Secluded Johor Bharu - Part 2

9 - 12 Dec 2012

The place we stayed

We stayed at the Mutiara Bay, Johor Bharu. The hotel is not in the JB city centre but located nearby, a 5-mins drive away. 

The Mutiara Bay JB

We were dismayed as the road (Jalan Dato Sulaiman) leading up to the hotel was congested and chaotic on a Sunday afternoon. Just when we wanted to end the journey, we had to wait long at traffic junctions. 

The road leading up to the hotel - shopping centre on your right

The area around the hotel was surrounded by terrace houses and shopping malls and so the whole place looked very cluttered.

The toiletries in the bath - replenished daily

The check-in was supposed to be at 3pm but our room was not ready. We didn’t want to waste time waiting so we walked out to find food. There is a host of eateries to select from here mostly Chinese food. In fact I would say that 95% of the shops were Chinese. So we settled for Chinese mixed rice. All four of us came down with mild food poisoning the next day.

The balcony 

Finally at about 4pm, we entered our room and to our relief it was large. The room had a good view of JB suburbs. 

Happy to have finally checked in

Rows and rows of shops, houses and businesses scattered everywhere. There is also a railway track nearby.

All photos are copyrighted. Do tell if you need to use them. I can be reached at sivakay2009@gmail.com.

Secluded Johor Bharu - Part 4

9 - 12 Dec 2012

JB’s Places of Interest – those that we checked out

Sultan Ibrahim Building

In the morning of Day 2, as we parked for breakfast in JB town, we were awestruck by a huge British colonial building perched mightily on Timbalan Hill. This is the Sultan Ibrahim State Secretariat Building. 

A towering structure-too bad it hasn't been converted into a museum yet

We entered the compound to check out and learnt that the current state secretariat has moved premises to Kota Iskandar and so this is basically an empty structure. What a waste. Hope the state govt does something creative to maintain this gigantic structure as a national heritage. 

Giant windows

We did speak to a guard who showed us some remnants of war on the structure i.e. cannons fired onto the building. During the 1940s, the Japanese used the building as its fortress and command centre. 

See the holes - those are a result of canon balls!

The building is open to public and admission is free. We didn’t get a chance to enter the premises as some refurbishing work was going on but I would recommend a visit as the grandiose architecture is so impressive. 

The Glass Temple

The Arulmigu Sri Kaliamman Temple is located close to Tebrau Road next to the railway tracks. It was built in 2010 using 300,000 pieces of coloured glass imported from Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal and Belgium. Wow, that's a lot of hard work. 

The glass temple as you enter

A closer shot 

Unfortunately, we missed the opening hours by half an hour. So, we just took pictures from the outside. 

Some of the glass on the main door

The temple is heavily promoted as a place of interest in JB but I didn't see any road signage directing tourists to the temple. 

the only signage just before u enter

And the area surrounding the temple need better maintenance - the Johor Tourism Board should invest some funds into landscaping the place a bit. What is the point of marketing the place so much when money is not invested to better maintain the area. Some landscaping and tiling up the area will go a long way. 

All photos are copyrighted. Do tell if you need to use them. I can be reached at sivakay2009@gmail.com.