When you should NEVER lend your Touch N Go card

The sight is familiar. You are at a Johor Bahru customs and there is only 1 car ahead of you at the customs booth. You feel really good as it had taken you 1 hour just to clear the Singapore customs and all you want is to quickly clear the JB booth, enter Malaysia and drive to a restaurant for a good meal.

Then, one of the following 2 scenarios can happen, which can piss you off really big time:

1. The driver in the car in front requests for white cards from the immigration officer, and starts filling them up, because he AND his family had not done so earlier. So you wait impatiently and curse your luck – you start counting the number of heads you can see in the car in front (4 big heads, 2 small heads = 6 pax = 9 minutes). You relook into your hand phone again and see if you can get the 3G connection from Singapore to surf net so as to pass time. None! You frown and keep shaking your head for the next 9 minutes – eventually, you will get through. Just blame your luck!

OR

2. The car in front retrieves the passport from the immigration officer and you beamed – your turn soon! But only if the car in front clears the Touch and Go booth. Your head drops when the car in front stops and the driver car door opens.. He does not have a Touch and Go card! He comes up to you with 3 Ringgit and request if you can allow him the use of your Touch N Go card. Thinking you can still earn 40 sen and do a good deed, you obliged. The car in front clears the Touch N Go booth. Very shortly, you had your passport “chopped” and it is now your turn. You flashed your TNG card – no response. Funny though, it was working for the earlier car! You opened your car door and walked right to the TNG booth and flashed the card again. In fact, you did not flash it – you PRESSED it against the reader. No response. You will then come to the realisation. The TNG card can only be used at a custom booth only once, after which it cannot be used again for a period of time! Now, you have to either buy a new card, or reverse and drive to the adjacent booth such that your TNG card can be used. Just blame your ignorance!

Touch and Go Card

Scenario 2 illustrates the following: Read on…

4 comments December 13th, 2010

No more F1 driving from Johor Bahru to Woodlands

Since late Nov 2010, traffic from Johor Bahru CIQ exit to Woodlands had been diverted to a new bridge which cuts down on the traveling distance.

This means that when you drive out from Johor Bahru CIQ towards Woodlands, you will:

1. ENCOUNTER less potholes
2. PRESERVE your brake-pads
3. NOT encounter a situation of 2 lanes merging into 1 lane anymore (unless a vehicle broke down)
4. PROBABLY pass a red light (just before the new bridge merges onto the causeway, since everyone else does it)
5. HEAVE a sign of despair (since you will be able to see the entire causeway while still on the bridge, together with the traffic jam building up).

Refer to the videos below for what you will actually see once you exit the Johor Bahru CIQ:
Video 1

Video 2 Read on…

6 comments December 5th, 2010

Moving on, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Johor Bahru

Coming to 2 years since the new Johor Bahru CIQ has opened, our inquisitive team at Limsimi wanders about Jalan Wong Ah Fook to recapture some of the current images and compare it against the past.

Here’s to a nostalgic past!

BEFORE: Long queues of Taxis and Cigarette Sellers just outside the old CIQ

AFTER: Deserted, this stretch of road is almost void of activities

BEFORE - Lively crowd at the Underpass just outside the old CIQ

AFTER - Sealed! You can no longer use the underpass.

In addition to that, small businesses within the direct vicinity of the Johor Bahru CIQ were affected Read on…

1 comment August 8th, 2010