Pic Travel Blog: Reaching Langkawi

A travel without hassles is not a travel and they are better called adventure. The word for travel in hindi is "Safar" and sounds close to suffer in english.

Chinese New Year Eve: 16-Feb-2006

Scene I:
Huge traffic expected in Woodland checkpoint at Malaysia Singapore immigrations
Planned time for leaving office - 4 PM - Actual Status - Heavy showers and no taxis on the road - reach at 6 PM
Long queues at the immigrations - they dun allow photography !! otherwise its so simple to identify Singaporeans they just queue up !!
Expected Departure from Larkin by bus 9:30 PM

Scene II:
Reach Larkin at about 8:30 unlimited traffic jams in Johar.
Get down half way on the highway -- yes and walk on the expressway to the bus interchange - a sin and a criminal offense in Singapore but when everybody is going home its what it is and then its Malaysia.

Crowds at JB - Larkin Interchange crowds gathering

Poor soul on Larkin Bus Interchange


Scene III: Its almost 10 PM all buses are running late and yout JBM 9909 is nowhere to be seen and then finally it appears. Its not the VIP bus we had paid for !!
The driver understands no English or Hindi and wants us to get down.
Its all messed up.

Some interesting statements in the air:

"Muslims should be given the first seats"
"Chinese logo ke eid hai isliye its all so crowded today"
"Lets go and fight with the ticketing lady. This is the normal 40 seater not the 24 seater we had paid for"
"Bus is overbooked we cannot carry you"
"Please get down"

"We are not getting down anywhere. Am really angry now.
Bloody get me the other bus or we go on this bus"


Finally at 11:45 PM the VIP bus arrives. Its so tiring and so bloody comfortable. The chaos because the bus number was wrongly referred to and written on the tickets.


Worst Fear Realized
The bus has such comfortable seats but the AC is chilling and we have no clothes like jackets or shawls !!

I dozed off before I knew. 5 hrs before the actual journey started. Its a long way to ALOR SETAR from Johar Bahru just follow the Green Expressway on the MAP. Expected time 14 hrs :) that means 10 AM.


Image courtesy MYPLUS.COM.MY Full Detail Version Here

langkawi travel blog better late then never: prelude I

Being located in Singapore provides an opportunity to travel to Malaysia that is like traveling to Nepal from India and its financially also viable considering Ringits are values half (almost) as compared to Singapore dollars.
But for those who know what Chinese New Year means its a hard time to plan a travel to any where in the region and that too by air with a short notice of like say one month.

After all the options including air/bus were ruled out and travel plans to Langkawi almost canceled we decided to go to Johar Bahru, Malaysis just to book tickets to Alor Setar the last place where you can go buy road to reach Pulau Langkawi.

Singapore -->MRT to Kranji -->bus to Woodlands Checkpoint --> Singapore Immigration -->bus to across the causeway---> Malaysia Immigration--> Larkin Bus Interchange

The whole journey from Kranji to Larkin takes about an hour and its interesting to know that you can feel the difference between the two places:
a) Ciggi is samn cheap in Malaysia
b) Food is cheaper
c) Feels like you are free and in some different place


Some interesting facts:
a)Indians in Singapore need valid VISA to travel to Malaysia
b)Single entry and multiple entry visas charges are the same
c)You need to declare if you are carrying in an out of Malaysia more than 1000 Ringits
d) No duty free items between Malaysia and Singapore in case you are returning from Malaysia
e) Malaysia has petrol at about 2 Ringits per litre cheaper than water in Singapore.
f) Language is sometime the biggest problem when dealing with people in Larkin like places.