Visiting Relatives in JB, Malaysia
Written on February 9, 2008 – 1:25 pm | by Keith Neo
Apart from the times when I was abroad, I would go to Malaysia during the first day of Chinese New Year to visit my relatives there (which is business as usual). Well, one of the main hurdles is going through the causeway.
The causeway is like a bridge connecting Malaysia and Singapore, where immigration checkpoints are set up on both sides of the bridge. Going through the Singapore custom is quick, but the Malaysia custom is quite a mess. The queues were all the way outside of the immigration building. Lanes were criss-crossing each other, and lines have to merged together eventually as they approach the counter for the stamp.
One main change, that I have noticed. The Malaysian immigration counter no longer stamp on the white immigration card. I did queried for it, but the officer said it’s not necessary. Hence, that’s something new to me. Last night, I asked a friend of mine, and he mentioned that it was a change that has taken effect during the February, which is recent.
Luckily, for two things, the queue did not move at a snail pace. At least it did move! Secondly, people are still rather “civilised“. No shoving, pushing or shouting at all. Not bad for the first day of Chinese New Year.
