Renewing friendships in Kluang

 

My relationship with Kluang started decades ago with family weekend stays at the Government-owned Animal Husbandry Station when Uncle Steven was working with the dairy farm located along the Ayer Hitam-Kluang stretch of road.

 

Facade of the Kluang Railway Station
viewed from the carpark

During our farm stays, we often headed into Kluang town for shopping and I remember going with Auntie to pick up their two young daughters after school.

 

After Uncle retired, the family relocated to Kuala Lumpur where their daughters completed college years and then went abroad for further studies.

 

So whenever I took a drive to Kluang from Johor Bahru, I will slow down along the Ayer Hitam-Kluang route and tried to spot familiar sights along that way.

 

In my recent visit to join the event hosted by Kluang RailCoffee to commemorate their 88^th Anniversary, I saw that the road was widened to a dual carriageway with many traffic lights along the improved route, passing Sri Lallang into Kluang town.

 

The new Kluang Railway Station is just
a three-minute walk away from the old
railway station in Kluang

I fondly recalled enjoying a Weekend Walkabout in Kluang in 2014 with my former schoolmates and when Kluang was named Malaysia’s Happiest Town in the 2024 Malaysia Happiness Index, I looked forward to yet another such experience. Time, however, did not permit it so this walkabout plan has yet to be fulfilled.

 

On arrival, I was pleased to see the brand-new railway station built adjacent to the original railway station where Kluang RailCoffee, the oldest railway kopitiam in the nation, remains as a landmark destination for regulars and visitors to Kluang.

 

At the celebration event, I was pleased to renew my acquaintance with members of the Lim family and meet their regular customers, who have since become friends.

 

There was a warm familiarity among the guests – old friends who enjoyed a fresh brew of hot coffee or cool Teh-C-Ais, charcoal-toasted bread and buns sandwiched in a generous spread of kaya and butter – seated together with a sense of community, in the original railway station kopitiam.

 

It was good to meet YB Wong Shu Qi
again at Kluang RailCoffee in
the old railway station in Kluang

I listened to the Master of Ceremony (a talented staff member of Kluang RailCoffee) as she made the announcements and was delighted to hear that YB Wong Shu Qi, Member of Parliament for Kluang, was among the VIP guests who graced the event.

 

In 2014, when YB Wong was then a member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly for the Senai constituency (2013 to 2018), I had the privilege of her company to explore Senai and was delighted to learn more about the town’s founding fathers, documented in my story, The two Wongs of Senai [NST Streets Johor 12 Sept 2014].

 

This published piece led to readers – Wong family members – who reached out to me and connected me with more members of the Wong family based in Singapore. One thing led to another and this exciting experience was documented in, More on Wongs of Senai.

 

A compilation of my experiences about the Wongs of Senai was among the stories featured in My Johor Stories 2: Interesting Places and Inspirational People, my second book in the trilogy of My Johor Stories published in 2018 by MPH Publications Kuala Lumpur.

 

It was during our trek around Senai when YB Wong told me about the My Liberica Coffee Plantation and Processing Mill at Bukit Batu, near Simpang Renggam.

 

I am familiar with their flagship café opened at Taman Molek in Johor Bahru and I was delighted to visit their roastery at the Eco Hub in Taman Ecoperniagaan in 2020. Then I went on to join the Grand Tour of the Coffee Plantation and Processing Mill at Bukit Batu.

 

Then when I was compiling the contents for, My Johor Stories 3: Proudly Johor, Then and Now, the third and final instalment of the trilogy of My Johor Stories published in 2022, I decided to include the story of My Liberica Coffee among the brands that were proudly established in Johor and also exported abroad.

 

I recall that I last met with YB Wong – very briefly in 2024 – when we were both guests at a classical music presentation to celebrate German-Malaysian Friendship.

 

So when we met again at the Kluang RailCoffee celebration event in Kluang, YB Wong did not hesitate to invite me to join her for café-hopping. And I was equally quick to agree.

 

YB Wong with the 2026 calendar
and The Happiest Town book

As we were about the leave the Kluang RailCoffee event, a quick check revealed that some of the listed cafés were closed that day while some were only opened later, so we only managed to make two café hops that afternoon.

 

I remember in a telephone chat with her in early March, YB Wong told me about her Kluang Coffee Passport launched in a calendar for 2026. Briefly, she explained that each page for a calendar month featured an illustration on a café destination in Kluang.

 

Visitors were invited to visit 10 destinations out of the 12 calendar months and collect 10 stamps – to be affixed on a blank space in the illustration – and the completed 10 stamps on the calendar entitled them to receive a special gift.

 

At the carpark, she passed me a copy of this café-hunting calendar and volunteered to drive us (her driver was on leave that day).

 

I was happy to hop into her car and be escorted around Kluang, from town center to the suburbs, for a taste of YB Wong’s warm hospitality along with an experience of Kluang’s hip and happening café-culture.

 

YB Wong and I with the 2026
calendar and The Happiest Town book

During our drive, I could not resist flipping through the pages of the calendar and was pleased to see that Kluang RailCoffee and My Liberica Coffee were featured in January and May, respectively.

 

As she talked about her calendar project, it was clear that YB Wong was pleased with how this 2026 calendar was effectively welcoming visitors to explore the charms of Kluang, proudly deemed The Happiest Town.

 

The success of the calendar compelled YB Wong to progress this concept further with the publication of a hardcover book titled, The Happiest Town, Everyone is Talking About, with easy-to-read text featuring a cast of coffee bean characters in illustrations that appeal to both young and young-at-heart.

 

Published by Pusat Khidmat Rakyat Parlimen Kluang, these beautiful books are available for sale at No. 15, Jalan Tasek 1, Pusat Perniagaan Tasik, 86000 Kluang, Johor. Open from 9am to 5pm. Tel: +607 – 7711778 and +6014 – 9011758.