I had set the alarm for 0745 as we had a windowless room. Combined with the 1h time change from Bangkok it is very easy to oversleep. We headed out about 0930 by train to Pasar Seni and Kasturi Walk.
It was just for a wander so that Jo can say that she did something in KL. As the actual Pasar Seni (craft market converted from old wet market) wasn’t open till 1000, we explored the surrounding area first. Jo found a stall selling Celtics basketball gear which Dylan wanted. The price was high in Bangkok and it turned out higher here (no prices were displayed which is highly illegal in Malaysia). She skilfully negotiated it down to the Bangkok price making the morning’s outing worthwhile.
We ate inside Pasar Seni. Jo’s dry noodle meal while my Pan Mee wasn’t very good. It was probably my the first Chinese meal I got for Jo! I was feeling bloated and wanted something light. We got back to our room with about 40 minutes to spare before checking out, allowing me to have a brief rest.
Crowd waiting for the big sale at Victoria’s Secret to open up.
A friend Boo Huat was in town and met us near the monorail after we checked-out. We sat and chat briefly before we went to try catch our electric train for Gemas. There was some confusion about the correct area. As it turned out, intercity trains currently leave from the same areas as the suburban ones but the tickets can’t be scanned and passengers wait at a dedicated area and are led down to the platform by staff a little before departure.
It was the same kind of train as yesterday and the trip to Gemas left a little late around 1330. Strangely we felt peckish on the 2h ride and bought some frozen-and-microwaved meals which turned out absolutely scrumptious.
Surprisingly good frozen/microwaved food on the electric train.
We had about an hour in Gemas before transferring to the 1630 diesel train for Johor Bahru, a journey of 4h10. We stopped at various stations along the way and chugged past some seemingly disused ones. We had to wait for signalling and passing at various points; a very impressive train of about 30 wagons carrying about 60 cement tanks chugged past us at one stop! The train was surprisingly fast in parts though.
Strangely, I was badly in need of food an hour into the trip and the best food we could find was cold mee goreng. The catering on the diesel trains is very limited.
Diesel train from Gemas to JB Sentral.
Diesel train from Gemas to JB Sentral.
We arrived a little late into JB Sentral around 2050. There was a long queue for the toilet which meant we got to the Malaysian checkpoint to leave the country around 2110, to see queues snaking out the door! We looked for the shortest queue and joined the “All Passport queue” which stretched to nearly the back of the huge hall. It looked worse than the reality and we were done on the Malaysian side in 25 minutes.
Queues for Malaysian immigration to leave the country.
Then came the worst bit. Descending down to the bus concourse, we were met with unbelievable crowds. We were on the wrong side, where the tour buses were. We were needed to get to the public buses on the other side of the road. With the chaos, we couldn’t see the obvious crossing and crossed a little further away which involved climbing over/through the railings! You can do this in Malaysia but not in Singapore.
The queues for the buses snaked around the elevator shaft and escalator. It took about 1h10 for us to get to the bus and it was approaching the time for the final bus. If I had known it would have taken so long, we would have walked across the causeway (since we only saw the path halfway through the wait).
Waiting for the bus to take us across the border.
There were no buses left to Queen St so we paid to go to Newton instead. At the Singapore checkpoint, everything was quick due to the bottleneck with the bus. There were plenty of officers wandering around. A couple asked Jo for her passport while she was completing her form and also took her finger print on a handheld device. They did likewise to a few others waiting in the immigration queue. It seemed quite pointless to do that to people who was already going through the process and would be fingerprinted anyway!
Finally, our luggage was x-rayed and we were in Singapore around 2300, about 2h after we walked into the Malaysian checkpoint. I saw officers counting the number of sticks of cigarettes in someone’s handbag. I understand there is no duty-free allowance on cigarettes and every stick is dutiable.
It was a toss-up between using our bus ticket to Newton and catching a taxi to the hotel, versus taking a taxi from here direct to the hotel. There’s no way of knowing how long/short each of the queues were. So we opted for the pricier and more convenient option. It was a 30 minute wait in the taxi rank outside the Woodlands train station. Despite its orderly reputation, there were some taxi drivers picking up passengers in the drop-off areas.
Taxi queue once in Singapore.
We hopped into the taxi around 2330, about 2h30 after we walked into the Malaysian checkpoint. It had been a tedious crossing. I had done the crossing several times and never had it this bad. Jo took this all without one complaint, whine or whinge (and likewise with the hot, dirty, uncomfortable, unfamiliar or chaotic situations). She’s an awesome traveller despite not having done it much.
We had another friendly taxi driver to the Hotel 81 Bugis. We checked in and got some sandwiches from 7-Eleven next door before showering and bed around 0100. I had to take half a sleeping pill to get me asleep as I didn’t have much time … I had the alarm set for 0545.