Tourists to Singapore book hotel in JB to save money, end up having 'worst border-crossing experience'

To avoid paying high prices for hotels in Singapore, a digital nomad couple sought a cheaper alternative by booking a room in Johor Bahru (JB) instead. 

But what they were not prepared for was the four hours it took for them to reach their hotel in JB.

Sharing their "dreadful experience" on TikTok on Monday (Jan 15), Dutch couple Daphne and Arjen behind the Working Travelers wrote: "For a long time, I thought that crossing the Cambodia-Vietnam border would be the worst border-crossing experience ever. Now it's a close tie between that border and the Singapore-Malaysia one."

The couple stated that after booking their flight to Singapore, they realised belatedly how it was a "ridiculously expensive city" to stay in.

"We thought it would be a great idea to stay in Johor Bahru and visit Singapore during the day," the couple shared.

What they didn't factor in, however, was a flight delay which had them landing in Singapore at 3am.

The couple mentioned that they'd tried to get a taxi that could drive them directly to their hotel in Johor Bahru.

"We probably should have seen this coming. Since we would be crossing a border, there was no taxi willing to take us all the way to our hotel in JB and the ones that would take us to the border were € 50 ($73)," the couple wrote in their post. 

While the exact methods they took to reach their destination was not clear, the backpackers certainly found it a hassle.

"We ended up having to pass border control twice and walk for about an hour with our backpacks," the couple wrote, explaining how "borders in Southeast Asia are often accompanied by miles of walking".

After a long journey, the couple shared that they reached the hotel in Johor Bahru at 7am, four hours after landing in Singapore.

"By then, we were so done with the whole experience we decided we had seen enough of Singapore and we just stayed in JB the whole time," they lamented.

Exasperated by their commute from Singapore to Johor Bahru, the couple ended their post by warning other budget travellers not do the same.

"If you do, please just fly to JB instead of Singapore. Hopefully, with this post we can save some people from making the same mistake," the couple added. 

The digital nomads' video have evidently rubbed netizens the wrong way, with many commenting that the couple did not exercise due diligence when it came to planning for their cross-border travel between Singapore and Johor Bahru.

Some also pointed out that the couple could have taken the 24-hour bus service to cross from Singapore to Johor Bahru.

Others noted that there are affordable accommodation options in Singapore such as hostels and capsule hotels outside the city centre. 

One TikTok user however, agreed that booking a hotel to stay in Johor for the night is a cheaper alternative but added that one should prepare for the travel ahead.

AsiaOne has reached out to Working Travelers for comment.

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ashwini.balan@asiaone.com