1 Nov 2026 - Resuming our morning hike at Lower Peirce Reservoir Park

Ever since the start of the elevated haze situation, we had temporarily halted our weekly Sunday morning walk in the parks. As the condition has improved over the past few days, we decided to resume our hike but maybe a short one. Lower Peirce Reservoir was our top pick for today. 

When we looked across the reservoir, we were not sure if it was misty or hazy.....

When we were here earlier this year, this section of the nature trail was closed for maintenance. Now that it has re-opened, another section of the trail is undergoing the similar maintenance till Mar 2027.

During our last visit, I managed to capture a "confrontation" between a squirrel and a snake. This time round, we did not see much wildlife activities, but we did spot a Colugo as we were exiting the trail.

Part of the boardwalk is right next to the reservoir. There were hundreds of Pond Skaters skating on the water surface.

Though this was a short hike due to the closure of some trails, it was still a good walk after stopping for a while.

As we were walking towards the car park, we saw several groups of macaques having fun and doing their "monkey business" under a tree.

30 Oct 2026 - 37 Years of Friendships

In the past few weeks, I'd been meeting up with some of my JC classmates either over a coffee or a pickleball session. Glad that after 37 years since we all first met, we were still in contact and able to meet up every now and then. There are more people in the group and hope they can all meet up going forward.

30 Oct 2026 - Sky getting clearer

After about a month of elevated haze condition, it seemed to get better these few days. At least I can now see the buildings at the distance pretty clearly. And such a beautiful morning sun!  :-)

17 Oct 2026 - Haze and Fireworks

The haze situation had gone from bad to worse over the past few days. It had reached the unhealthy band in the Air Quality Index for quite a while now. We could hardly see those building at a distance.

At night, we heard the sound of fireworks and quickly went up to our roof terrace to check it out. There was really fireworks display at Jalan Kayu area. What a time to have fireworks which probably added on to the hazy environment.

14 Oct 2026 - Dinner at BTY Grilled Fish (半天妖烤鱼) @ Toppen Shopping Centre

We spent the afternoon at Toppen Shopping Centre and bought quite a few stuffs from Decathlon and IKEA. In the evening, we had our dinner at BTY Grilled Fish (半天妖烤鱼). Known for its modern Chinese hotpot-style grilled fish, this massive franchise brought its famous bold flavours, fresh fish, and an incredibly affordable self-service bar to JB's vibrant Tebrau dining hub.

We ordered the popular, melt-in-your-mouth Lingbo fish (凌波鱼), and paired it with one of their famous Fresh Peppercorn (青花椒) broths. The fish arrived with a lightly charred, crispy exterior that absorbed the simmering broth perfectly. There was a 50% discount at that time for all their grilled fish.

For info, if you followed them on Facebook or Xiaohongshu (小红书), they will serve you the below side dish for free. And we did just that.

One of the highlights of dining here was their incredibly wallet-friendly RM3 self-service bar. For just RM3 per person, we got unlimited access to the following:

• Steaming hot white rice

• A variety of free-flow carbonated drinks and beverages

• Fresh seasonal fruits (like sliced watermelon)

• Soft-serve ice cream to cool down after a fiery meal

Another great meal of this trip.  :-)

14 Oct 2026 - Brunch at XY80s Kopitiam (相约80年代怀旧馆) @ Mount Austin

Today was Tracy's birthday, and we wanted to celebrate by having great meals one after another in JB. We had a fantastic Lalapot dinner last night. This morning after checking out, we again drove to Mount Austin area to have our brunch at XY80s Kopitiam (相约80年代怀旧馆).

Stepping into XY 80s Kopitiam at Mount Austin felt like stepping straight into a time machine. 

After ordering our food from the menu, the ultimate icebreaker was their free-flow old-school snack counter. We could help ourselves to bins of the exact childhood biscuits and snacks that filled plastic jars decades ago. It immediately sets a relaxed, storytelling mood for the table while we waited for the main spread to arrive.

The spread on the menu was incredible. There were so many selections, and they all look delicious. We spent quite a while to go through the menu to decide what we wanted. We will definitely come back again to try out some other dishes.

After our meal, we went round the shop to take photos. It really brought back a lot of our childhood memories with things such as old-school telephones, ancient record players, classic magazine covers, and even retro sewing machines cleverly repurposed as dining tables.

We then went up to level 2 of the shop and there was a mock-up living room in a corner that further triggered more of our memories of the 80s.

How many of you have actually sat on these chairs (below) when you were young and kena "kiap" by them? Haha.....painful......

13 Oct 2026 - Dinner at Dai Tao Lala Pot (大头啦啦煲) @ Mount Austin

After we took our shower at the hotel, we drove to Mount Austin area for dinner. After some quick search on the internet, we decided to have our dinner at Dai Tai Lala Port (大头啦啦煲). We read that there was always a long queue at this outlet, but we did not have to wait at all. Not sure is it because it was a weekday night and passed dinner time (around 8:20pm) or it was due to the ongoing haze. Compared to many of the eateries around the area, this place was still considered the most crowded at that time.

The highlight of the night was watching the staff prepare the claypot right at our table over a traditional charcoal stove. They started by wok-frying a massive batch of fresh Sha Bai clams with ginger, garlic, and sliced chili padi. Just as the aromatics filled the air, they flamed the mixture with a generous splash of Shaoxing Huadiao wine (绍兴花雕酒), creating a dramatic flash of fire before pouring in the rich, pre-boiled bone broth.

The first sip of the broth was incredible, and the broth refills were entirely free and unlimited.

It was my first time trying out Lalapot, and it was great. What a satisfying dinner!

13 Oct 2026 - Check-in to Miico Hotel

We checked-in to Miico Hotel which was just a 5-minutes' drive from Toppen. As it was just for a night, we went for a decent but economical hotel. It only costed us about SGD25 per night. There were public parking lots available in front of the hotel and free from 6pm to next day 8am.

The room was small as expected but it did not matter to us. All we need was a place to take a shower after our pickleball session and a decent place to sleep over for the night.

At the hotel lobby, there were water and snacks for hotel guests.

13 Oct 2026 - Toppen Shopping Centre

We drove over to JB this afternoon once we saw the traffic condition at the causeway had smoothened. Our plan was to visit Toppen Shopping Centre which was just across the road from AEON Tebrau.

This was our first visit to the mall. As we parked our car, we saw a signage indicating specific parking lots that were reserved for ladies only. This was introduced some years back to combat the rise in snatch thefts and assaults within shopping centres, where women were frequent targets.

Toppen Shopping Centre is a vibrant, modern retail hub spanning 1.25 million square feet across four levels. Toppen, which means "awesome" or "top" in Swedish, stood out as the first shopping mall in Southern Malaysia to be directly anchored by a flagship IKEA store, making it a specialized hub for home design, family entertainment, and active lifestyles rather than a traditional, fashion-heavy megamall.

The crown jewel of the mall is The Topp, a unique, open-air rooftop community and active zone designed to encourage visitors to break a sweat and gather under the sky.

One key reason for us to come to Toppen was visit Decathlon Flagship Store, a massive haven for sports enthusiasts, offering affordable gear alongside interactive trial spaces. We were here to look for Pickleball Paddles, and it so happened that there was a promotion where we could get two paddles (buy 1 get 1 free) for only RM149. We got an additional RM10 discount after giving the store a 5-stars google rating. Hence, we only paid RM139 which was approximately SGD43 for two paddles. In Decathlon online store, even after discounts, it costs SGD39.90 for one paddle. What a fantastic deal!

We heard that there was a zone called Forum Tebrau where there are Pickleball courts. So we decided to go take a look. The indoor Sports Hall includes badminton, basketball and pickleball courts. Since we just bought the paddles from Decathlon, we decided to book a court to try them out. And with the booking, we were given 3-hours of free parking in Toppen by simply entering our car plate number into the system.

We booked a 1-hour session from 4:30-5:30pm. After the game, we took a short break to cool ourselves down. In the meantime, we searched through various booking portals for some nearby accommodation where we could stay over for the night.