The day that wasn’t…
Yesterday, a Sunday. Beautiful day. She said “Hi.” It was also a day of interestingly avoidable incidents. What has happened?
A few days before, I asked my brother in KL to buy a bus ticket for me from KL to Singapore. This he did by proxy, and soon enough, a ticket was procured for eight o’clock on the Sunday.
On Sunday, my father woke up at 6am to get ready to go to Klang Valley for business. My mother and I accompanied him. We reached at around 930am after enjoying a tasty breakfast at 7am near our house. We then took my brother’s Vios to our second meal of the day, our bak kut teh brunch. It was there when my brother passed me my Aeroline ticket for eight o’clock.
The day passes rather non spectacularly (except for a huge incident in the afternoon which I will not divulge here) and it ends for my parents with their departure back to Sitiawan. My day was still far from over however. We lounged around for a while before we took the car at 7pm to go to mu bus’ departure area. When we reached there, I noticed something funny: the receptionist office was closed! On a hunch, I checked the bus ticket on me again. Sure enough, Murphy strikes again. Instead of 2000hrs as the time for 8pm, I saw typed there in neat little print “0800HRS”!! Eight o’clock in the morning! My brother and I were stunned speechless.
Feeling the “Oh, SHIT!” moment, we jumped on the car and raced down several highways towards the closest express bus terminal in KL; at Pudu Raya. We also almost got reamed by a car in the rear, lucky the car stopped in time, else, my brother and I would be dead.
Now, doubts clouds my brother’s mind as to whether Pudu Raya Station is the correct destination. Not feeling so confidant myself, I called up to inquire about it from my friend, and it turns out there is no express bus service going to Singapore from Pudu Raya. All bus services to Singapore has shifted operation to a new express bus terminal at Tasik Selatan called the Terminal Pengangkutan Bersepadu Bandar Tasik Selatan. It was big. It was new, and it’s my next best hope for a bus back to Singapore.
I got a ticket for Causeway Link bus departing at 9pm for RM31. The bus departed ten minutes after scheduled time because we waited for some last minute passengers.
It was an uneventful journey except for the smelly passenger sitting next to me. He was so smelly his stink stayed with me even after I got off the bus at 1230am at Larkin Station. Now, here lies the rub; there is no more available bus or taxi services to Singapore in the wee hour of the morning.What am I to do but to pay a taxi driver RM20 (which is touting, and it’s expensive, but one got to pay what I got to pay) to take me to JB’s custom complex.
There, I inquired about possible transportation options into Singapore, and was informed that there are several private cars plying the route for a small premium. I thought nothing of it until I heard the premium. Premium, I feel is a misnomer because the price quoted can be considered a small fortune; SGD50 to go past Singapore’s custom complex, and an additional SGD10 to bring us to my desired destination.
Seeing the time, and after an ineffectual bargaining (it’s hard to bargain when the drivers covers for each other in their lies and scams), I relented and agreed to the steep SGD60 to take me to my destination in Tampines.
I reached home at around 2am, and couldn’t sleep until 3am. The tiring thought was, I have to wake up at 615am to got to work…
So all in all, I spent around SGD150 to go from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. It would be cheaper, and faster if I just went to the airport and catch a plane, but hindsight is, as always, perfect.
