Convenient shortcuts

Entrance to new walkway from
Jalan Trus that links
to Jalan Wong Ah Fook
 

If you work in the city, you will probably know how convenient it is to walk to Johor Baru City Square through a convenient covered walkway that leads directly into Level Two of the modern mall.  

Built adjacent to the Public Bank Tower, its smooth pavement, covered path and overhead bridge gives pedestrians an all-weather quick link between Jalan Wong Ah Fook and Jalan Trus.  

But long before this modern walkway existed, commuters between these two main roads and beyond, used another convenient shortcut.

A reader of My Johor page, who is now a teacher, told me that as a schoolgirl, she lived in Jalan Lumba Kuda’s infamous Fifteen-Storey Flats.  

It was a landmark residential area, home to hundreds of families who lived and worked both in Johor Baru and across the nearby Causeway.  

These flats have since been torn down and the land is now occupied by the sprawling Iskandar Customs Immigration & Quarantine complex. 

She reminisced on how she and her sisters used to walk from home to school in Jalan Yahya Awal, first across a bridge that spanned the railway tracks, through the bus terminal and Bazaar or Pasar Baru, next to the former Johor Baru wet market and then across busy Jalan Wong Ah Fook.  

They would slip between the blocks of shops into a damp and dingy walkway that led to Jalan Trus and emerge almost directly opposite the present-day Menara Ansar.

Entrance to old walkway
from Jalan Trus that links to
Jalan Wong Ah Fook

She and many schoolchildren who lived in town would then walk from Jalan Trus that linked to Jalan Gertak Merah and head for schools located at Jalan Abdul Rahman Andak, Jalan Ayer Molek, Jalan Ngee Heng and Jalan Yahya Awal. 

If you tried this route by car now, you will notice that it is an up-hill climb most of the way up. 

So just think of how schoolchildren of yesteryears used to lug their schoolbags to walk this distance to and back daily and in all kinds of weather.  

For townsfolk, Bas Sekolah or school buses were unheard of and schoolchildren would stoically make their way to school and back safely on foot, each school day.

It was a time when parents entrusted school kids to the streets, knowing that they would be safe among other commuters and pedestrians.  

There were fewer vehicles then and consequently less pollution and traffic hazards but back then, the town’s school-going children were a special sisterhood or brotherhood who looked out for one other.  

So even if there was the occasional drunkard, druggie or pervert lurking around, these street-wise children knew how to avoid or deal with them. 

Midway on the quaint, old
walkway between Jalan Trus
and Jalan Wong Ah Fook

The shops in the Bazaar or Pasar Baru, stocked merchandise ranging from cloth, colour threads to Manila cardboard so it was a handy one-stop shopping area for any urgent art and craft needs. 

One of the favourite hang-outs in the Bazaar must be the food stalls at “Round Table,” so named probably because of its round tables where patrons would sit to enjoy refreshing ice-kacang and spicy rojak.  

This bustling Bazaar, bus terminal and wet market are gone and the modern Johor Baru City Square now stands in their place. 

So if you are in the city, make it a point to check out this ancient open-air walkway between Jalan Wong Ah Fook and Jalan Trus and see for yourself how it still provides a convenient alternative shortcut for shoppers, office workers and pilgrims to the Johor Old Chinese Temple.  

And when you step on those old flagstones, worn smooth by the footsteps of generations of pedestrians, remember you are actually on one of Johor Baru’s charming heritage trails.

A version of this article was published in The New Straits Times, Johor Streets in July 2009