Johor Baru Rocks!

This weekend, I joined the legions of Singaporeans who make a pilgrimage to Johor Baru (JB) in search of cheap food, massages, manicures, food, DVDs, hair styling and...err..did I mention food? I seem to have eaten so much in the last 24 hours!

Firstly, let me say a big THANK YOU to Kon, Julius and Lucinda for being such wonderful hosts. Kon very graciously invited some of us "girls" to spend the weekend in JB with her family. Corrine, Stef & I needed no convincing the moment we heard the words "massage", "manicure" and "shopping".

(L to R) Kon, Stef, Aunty Jo-Jo, Lucinda & Corrine enjoying a Malaysian breakfast

The day started with a delicious breakfast of roti canai, nasi lemak, lontong, mee hoon goreng, and lots of teh tarik. The eating place was just a 5-minute drive from Chateau Kon, a gorgeous palatial home that is filled with bric-a-brac from the family's travels. We were especially impressed by the beautiful photos of Venice taken by Julius.

Four girls who obviously love their pedicures too much!

The girls happily traipsed off to the nail salon for their pedicures. We were all very grateful for the professional services of Lucinda, our pint-sized nail consultant, who helped us to choose exactly the right colour of nail polish to match our personalities.

The pampering continued with a massage session that was ....aaaaahhhhhhh...exactly what we needed to de-stress. Although we had been taught never to let anyone walk all over us, it felt good - very good. Thanks for the treat Kon, you're an angel!

Lunch at Ah Koong's Fishball Noodles

More food followed at Johor Baru's best fishball noodles joint. It was the springiest, tastiest fishballs I've had in a long time. And the lime juice was a perfect complement to the meal. Thanks for the recommendation, Julius!

Lucinda with the find of the day - ice cream toast

After still more pampering at a hair salon and some intense shopping (someone even tried on 15 pairs of jeans!), we headed wearily to Old Town Kopitiam for a Ipoh white coffee treat. Of course when we got there, we ended up having more than coffee. Lucinda ordered the house specialty of ice cream toast which looked so good that all the adults felt compelled (wink...wink) to help her finish it. Thanks for being so generous, Lucinda. You're a star!

Joanna, Corrine & Julius at Danga Bay

The perfect ending to the day came when we strolled along the boardwalk of Danga Bay admiring the beautiful sunset, a loving bride & groom and and a enormous chicken...enough said :-)

Of course we couldn't leave JB without one more dose of food, so off we went to one of the best Chinese restaurants in JB. The menu consisted of specialty tofu, deep-fried red snapper, stewed yam & pork, sambal potato leaves, broccoli, garlic prawns and salted vegetable soup.

I wonder why I'm feeling so full...