Goodbye Singapore, Hello Malaysia
December 23, 2008
Singapore and Malaysia
We arrived at Changi Airport early morning, around 5:30AM. It was roughly a 4 hour flight from Trivandrum to Singapore. We got our luggage and headed to the Singapore Tourism Desk to ask how to get to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by bus. 
While my friend Jay advised us to take the local Singapore bus to Johore’s Larkin Bus Station and take the bus there to KL, the Singapore Tourism Desk advised us to go either to the bus station along Beach Road or the bus station near Queens Street. We thought that the station near Queens was Johore’s Larkin, but it turns out that taking the bus near the border was much cheaper which was what Jay was advising. Ah, our misinterpretation!
Anyway, it wasn’t too difficult getting the MRT to Bugis Station and walking to the bus station. Two tickets to KL cost a little over 60SGD. The bus leaves at 9AM - there was still time for breakfast at a food court nearby.
Our final destination wasn’t really KL, but rather Seri Kembangan, which means stopping at Kawasan Rehat Serdang where our friends will pick us up. It was just 10-15 minutes drive from their house to the rest stop, a much better meeting point than KL which can be over 45 minutes drive because of the traffic.
Our bus driver was very good - a small jolly fellow from Malacca. He was so kind as to let us use his mobile phone so I could contact my friends and let them know that we’re on our way, and to lend us 50 RM (Malaysian Ringgits) so we could have lunch at our second rest stop. 
A funny driver too, with the task of a sheepdog herding a bus full of sheep through Singapore immigration and then Malaysia immigration. After we passed all the immigration, he told everyone to “stop talking, talking, talking.” It was so funny. Anyhow, he did manage to shut everyone up by running a DVD of Mel Gibson’s film Apocalypto.
The four-hour drive into Malaysia was mind-boggling: all we could see were acres and acres of manicured lawns, plantations of palm, interspersed with rows and rows of identical flats. Everything looked so amazingly clean and ordered, a fantasy land for the landscape artist.
Although I haven’t seen Jay and Chuyuan for almost 5 years now, I recognized them immediately as our bus drove into the rest stop. They haven’t aged at all it seems! It was so good to see them again, and of course, so good that finally they got to see Trevor.
We dropped by a bakery to get some bread and pastries, then had a bit of a look around the village until finally reaching Chuyuan’s family home. We got introduced to Chuyuan’s parents - quite a shock when I saw her mom because she looked so much like my own mother! Then we got introduced to the family cat and dog. After tea, Trevor decided to join Jay for a swim at the nearby recreation center. I joined them just to see what the place was like.Quite nice, actually, lots of kids swimming in the kiddie pool with their families, all enjoying themselves.
The family cat, Cheeky. A real tortie cat which reminded me of our own Kitty Kitty, a tortie calico cat.
Dinner was at a kind of food court nearby - a place where there are numerous food stalls and a common eating space. Quite good food and a lot of choice.
Hearty Hakka food. Hakka refers to a subgroup of the Han Chinese people.
Then finally, some rest! Tomorrow will be more time to explore the village.
(Photo below) View outside our window in the morning and (below) nighttime.
