AMAZING HOW MUCH JB HAS CHANGED
The Astaka, City Square, R&F Princess Cove and Marina Place are its new skyline
PEOPLE who grew up in Johor Baru are likely going to tell different stories about their childhood based on their neighbourhoods.
My neck of the woods is Taman Tasek, a housing estate nestled between Tampoi and Larkin built in the early 1970s.
I don’t think they make houses like in Taman Tasek anymore. The neighbourhood has about 200 terrace and semi-detached houses, and a row of four-storey shophouses separating the houses and the dual carriageway of Jalan Tun Razak.
As the youngest child with two siblings who were 11 and 12 years older, my growing-up years in the 1980s revolved around my family at home and school.
Growing up in the 1980s, Fridays were the most fun day of the week as my folks would be off, and that would usually mean dining out.
Breakfast on the weekend usually involved crispy thosai from Kerala restaurant, an Indian food eatery which used to be located in Jalan Ibrahim.
At that time, Jalan Ibrahim was a hive of activity with a kopitiam and a nasi padang stall at the intersection of Jalan Ibrahim and Jalan Pahang. That corner kopitiam is no longer there, as it has been replaced by a hip-looking cafe where many youngsters hang out at night.
My other favourite haunts were the old Johore Central Store (JCS) with its array of books and magazines, and a newsstand next door which had a good stock of Smash Hits and Rolling Stone magazines back in the day.
Anyone who went to school in Johor Baru or JB, as we prefer to call it, will tell you that JCS was the company which supplied text-books, exercise books and stationery to most schools in the Johor capital.
The company had a small bookshop operating in my primary school, Sekolah Temenggong Abdul Rahman 1.
The thing about JB in the 1980s was that it was still a small town. It was not the current metropolis made up of the city and its burgeoning outskirts of Pasir Gudang, Skudai, Iskandar Puteri and Gelang Patah.
I never understood the vastness of the greater Johor Baru area until a school trip to Pasir Gudang. I was shocked at how long it took to get from the city centre to Pasir Gudang at the time, as the bus ride was an hour!
The JB of my childhood was a small town by the Johor Straits where almost everyone knew everyone else, and good food was aplenty.
The busiest area in JB was Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Jalan Segget and the downtown place. This area was like the centre of the universe, but with stench coming from Sungai Segget — it used to be one of the dirtiest and smelliest rivers in the country.
The old wet market, shopping bazaar, Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak (Komtar), train station, Lido and Rex cinemas were in this vicinity.
Komtar was similar to Kuala Lumpur’s Pertama Complex in its heyday with a cineplex, a supermarket and plenty of shops selling jeans which would be packed with people prior to festive seasons.
Food stalls were set up nightly beside the old wet market in Jalan Wong Ah Fook and beside Sungai Segget. I remember eating at those glutton squares once or twice before my parents decided that they preferred not to have the “aroma” of Sungai Segget ruin our meal time.
After that, my family preferred the Chinese cook in a restaurant in Sri Gelam and the famous ikan bakar at Tepian Tebrau food court. The Chinese lady, who used to work at the stall, is someone many JB folk will remember, as she often repeated the same line when taking orders: “Minum apa? Ada Chee Kang, ais kacang, air buah-buahan, air kelapa, air jagung”.
Another outing I loved in my childhood were the trips to the pasar malam held on different days of the week in neighbourhoods such as Tampoi, Larkin and Nong Chik.
When Holiday Plaza was completed in 1985, it was touted as the longest local shopping mall back then as it opened years before Subang Parade in Subang Jaya started operating.
Holiday Plaza was a rite of passage for many youngsters as it became a hangout for everyone in town. The mall was where the first McDonald’s and Pizza Hut in Johor were opened.
My group of friends often held our birthday parties in those fast food joints before “graduating” to more upmarket eateries.
It is amazing how much Johor Baru has changed in recent years. The skyline of the city centre has been transformed as there are now many more skyscrapers.
The best view of the skyline, I always believe, is the one that greets you as you enter the city from the Johor-Singapore Causeway. Even that view has changed drastically.
Thirty years ago, Merlin Tower, Komtar and Tropical Inn were the only skyscrapers. Those buildings are now dwarfed by newer structures such as The Astaka, City Square, R&F Princess Cove and Marina Place — where Johor’s first opera house will be built inside an imposing diamond-shaped structure facing the Johor Straits.
JB may not look like what it was before, but I am excited to see what it will be in the future.