If you missed the last few posts, we started recounting another vacation where we went just across the border for a few days to Johor Bahru, Malaysia! This was back in July 2023, when it was too hot to travel elsewhere and we just needed a short getaway.

Last time, we went mall crawling after a late lunch exploring more of Johor Bahru City Square where they were having a Japanese Festival in the atrium.

Then we went to visit a cat cafe and saw so many cute kitties!

There were quite a variety of breeds there, some I've never seen before and they all looked so adorable!

Unfortunately they were closing soon so we had to leave, but it provided some nice animal therapy.

17 July 2023. Monday.

It's our final day here and it's time to check out of our fancy hotel, sadly. 

Since we were just across the border we could go back any time we wanted, but we didn't want to go back too late either. After checking out, we headed out to our favourite dim sum place for breakfast!

I don't really remember how we found out about this restaurant but we always make it a point to come here for some delicious dim sum every time we visit JB.

We also happened to see a stray calico cat who looked so cute and scruffy.

Thankfully it wasn't too crowded but then again it was a Monday afternoon. We managed to get a table immediately and proceeded to order.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of their menu this time but they serve most of the standard dishes you'd see in a dim sum restaurant, and a few cooked dishes as well.

We ordered a few of our favourites and tried not to order too much this time.

If you're not familiar, this is also called yum cha (Cantonese tradition of breakfast or brunch involving Chinese tea and dim sum). The servers will go around the tables with trays of food and you can pick what you want from them. 

Not even 10 minutes later, our orders arrived! We ordered a mix of different steamed buns and fried rolls.

We ordered our favourite steamed bun which is a sweet egg custard bun! The egg custard is very fluid and is supposed to spill out when you bite into it so we tried to eat it carefully to not make a mess. 

We ordered some regular steamed dumplings and their own special carrot cake, or stir fried radish cake. It was a little oily though but quite crispy.

I think it was at this point we realised we ordered too much.

But everything looked so good! The servers came by with more trays of fried and steamed dishes it was tough to resist.

Here are some close ups, this one is of chee cheong fun, or steamed rice roll typically filled with sweet char siu meat or shrimp.

This is one of my favourites - har gow, or steamed dumpling in crystal skin.

Another very common dim sum is siew mai - steamed meat wrapped in dumpling skin with some roe on top.

This one is probably my absolute favourite - shrimp in fried beancurd skin roll.

We ordered 3 types of buns, and this is red bean paste.

This is another one of our favourites too, sweet bbq pork bun.

We had a very delicious and satisfying meal! I was so stuffed after that.

The crowd came in just as we were finishing up eating so I guess we came at a good time.

After that we took a car back to the mall next to the border checkpoint.

It was pretty sunny out today and we wanted to beat the crowd so we headed straight to the checkpoint.

The mall was pretty empty on a Monday.

After that we headed to the checkpoint and took the bus home. 

Overall, we had a very nice time in JB! It felt too short but then again it was just a quick getaway. You'd think we would come here more often since we live pretty close across the border but it's always so crowded over the weekend. The only free time we would have would be during non-peak periods, unfortunately.I think it's fine though, it would lose the novelty if we went too often anyway.

But that's going to be it for now! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this look at JB and look forward to our next trip!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

Check out my previous post in this series!

Furry Feline Fun at a Cat Cafe! 😸- TacoCat’s Travels #300 (MY/JB)