crossing the border.
Hello and Good Day,
It has been a while since I’m writing. I have been busy settling down here in Singapore. Looking for a room is challenging. Singapore, as we know it, is a very expensive city. For example, room price per square foot costs ranges from SGD 4 to SGD 9, translating to SGD 1000 to SGD 1500 for an average size of a decent common room in Singapore suburban properties. Post-pandemic shows the high demand for renting due to high construction activities, and business resumes back to normal. Hence, the renting price costs a fortune.
I decided to commute from JB and Singapore for a week. To experience how daily commuters feel during the journey. The distance between my sister’s place in JB (Taman Molek) towards my office in SG (Buona Vista) is 33.3km. Quite a short distance in comparison to my travelling distance back in KL. From Semenyih to KL, it takes 42.3km.
Waking up at 5 am on the first day, Monday, highlights the heavy feelings of Monday Blues. While the leg is behaving by being heavy and numb, I envy my sister, her husband and my beloved niece snoring happily in the room beside my room.
I brought my beautiful red Vespa to JB in case I wanted to travel to Singapore and explore the whole city during the weekend. So, it is really helpful having my Vespa here. I left home around 5:15 am and rode the scooter towards the JB Sentral, where I parked the Vespa.
Traffic is so smooth in JB during the wee morning. Many motorists use the Expressway 14 (E14) - Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) instead of Jalan Tebrau since there is no traffic light. I decided to take Jalan Tebrau as it is quite safe compared to EDL, which is an expressway all the motorists drive and ride very fast.
As soon I reached JB Sentral, I parked my scooter at the open motor park near the drop-off point opposite the JB City Centre (JBCC) and just a stone’s throw away from the old JB train station.
The space is quite limited as lots of motorcycles are parked there. It is a very narrow and tight space to park. Hopefully, no scratch will be found on my beloved scooter.
I walked towards the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI), a Custom, Immigration and Quarantine building on Malaysia’s side, before crossings the border towards Woodlands Checkpoints via Johor Causeway. I bought my breakfast and lunch - Nasi Lemak and some kueh. There’s a lot of warungs in the building so buying food with many varieties is easy.
Then, I proceeded to the immigration passenger hall. It is a very spacious area. The area is divided into two sections. The first section is fully automated gated passport clearance, while another is a manual passport counter. Since the Malaysian passport is embedded with biometric features, I used the automated gated instead of the manual counter. The queue is not bad. It takes around 5 minutes to reach my turn.
Once I was cleared by immigration, I walked down to the bus platforms. It is very surprising that at 5:45 am, there’s a big crowd waiting for the bus. Many factory operator workers are waiting to embark on bas pekerja to catch their 7 am work shift. I walk directly towards the SBS bus platform and take bus no 170, 170X or 690 towards Woodlands checkpoint.
The queue normally takes 2 minutes to 20 minutes, depending on bus availability. The journey takes 5 minutes to 15 minutes, depending on the traffic. You will be surprised that so many vehicles use the causeway towards Woodlands in the morning. It is like rush hour in KL.
Once reached the Woodlands checkpoint, I walked towards the immigration hall. Since I’m holding a work visa, I do not need to fill in SG arrival card. But this exemption does not apply if I travel via air and water. Singapore’s Immigration and Customs Authority (ICA) take clearing incoming visitor very seriously. They were screening visitors from head to toe. I’ve seen some instances where a passenger was held in the holding cage because he looked suspicious.
The queue takes 5 minutes to 10 minutes to clear. Once cleared, the immigration hall led to the customs hall, where all our luggage was checked by security. Then, I walk towards the SBS bus platform and take bus no 170, 170X or 690 towards the Kranji MRT station.
Kranji MRT station is an elevated MRT station on the North-South Line (NSL). I take the train towards Jurong East, 4 stations before the interchange at Jurong East towards Pasir Ris on East-West Line (EWL). From Jurong East, I disembark at Buona Vista, three stations away from Jurong East, where my office is located, The Metropolis.
The journey time from my sister’s door to my work desk is an hour and a half. I feel it is a decent travelling time considering crossing the country border. It is almost similar if I travel by car between my place in Semenyih and KL CBD.
On the way home, the transportation method is the same except when reaching Woodlands Checkpoint towards BSI. It is a long queue due to many passengers returning home. There was one time when I had to queue for almost an hour at Woodlands Checkpoint, waiting for the bus towards BSI. On one of the days, I decided to walk towards BSI when I saw the queue was very long and spilt up until the exit of the immigration hall; it only takes 20 minutes for a 2 km walk to reach BSI. It was a good walk as the scenery of the JB skyline background with sunset is very beautiful.
There are a lot of things I learnt from this travelling journey experience. I’ve seen senior citizens travel to work in Singapore to earn money. I am deeply humbled yet touched by this experienced. At the same time, many young talented, hard work adults commute to earn money to support their families.
I feel this journey reflects what I have in life. I am grateful to have received such high education level, working in a high position in a reputable company, and loads of benefits. Sometimes it is good to experience this once in a while so that I always keep my feet on the ground and be humble.
With this experience ending today, I want to dedicate this post to all the commuters who travel back and forth between JB and SG by saying you have my massive respect.
Now, back to my home in Singapore this weekend.
Talk to you soon.
Emir S.
