To Malaysia and Back

Went back to Malaysia on the 9th and came back to Singapore on the 14th. This must've been one of my shortest trips back.

However, it was much more interesting than some previous trips I made back home. I was used to crowded buses, crowded MRT trains etc., but I never saw such a long Customs queue in my life. There were like only 3~4 counters open for Malaysians and the people were queuing all the way til the automatic doors you see when you enter the complex. As I was queuing, all of a sudden one more counter was open; I didn't know what happened at first lah, but when I saw a huge mass of people in front of me suddenly running off to another direction, it was a cue for me to run as well. Phew! I had at least cut my waiting time by half.

The next shock was in Larkin. There were absolutely no tickets left for Batu Pahat anymore! Was getting a bit panicky liao, coz it was around 6.30pm and I didn't want to spend the night lounging in Larkin or going back to Singapore. So I tried to get a bus to Segamat which passes by Yong Peng so that I could get off there. Buses to Muar, Kluang etc. were all packed. Gosh... this situation never happened to me before. Then again, maybe I have never gone back to Malaysia on a Friday evening before.

Lucky me... managed to persuade the person-in-charge to let me on a bus to Batu Pahat. All the tickets for the bus were sold and the bus was supposed to leave at 6.40pm, but many of the seats were still empty at that time. So they waited and waited loh... until around 7.10pm!

In Batu Pahat itself... kinda surprised that there's so much development going on... New housing estates being built, new shopping complexes being proposed and also news of Carrefour moving in. Whoa... guess I really don't know my town so well anymore. When I told Imran on MSN about this he commented that it's "1 point for modernisation" but unfortunately, as I replied to him, it was "0 points for ecology". That's because a lot of trees are being cut down. And there are no new parks or anything to replace them, no space beside roads to plant them either. Blame it on incessant and haphazard development. Oh, and lousy city planners too. They could really learn a thing or two from Singapore.

Another thing is I got my hair dyed! Haha... been waiting to do this for quite some time. Want to try out something new mah... And it's definitely cheaper back in Malaysia. Too bad cannot show any photos here... Camera with Vivi...

On the bus back to NTU met with a Shanghai couple. The husband was working at Shanghai Jiaotong University (上海交通大学) and the wife was working at a hospital. They came down to visit SMU, NUS, NTU and some hospitals (wanted to compare with Shanghai ones). Couldn't really understand them at times coz their accent was quite strong. Always a pleasure to meet people for other places : )

Back in Singapore and stress is building up again. Hope I can fare well in the AIESEC Exco. Gonna start planning for next year soon. And choir really needs to buck up for the World Choir Games... it's like only 4 weeks left... And I'm going to trek up Gunung Tahan soon... hope I won't be a burden to my teammates... haha...