Round the World — Oriental Express: the stressful version (1)
I honestly planned very little for the trip other than booking the flights and reading about my destinations on Wikitravel, the most useful travel website I’ve used so far (It is not affiliated to Wikipedia, by the way). As for the logistics, those were the boring stuffs, which I often saved till the last minute.
I’ll be heading to Woodland by metro, from which I could board a bus (a couple of them would work) crossing the Johor Causeway to Malaysia. Seems straightforward. So I had the leisure to walk around Little India, and had a nice Roti Prata (India pancake) and Teh Tarik (India milk tea) for breakfast. Well actually they were out of Teh Tarik, so only offered some normal guest tea. Good enough.
After breakfast I figured that I left my hat in the hostel. Given the heat I expected later in the Levant, I had to walk back to pick it up. A bad start.
Arriving at Woodlands I started to feel rushed, not sure whether I could catch my flight at JB departing in ~2, 3 hours.
At least 3 buses crossed the border. Every passenger got a ticket once boarding, and dropped at Singaporean border control shortly. Upon exiting the country, the bus would wait on the other side to pick us up, cross the Johor Causeway, and finally arrive at Malaysian border control on the other side.
Problem? the tickets were bus-specific. Although there were at least 3 buses going on the same route, one could not board bus B with ticket A after passing Singaporean immigration. If bus A has already left after one cleared immigration (which was normally the case), that person had to wait for the next bus A to come.
Entering Singaporean border control, I opened my backpack at the lobby to make sure I’ve got everything. A border guard walked to me with suspicion, questioning my purpose of visit. Not sure why grabbing stuff from a huge backpack made me look like an illegal or sth.
Since my bus had long left, I had to wait by the side of the road for the next bus (with the same number) to come. Meanwhile at least 3 or more bus B and bus C stopped and left. Watching countless crowds came and went, I realized I’d chosen the wrong bus, and there’s no way I could make it to JB airport in time. Finally arriving Malaysia border control and entering the country after maybe a 40min wait under the tropical sun.
After exchanging some Ringgits I walked toward the entrance of immigration building among hundreds of others. As I passed by the custom officers I had a bad feeling. “Sir!” They stopped me and asked to have my backpack pass through the X-ray machine as always.
“Come on. Why on earth do I really look like an outlaw?” Watching hundreds carrying huge luggage exiting the door without being asked, I pondered.
Though I had zero chance to catch my flight at this point(which had departed literally now), I still headed to JB airport by bus. Not sure why I made that call, maybe I was expecting some rescheduling option, or even the airline would magically book me on the next flight to KL for free. Bad decision.
My flight had long gone, and the “reschedule fee” was exorbitant. I needed another way to reach Kuala Lumpur. Granted the easiest way was to take the same bus back to JB and took a train from there. Sitting in the Starbucks, however, I found a more adventurous option — from a nearby town named Kulai, there were also buses heading to KL. By nature, and not to make my trip to the airport a complete waste, I went for it.
Glad to see my flight had landed (without me) in Kuala Lumpur
