“I brought 100 dollars to Johor Bahru, spent on food, drinks, petrol and shopping and at the end of the day, still brought 100 dollars back to Singapore”
The common metaphor above is probably true, if you consider the latter 100 dollars as 100 ringgit instead. With the current exchange rate of 1 Sing $ = 2.32 Malaysian Ringgit, Singaporeans can well afford to spend in Johor Bahru, and still keep the change.
First thing first – converting your Singapore Dollars into Malaysian Ringgit.
To one whom had roamed Johor Bahru well enough, the common observation is that almost ALL the money changers (or Tukar Wang) in display the same exchange rate, in either white or yellow background with red fonts. This seem to make the process of converting your Singaporean dollars (containing the face of former president Yusof Bin Ishak) into Malaysian Ringgit (containing the face of Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tuanku Abdul Rahman) easy, since you do not really have to hunt for the money changer with the best rates.
Money Changer in Johor Bahru
In the rest of our post below, we adopt a Q&A approach to address some of the most common queries regarding Money Changers in Johor Bahru.
Q: Is the rates at Johor Bahru better than Woodlands/Singapore?
A: General consensus is that the rates in Johor Bahru are Read on…
As we wander about our daily lives, we are excited by the various offerings our senses can feast on; good food, cheap products, entertainment and gossip news.
Father’s day has just passed and most fortunate families would had typically had a mini-family reunion of sorts by gathering for a family dinner. Some would even top it out with a family outing.
As we go about pursuing our dreams, do take a pause and be thankful for all the goodness you currently have. And how your parents had nurtured your in one way or another, through their love for you.
Have a look at the video below, created by the Singapore National Family Council. Maybe it’s time to log off and give your parents a call to tell them that you love them too.
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In our earlier post in OCT 2009, we wrote about Singaporeans relocating during tough economic times to Johor Bahru. Conversely, there had been Johoreans who had relocated to Singapore, some eventually taking up Singapore citizenship.
In his post below, Andrew Ho shares the thought process he went through before deciding to convert his citizenship to Singaporean, and about life as a Singaporean now.
Most Chinese in Johor Bahru grew up watching Channel 8 (and nowadays Channel U as well). I still remember the good old days when SBC (Singapore Broadcasting Corporation) was showing 飞越银河, 青春123, 迷离夜and the list goes on.. While most of the dramas which fascinated me were fiction in nature, these serial dramas relate to people in both Singapore and Johor Bahru – they were touching, heart-warming, simple yet leaves a lasting memory.
I continued watching these serial dramas even all the way through to college, when I was studying in NTU. Life was carefree and I return to JB every weekend to be with my family, where my father would come into Singapore to pick me up. The trip was grueling due to the usual bad Friday jams but it was also a time for me to have a chat with my father.
As I stepped into my final year in NTU, trips to JB became less due to my final year projects where I had to meet up with my project mates over the weekends. My parents too, encouraged me not to head back to prevent time “wasted” while traveling. On Saturday and Sunday nights, I would occupy my time in hall watching SBC and subsequently Mediacorp dramas.
One of those late Saturday nights when I had nothing to do, I started switching on the TV again and while I can’t remember the name of the drama, it had something to do about a group of career young adults in Singapore. I looked at the scene of familiar CBD and started to realize how different Singapore and Malaysia had developed since the SBC days – there were MRTs, air-conditioned libraries, township developments and even a new Supreme Court building in the pipeline. Contrast that with Johor Bahru – there had been no central initiatives that would improve the infrastructure of the city. Neither was there any convincing master plan on how the city or nation would progress (back then, Iskandar Malaysia was still only on the drawing board).
And then, there was the issue with the Bumiputera policy.
Before the readers argue, please note that I do not dispute anything about Bumiputera policy in Malaysia. If the land had belonged to the natives (or sons of the land) in the first place, it might be fair that some policies be created to accord them more privilege. However, as a Chinese, this actually disadvantaged me. Agreeing that the Bumiputera policy should exist does not mean that I agree to live with the policy. Too often had I heard that just to get a deal from the central government, a Bumi partner had to be roped in for namesake and without doing anything, gets a cut of the revenue. If there was nothing I can change with regards to this policy, the least I could do is to plan ahead and give myself an environment with a more level playing field. And I do not have to look too far.. there is this land just across the causeway for me.
Agreeing that the Bumiputera policy should exist does not mean that I agree to live with the policy.
From that moment on, I began to put more thoughts into my future – what I am going to do after graduation and beyond that, where I should start my family (my girlfriend back then was also a Johorean). Immediately after graduation, I applied for Permanent Residency (PR) Read on…
