Then we discovered KTB, the Malaysian train operator, is one of the greatest teacher in the world on patience. It constantly tests its passengers' patience. Our train was supposed to depart JB station at 8.28am and arrive in Kluang at 9.43am. That was the very reason why we got up so early, arrived in JB so early without having our breakfast. Guess what happened? At 9.30am, 13 mins from the time that we were supposed to arrive in Kluang, we boarded the train at JB station. It was more than 1 hour late! My Malaysian travel companions' comment: You should count yourself lucky the train has actually arrived :)
JB Railway Station, Waiting anxiously for the train
Instead of 9.43am, we arrived in Kluang railway station at 11.00am. One of the reasons why we wanted to go to Kluang is we want to try the food at the famous Kluang Railway Cafe. We enjoyed our hearted, although a very late, breakfast at the Railway Cafe. The food was not bad. I will talk about it in Part II tomorrow.
Kluang Railway Station
Kluang Railway Station
Kluang Railway Station Cafe
Kluang is an easy to navigate small town. From the railway station, there is one straight road. At the end of it, you can see a tall building with the word 'PRIME' at the top (you can actually see it from the railway station). That is where Plaza BCB is. Plaza BCB is an older shopping centre in Kluang. It is small in size, yet there are still a lot of shops vacant :) The archor tenant is The Store.
The road in front of Kluang Railway Station
Right next to Plaza BCB is Kluang Bus Terminal. If you can't get a train ticket to your destination, you can try to get a bus ticket here. Plenty of buses.
Diagonally opposite the bus terminal, that is Kluang Parade. Giant hypermart is within Kluang Parade. Kluang Parade opened in February 2007, so it is more modern than Plaza BCB, but there are more vacant shops in Kluang Parade than in Plaza BCB :P On the 3rd floor, only about 20-30% of the shops are occupied. It looks like business is bad, but what I don't understand is I kept seeing advertisements pasted on shop fronts looking for shop assistants. Interesting...
If you walk a bit further from Kluang Parade, you will see a building with a big word 'Pacific' on it front. That is Kluang Mall in Jalan Rambutan. Kluang Mall opened in January 2009, so it is newest mall in Kluang. As you can expect, people all flock to the newest, biggest mall. Business in Kluang Mall seems to be much better than the other two malls.
As a whole, Kluang is a dreamy, sleepy small town in the center of the Malaysian state of Johor, about 100km north of Johor Bahru. The pace is slow, life seems to be very relaxing, the food is not bad. It is convenient to walk around without a car. I kind of like this small little town.
In terms of photography opportunities, I can say there are many and at the same time, there is none.
If you go to Kluang speicially for photography purpose, maybe you would like to bring along your many props, and model(s). There are lots lots of nice place to shoot with your model(s) in this rustic town. If you are there for relaxing, for the food, then you can just leave your camera at home. Just shoot with your handphone camera, that's about enough, if you are not too critical.
As we couldn't get a train ticket for the return trip, we took the bus. The cost is RM9.75 per person from Kluang to JB Larkin Bus Terminal. We departed at 4.30pm, arrived in JB at around 6pm. From Larkin, we took SBS bus 170 to JB CIQ. Immigration clearance was fast, but the queue for Bus 170 was terribly long. It wound around many times. You could hardly tell where the end was. Luckily there was no serious traffic jam on the causeway, so we managed to board a bus at around 6.55pm.
u can try gunung lambak, not that far. or gunung berlumut, a bit far.
ReplyDeleteor else, can go to organic park. :P
can eat healhty food there
FNTGR: How to get to gunung lambak from the train station by public transport? and where is the organic park? Thanks!
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