So it has come down to this, I was bored out of my mind that I really needed to get away for while. Probably because I’m too used to life here that I crave for something different, something to break the monotony of work, eat, sleep. Fortunately, Singapore is located at a great location that it is easy to get to other places. Most easiest would be neighboring Malaysia which is ripe for my wanderings.
I had been meaning to take a trip to Malaysia these last few weeks but because of foul weather I had to keep moving it. Additionally, the thought of having to wake up so early in the morning didn’t really tickle my fancy. Why do I need to wake up early? Well, the destination I had in mind was only around three hours away. Unfortunately, the buses from Singapore don’t leave that early in the day. I wanted to get there early so I can explore more, which meant I would have to take the earliest public transport out of Singapore.
The luxury buses at Golden Mile Shopping Complex generally leave at eight in the morning which would mean they get there at around 12 noon. A bit late in my opinion especially if I intend to make it a day trip. Finally, I mustered the will to wake up at five in the morning but I didn’t get out until 5:30. The public buses were still on their first trip and took a whole half hour to get to my stop. Queen Street bus terminal houses most of the public buses that go to Johor Bahru or JB, the Malaysian city on the other side of the causeway separating Singapore and Malaysia.
I intended to go by public transport to Melaka, three hours away. From Queen Street bus terminal, it cost me SGD2.40 to go to Johor Bahru. This is where it gets interesting, at the Woodlands Checkpoint, everybody get off to for Singapore immigration. After going through Singapore immigration, we needed to find the same bus that will bring us to Malaysia, so it pays to pays attention to the license plate of the bus you took. The bus was waiting for us at the other side of Singapore immigration. We got on the bus and it ferried us to Malaysian immigration.
Malaysian immigration is a pleasant surprise since it has been a long while since I passed through these gates. It is now a modern, massive building designed to handle the large volume of people who pass through these gates everyday. There is not much trace of that volume this early in the morning though and I breezed through it. Same as Singapore immigration, we needed to find the bus that will take us to the long distance bus terminal in Johor Bahru. Unfortunately, it took the bus a long, long time to show up. I even saw our driver and he signalled to us to wait while he drove off, seemingly back to Singapore.
He never did show up, soon the queue for the bus grew longer and longer with unfamiliar faces. These guys were obviously from another bus, it seems that the trick of the buses here is still fill up the buses with as many people and not proceed to the bus terminal with only half a load. Practical, but not what I expected.
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