Rushing to KLIA

I late for my appointment for SITA installation of Juniper Peribit at JAL office in Changi Airport. So the whole installation only finished at about 2pm. Initially still thinking of taking SMRT Buses service 858 to Woodlands Regional Interchange then transfer to bus to Johor Bahru, so now looks like I am running out of time.

I took a taxi from Changi Airport to Woodlands Checkpoint. The journey took me about half an hour and it’s low human traffic at checkpoint, so I was able to clear both Singapore and Malaysia customs by 2.50pm. The taxi ride costs me a hefty SGD $23.00, including surcharge for hired taxi from airport.

At Singapore Immigration, I boarded SBSTransit bus service 170 to go to Malaysia custom, and the same bus service took me to JB Larkin terminal (Note: Some (and most) service 170 is terminating at Kotaraya terminal, which is more of infra-city bus station, so looks carefully before boarding).

At Larkin, I got a shock when Plusliner said they offers no bus service to Seremban, despite their homepage saying otherwise, with even the number of seat availabiltiy. Left without choice, I have to buy the ticket from ‘tout’, who sells bus tickets for non-scheduled bus service, mostly to Kuala Lumpur. This kind of bus only departs when it’s full, so don’t believe the whatever timing of schedule that the ‘tout’ told you.

Anyway, the bus managed to depart on 3.30 pm. The bus is bound for Kuala Lumpur, with few alighting at Seremban, yet charged me the full fare to Kuala Lumpur, RM 25. The driver drove slowly, and only arrived at Seremban of Negeri Sembilan at about 7.15 pm.

It’s raining heavily at the time.

I searched for the direct bus service from Seremban to KLIA that Wei Heng mentioned to me. It’s actually a ordinary non-express bus that serves various vicinities around Seremban, Sepand, Banting and Nilai. According to a passenger on bus, the ride to KLIA will take about 1 hour, and the next bus will only depart on 8 pm. I decided to take the KTM Komuter to Nilai and transfer to bus to KLIA from there.

As it’s raining heavily, I hired a taxi again, this time costed me RM 6 for a 5-minutes short ride to KTM Komuter station. The KTM Komuter fare from Seremban to Nilai is RM 2.30, and the frequency at night time is a poor more than 10 minutes a train. So when I reached Nilai, it’s already 10 past 8 at night. Worse still, there is no express bus service to KLIA at that time, and the bus service that I took was also an ordinary non-express public bus that mostly used for serving locals. I should have boarded the bus to KLIA from Seremban instead.

The bus fare to KLIA from Nilai costs RM 2.50. The bus didn’t go to KLIA LCC Terminal, which Air Asia flies, but only to main terminal, so I would have to take another shuttle bus service between KLIA main terminal building and LCC terminal. According to bus driver, there is another bus service that destined to LCC terminal, which I should have took instead.

Anyway, I reached KLIA main terminal building at about 9.15 pm, and I didn’t take the shuttle bus service to LCC terminal, as brother of Leng Ping (my brother)’s girlfriend waited me outside of departure hall and fetched us altogether to LCC terminal, which took almost 15 minutes car ride.