Merry Christmas! HO HO HO I am writing this entry from the KLIA lounge yet again. This is sad...I'm spending waaay too much time in airports. I wasn't planning to go back to Kuantan for the Christmas long weekend since I just went last week but then my brother decided to go back and mum bought a big turkey....'nuff said.
And what was meant to be a simple, cheap 6-hour bus ride became an 8-hour epic journey for a town not more than 110 nautical miles (not sure what it is in kms) away from Singapore. Arrrgghh! Yes, I initially wanted to catch the Transnasional bus (SGD$20) back to Kuantan but then the 7 days of non-stop rain (they say triggered by the latest typhoon to hit the Philippines - I can't remember the name) has caused complete havoc on the east coast of Malaysia. It's been reported to be the worst floods since the 1950s. It's a bit sad really and ends the year on a sour note. So far it's affected 80,000 people and several deaths and what's sickening are the people going around charging victims to be rescued in their boats. I hope they themselves fall in the same situation one day and get their just desserts...The government's response? "We have not received any official police reports or complains". Geez....yeah, the first thing I'm going to be concerned about after losing my home and not knowing my future is to go to the local police station, spend umpteen hours there to make a police report about how the guy on the boat, whom I do not know, charged me 300 bucks to be rescued. Use your brains mate!
Another thing I can't understand (and it's not just our government) are countries who refuse outside help whenever a disaster strikes. Is this a matter of nationalistic pig-headedness (and I use this term with respect)? Pride? Or are there other reasons? Wouldn't any aid or help, whether it's provided locally or from foreigners assists us in working towards a way to put the victims lives together in the shortest possible time? Yes, it baffles me sometimes or I could be shallow and not realise some bigger picture somewhere?
Anyways....back to my 'epic' journey - I decided to try the Singapore - KL buses today and the six companies that I called had all sold out so that idea went down the drain pretty quickly. And of course flights from Singapore to KL are just plain stupidly priced (read previous postings) so the next best option to try was to catch a flight from Johor Bahru or JB (the closest Malaysian city to Singapore) to KL and then connect to another flight to Kuantan (which is why I'm here typing this blog entry now). So the journey broken down:
- Start journey at 2pm - catch bus number 2 to Victoria Street.
- Walk 5 mins to Queen Street bus terminus.
- Decided to be adventurous and catch public bus 170 to JB rather than the direct express bus. I wonder why people would do it? Total savings for catching public bus? SGD0.60.
- 1 hr later still on the public bus and just passing Chua Chu Kang. Starting to get worried about the time now.
- 1.5 hrs in, reach Woodlands, everybody disembarks. Go through immigration in Singapore which was very fast. (10 mins)
- Go down the escalators and bang! fight everyone to get a spot on ANY bus to Malaysian immigration. I managed to squeeze myself in. (10 mins)
- Reach Malaysian immigration checkpoint and there's even more chaos. Almost walked through immigration without putting my passport in the machine. Nobody was watching and this was my first time. I wonder how many illegal immigrants get through this way although it's harder to get into Singapore in the first place.
- Past immigration, hounded by taxi drivers touting their services. Have to almost kick my way through. (10 mins) Waited for next bus to Kotaraya bus station. (10 mins)
- Get to Kotaraya bus station to catch the shuttle bus to Senai airport (JB's airport). The bus leaves at 4.05pm and costs RM$8. Guess how much I had in my pockets? RM$7.75. ARRGGHH. Rushed out to look for a money changer and there was one (whew).
- Look at bird who injured itself when it decided to fly into the very clean glass doors at the bus station. Looked like a goner. The guy put it back in the trees and at least it could stand on it's own.
- Depart Kotaraya for Senai airport - the journey took 55 mins!! I was starting to worry as my air ticket deadline was 5pm. Got there just in time.
- The flights is scheduled for 6.40pm but at 6.40pm some VIP decided he had to leave in his private jet first. Must be someone important because 4 military helicopters suddenly appeared out of nowhere to escort the lear jet. Of course us poor 'normal' citizens had to wait for him to clear out first (30 mins sitting in the plane doing sudoku puzzles...grrr).
- Finally get into KLIA and into this lounge. Now it's a 2 hour wait for my connecting flight to Kuantan. Yawwwnnn....
Anyways...I'm going to go back surfing the net. This turkey better be good.......
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