Journey to Kuala Lumpur

Wednesday morning we woke up early to get a good start on our bus trip up to Kuala Lumpur (KL). We didn’t know really what we were doing except where to catch the bus out of Singapore – across the street from our hotel. I was feeling even worse on Wednesday than I was on Tuesday, still from the same cold, and did not feel much like eating and of the Asia cuisines over here. Elizabeth and I did make sure to get a coffee before our bus trip and the coffee shop that we had frequented every morning in Singapore, and that served all sorts of western food with toast, would not make me toast since it was not on the menu. Too bad, that left a bit of a bad taste in our mouth since money was not our issue on that front and I just wanted something I could stomach. We searched and searched for toast on our walk back to our hotel but couldn’t find anything. I wasn’t too hungry but it was a daunting thought leaving for a huge bus trip – with no idea what lay ahead – and no food in our stomachs.

After picking up our luggage back at the hotel we got onto the first bus about 9:30 am. This bus would take us from the city center to our first customs stop where our passports would be stamped as leaving Singapore. This journey didn’t take too long, maybe 45 minutes, and was spent on a city-type bus. We were the only ones on the bus with luggage. (This was something we had noticed before – that no one tends to take luggage to Malaysia with them – as we walked past the bus stop every morning. Since it is so close many people go for short journeys I believe.) When we got off we maneuvered our way to the customs desk (it wasn’t really all the hard since everything in Singapore is so nice) and waited in a line for about 15 minutes to get our exit stamp from Singapore. Easy peasy.

Next it was onto another bus to the entry point for Malaysia. This bus ride was many 5 minutes over a bridge between the two countries and then it was off that bus and back into line. This was a bit more anxiety producing since we didn’t know what they might ask we. We don’t really have concrete plans at all and thus it’s difficult for us to answer questions since we just don’t know. We came up with what we would say, so at least our stories matched, and then they never asked up anything. Once again, easy peasy.

Except, on the way over to Singapore from Australia Elizabeth’s seat mate had told her we needed to make sure we got 2 stamps when we entered the country otherwise we would have trouble when we tried to leave. I only got one stamp. I asked the immigration officer but she didn’t seem to care much. Elizabeth also only got one stamp. We did ask another immigration officer who said we only needed one stamp so we moved on, but I guess we’ll just have to pray this is okay when we try to leave. Fingers crossed!

On our way out from immigration, much like in Singapore, there are lines for those who do and those who don’t have anything to declare. This is great, except once again there is no list of what is banned and what is not. Since we were standing there looking confused they had us scan our bags – but only our big bags, not our backpacks – and of course they were clean so no problems.

Now this is where the confusion and stress started setting in. At this point we really didn’t know what to do. On top of that we had been warned over and over again about how Malaysia is more dangerous, you have to be very careful about your stuff, and we just needed to watch out more for ourselves in that country. We left immigration, didn’t know where to go, and our first male stranger came up to help us. We followed the signs for the bus but didn’t know if this was where we needed to pay for the bus to KL or if there was still one more ride to a bus terminal where we would catch the bus to KL.

I realize now I did not explain fully – we looked into trains, buses, and flights from Singapore to KL. The train was the most attractive but turned out to be sold out. Plane seemed too easy so we went for bus. To save money – and because everyone told us this was the way to do it – we bought tickets from Singapore to Johor Bahru (JB) – the border town - and then would buy separate tickets once we were over the border from JB to KL. We didn’t know how the whole process worked, however, once we got over the border and this is where we pick back up on the story.

We showed a man who looked like he knew what he was doing our tickets and he told us where to wait in line for our next bus. 15 minutes later our now third bus pulls up and we pile on with everyone else to head to the bus terminal in JB. With every passing second my stress level is rising because I have just no idea what is going to happen.

Off the bus we go at the bus terminal and the hassling and harassment begin. There are three men waiting at the bottom of the bus stairs asking where we are going and will not leave us alone. One of the men actually follows us around the entire bus terminal, will not take no for an answer, and waits while we attempt to get money out of an ATM. We only have S$30 on us and they take Malaysian money here. None of the ATMs will accept any of our cards – we are in a bad position!

The man now tells us he will take us to a money exchanger to whom I hand our S$30 and he gives me RM$76.50 in return. (RM=Malaysian Ringgit. This exchanges at 1USD to 3.5Ringgits so it’s good for Americans) This was a pretty good rate against the Singaporean Dollar and what choice did we have anyways? None!

Now surprise, surprise but this was the exact cost of the bus tickets. I did point this out to the man who had been following us around and sold us our tickets, but we didn’t have any choice, we needed to get to KL where we had a hotel and could sort out the money thing. I handed him the money and he lead us to the bus. On the way he inquired if we would like to stop and buy some food to which I replied “You have all our money, we can’t buy any food. We have no money to buy anything.” Now I was not hungry as I wasn’t feeling well but I’m sure Elizabeth was and both of us could have used some water. He did seem to feel at least a bit bad – or faked it – and offered to buy us some food. I told him to please just get us some water, that was all we needed, thank you.

He got us situated on the bus, our bags away under the bus, and told us he would be back with our water. Five minutes later he returned with 2 grape sodas and these horrendous packaged croissants roll things with sausages in the middle. Absolutely disgusting! He asked if it would be okay and I knew there was no point in fighting it so I said thank you and accepted. We never touched any of.

Now we sat on the bus in the bus terminal for probably about 30 minutes before we left. Everyone had done such a good job warning us about people stealing our stuff that I was very nervous to the point where I went down, unloaded our bags from the storage under the bus, and hauled them up the stairs (we were on a double decker bus) to store behind our seats (we were in the last row). This made us both feel much better but created for quite a hassle when we had to get off later.

Finally ready to go, and slight less stressed with our bags in our line of sight –although only slightly less stressed, we settled into our seats and went pretty much straight to sleep.

For the S$30 we paid (maybe US$27) this bus was nice! Even if we were ripped off it was still a great journey. It was a double decker coach bus and we were on the told level, back row. The seats were extra wide (only 3 across, not 4 like a normal bus) with ample leg room. They reclined quite significantly – and when you’re in the back row there is no guilty feelings for putting your seat back – and had foot rests to prop your feet up. Almost like one of the nice recliners you have in your family room but on a bus. Awesome! With a 4 hour journey ahead, and being quite tired, we were happy to have such a nice ride – like Business Class for buses.

The bus had no bathroom and because it was a 4 hour journey there was a scheduled bathroom break half way through at a rest stop. We pulled off after about 1.5 hours, it’s around 1:30 pm at this time. In between leaving the bus depot and getting to the rest stop I had sent my mother a text (from my NZ phone that was roaming Malaysia – probably $5/text) to call the bank and try to get my account sorted so we could get cash out as soon as we got to KL. She had since texted me back to let me know if should be all fine. At the rest stop I got off to get money out of an ATM and get us a snack while Elizabeth stayed back and watched our stuff.

No ATM, no one accepts credit cards, we have literally NO Malaysian of Singaporean money, and haven’t eaten since dinner the night before. The stress really started piling on now! I went back onto the bus, chatted to Elizabeth, and check my wallet one more time for anything I could possibly find as far as money goes. I managed to pull out a US$5 that my flat mate Marissa (the American) has given me when I left the flat. Now it wasn’t in very good condition, and only a US$5 bill, but it was the only chance we had.

I hadn’t done much research on the USD to RM exchange rate before we left Singapore so I didn’t know it exactly, but I knew NZD to RM was about 1:2.5 and the USD is stronger than the NZD. Now I knew this was a gamble, and I wasn’t going to be getting any bank rate for exchanging my money here, but I was hoping for maybe 13 ringgits for my US$5. She offered me RM$10 and I was happy as. Now I had to find something that was less than RM$10, still left me RM$4 to buy water, and was vegan for Elizabeth. I found two small trays of cut up fruit, pineapple and watermelon, and with the water it came to RM$10. Perfect! Marissa, you saved our lives!

Back onto the bus I went with our treats, and so happy! Something to eat that was healthy and okay for Elizabeth. Stress level down slightly.

Once we left the rest stop it took about 3 more hours until we finally unloaded in KL. We tried to get off at the first KL bus terminal but the driver told me for Chinatown to stay on the bus. Now we had no map of KL, no knowledge of how the city was laid out (it’s very confusing by the way – no gridded streets, they all curve and wind wherever), and no idea where the next bus stop was going to be. As we got into town we started to see Chinese on the buildings and knew we had made it into Chinatown, which was a start. The bus terminal happened to be right there, but the still left us high and dry since we didn’t know where we were in Chinatown and where our hotel was in comparison.

Off the bus we went and into the bus terminal – away from possibly prying hands, hassling men, and hopefully towards an ATM. Elizabeth was able to get cash out and then we decided to head outside and find a taxi to drive us. The hotel could have been right around the corner but we didn’t know one way or another.

Now taking a taxi was not on my list of things I wanted to do. The day before heading to KL I watched a news segment in Singapore on how taxis in Malaysia are quite unsafe. Women are raped and murdered in taxis and even the white male host of the show said he had once had a tyre iron pulled on him in a taxi. Talk about stress levels, they were going up by the minute!

We found a taxi driver who didn’t look too creepy and asked him to drive us to our hotel. He told us it was around the corner and showed us how to walk. Very nice since he could have put us in the taxi, driven us around the city for a while, and made a few bucks. On the way we got lost a few times – since we were going down alleys and such – and saw our first rat. Yuck!

Elizabeth and her eagle eyes finally spotted the hotel. We check-in, found our room, laid down, put our feet up, and were so happy!

After a few minutes we went out in search of a meal but were so tired and hungry we decided to eat at a place down the street full of white people. The food was mediocre at best but it gave us enough energy to stager back to our hotel and to bed. 

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur!