A late start to the day before I returned to Singapore. I was going to have a lazy day because I was knackered from the day before, but my two day pass ran out today so I had no choice really.

I thought that staying in Johor Bahru and going to Singapore each day was a good idea because it’s so much cheaper but alas the immigration process is now very painful and so I would say that unless you are prepared to waste a few hours each day crossing the border then give it a miss. I came here 6 years ago and it was never this busy and you were through in about thirty minutes or so. Now many Malaysians travel each day for work and so the process time is easily more than hour each time and yesterday it was close to an hour and a half.

So yesterday I wanted to go for another walk. I had all these ideas in my head of where I would visit, The Gardens by the Bay for example, but I decided that a walk in nature was for me. It’s about 13km around the reservoir and there are many other tracks you can explore. There is a tree walk where you can walk in amongst the canopy. You will see a few animals if you are lucky. Many different birds, wild pigs, gonna, monkeys of course and some small black squirrels.

My legs were not as fresh today as they had been the day before and so it took a bit of time to get into my stride. I was walking very slowly but it didn’t matter I had plenty of time and maybe because of my slow pace I managed to see many animals along the way.

Years ago I’d been told to go to Bugis Street, or as I had been led to believe it was called “Boogie Street” It was an old market but now it’s just full of tacky tourist trinkets and food stalls and so I passed through and walked to Raffles Hotel on the way to the metro so that I could begin the long journey home. Maybe next time I’ll stay here.

The immigration process was painless at this time of night but the traffic is really really bad and it’s pure gridlock. To do this everyday would be soul destroying but there are many that have to do this everyday for work. As I sit here in my room at the moment I can see the causeway that goes between Malaysia and Singapore and it’s looking like a car park.

You take a bus to the border and then get off to get processed leaving that country. You then jump back on a bus to go the next immigration check point and get back off to be processed. Once processed you have to jump back on another bus or the same one if you are lucky and all the time you are in competition with a few thousand people. Once we navigate the bus queue it’s then up to the bus driver to do his part and that isn’t always that easy. It would be quicker to walk but if you do it means walking along the side of the road which is way too dangerous but many risk this option. I have one more crossing to do and that will be tomorrow when I go back to Chiangi Airport.