Chaos at Johor Checkpoints

Looks like the super unusual jam is not a once-off incident. We left for Singapore at 3 pm yesterday and the queue into Johor stretched all the way from Singapore Tuas side! I think those people would have at least queued for 4 hours to clear Johor immigration. To be safe, we decided to stay in Singapore and return to Johor very late (around 11 pm). To our shock, there's still a long queue at this hour in middle of the causeway (est. 2-3 km from Johor immigration)!

The implementation of biometric fingerprint scanning system in the middle of school holidays without any allowance/increase in immigration capacity is just sad.

In both Saturdays, despite the jam and queue, not all counters were even operating!

In this article, the Immigration Department director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad urged travellers to be patient with the new security system. Well, what about if you join us in experiencing being stuck and queueing on causeway for hours?

I hope this message is passed along. We understand the importance of this system, however, the government should at least better anticipate the impact of this and increase capacity at the checkpoints to counterbalance. If not, I cannot imagine how would Johor immigration would be able to manage the increased traffic next year when Legoland & other facilities are opened.

What do you think?

Jam at 3 pm all along causeway bridge:


6th June 2011 Update:

Today's travel back to Johor was very smooth. I left Tanjong Pagar at 6.26 pm and I reached home at 7.12 pm. There was not much queue at both Singapore and Johor checkpoints.

Raffles, Iskandar unit partner in new RM200m campus

Singapore-based Raffles Education Corp, one of the Asia-Pacific region’s largest private education groups, is planning to build a new institute, Raffles University Iskandar, in EduCity, Singapore daily The Straits Times reported today.

Raffles University Iskandar will be the second campus run by a Singapore company in EduCity, located in the Nusajaya township.

Read more here.

Interview Series: Columbia Asia Hospital-Nusajaya | eNewsletter @Nusajaya

Insights on Columbia Asia Hospital

Q: Columbia Asia Hospital – Nusajaya (CAHN) is the first of the CAH chain of hospitals set up in the South Malaysia region. Was there a specific reason why Nusajaya was the preferred location as compared to other parts of Johor?

A: Nusajaya will be Asia's foremost fully integrated city with a world-class environment for business, living and leisure, while Afiat Healthpark is envisioned to be the one-stop modern day medical hub. With this, we believe that the location of Nusajaya is the most suitable for us to set our footprint in the south Malaysia region.

Interview Series: Columbia Asia Hospital-Nusajaya | eNewsletter @Nusajaya

Enhanced Cross-Border Travel Convenience | eNewsletter @Nusajaya

YEAY!

Travellers from Malaysia and Singapore will soon have the luxury of requesting their taxi pick-up and drop-off points anywhere within their domestic locations. Currently, taxis plying the Johor – Singapore route were only authorised to pick-up and drop-off passengers at designated stops in Johor and Singapore. With this liberalisation, commuters will no longer be forced to only commute between Johor's Kotaraya terminal and Singapore's Queen Street taxi stop near Rochor Road. The new policies will also see more cross border bus services deployed between the various terminals, for example Larkin Bus Terminal, Johor Bahru and Ban San Street in Singapore.

Enhanced Cross-Border Travel Convenience | eNewsletter @Nusajaya

School Holidays Causing Jam on 2nd Link Causeway

Yesterday I was stuck on the 2nd link Causeway for 2.5 hours. What was supposed to be a quick trip to pick up a friend at Joo Koon MRT turned into 2.5 hours sauna trip (my car's aircon stopped working too) along the causeway. There were many many Singaporean families taking short vacations and driving to/through Johor. Hundreds of cars were lined up from 1 KM to Johor checkpoint. It took us over 2 hours to clear the 1 KM distance. I reached the causeway at 12 noon and only managed to arrive home at East Ledang at 2.35 pm. Our neighbour was also caught in the jam and it took them over 2 hours to clear the causeway jam as well. Lesson learnt: Be aware of school holidays schedule and not just public holidays. I found this site which is quite useful, hopefully you would not experience a 2 hours jam like we did :)

Happy Sunday!

Kittens to Give Away

Good morning everyone,

I'm helping Uncle David to post this msg:

Looking for home for 5 kittens which are 3 months old. Parents are Ragdoll (father) and a Domestic (mother). Else they have to be send to a Sanctuary in Malaysia. The kittens' mom is pregnant again and would need help to look after the kittens.

More from Uncle David here.

Hot Hot Hot Temperature

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I myself certainly feel that the world is getting warmer. When we were in Paris, the days were very warm. Back in Johor and Singapore, the heat is also really strong. There are quite a lot of people around me at work & at home (dear husband) who have fallen sick due to this weather. I hope this will go away soon.

When I read that this region is experiencing a heat wave. Temperatures this month across Malaysia and Singapore reached a high of 36.2ºC. This heat wave may apparently last until end of September.

Looking at the weather forecast for the next few days, it looks like we can expect thundershowers everyday.

I hope the temperature cools down a little bit. Drink plenty of water everyone, stay out of the heat. Take care of yourself.