Hmmmm. Since I don't speak Bahasa Malaysia, should I retitle this entry to "Aeroline Basi"?
So after an evening at the Singapore Island Club (because Wild Rocket is closed on Mondays!!) and overnight in the Summer Tavern, I dragged my roller bag toward Waterfront Plaza. Then I gave up and flagged down a taxi and RODE to Waterfront Plaza. A very inconvenient location since there's no MRT stop nearby. Aeroline has since moved their Singapore terminal to Harbourfront. It's a good location since all the buses and taxis know the location and it's the terminus of the NEL.
Get on the bas...
Now why am I riding the basi instead of flying or taking the train, you may ask? Well, taking the train is SLOWER than taking the basi. And taking the basi is hella cheaper than flying and it's just a few hours longer. See, Singapore and Malaysian Airlines have an arrangement where they monopolize the KL-Singapore route, keeping all others (such as Air Asia, JetStar, Tiger, etc) out. The prices that are charged are expensive for a 40 minute flight. In other words, RIP-OFF! There's movement to change that, but for now, the basi is your best bet.
And for basi, it's not that bad. It's a modern double decker with seating for about 20 upstairs and a lounge area and seating for another 10 or so downstairs. The basi left promptly on time and drove to the Tuas checkpoint. Where we all played the "immigration hokey-pokey" which went something like this:
Get off the basi. Queue up in scary building. Stamp passport. Get on da basi.
Drive across the bridge
Get off the basi. Take your luggage. Queue up in scary building. Stamp passport. Toss luggage into back of basi. Get on da basi.
A bit of a pain, this is. I do understand the need for passport control on proper sides of the border, but geez, still a pain. Kenny Sia wrote about this too and made a neat-o graphic.
Apparently, it's a special thing if your KL basi has food. From what I'm told, it's usually a cold sandwich. On Aeroline, you get a bottle of "processed tap water" and a hot lunch.
Hot lunch!
What is this? Looks like chicken...
Besides the mystery meat, the rest of lunch wasn't too bad. And the ride over was comfortable. The seats were leather (nicer seats than UA), they reclined and there were a couple of movies (Pirates of the Carribean and White Chicks) too. Thankfully, I slept through most of the movies.
The view from my seat
Didn't really miss much out the window during the 5 hour trip because this is what you see for most of it.
Yep, it's a lot of rubber trees. Going by pretty fast. That's all you see for about 5 hours. Then 5.1 hours later, you see this (along with a LOT of traffic)
Petronas Towers at night from the basi
This means we've arrived! My frens are here to collect me so this means time for real food!!
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