Storyline: Home to home westward
A long time ago I had this idea to travel to or from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur by train as part of our around-the-world-by-train itinerary. At that time such existed. When I began the detailed booking for our current trip though, the train was no longer running from Singapore. There still was a train from Johor Bahru Malaysia that had to be changed at Gemas. It departed at 8:45am. Getting to the border, crossing the border and then getting to the train station looked like we had to get up shortly after midnight and then spend a day changing trains, etc. And if we wanted to go to Malacca, there was no direct train. So, I dumped this idea and opted for a bus. Seemed that there were hourly bus services from Singapore to Malacca.
A couple of weeks ago, while visiting Mike and Carole in Wagga Wagga, I decided to check the best way for foreigners like us to take a bus, given the fact that we had to clear two immigration and customs checkpoints. I asked on TripAdvisor and had a few replies. The message was – in this world you get what you pay for. Yes, there are hourly buses if not more frequent, that are cheap, but they don’t wait for you at the border. There is some waiting time, after which they expect you to board the next bus from the same company. As foreigners, “take the Super Coach”, they advised. It is more expensive, but they will wait for you and it is more comfortable. And so, I booked 2 seats – upper deck, first row. It cost $60 CAD for the 2 of us for a 5-hour ride and 2 border crossings. The same TA user provided the address of the bus company office, which is where the bus departs in the morning. It is one bus only at 8am. It is a tourist coach of a sort because it returns the same day, often with day trippers. To be on the safe side, we found the office at the Concord hotel on 100 Orchard Road on our first day in Singapore, and talked to a nice lady. She advised us to be at the office to check-in and get our boarding passes at 7:30am on the departure day.
And so, after early breakfast this morning we took a cab to the Concord Hotel. Taxis are somewhat unusual for us as we usually walk, and it was only a half-hour walk from our hotel. But we didn’t want to get sweaty before boarding the bus. The lady checked our passports and then checked us in. What this means is that she took the name of the hotel where we would stay in Malacca and gave us Super Coach stickers that we had to put on our clothing.
This bus doesn’t go to Melaka Sentral, where most of the other busses end their journey, but drops passengers off at a few hotels. Ours wasn’t among those listed so I had selected the closest one. However, the check-in clerk told us that she’d give the list to the driver and he would probably accommodate us. So far so good. After chatting with a few fellow passengers, a German couple and 2 young ladies from Vancouver who were in Singapore for a dragon boat tournament, we boarded the bus. The driver was really helpful, checking everyone, then bringing us water bottles (although we had water with us). A clerk from the office made sure everyone was on board before we departed.
Having booked well in advance, we had the first row of seats on the upper deck. The bus is double decker, but downstairs it was dark, with luggage compartment at one end and at the other, a curtain separating the driver from the passengers. Upstairs the seats were two plus one in a row. There was no one in the single seat next to us, so we used it for our backpacks. With seats just behind the big window and high above the road it really felt like a Super Coach. The seats were actually over the stairs, so there was no one behind us either.
Alex said I may like it so much that I might decide I want one for our travels at home. Hmmm, I may, but the problem is that the driver’s seat is downstairs, just under the one we used as a storage for our bags. (Actually, the problem is cost. We’d have to sell our house plus take out a big loan for one of these!-A.)
We took some photos of rush hour in Singapore, and Alex took videos that we will eventually publish too. The highways, seemingly as busy as our Hwy 401, are full of greenery, trees and flowers. So again, it feels so different to be driven through a forest. Even the most industrial areas felt pretty.
As we stopped at the Singapore border, the driver got us out and told us to take our passports, go through the immigration exit checkpoint and meet the bus on the other side.
Leaving Singapore was as easy as getting in. Even easier, since our luggage was aboard the bus. We only took our backpacks containing our valuables. It was all automated, as was our entrance. We scanned our passports and thumb-printed ourselves out, exactly as we checked ourselves in. There were toilets at the exit, but we didn’t want to miss the bus, which was waiting close by.
We drove over the Johor Straits bridge and then it was time to go through Malaysian immigration and customs. For this, we had to take all our luggage with us. Meanwhile other busses had arrived, and there was a big line up with and only a few counters working. There was a sign “Silence please”, so the officers stamped our passports and nodded to the fingerprinting machine silently. Malaysians take prints of the index fingers whereas Singapore takes thumbprints. Then we had to go through customs. We rolled our luggage on a pathway, two ladies with hijabs sitting off to one side by an x-ray machine similar to those used at airport check-ins. We looked towards them they just waved us on.
That was it for our border crossing between Singapore and Malaysia by bus. The driver again was waiting for us, loaded back our suitcases and went looking for the last few passengers.
There was a Malaysian lady who boarded the bus here as a tour guide. She made sure every passenger’s hotel was recorded on her voucher and told us that the bus would stop at our hotel. The German couple we chatted with were staying here too. So we’d all be dropped at our hotel. Our tour guide told us about the provinces (they call them states here) we were crossing.
The major industry now is producing palm oil, so all the forest we drove through were palm tree plantations. She told us that the plantations had to replace their rubber trees with palm oil trees since rubber is not popular anymore. The highway was nice, clean and surrounded by greenery, even in the middle there were flowery bushes.
We had a 20 min stop at Yong Peng for refreshments, and arrived in Malacca a little after noon. It was close to 1pm by the time we were dropped off at our hotel. An easy ride.
Thanks again to TA and its users, we had great experience.
If you go (Travel tips)
- Currently the Super Coach departs from the parking lot behind the Concord hotel (100 Orchard St). You have to check-in their office and obtain the sticker and luggage tags.
- Take a photo of your bus and licence plate because there will be many buses at the borders and you’ll have to find the right one.
- Take your valuables with you when getting off at the Singapore exit point, but your luggage can stay on board.
- The paper visas that we had received on entry to Singapore indicated that these must be submitted to immigration officers on exit, but nobody asked for ours. We were told by our driver that with the automated passport scan and thumbprint system, the requirement was no longer enforced.
- Make sure you get your passport stamped when entering Malaysia. You’ll need all your luggage for possible customs inspection.
- You can buy tickets in advance online http://www.luxurycoach.com.sg/.
- If the location or timing is not good for you there are many other busses. You can check www.easybook.com or 12go.asia/en. We used the easybook site to book within Malaysia.
- One last thing. Don’t forget your toilet paper for the Malaysian comfort stop.
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