190927 KSL JB, Malaysia

190927 KSL Johore Bahru, Malaysia

Decided to have a family getaway in JB for 2 days one night. 

Staying a night at KSL Hotel Resort.

Spot this offer from Agoda at $67 for a room of 3. Superior room.

I paid only $30 as I have some credit points in my account. Upon check in, the hotel staff upgrade us to a deluxe room. He told me by having a deluxe room, I get a higher level. We were assigned the 25 floor. Yes room with city view that I requested. Very nice.

Well, this hotel is quite basic. I think it is good because since it is basic, they do not withhold any deposit from us. I like this. The room provide the basic necessities like toothbrush, towels, tea/coffee making facilities and inroom safe. Besides, room is spacious and beds comfortable. The most important of a room. 

We book the personalised taxi from Soar Agency. For $150, it provides point to point return trip from our doorstep to the appointed place in JB. The overall journey only takes 1 hour for 3 of us. We consider this as a luxury for travel to JB. Why?

1. Immigration can be done directly in the car. We just need to pass our passport to the immigration officer, let them know who you are when they call your name one by one. That is how convenient it can be. Imagine you need to go through 2 immigration routine, one in Singapore and one in JB. I find this service very tempting.

2. We stay in the NE part of Singapore. Imagine if we were to go via public transport like most Singaporeans would do. The transport from my home to WL interchange already take us 1 hour. We have not include the change of bus to the checkpoint, and the time we need to queue up for 2 immigration customs. Plus, we need to rush with people transferring from 1 bus to another. I have considered taking a taxi from my home to checkpoint, then grab from JB sentral to KSL Hotel Resort. Well, we are new to this place, and just too inconvenient for us. I guess we just need to fork out extra $100 for security and relax trip. It is very worth for me. 

3. Consider this trip is meant for relax, away from work. An air ticket for 1 person to Phuket will cost us SG$220 for 1 person. So looking at only $180 (including one transfer in JB) for 3 of us, it is still less than 1 air ticket. WHY NOT!!!

We spent the 1st day at KSL Shopping Mall. 

There are so much to eat. Dim Sum, JCO donuts, cakes, bread etc etc. Due to favourable SG Dollars against RM, we lived a birds moving around "cheap cheap, cheap cheap"

And Yes!!! we ended up having Dim sum at only RM75, if in Singapore, we could have paid SGD75. Check out this link What I ate in KSL 190927 for my review of what I ate today.

Besides food, there are shopping to be done. 

What is the best deal? Tailor make your spectacles. Needless to say, these shops cater to Singaporeans needs. Sales person will speak with you in English too. It takes only 1 hour to get our make to order spectacles ready. And it cost only RM268 for my pair of 400 degress , 1.6 high index lens, complete with blue/digital lens. It is less than SGD$100 per set. OMG.  I did a check and the blue lens reading glass is about RM150. This will be my next target. I understand we need to pay another SG$100 for a blue lens in Singapore before we talk about a normal spectacles. You see a lot of  optics shops in this shopping mall. Take your time to check them out.

Next, this place has plenty of kiosk selling handphone covers. I did not check them out cause they are seems to sell the same stuffs.

We check out the Tesco Supermarket. Nothing much actually. So did not get anything from there.

KSL Mall is not big. Average size. Good for a short getaway like a day shopping trip if you know how to use the public transport. 

For me, I may visit again if I have the time. Perhaps via taxi again and for another short retreat.