Leaving KL

Traveling back to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur is almost like going home. Back to a familiar hotel, familiar city with English street signs and western toilets. We will pick up the luggage the hotel kindly stored for us, say goodbye to Singapore and early Wednesday morning board our 13 hour flight to London.

For now, it’s the Transstar Bus Terminal in Kuala Lumpur where we board our first class bus at 2pm for the 5 hour ride to Singapore. It’s double decker with 16 single seats upstairs, karaoke and conference lounge downstairs, individual tv’s with movies, video games and music and, of course, a bus attendant. The bus attendant offers blankets, a hot meal, water, coffee, tea and crackers.

Unlike our bus trip to KL, we don’t get to know our bus mates. We are the only westerners in the group of primarily Chinese and Malaysian travelers who speak little English. Our bus attendant recites traveler’s notices (rest stop 10 minutes) in heavily accented English, but we know the routine and need little assistance on the return trip.

I am not fooled by the bathroom stops and now know that the facilities will be primitive to western sensibilities. My tissues at the ready, my eyes dart quickly from stall to stall searching for the western toilet. A door opens, a squat toilet. I turn to the woman behind me and signal that she may go ahead. Another door opens and I quickly take my turn. When I leave, the Muslim woman signals she will wait for non-western accommodations.

Different cultures, different viewpoint. As I’ve come to learn, the squat toilets all have a hose which can be used to wash the floor and surrounding area before or after each use. Therefore, although the floor is always wet, it is clean. The western stalls do not have a hose and therefore are not clean. Primitive?

We have two rest stops; one Immigration stop without luggage and one Customs stop with a luggage check. At Immigration and Customs the rooms are large, the lines move quickly, no one has a bag checked and at no time are we required to remove our shoes, take out our laptops, take off our coats or sweaters or remove our phones. As the woman inspector at Customs informed me when I placed my Blackberry in the bin, “people may take your phone. It is much more secure if you leave it in your luggage.”

This efficiency was displayed during our bus trip as we gawked at an accident scene on the expressway. A large truck carrying hazardous materials crashed through the guide rail and over turned. There were lots of emergency vehicles on the scene including two hazmat teams, police cars and an ambulance. The bus never stopped, just slowed a bit. Where were the long lines of cars, trucks, buses and RV’s that in the U.S. would stretch for miles? In this case, the divider was cut and traffic redirected to the opposite side of the highway for approximately one mile where it was directed back to the appropriate lane. All traffic on both sides of the expressway kept moving with no delays. Efficient.

We arrived in Singapore only to face the bumper to bumper city traffic. Not so efficient. It was good to arrive at our hotel and have the hotel porter say, “Welcome back. Good to see you. Did you enjoy your trip to KL.”