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| The queue to the Malaysian custom |
No inpatient to cover this weekend. Malaysia is going to enforce its long deferred VEP (Vehicle Entry Permit) come 1st July, 2025. A fine of RM 300 will be imposed on vehicle entering JB without a valid VEP.
I have already activated my VEP since November last year. However, the RFID tagged to my new vehicle was apparently not detectable when I drove into JB last year.
Hence, I thought it may be good for me to test out my RFID this week.
But alas, New Straits Time reported that the jam across crossway was estimated to be 3 hours or more on Saturday (21 June).
The intrepid me decided to drive into Johor Bahru despite the dire warning from the authority. Woke up early at 5.10am. Left our house by 5.45am, and began our drive to Johor Bahru today (Sunday morning).
And yes, there was some jam as expected. It took us slightly over half an hour to clear the custom on both ends of the causeway (which was not too bad, I reckoned). And yes, the RFID for my car worked well. We cleared the Malaysian immigration check point without any problem.
However, while following the GPS guide to our destination in Skudai (a morning market which we haven't been to before), we drove back to the JB immigration check point unwittingly... Have to declare to the immigration officer, get clearance from another immigration officers housed in a hidden corridor (after submitting some written statement), then made a U turn through a tunnel. No... we were not the only car making the same mistake. There were two other cars being guided through the U-turn tunnel.
Finally, we arrived at the morning market. My wife bought some local delicacies and vegetables there.
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| Parked out car near the morning market, this is a one way street with no exit.... |
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| Yong Tau Foo |
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| Vegetable stall |
We saw a shop house selling egg - bought 3 trays of Kampung eggs. Then walked to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast (curry noodles).
After breakfast, we drove about 20 minutes to Bestari Bestmarket (a supermarket cum wet market), and then another 15 minutes to Restaurant Triple One at Jalan Perkasa 3 (for Trengganu Curry Fish Noodle). After this, we drove to eat Foo Chew Noodles at Ah Ling Foo Chew Noodle (Jalan Mutiara 1/11). By then it was already 2pm, time to go home.
Inevitably, we were caught in the jam at JB causeway. It took us over 1 hour to clear the jam at both ends of the causeway.
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| The dreaded jam @ causeway |
We finally reached home at 3.20pm. What a day!
在长堤上碰到堵车，是件令人揪心的事。再者便是成功过了移民关卡后，因为走错路而需重闯关卡，再有关当局的许可与见证下，於某个指定“隧道”来个U转弯，重新往新山闯，这种经历，更令人撕心。而我今天偏偏碰上了！
