← All articles · Malaysia · 5 July 2019

Johor Bahru, Malaysia: A summer of durian, mosques and banana leaf rice

Johor Bahru across the causeway from Singapore: Masjid Sultan Iskandar, durian season on the roadside, temple prayer wheels and banana leaf rice for lunch.

Most people meet Johor Bahru through a bus window on the way somewhere else. It's the Malaysian city at the far end of the causeway from Singapore, close enough that people commute across it daily, and it usually gets treated as a border crossing rather than a destination. We spent from May to July 2019 here instead of an afternoon, and the photos below are what that turns up: mosques, temples, murals, and an enormous amount of fruit.

The mosque and the square

A large illuminated star and crescent sculpture standing in a public square in Johor Bahru at night, with people walking along a lit path behind it — A star and crescent lit up in a public square after dark, on a warm night in May 2019.

Masjid Sultan Iskandar in Bandar Baru Uda, Johor Bahru: a white mosque with a turquoise dome and four slender minarets under a pale morning sky — Masjid Sultan Iskandar at Bandar Baru Uda, white and turquoise and completely empty of tour buses.

That mix is the point of the place. Ten minutes in one direction and the architecture switches language entirely.

The interior of a Chinese temple in Johor Bahru with red lacquered pillars, gilded carved canopy over the main altar and vertical black calligraphy panels on either side — Red pillars, gold carving and a lot of vertical calligraphy. Nobody minded us wandering in.

Inga turning a row of large brass prayer wheels under a covered temple walkway in Johor Bahru, with red prayer ribbons tied up behind them — A covered walkway of brass prayer wheels, with a wall of red ribbons behind. Inga did the whole row, obviously.

Fruit season

We were here for the best possible months. Jackfruit stacked in the markets, and then durian season arriving on the roadside, which isn't something you can politely ignore.

Inga holding up an enormous green jackfruit taller than her torso at an indoor market stall in Johor Bahru, with bunches of bananas hanging above — Jackfruit sold by the unit, and the unit is roughly one adult torso.

A roadside durian stall in Johor Bahru with a metal tray heaped with spiky durians, a crowd of customers around it and a vendor opening fruit at a table — A durian stall set up at the kerb, a tray of fruit, and a queue that formed itself.

A vendor wearing a thick glove holding a durian open with a knife on a red table, showing the yellow flesh inside, with boxes of durians stacked behind — The glove isn't optional. Neither, it turns out, is eating it right there at the table.

Old streets and long coffees

The old shophouse quarter is where JB stops feeling like a border town. Murals on the walls, cafes spilling out of narrow lots, and friends who insisted on showing us the good ones.

Dileep and a friend standing in a Johor Bahru shophouse lane under a hanging curtain of dyed pink and beige roots, with a Bruce Lee mural painted on the yellow wall behind — A hanging curtain of dyed roots over the lane, and Bruce Lee keeping an eye on the cafe tables.

Inga seen from behind looking at a painted street mural of a woman in a blue jacket carrying a basket of greens on her back, signed Fong 2018 — Painted in 2018 and signed in the corner. The walls around here are worth slowing down for.

Inga sitting at a wooden cafe table in Johor Bahru pouring fruit tea from a glass teapot into a white cup, with a dessert on a board in front of her — Fruit tea in a glass pot, a dessert on a board, and an afternoon that didn't need a plan.

A group selfie of six people around a cafe table in Johor Bahru, several making peace signs, with a camera and menus on the table — The crew who did the showing around. Peace signs mandatory, camera on the table at all times.

Lunch, on a leaf

A banana leaf rice meal in Johor Bahru: white rice and a papadum on a banana leaf in a steel tray, ringed by small steel pots of curry, dhal, cabbage, okra and rasam — Banana leaf rice on 5 July 2019: rice, a papadum, and six little pots to work your way around.

That's the thing about staying a while instead of passing through. Singapore is right there over the causeway and worth every hour you give it, and we've written about it twice: our first visit back in May 2010 and a weekend in December 2025. But if you only ever see Johor Bahru through the window of a bus heading south, you're missing the durian.