Balik Kampung Quandary

I am sitting in my room typing this post when I should have been on the bus heading towards Muar. It's a long story, or a short one if you read fast enough . Well here goes...

The following events took place between 6:05pm and 9:05pm tonight.

No Way Out

The Balik Kampung fever created by the proximity of the two festive holidays next week brought the causeway to a standstill today. Vicky and I, holding 7:45pm bus tickets to Muar, were left trapped at the Kranji MRT Station as the non-availability of busses left us helplessly stranded.

Arriving at he Kranji Station at 6:05pm, we thought we had time on our hands as we quickly took our place at the head of the 170 bus queue. But after standing at the same spot for 45 long minutes, we realized that our ride out of Singapore had played us out. Soon the reason became obvious; a massive jam had built up along the road towards the checkpoing.nt. The jam could even be seen from the MRT station, some 2km away from the checkpoint. We then made the decision to abort out trip tonight and make another attempt early tomorrow morning.

Post Mortem : The jam at the Woodlands Checkpoint today was a disaster waiting to happen. The final stretch of road leading towards the checkpoint was divided to 'car lane' on the left, 'bus lane' on the right and a lane for trucks in the center. Having those lumbering behemoths queuing up in the middle of the road provides an uphill challenge for cars and busses to get into their rightful lanes. So throw in a poorly located junction and a broken down truck, and ‘wah lah’ you’re served with an almost impossible traffic puzzle to figure out.

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Christmas comes early.

No, this is not about James Bond and a certain Dr C.Jones.

Well, after we decided to postpone our trip back to Muar, our hungry stomachs led us to West Mall in Bukit Batok. And behold, standing tall in the atrium of West Mall was a Christmas Tree in the making. It’s not even November and we haven’t even had a bite of those tasty Thosai and fragrant Ketupats (with peanut sauce!), but yet this giant effigy of commercialism-plagued Christmas has already been dusted and set-up in this holy temple of money-swindling deities.

Dressing up for Christmas in West Mall

Retailers just can’t wait for the next big money spending season – Christmas Sales. Hari Raya and Deepavali just don’t spell ‘splurge’ in Singapore, so they're easily forgotten in the many commercial hubs. You don’t get those sentimental ‘Petronas’ commercials here on TV, the big malls don’t blare loud ‘Selamat Hari Raya’ songs on their sound system and you don’t have those large Ramadhan markets in the heartlands. The only places that seem to celebrate these two important festivals are Geylang Serai and Little India. What happened to nationwide celebrations ? One things for sure, the main thing on most people’s mind right now is how to spend the holiday break next week.

Anyway, leaving you with a quote from our favourite British spy.

“If you can't trust a Swiss banker, then what's the world coming to?”

James Bond