Johor Bahru in 2007: The Family Trip Every Singaporean Kid Remembers

The car ride and the old checkpoint

You were in the back seat, half asleep, because your dad wanted to leave before the jam. Somebody in front was holding all the passports. Then the pink building with SELAMAT DATANG KE JOHOR BAHRU across the top, and you knew you had made it.

That checkpoint is gone now. The Star reported that the new Sultan Iskandar CIQ complex became fully operational on 16 December 2008 and the old Causeway checkpoint in the city centre was closed. So if you remember that building, you are old enough to remember 2007. Today's version of the trip, with a proper plan, is in our JB family day itinerary.

City Square was way more crowded then

The caption says it best. City Square was the first stop and the whole of Singapore seemed to be inside it. Christmas banners hanging down the atrium, a book fair on the ground floor, every escalator full.

Your mum went one way, your dad went to sit down somewhere, and you were told to stay next to the book fair and not move. You moved.

Fried oyster, phone cases, and the drive home

Lunch was hawker food, and the slide picks the right one: the fried oyster stall at Medan Selera Meldrum Walk. The board in the photo reads RM7, RM9 and RM12 for small, medium and large, and somebody always ordered the large to share and then did not share.

After that came the phone accessories floor. Rows and rows of cases, charms and chargers, every stall lit up like a pasar malam. You left with a phone strap for a phone you did not own yet. If you want to redo the trip now as an adult, our JB solo day trip still starts with lunch at City Square.