Reminiscing MAAL Days

All of a sudden, I felt the need to document my daily commute from JB to NIE (SG).

Maybe one day I'll look back and wonder how I survived the 4-hour travel almost every day. Maybe one day I'll come across this again and be thankful that my one-hour drive to work from our new house, which includes dropping Stephen off at my in-law's house, is in the comfort of my own car and involves minimal walking.

I'd either leave at 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock as those two times seemed to have the least human traffic.

This was my journey:

1. My MIL would drive me from her house to CIQ 
2. From the CIQ drop off point, I'd have to walk through the huge complex - rather badly designed if you asked me - and pass the immigration before heading to the bus pick-up points 
3. Bus crosses the Causeway 
4. Alight the bus, go through Singapore immigration and line up again for the bus
5. Board bus to Kranji MRT station
6. Take the (red line) MRT to Jurong East where I would change to the green line MRT until I reach Pioneer MRT
7. At Pioneer MRT station, alight and board 179 until it reached Lee Wee Nam library.
8. From Lee Wee Nam library, cross the bridge and reach NIE.

The whole journey would usually take 2 hours on normal days.. and going back was the whole process in reverse. On Friday nights, however, it would take me 3 hours instead. So, my 4-hour journey would be a tiring 5-hour journey after a long week of night classes and commuting between JB and SG.

In the past, I was shocked to know that people would commute between two countries on a daily basis for school and work. Little did I expect myself to be in such a position, to save myself from having to rent a place in Singapore.

I really don't know how many do it using public transport for years and decades. Hats off to all of you - it's people like you who gave me strength to endure that one year of long commuting. I told myself, if they can do it, so can I.

While I've survived it, travelling to SG daily and back is not something I would like to do everyday long-term.