Getting to Johor Bahru – Walking In (From Woodlands of course)

June 28th, 2008 admin

With the bad traffic conditions to Johor Bahru (Johor Baru, Johore Bahru, Johor Baharu), it might be a good option to walk in to JB instead of driving. Of course, walking really means walking from Woodlands Centre to the Woodlands Custom Checkpoint, taking Bus 160,170,950, CW1,CW2 or SJE across the causeway to Johor Custom, clear it and viola! You are through to Johor Bahru, and probably 1-2 hour(s) ahead of your friends who are driving. On a very bad driving day, they may even not touch the Woodlands Custom yet.

Common Driving scenario. Traffic jam at Woodlands Center. It will take you at least another 45mins before you can reach the Singapore custom.

Singapore Custom
On the Singapore side, walking conditions are bad on Friday nights, which is the peak period when most Malaysian workers return home. Between 7pm – 9pm on Fridays, the human queue at the Woodlands Checkpoint stretches all the way to the entrance. Ironically, the experience of cars cutting into your queue when you are driving applies even when you are not driving. In the midst of the crowd, you may find people cutting into your queue, the human queue. Saturday afternoons during 12noon-3pm are also a bad time to walk in due to the crowd.

Malaysia Custom
On the Malaysia side, clearing the Malaysian custom used to be bad. Very bad. In the “good” old days every Satudays, you need to take 2 hours to sweat it out at the poorly ventilated Malaysian custom before it is your turn to get your passport and your white form stamped. If you are in a hurry, the only option to speed things up is to approach some of the touts who park their cars just beside the immigration booths (for cars), pay them about RM$20 to get into the car and clear the Johor custom via the car route.

With the eradication of the white form for Singaporeans (there is no need for Singaporeans to fill up any forms now), things are much better now as the processing time/pax is effectively halved. On Saturdays during 12noon – 4pm, it may occasionally take 30mins to clear the Johor custom which is relatively acceptable.  Some golden rules to note at the Malaysia Custom:

1. Always try to join the fastest queue, not the shortest queue. Take some time to look at the individual speed of the Immigration Officer at the clearing booth. A fast one can simply rubber stamp your passport without really taking a look at your face (10s). Another officer may scan your passport, look at your face, look at your passport again, flip to the page of the last stamped page of your passport, stamp your passport and give your a polite smile before returning your passport to you (45sec). A learning officer may do all that, clarify the procedures with his fellow colleagues (45s + 1min)… You will know which queue to join from this simple observation.

2. Do not at anytime try to sneak past the custom pretending you are a Malaysian. Some people do that by simply displaying their Singapore passport with a Malaysian cover and assuming they can just walk through the Malaysian queue unquestioned. The penalty for this is JAIL.

Once you clear the Malaysia custom and take the first step out, you will be greeted by taxi drivers who will ask if you intend to travel mid distance routes like to Senai airport, Tun Aminah or Tampoi. I generally ignore them. If you intend to travel near (to Tebrau for example), flag for a taxi once you exit the underpass that links to Jalan Wong Ah Fook.

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Entry Filed under: News and Information