Road Trips – Johor to Malacca, A very do-able drive/ride

Apologies for the absence, I have been occupied! Just last week I had a very nice family vacation to Malacca.

How did it go? Well it was a smooth  and fairly easy drive. Oh, did I forget to mention? It was a driving holiday, because it was a family one, not a single or group motorcycling one. But I did manage to observe the traffic and road conditions from the inside of our little metal cage on the way to Malacca. From the checkpoint when heading to Johor Bahru and in Malacca itself. Not as bad as what we were told to expect but it came with proper planning too.

We had a good deal on Agoda that my wife (Mel) purchased, for the Hatten Hotel in Malacca. Planning to start with a stopover at KSL City and Resort in Johor Bahru before making our way to Malacca. I was toying around with Google’s offline maps from Singapore to Johor , having been to KSL Resort before but used a GPS unit for the drive from Johor to Malacca.

When planning for any drive into Malaysia, one thing I like to keep in mind are the working hours, both shift hours and office hours, which correspond to long queues at the checkpoints when Malaysians head home after work. Between 7am to 9am in the morning and in the evening, from 430pm to about 9pm. So on Monday morning, estimating the morning jams to end around 930am and taking our time, we made it at the Woodlands checkpoint around 1115am but cleared the checkpoints in Singapore and Johor under half an hour. Silky smooth traffic!

In Johor Bahru, KSL Resort has parking on the 6th floor for hotel guests, who can park in a caged off zone with security who will issue hotel guests with a ticket for the car or motorcycle and will only allow you to enter and drive off if you show them the ticket for the car and your hotel room number. Very nice. If you are not staying at the hotel you can still park on the 6th floor, close to the security desk and it gives you some assurance that your vehicle and its parts are safe.

At KSL City, you are spoiled for choice with food, can do your supermarketing at Tesco or gorge yourself on durians. Food wise, I would recommend these guys:

Both are non halal however but offer seriously good food at darn decent value. On a side note, the halal selection for food at KSL City is pretty wide as well. Mel and I enjoyed the food from these 2 restaurants while our son loved the fish porridge from Tea Garden.