Flowers in the Window @ Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru

Flowers in the Window sounds so poetic that I want to check it out. It's only on our second cafe-hopping trip in Johor Bahru that we found this cafe, which happens to be the other brainchild from the founders of Roost, Bev C and Sea & Saw and happens to sit just beside Roost. Okay, we admit, our eyes tah stamp. Being an occasional JB-cafe-hopper, I gotta admit that Jalan Dhoby and Jalan Trus still seem like a maze to me. Anyway. Opened in early 2016, Flowers in the Window has attracted many cafe-goers for two main reasons.

1. Insta-worthy ambience with dried flowers hanging everywhere.

2. It's a cafe in JB so I gotta visit if not I am gonna lose out to my hipster cafe-hopper friends.

The Replacement - Lodge & Kitchen, Johor Bahru

Cafe-hopping in Singapore might burn a hole in your wallet, but at Johor Bahru, you get to leverage on the currency, and yes, that means you get to eat great food at 1/3 the price. On our recent trip, we had plans to visit Coffee Valley, but was disappointed that it was in the process of moving to Sutera Mall (update: they are opened now at Sutera Mall!). We decided to explore around the corner and found another gem - The Replacement instead (how apt, because it actually replaces one of our cafe-hopping location).

This dainty, modern cafe sits at a prominent spot in Jalan Dhoby (aka Jalan Cafe or Jalan Hipsters, just kidding) and features an exterior of clean white walls - now this is worth mentioning because buildings are generally old and torn down around the area. To start off, The Replacement is seriously, and I'm saying it with a serious face, seriously insta-worthy. OMG, damn it, just look at this.