Around 11 we left the hotel to catch our bus back to KL. We slept through the journey. When we reached KL we were really tired as it was the last day of our amazing trip. It was around 6:00 am in the morning and there was still an hour left for ticket windows to open. So decided to freshen up and store our luggage in safe place. Luckily we found a lodge nearby where we can store our luggage for 10 rinngets and also for 5 ringgets can have shower too.. that was good. After getting ready and putting our luggage at the safety of the lodge, we decided that we will go and see the famous Petronas towers. First thing’s first…We went to bus terminal to buy tickets to Singapore. There we had another shocking news. All the buses going to Singapore were full! So no tickets!! We were tired and just wanted to go back home, so me and hiren tried separately to find any means of transportation but no luck… after another half an hour hiren came back with one Indian guy, they have managed a deal with a taxi driver who was ready to take us to Johor Bahru for 300 ringgets (SGD 150), we were desparate and tired so decided why not.
But at that moment somebody started shouting “Please queue here for tickets to Johor Bahru” we ran towards that direction where a lady with head scarf was standing outside a ticket window with a walkie talkie in her hand, we bought 3 tickets for JB. She told us the bus will depart at 10:30 am. We were happy and decided to have breakfast as it was just 8:00 am, went to Starbucks for coffee and some food. Didn’t forgot to take our new Sardar friend from India. Heard his story with our breakfast. He just came from Thailand 1 day ago, the hotel booked by his travel agent said there was no booking on his name though he has paid full money to the agent, so he has to pay again in Thailand, in Malaysia the stay was alright. His next destination was Singapore where he suppose to stay for 1 night and fly back to India. He was a police officer in town of Patiala, Punjab. After finishing the breakfast, we went to see the Petronas. Thought it was early in the morning there were more than 50 people most of them foreigners lining up to buy tickets to go up in Petronas. We took some photos around Petronas and it was ready 10 so came back to bus terminal.
Around 10:30 am the lady reappeared near the ticket booth and told us to follow her… we walk down on the main road and then she asked us to stop and form a group. After about 20 minutes wait a bus came and we all boarded the bus. It was not very comfortable but we were happy we were going back!! The journey back to JB was comfortable (except the part when I had to pee and the bus driver took around 40 minutes before stopping for a break!! It is very hard to enjoy the scenery with full bladder ;-) ) after “lightening” myself, I slept most of the time. We reached JB around 5 pm. We boarded bus number 170 which goes near bugis junction, Singapore. But when bus reached main road from the terminal, we saw the sea of vehicles going towards the same direction. All vehicles were going towards Singapore border. It took us more than 45 minutes to reach to Singapore boarder (normally 10 minutes). After clearing the Malaysian border we entered Singapore, woodlands checkpoint, again almost 1 hour for immigration and customs and wait for our next bus.
Reached Bugis around 7:00 pm. We have decided to help the Sardarji out in finding his hotel and making sure that everything is alright. So went with him to find his hotel which we found after 30 minutes in china town. There was no booking on his name, phoned his local agent and waited and argued with the hotel manager for more than an hour, we were tired, angry, frustrated and in the desperate need of a bath, finally out of nothing the agent called and settled with the hotel manager to keep Sardarji for one night and he will bare the charges and will settle it with the Indian agent. Felt happy and satisfied that helped needy fellow Indian. Parted with Sardarji with an invitation to come to his hometown “Patiala”.
In the end it was a journey full of excitement, difficulties, fun, heat, humidity, beauty, thrill, satisfaction and humility, which definitely made me slightly more tolerant, wiser and informed among other things. Hope you all liked my company. Please feel free to give me your suggestions in how I can improve my travel writing and how do you like the writing in general. Thank you for being with me in this journey. Hope to see you in the next adventure of Nilesh till then “Long Days and Pleasant Nights” (From Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series novels).
