The last bus..
Transtar TS1, advertised as the best and most direct Changi airport to Johor bus service. There is a local bus to the Singapore checkpoint, but then the trail runs cold - the girls at the airport information desk couldn't advise of any onward travel at 11pm on a Saturday night, so let's hope TS1 turns up at 11.25pm as scheduled.
Pretty hot and steamy waiting at the coach station, seeing coaches come and go, mostly go. No sign of TS1 at 11.25, just plenty of tour buses and aircrew transport - China Airlines, KLM, Finnair, they all seem pretty pleased to be heading away to their hotels, the KLM captain taking one last drag of his ciggy! And as for me, well, I don't smoke.
Still no sign of this bus at a quarter to midnight. Resigned to the fact this bus probably isn't turning up, mental preparations are made for an overnight stay in the Airport. I could try downtown but at 1am the only place to stay will likely be a ￡200 room at the Hilton? Well, it's only 6 hours to the first bus in the morning, I can rough it till then.
Here come a bus speeding along the ramp, hooting and transtar plastered along the side. Hurrah, only 30 minutes late but the airport floor will soon be a distant memory, as the driver speeds out, 70 in a 50 zone, oh well. ￡3 is the ticket price to Johor Bahru and should take about 90 minutes. A surprising amount of traffic at 12.30am heading into Malaysia as the bus approaches Woodlands, the Singapore immigration and customer checkpoint. A sign on the bus clearly states waiting time of only 15 minutes as we all rush up the escalators and into the immigration hall. Actually, it's all pretty straight forward and back on the bus within 5 minutes!
A ride across the causeway towards Malaysia, just 5 minutes and the bus stops at the Malaysian checkpoint, and stops for good. The driver is tired and is not going any further tonight thus enforcing a taxi ride to complete the journey! Another 90 day passport stamp from the Malaysians and its down to the taxi rank. ￡3 to Jomi Homestay on Larong 4 and that includes a premium for being at an unsociable hour. 15 minutes then to downtown Johor Bahru and thankfully, I was able to drag Mr Jomi from his bed to let me in. At last, after leaving Auckland 6pm on Friday, a nice soft bed at 1.45am Sunday morning - actually, I'm past being tired, what's that you say, get some sleep, ok Zzzzzzz
Transtar TS1, advertised as the best and most direct Changi airport to Johor bus service. There is a local bus to the Singapore checkpoint, but then the trail runs cold - the girls at the airport information desk couldn't advise of any onward travel at 11pm on a Saturday night, so let's hope TS1 turns up at 11.25pm as scheduled.
Pretty hot and steamy waiting at the coach station, seeing coaches come and go, mostly go. No sign of TS1 at 11.25, just plenty of tour buses and aircrew transport - China Airlines, KLM, Finnair, they all seem pretty pleased to be heading away to their hotels, the KLM captain taking one last drag of his ciggy! And as for me, well, I don't smoke.
Still no sign of this bus at a quarter to midnight. Resigned to the fact this bus probably isn't turning up, mental preparations are made for an overnight stay in the Airport. I could try downtown but at 1am the only place to stay will likely be a ￡200 room at the Hilton? Well, it's only 6 hours to the first bus in the morning, I can rough it till then.
Here come a bus speeding along the ramp, hooting and transtar plastered along the side. Hurrah, only 30 minutes late but the airport floor will soon be a distant memory, as the driver speeds out, 70 in a 50 zone, oh well. ￡3 is the ticket price to Johor Bahru and should take about 90 minutes. A surprising amount of traffic at 12.30am heading into Malaysia as the bus approaches Woodlands, the Singapore immigration and customer checkpoint. A sign on the bus clearly states waiting time of only 15 minutes as we all rush up the escalators and into the immigration hall. Actually, it's all pretty straight forward and back on the bus within 5 minutes!
A ride across the causeway towards Malaysia, just 5 minutes and the bus stops at the Malaysian checkpoint, and stops for good. The driver is tired and is not going any further tonight thus enforcing a taxi ride to complete the journey! Another 90 day passport stamp from the Malaysians and its down to the taxi rank. ￡3 to Jomi Homestay on Larong 4 and that includes a premium for being at an unsociable hour. 15 minutes then to downtown Johor Bahru and thankfully, I was able to drag Mr Jomi from his bed to let me in. At last, after leaving Auckland 6pm on Friday, a nice soft bed at 1.45am Sunday morning - actually, I'm past being tired, what's that you say, get some sleep, ok Zzzzzzz
No comments:
Post a Comment