AMARI HOTEL JOHOR BAHRU POOL EXCESS ROOM

Since they first opened, we were intrigued to stay at Amari Johor Bahru. Honestly, it's because of the awesome location. Thus in July(omg, it's already August), we made a short trip to Johor Bahru. We booked the pool access room. Omg, best decision ever.

Once we reached Komtar JBCC, just cross over using the traffic light and go up the escalator beside Morganfields restaurant. That's it. You will see the lift leading up to the lobby of Amari which is at the sixth floor. It is super convenient. The staff were efficient and friendly.

Most importantly, the carpet in the room was clean. Adam is highly allergic to dust, so everytime we stay in a hotel, we will definitely know if the room is clean or dirty. If the carpet and room is dusty and dirty, Adam will start having reactions within the first hour. He will have non stop phelgmy coughs and his eyes will be very watery. So it is really nice that he was totally fine this time. 

We went on a weekday so it seemed like it was our own private pool right at our doorstep. How awesome is that. So after we reached, we rested for abit and headed out to Komtar and City Square for dinner. Ok fine, not for dinner. For shopping. After our legs threatened to give way, we packed so much awesome food and headed back to our room. We just slacked the whole night. Truly, our kind of night.

The next morning of course we had to go for breakfast. I loved it. It had a similar vibe to the breakfast set up at Double Tree by Hilton. Baba drove in early to join us for breakfast.

And guess what, they had apam balik!! What!

Wan loved the live coffee station. He had three teh tariks!

After a hearty breakfast, we chilled by the pool before checking out.

Presenting my swollen face.

It was such a nice and relaxing short trip. We decided to come back again with baby next time InshaaAllah. And of course, we will definitely go for the pool access room again. No doubt.

Till the next staycay,

Ja

THISTLE HOTEL JOHOR BAHRU

Welcome back!

We then made our way to Thistle Hotel. As soon as we arrived, the bellboy attended to us promptly. We stepped into the hotel and saw a fairly long line at the concierge. There were only two persons attending to everyone. There were minimal seating areas at the lobby so we had to sit near the entrance while my sister joined the queue. After a while, a few more people assisted at the counter. We waited slightly more than half an hour to check-in.

On a personal level, I loved the room! It had high ceiling and the room size was awesome. We booked the seaview room and it was lovely. We paid a total of 139sgd inclusive of breakfast for two. It was worth our money.

Well, one weird thing was that the bathroom had a blind where you can roll up or down for privacy. We had the blind down the whole time but we still could see inside the bathroom when someone showered. I mean, that kinda defeats the purpose of the blind. Am I right?

On a lighter note, the beds were big and awesome! As you can tell, Adam loved it.

Our view was superb!

After resting and settling down, we headed out to Aeon Bukit Indah. We ate and shopped. It was fun and relaxing. Thank God Adam was tired and napped. After his nap, he wanted to sit on the stroller the whole time. I swear I could have heard a choir and birds chirping in happiness in the background.

We bought some food and headed back to the hotel about 11pm.

The next morning, we went down for breakfast. Two of us were entitled for the breakfast but we wanted to add two more for my sister and I. So as we entered the restaurant, we told the person that we wanted to add two more persons for breakfast and we wanted to charge it to our room so we can pay upon check-out. He told us it was not possible and that we had to take these coupons to the concierge and pay on the spot. I was like, WHUT?! What if I did not bring down my wallet?? Do I have to go back to my room to get money just so I can pay for breakfast on the spot? This was the first time I've ever had this kind of issue in a hotel. So we had no choice but to walk all the way to the concierge to pay.

The problem was, during check in, my sister asked how much was the refundable deposit. They told us that they won't be collecting any deposits and we would have to pay for anything that we purchase or use during our stay.

So when we asked why the additional breakfast couldn't be charged to our room, she mentioned that it was because we didn't place any deposits during check-in. We told her that we wanted to but the lady told us that we don't have to. She gave us the WTH look. We were like, SAY WHAT NOW?!

Anyway, we didn't fuss much about it since we were hungry and my parents were already inside the restaurant waiting. We paid and walked back to the restaurant.

The breakfast selection was great. They had Indian, Malay, Chinese and Western cuisine. A down side was the arrangement of the tables and chairs. It was very cramped and narrow. The space we had to walk up and down to get food was narrow. It was uncomfortable for me. I had to be weary of my chair as people were walking endlessly behind me and kept kicking my chair as it was in the way.

After breakfast, we contemplated if we should go for a swim. Turned out we were all too lazy and just wanted to rest. So I filled the tub and let Adam play for a little while.

 Ready for check out!

I mentioned I wanted boat noodles since the moment we arrived. So we headed over to Komtar to eat Boat Noodles. As usual, I loved it. My family, not so much. They are big eaters and they felt that the portion was not equivalent to the price. Oh well, at least I got my taro drink.

Boat Noodles was right smack opposite Angry Bird Theme Park. I made a mental note to bring Adam there some day. It looked clean and fun until I saw a clown running around with balloons! So damn scary! Well at least for me. The children looked like they loved it.

We there in time for their performance, it was so fun! Look at the clown! Scary right?!

My family(from the left; me, adam and wan) LOL!!

We headed back and the jam was terrible!!!
We were stuck for about two hours before we reached Johor Bahru Checkpoint. Singapore Customs was a breeze.

All in all, I had a nice time away from home with my family. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

Love,
Ja

DK HOTEL JOHOR BAHRU

This post is a throwback. It was the Good Friday(30/4/2018) weekend and my family decided to cross the border and head over to Johor Bahru. We planned on going on 31st March which was a Saturday but the traffic was no joke. People were stuck in the jam for about 6 hours. I've been through that once and it was no joke. More so if you are pregnant, have a mummy bladder or have whining children with you. Not fun.

We have already booked Thistle hotel for our stay on Saturday night but we decided to go over on Friday midnight. We crossed the border and it was a breeze. It took us only an hour from east side of Singapore to reach Johor Bahru. We called a few hotels and most were fully booked for the long weekend. Finally I found a small hotel in Tampoi area, near Giant and Angsana; my parents' favourite area. The hotel was at the roadside. At first we were kind of skeptical after looking at the actual location but after we went into the lobby, we were assured. First thing's first, they only have about 4-5 parking lots for cars right outside the hotel. So we had to park in one of the lots further upfront.

(image from google)

There was a guard at the door who unlocked the door for us as we entered. It was a budget/boutique hotel. Very small like a shophouse. The concierge was sleeping at the couch as it was already about 2am when we arrived. It was a very small hotel so it was only her and the guard in the lobby. We paid 94RM with additional 50RM refundable deposit for the night. Very very cheap. She checked us in and we whispered our way up as the whole pace was very very quiet.

We got the first floor and two single beds. We were pleasantly surprised with the cleanliness of the hotel. The room was small but clean. The toilet was clean too(most important for me). They provided ironing board and hangers.

All of us slept near 4am and woke up near 9am. Everybody quickly got dressed and made plans for lunch. We were hungry.

This was the lobby.

Checking out was fast. They returned our deposit and we were on our way. The hotel is cheap and surprisingly pleasant for a one night stay. I would come back again if I ever need a quick and cheap place to sleep for the night. Thumbs up.

After loading our stuff in the car, we went over to Angsana to have lunch. My parents' favourite go-to lauk lauk eating place.

We aimed to arrive at our next hotel at about 2pm so we still had about 2 hours to walk around after we finished our lunch. We burned our lauk lauk by walking around Angsana and buying more food. LOL.

We then headed over to our next resting place for the night. To be continued in the next post.

See you......