Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Husband breaths easy whenever I make trips to our neighbor shopping cities ( like SG and HK), cos I don't shop. . yes not at all. 

Expensive brands don't blind me a bit. . .not anymore at this age.  Temptation can't work on me in this category. First of all I don't have the money. I rarely go window shopping either. I do more of sight seeing of the place, of the architectural structures of the malls which are really awesome in these cities.

Second of all, if  I did have money. . I'd rather put it in a less materialistic experiences. Motherhood totally changed my perspective on this matter. If you knew me when I was single and young, I could hear you now saying : " you're a changed person! " and I would reply : " you are sooo right! "

So when we made a side trip to Johor Bahru, the capital city of southern Malaysia and found nothing but malls, malls, and malls, I wasn't so pleased.

Ok, I stand corrected. . JB,  by the way is the second largest urban area in Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur  ( click here  to see my KL visit),  there are ofcouse commercial/office  buildings. .




. . more colorful commercial buildings. .

. . older commercial buildings.  ( looking more like our own Cebu City). . .

. . side walk with vendors. . (very Manila)

. . old public telephone unit.. (so cute ) .. .

. . international hotels. .




. . historical building _ the Sultan Ibrahim Building, can you spot it? that one at the  far end, the brown building. It actually caught my eyes easily cos it's the only unique structure I had seen from the circle of modern buildings around.

Can you spot me with my travel buddies? We were actually heading to that Sultan Ibrahim building which was formerly the state-secretariat building and was constructed between 1936 and 1939, but didn't get thru cos my buddies were madly blocked by the series of malls on the way which were on sale!!! Music to their ears_ on sale!! haaaay. . .

Ok, majority won. If you can't beat them. . join them, haha. So I did buy. .only because it was super sale and college daughter needed a shoe for school.



I only bought these two items, nothing else. Look how cheap_ 70% off. I love those jelly bracelets. I use them oftenly this summer in the beach.

anyone? - translate please. .

We did pass in a district which looked so similar to SG's Little India ( see here ), only much bigger.

Exact merchandises could be seen in the sidewalks.




The rest of the short visit was spent feeding my palate with soulful dishes of the country which in a way compensated for the bareness of cultural  experience of my side trip. The food trips are randomly posted in my food blog ( My 3rd & 7th Sense ), some are coming soon.