and fruits.
We filled our empty stomachs with all those food before we head for Miri airport. Miri was enough for then as we have a flight to catch to Johor Bahru, the other side of Malaysia. We were excited because it was Hakeem's and Aleesya's ( 2 youngest siblings ) first flight ever. I think I was more excited than they were. The clear blue sky was so calming. I sat back and enjoyed a novel while listening to songs from my ipod. Hmmm.
We arrived at Senai International Airport, Johor Bahru and immediately spotted Subway. I was really hungry because I just bought a small packet of seaweed on the flight which were not satisfying but we have to immediately took a taxi to our next hotel, Tropical Inn Hotel. We got a room on the 17th floor which have an awesome view of Johor as well as Singapore because Singapore is just on the opposite side of a river that cuts Johor Bahru from Singapore. That is where we are going next the next day.
Anyway, this hotel consist of a bedroom and a living room. I slept alone on the living room that night. I had a really good sleep on the couch. I think that was the nicest sleep I had on this holiday as I was always the one sleeping on the floor ( eldest sister problem ).
That night, we went out for supper on one of the food stalls at Jalan Stulang Laut which is famous for their seafood dish. We ordered crabs, fish, vegetables and Otak-Otak. 'Otak-otak' are fish cakes cooked with spices and wrapped inside a banana leaf which is a specialty in Johor.
On one of these food stalls(not the one that we were at) there was an aquarium of frogs. It's a chinese restaurant. The frogs are sparkling clean. But, I don't want to think deeply about what they do with them.
After that we went to City Square, a big mall opposite to Johor Bahru Central. We went on a stroll on the level 1 and 2, bought pretzels from Auntie Anne's ( mine would be cinnamon sugar flavour, my favourite) then walk back to our hotel, ready to collapse into a deep sleep.
We woke up at 6 for Subuh then I continued my novel until I fell asleep. Again. So what was I reading that switched on my reading mode early in the morning? It is my first Malay fictional book that I have ever read. Magis by Ramlee Awang Murshid. I'm used to reading English Fiction stories, I didn't realize Malay novels are just as interesting. I think I'll be a fan of this author from now on.At 7.30 we were woken up by my dad telling us that if we start our journey to Singapore at about 8 a.m, we can cross the border about 9.30 or earlier. If later, there will be a massive traffic jam. So sadly we skipped the free breakfast in the hotel but we crossed the border early avoiding the traffic jam. Since it was Sunday, we were told that usually there will be traffic jam around noon. We used a private taxi that brought us straight to our hotel, RELC hotel, Orchard road.
Orchard road is a stretch of road that is lined up with shopping complexes. This road is the equivalent to Oxford Street in London. There are modern shopping centres such as ION that sells expensive brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton. Those type of brands. There are also older shopping centres such as Far East Plaza which have more affordable clothes and serves Malay food.
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| ION, Orchard Road |
That afternoon, we went to World Resort Sentosa. First stop, Universal Studioooo.........'s big globe. We didn't go in. Haha. We went there another day. Then, we went to S.E.A Aquarium which claimed to be the world's largest aquarium by the Guiness World Record. Well it is definitely larger than the aquarium I visited in Hull. After the Aquarium, we ate at an indoor food stall where there are only 2 Halal restaurants. It was so hard to find a place to sit. Next, my 2 siblings and I went on a ride on the Skyline Luge. First, we sat on a toboggan which brought us to some place else. We then used a "go cart" that moved by itself down the hill back to the place where the whole thing started.
We went for a stroll around Sentosa Island. We had a choice between Siloso beach or Palawan beach. We chose Siloso. There, I ate my first fresh coconut ice cream from Co+Nut+Ink. It was heavenly! I would love to eat more of those however it was too expensive.That night we went to visit our auntie who is currently staying in Singapore to undergo chemotherapy in general hospital, Singapore. After ordering food from a restaurant in Far East Plaza, we went back to our hotel. That was the end of the very tiring 3rd day.
4th day, 2nd day in Singapore
Bright and early, we went to check-in on our next hotel in Geylang. Hotel 101. We didn't even take a look at our room because the environment was...... bleghh. It was so inappropriate for us especially for the children. We rushed to find another place in the centre of Geylang where there are many malays. We found a hotel, Hotel Tristar. It is in one building with a Malay foodcourt, Mr Teh Tarik. During the check in process, we met Imam Muda Asyraf and his family who was also checking into that hotel.
That day we went to Gardens By The Bay. It is the place where they preserve plants from all over the world. including Baobab tree. There is this one building with waterfalls in it. It is actually from a building of about 7 floors high and we can go by elevator to the top and enjoy the view. You can see the unique building, Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Flyer from up here. We even enjoyed eating Satay By The Bay. It is a must go place in Singapore!
Food, food, food.
We ate lunch at Haig Road Market, Geylang at another malay food court. There is this one stall which sells Putu Piring. We joined the long queue just to try it. It was worth it.
That night we went on a stroll around Orchard Road. It was really busy as it was Christmas Eve. We have to go through shops just to avoid the crowd.
5th day, 3rd day in Singapore
This is our last day in Singapore. Where did we go? Universal Studio ofcourse! There was a very long queue at the ticket booth but we managed to pass that.
This is the map to the Universal Studio. Ezzat and I went to all the extreme rides! I think the most extreme will be the The Revenge Of The Mummy ride. It is indoor, dark and fast. I love it!! But my favourite rollercoaster ride goes to Transformers 3D ride. It was more like 4D. As we put on our 3D glasses, we sat on a car which brought us through a dangerous city with some robots trying to destroy our car. We were crashing into buildings,robots and cars. ( Sorry for my bad "Transformers vocabulary". I never watch the movie). One moment we were falling vertically from a really high building. It feels so real. Wheww, my favourite ride ever!
There were very long queues for every rides. We have to wait for about an hour for some rides which only takes about 5 minutes. However, all the rides are thrilling and enjoyable ( That is my opinion.I love all these extreme rides ). I had so much fun, I was too tired to walk after that. My legs are all shaky from all the wait and walk.
Since, it was our last night, I have to push myself. My parents brought us to a large shopping complex, Mustafa located in ethnically rich, Little India. This Shopping centre is open 24 hours! That is what was unique about it.
That night we ate at Mr Teh Tarik food court on the ground floor of our hotel. I ate Mee Soup with Fish Balls which I thought were really nice or was it because I was hungry?
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| Mee Soup Fish Ball with The Tarik Ping |
The next day we went back to Johor Bahru by crossing the bridge that joins Johor to Singapore again. The traffic was clear. Lucky us.
That day we checked in to our hotel, The Zon Berjaya Hotel which is next to the food stalls ( that have frogs in it ). The room was upgraded to a really luxurious room because we were waiting for too long for our real room to get cleaned up and we have to go to Legoland fast!
So our next stop was the Legoland. It was opened in 2012 so it is quite new. First I spotted the Lego themed hotel. Ezzat and I got really ecstatic to go on rides again. We went to all the extreme rides we could find. Universal studio's ride are better but the queue are so much shorter we still have so much fun.There are Lego recreations of famous landmarks in Asia including Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Brunei. They were really cute!
The next day, we fly back using Air Asia to Miri. Take our car in Miri, then head straight back home. That was my 7 days trip to Miri, Johor Bahru and Singapore!