A Weekend Getaway in Kluang (Part 1) - Visit to Kluang Mall

Earlier this year, I was invited to visit Kluang - a town and district located near the middle of the state of Johor in the southern portion of peninsular Malaysia. Kluang lies about 110 km north of Johor Bahru, east-southeast of Batu Pahat, west of Mersing and south of Segamat. My trip with a few other bloggers started from KL Sentral which took us less than 4 hours to reach Kluang and our very first destination is Kluang Mall.

The main entrance of Kluang Mall.

Kluang Mall is the leading shopping centre in central Johor. Opened in 2008, it is located in the town centre of Kluang, serving a district population catchment of over 314,400. Situated approximately 20 kilometres from the North-South Expressway, the shopping centre is the top destination for consumers in central Johor. Upon reaching Kluang Mall, our stomach were growling and we knew that we must try some of their local food there.

We were immediately brought to a makan place at Kluang Food Street where we can find some local food prepared by the locals.

The interior of Kluang Food Street is really worth admiring as some of the vintage items displayed there are donated by the collectors.



Just look at the way the hang the items on the pillars, it's simple yet interesting.
I do like this kind of concept a lot.

There's various kind of noodles dishes and others can be found but one of the most highlighted is the Kluang's Beef Noodles.

Kluang's Beef Noodles

The Kluang's Beef Noodles not to be confused with Tangkak Beef Noodles. It doesn't consist as much soup as Tangkak's, it felt like a dry beef noodle with lots of gravy in it. The taste isn't too heavy nor light and I am very sure that one bowl probably wasn't going to be enough if you are feeling really hungry. There's a shop in Taman Bahagia PJ that sell this noodle but it's a little too costly.

Hakka Lei Cha

Hakka Chinese would be vary familiar with this dish, it consist of various kind of vegetables, shallot, eggs, peanuts and topped with lei cha a ground tea based gravy that is blended with peanuts, basil, mint and potato leaves.



To quench our thirst, most of us ordered the ice coffee and soya bean drinks.



After the meal, then only we were given a tour to explore the retail shops available in Kluang Mall. You can see there's a bat wearing a Kluang Mall necklace on the picture above, why a bat? Simply because Kluang is actually a shorten named for Keluang - 'bat' in Malay language.

Anchored by Pacific Hypermarket & Department Store, MBO Cinemas, Popular Bookstore, Sen Q and Ampang SuperBowl, the mall features over 160 specialty retail shops offering a quality retail and leisure experience. With over 335,594 sq ft of retail space and 1,129 car park bays, Kluang Mall provides the platform of choice for shoppers and retailers in the Kluang district.

Kluang Mall is developed and managed by Tenaga Nusantara Sdn Bhd, a related company of Majupadu Development Sdn Bhd, the leading commercial and residential developer in Kluang, Johor.

Kluang Mall transformed Kluang into a thriving urban neighborhood, bringing in big city brands including Popular Book Store, PDI, SenQ Electrical Store, Starbucks, Sakae Sushi, Secret Recipe, Sushi King, The Body Shop, Big Apple Donuts & Coffee, KFC, Pizza Hut, Old Taste Café and more.

It was nearly Chinese New Year and it's the Year of the Goat, this dog-looking goats were placed as deco. Haha...

Kluang Mall is the largest ‘lifestyle’ shopping mall in central Johor with a modern contemporary design, grand entrance statement, 18-feet height shop-fronts, spacious walkways between 35-53 feet and large atriums for exhibitions and promotions.



We passed by Yong Sheng Gift Shop which is one of the market leader of confectionery manufacturer in Malaysia that specialize in the production of premium quality pastry products. For example egg yolk pies, wife biscuits, tambun biscuits, pineapple cakes, wedding & full moon gift sets, moon cakes, new year cookies, festive hampers and cakes. It was started by a entrepreneur from Muar, Johor.



Assorted flavor of Swiss Rolls displayed in front of the shop. We did get to bring some of them home.

MBO Cinemas, one of the anchor tenant in Kluang Mall. They do show the latest movies according to the local date releases in Malaysia.

There's also a bowling alley which is called the Ampang Superbowl (all the way from Ampang eh :P). It looks as good as those located in KL and PJ.

There's a corner to chill after a tiring session of bowling.

Kluang Mall in support of Go Green campaign, placing a few decorations using used material. The mall also Wi-Fi enabled (a plus point!) to add convenience for visitors, and hosts special events throughout the year to bring together the community. The most important criteria for me to visit a mall is that the mall must have good makan places, a hypermarket, a cinema and lots of parking spaces and Kluang Mall fulfilled all this criteria. So what do you think?

Don't forget to experience city shopping whenever you are in Kluang!
For more information on Kluang Mall, check out their website at www.kluangmall.com
or their FB page at www.facebook.com/KluangMall

This is the end of Part 1, there's gonna be a few more parts of my visit to Kluang.
So do stay tuned for my upcoming blog post!

.: Peace Out :.