Our itinerary mainly focuses on food and cafe hopping. Here's what we did during our short time in JB!

My boyfriend and I had errands to run at Somerset, so we took the train from Somerset MRT Station to Kranji MRT Station. From there, we took Bus CW1 and paid a $2 one-way fee. I'm not sure how familiar y'all are with crossing the border, but in case you're not, here's a quick tutorial.

Once you reach Kranji MRT Station, exit from the right side and head towards the road where you'll see people queuing up for the bus. You'll want to look out for the yellow sign that says Bus CW1. There's Bus 170X that takes you to the Woodlands Checkpoint as well, but for now, we'll just stick to Bus CW1.

The bus comes in intervals, so you may have to wait quite a bit. For us, the bus arrived in about 15 minutes. You will see people start alighting the bus and paying to get their tickets. I suggest just paying by cash. You can head up to the bus driver, pay him, and he'll pass you the ticket. Remember to hold on to this ticket because you'll need it later!

Now, the bus will bring you all the way to Woodlands Checkpoint. Once you reach, you need to get off the bus and follow the crowd up the escalators and into the checkpoint to clear Singapore immigration. Once you're done, take the exit and the escalator down. Look for CW1 (it does not have to be the same bus you took to come here), queue, and alight. Now you're on the way to JB Customs.

The traffic jam typically starts here. Once you reach JB Customs, just follow the crowd again and clear immigration. Once you're done, you can simply exit the area and head to wherever you want to go! In total, we took about three hours from the time we left Somerset MRT Station to the time we reached our Airbnb.

Before going to our Airbnb, we also got ourselves SIM cards at the customs.

We took some time to settle down and shower, and then it was off to Mount Austin we went! We were not feeling cafe food at the moment, so we looked for something more substantial. We then came across this newly opened restaurant called Kotaro Restaurant. The staff were friendly, and we were craving Japanese Yakiniku, so we went in.

We ordered a meat set, which cost about ~S$26 (RM88). The food here was surprisingly good—though not the best—and it was worth our money. The meat was quite juicy, and the portion was huge. However, I'm not a big fan of fatty meat, and some of the cuts here can be on the fatty side.

After walking around for a bit to digest the food, we went to get a massage. We found this massage parlour called JB Thai Spa, and decided to give it a try since the reviews were decent. My boyfriend and I got the Full Body Massage for two pax, which cost ~S$93.36 (RM316). 

So here's the thing. The staff were actually really friendly and nice, but the massage itself was not that good. My boyfriend said his masseuse was alright, but mine was not great. I'm sure she's a decent masseuse, but in my case, it felt like she was afraid to go hard on me. So, for most of the massage, it just felt like someone was touching me. Plus, she would kind of breeze through the massage instead of focusing on the areas where my muscles were stiff. I don't think she was taking it seriously for some reason.

Nonetheless, we still paid them and even tipped them. They were just too nice.

There were still a number of cafes open after our massage, but the nearest one to us was Craftea. We did not want to walk too far as it was raining quite heavily then. The vibes at Craftea were really chill even though it was full of people. It just reminded me of one of those bubble tea cafes in my hometown. People were just sitting around and chatting away. It was nice!

I had the Iced Yam for ~S$3.52 (RM11.90), and my boyfriend had the Iced Hojicha Latte for ~S$3.81 (RM12.90). The lattes were quite good—creamy, complete, and refreshing. I liked the hojicha a lot more, though; maybe yam just isn't my thing.

My friend who was in JB the same time as I was recommended Ukiyo Cafe, which is a cafe known for its pretty pastries. When we were there, it was clear that it was a touristy cafe because more than half of the customers were Singaporean. My boyfriend and I were famished, so we decided to order a lot of food. But before savouring the desserts, we decided to get some mains first.

I had the Mentai Prawn Carbonara (~S$5.91/RM20), and he had the Chizu Mushroom Alfredo (~S$4.73/RM16). Both were pretty basic dishes and were super duper creamy. I would say they tasted like 7-Eleven pasta but with a bigger serving.

For drinks, we had the Hazelnut Latte (~S$4.73/RM16) and the Hojicha Latte (~S$4.73/RM16). The lattes were good. Very refreshing, very milky, and very creamy. 10/10.

The staff went to get a new batch of pastries, and you could instantly see everyone flock to the counter to buy them. I got the Cécile (~S$6.50/RM22), a dark chocolate fudge cube and two other desserts—a red strawberry dessert shaped like a lip and a chocolate ball. Many apologies, as I can't remember what they were called and how much they cost, as I completely lost the receipt. All you need to know is that the pastries were excellent. They really tasted like atas hotel buffet desserts, and it was hard to choose favourites.

I love gimmicky things. It's a fact. I practically forced my boyfriend to come to Forever Twenty Cafe with me to spend ~S$5.91 (RM20) on two pieces of bread—all in the name of fun! It was fun, though.

Forever Twenty Cafe looks like it belongs in an anime film. It's decked entirely in white and pink and even has pink-coloured lockers. The cafe did not have a single male person when we were there, so bless my boyfriend because he must have felt so out of place.

The 'paint' we use to paint the toast is actually edible yoghurt. The staff also provided all these painting tools we could use to decorate our toast with. My first one was a flop, but I started getting used to it once I started on the second one.

Would I come back just to paint toast? Nope. But it was a good first experience.

The Shiba Cafe was still relatively new when we visited it in JB. We had to make a reservation, and 4pm was the available slot right after the doggies had their naps. The cafe was filled with people when we were there, and there was a good mix of locals and Singaporeans.

The entrance fee for the Shiba Cafe was ~S$2.95 (RM10) for one hour, and you had to top up ~S$1.48 (RM5) for snacks. There are two different kinds of snacks—one for the small dogs and one for the bigger dogs. Oh, and the entrance fee comes with a drink of your choice as well.

The dogs here were really cute, but I could tell that they were fed up with the snacks that we fed them. The staff knew about this because the dogs would literally come to us, sniff the snacks we were holding, and then walk away. The audacity!

So the staff would pass us some chicken floss, AKA unhealthy food, to mix into the snacks because the dogs love eating them. We interacted with all sorts of dogs, not just limited to Shiba Inus. We also played with other breeds, including huskies and poodles.

I'm actually really appreciative of the staff who were aware that the dogs would play more with bigger groups and ignore smaller groups or couples. They would sit beside us and try to get the dog to play with us, which usually worked. So, a big shout-out to them!

If you're on TikTok a lot, I'm sure you've heard of Keijometo. This standalone bungalow cafe is not situated in Mount Austin, but it was so chio that we had to Grab down to take a look. The Grab driver was definitely familiar with the place, and once we reached it, we could see the swarm of humans queuing up to take pictures in front of the entrance.

We got a nice cosy spot for two beside the window. The menu is very simple, so it didn't take us too long to place our order.

We got the Unagi Ochazuke (~S$11.82/RM40), a rice bowl which had unagi, wakame, and a separate small jug of yuri matcha dashi stock. We poured the matcha dashi stock in and it was so comforting and umami.

I had the Salmon Tamagoyaki Mentai for ~S$7.68 (RM26), which was a rice bowl with salmon, topped with torched mentaiko spread and tamagoyaki. This rice bowl was definitely worth every cent, and I appreciated their generous servings of salmon. This was more worth it than most salmon bowls I had in Singapore.

After dinner, we headed outside to take pictures! I mean, everyone was doing it, so we joined in. There were definitely people who came here just to take pictures without even trying the food, but in our case, we would 100% come back to indulge in their hearty rice bowls again.

Seeing that it was our last night in JB, we decided to go to KSL City Mall and look see. My boyfriend wanted to get another massage since he was not satisfied with the one we had at JB Thai Spa. While he went to get his massage, I walked around the second and third levels of the mall, looking for the best place to get a manicure. The prices from salon to salon differed from about ~S$1.48 (RM5) to ~S$4.43 (RM15). Some of the beauticians from several manicure shops were quite rude, so it was easy to make a decision. I settled for this cosy little shop called I Be Own Nail & Beauty, where the staff were really friendly.

I got a classic manicure and pedicure for about ~S$47.27(RM160). This included the removal of my previous gel manicure as well. The entire process took an hour, and the results were great! Would come back here for sure.

After checking out from our Airbnb, my boyfriend and I headed to Sunday Morning for brunch. Sunday Morning is a hidden Japanese cafe located a short distance from the JB Customs. The place is quite aesthetic and reminds me of someone's home. I got myself the Pizza Toast (~S$2.36/RM8), which was a pizza with house-made tomato sauce topped with veggies, herbs, pepperoni, and cheese.

My boyfriend had the Japanese Curry Udon (~S$4.73/RM16). The food here was decent and very affordable. The portions are not the largest, but I didn't mind since they tasted good. I wouldn't recommend the pizza though, since it really tasted like NTUC frozen pizza. The udon was a lot tastier and filled up the tummy more.

For desserts, we enjoyed the Purin (~S$2.95/RM10), Japanese pudding, and Brownie (~S$3.55/RM12), which is their house-made brownie topped with vanilla ice cream. Both were sinful and delicious.

Do note that they don't accept cards such as YouTrip, so it's either cash or PayNow. For PayNow, you'll have to follow the cafe's exchange rate, which is their price divided by three.

We reached JB Customs at around 4pm, and it was packed like crazy. We definitely should have arrived sooner to avoid the traffic, so we'd keep that in mind for next time. To go back to Singapore, we simply took the same CW1 bus. The bus fare is ~S$0.59 (RM2). We took about four hours to reach our home in Singapore, which in my opinion, isn't that bad considering it was a Sunday. Next time, I'll consider taking the train!

Here is the amount we spent per person for a three-day and two-night trip.

Total expense: S$295.68

I really enjoyed my short trip to JB, and the cafe hopping was incredibly fun. I like how the JB cafes are unique in their own way, and they have their own concepts instead of trying to follow popular trends. Cafes in Singapore tend to be very similar and overly expensive, but the cafes in JB serve good food and have their own identity. I can't wait to come back to JB!

Thanks for reading, and see you next post.