Tuas checkpoint madness

[ozchick]

OK. I've recently experienced the madness at the Tuas checkpoint where one drives to Malaysia. Then the madness starts again when one arrives in Malaysia. Total time spent on this madness about 3 hrs plus (and that was leaving Sg at 7.00am)
Wouldn't it be great if common sense prevailed and the Sg and Malaysian authorities joined forces at a united location (on the Godforsaken bridge if need be, why not?!) Oh "WOULDN'T IT BE LOVERLY !?"
And need I mention the total lack of English on the 'other' side, dirty facilities etc.... ooh it's really yucky and I can't believed we queued so long to experience a country that clearly doesn't want to encourage tourists..... so what's that about ? Why don't they want tourists?
Great oddness if ever there was one............
Meanwhile, it's a stupid game and I don't wanna play any more !
Staying here. So there !

[durain]

i guessed you havent been to the woodland checkpoint then.

[banana]

Yes, compared to the Woodlands checkpoint, Tuas is a veritable Wonderland. In some ways, Malaysia still sees Singapore as that pesky brother living in the backshed.

[Strong Eagle]

Yes, Tuas is far better than Woodlands. If you really want to get through quickly do it on a motorcycle.

I cannot however, agree with your assessment of the 'other side'. Yes, less English is spoken, but this is not un-natural considering it is Malaysia where they speak Bahasa. But, I ride up, sometimes to KL, sometimes to various small kampongs to have dinner, sometimes for golf at Senia, and I am always treated well.

It is a fact that Malaysia is not as advanced as Singapore but then again the same can be said of virtually any Asian country (Korea and Japan excluded). If you want to see/travel any of these countries you live with what you get. I just got back from a motorcycle tour in the northern mountains in Vietnam... way back country... where pit toilets were the norm. In the small towns we had Asian style bathrooms... definitely not even 3 start but at least running water.

Live it, don't fight it, OzChick. It's part of the experience.

PS: Malaysia has a very strong tourism campaign program. A lot of it is focused on the northern highlands... caving, white water canoeing, rapelling, etc. Or focused on diving. Or Kinabalu. If you are dropping across the border things are more limited but dinner at a kampong is always fun.

[ScoobyDoes]

Ok...... flip side!

I have a harder job getting in and out of Singapore than i do Malaysia. In Malaysia i am NOT asked for my finger print. My boot is RARELY opened for customs inspection. At Tuas their immigration boothes are ALWAYS on the driver's side. I am NEVER passed a pissy piece of paper at immigration to hand to the customs guy that tells him...... only the number of people in the car! Sorry but the last place i would want to get in or out of a car is in that 200m between the two.

Now due to the incompetance of the SG prison system that let one of the most wanted men in Asia go free now every white guy, indian, arab, woman and child gets finger printed. This was introduced immediately after his escape. How do we relate or look like this guy with his limp? STUPID, POINTLESS and in many other countries ILLEGAL.

What pisses me off more with SG...... a BRAND NEW checkpoint, and they still build half of the immigration boothes on the passenger side. Incomprehensible!

3hrs at 7am through the Tuas border is quite rare, and then usually coincides with a long holiday. We went through last Friday afternoon to play golf and we went from Jurong to the course in 30-min flat. We came back through MY side instantly but had to wait 40-min to get through the SG side..... not enough boothes are ever open, and customs checks can sometime back-up to the boothes and beyond. STUPID. Then you have to drive over the UTTER PARANOID speed bumps large enough to damage even an SUV, then that crazy Tyre Shredder device next to the police checkpoint. This is after weaving your way out of the plaza and over another combined Tyre Shredder/Speed Bump.

On that return trip from the golf course we looked over to the exit side of Tuas and yes, it probably would have taken several hours to get through the border given the queue was probably about 1km. This definately was due to the long weekend and people heading north after work on Friday but you know one thing? There was no queue on the MY side awaiting them

Soon after passing through the Tuas checkpoint Malaysia welcomes you with a loosly enforced 110kph speed limit.... in Singapore, welcome to semi-strict 80kph.

Sorry, but Malaysia is a breeze in comparison.

[taxico]

are the inconveniences because of that terrorist who clambered his way to freedom?

[cutiebutie]

are the inconveniences because of that terrorist who clambered his way to freedom?

Good point, increased security has its reasons at times.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Yup. Typical local kneejerk reaction of slamming the Barn Door closed after the horse has escaped.

[ScoobyDoes]

Load of Rubbish....... most of everything was in place long before hop-along went over the fence. What they DID introduce after his escape was the scanning of a finger. Utterly pointless, and i'll like to know how my Chinese wife with a HK passport looks like an Indonesian Muslim guy with a limp, i mean, let's be sensible about things.

Okay so they check the boot of every car going out now which they didn't really do before, but they did check every one on the way into SG and have done for years.

The piece of paper immigration give you with the number of people in the car started before "the escape of the terrorist."

[cutiebutie]

Yup. Typical local kneejerk reaction of slamming the Barn Door closed after the horse has escaped.

Why would this be a knee-jerk reaction? I would have thought it quite rational to beef up security when a threat has been identified and seen to be magnified.
Your recent posts do seem to be quite willy-nilly anti-Singaporean. I don't mind, but it just doesn't seem like you.

Would you then classify the US heightened alert and security measures post 9/11 'typical American knee-jerk reactions', or the British increasing their embassy security post bombings as 'typical British knee-jerk reactions', Spanish increased security on trains after the bombings as a 'typical Spanish knee-jerk reaction' or any reaction to something that has happened?



Criticise the place, of course, it has many oddities and idiosyncrasies but mocking normal moves and actions shows no wit.

[Plavt]

The way I see it most 'beefed-up' security is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction. Finger printing merely identifies somebody, it tells you nothing of their intentions. Richared Reid for instance was unknown to the authorities and had he succeeded would have died along with numerous others. A good number of the increased security measures in America are little more than a farce as is increased security on trains in Spain or anywhere else is likely to be (securing the London Underground for example is next to impossible).

I think Sundaymorningstaple's point was in relation to one of his previous posts; security guards in Singapore are badly paid and hence they have little interest in their work. Pay people poorly and you get a bad job.

[sundaymorningstaple]

CB, No, their security was increased as a direct result of the activities that had happened. Security measures should have been heightened ever since 911 and the rising of terrorist activities world wide (although they had amply warning by previous episodes so actually they were a bit of knee-jerk as well. However, after an episode/incident all the countries you named did increase security (also shabbily). If you look at it that way, then the initial roundup of the JI detainees 3 years ago should have been the wake up call here to beef up security. Did they. Or were they waiting until they blew up a building? (after all - they had already uncovered the plot and let the leader get away) in the initial roundup - the same one who has gotten away again, you would have thought they would have beefed up security then (rather than just lip service). Then when a government goes out if it's way to try to convince the general public that a terrorist is still in Singapore when they let him escape with guards not 20 feet away and don't have a clue as to where he is, I can't help but think it's a knee-jerk reaction. I mean gosh, they already had labeled him "Singapore's Most Dangerous Prisoner" before he escaped. Why, then, contain him is such a insecure facility? Sorry, but I'm afraid your recent nationalistic bent is just a wee bit OTT on this one.

I'm not anti-Singaporean, I'm anti-stupidity! And now they are debating on castigating the guards because they didn't train them properly? Come on, give me a break.

[cutiebutie]

Oh, SMS. I am not being nationalistic, I am simply being objective. When does a cause or symptom garner a response? When is it deemed to be knee-jerk and when not? What is a catalyst? What does or should it elicit?

Nationalistic I am not, but neither am I just accepting of unwarranted criticism.

(as for the guy escaping, I suspect that it was intentional but who knows why)

[sundaymorningstaple]

In today's world, at the first signs or inklings would be my guess. Why do we have locks and bars on our windows & doors? Because it's a very good possibility. Have all of us been robbed or assaulted? No, but we know that it has happened so therefore we heighten our security "before" it happens. Not after we get robbed.

Nobody is criticizing but just stating a fact. Security should have been ramped up before the guy ever escaped. Security should have been ramped up at the detention facility before he escaped. He'd already escaped once both here and in Indonesia. He was known as an escape artist. Anyway, this isn't going anywhere. I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been said by most already but using the different words (the meaning is the same).

If I go to the doctor with a symptom, once I find out the symptom/cause then I take preventative steps to prevent it from becoming a full blown problem. That's exactly like the reason for the diet I've been on for the past 20 weeks. The symptoms like HBP & cholesterol (the plans) are there. Should I wait for the actual Heart "Attack" before I decide to protect myself? Of course not. Anyway, enough of this.

[rasserie]

im a singaporean who has a relative living in malaysia.

every week i drive up to malaysia.


im a special case but to those who were wondering why tuas or woodlands checkpoint is so busy, here it is.


1] there are so many malaysians who worked in singapore due to the difference in currency.

1 SGD = 2.35 MYR at time of writing.


2] the price of petrol in malaysia that encourages singaporeans to drive up just to top up petrol

1 litre = SGD 2.10 in singapore
1 litre = MYR 2.70 in malaysia (after the petrol price increase)


if u convert 2.10 SGD to MYR, its rougly 4.90 MYR


now compare MYR 2.70 to MYR 4.90, no wonder so many singaporeans go to malaysia to top up petrol

can u imagine before the price increase, a liter of petrol costs 1.92RM.





on weekdays, the typical NON rush hour would be 11pm onwards. sometimes, u are lucky to see the customs border deserted around 10pm.


motorcycles? good luck if u try to ride thru the customs border. its like a swarming hornet.