So guess who's being swamped by work of late!

That's right, we're feeling the pressure.
Exams have finished, and in exchange, tomorrow we have 4 things due in! Feel the heat. Well, maybe not that bad, but there has been a flutter as everyone frantically tries to get their assignments finished before tomorrows midday deadline.
I can't even remember how much has happened since my last update.
Over the weekend a few of us went to Malaysia for a short stint.

We selected a location known as Desaru (apparently ru means village) thinking it would be relatively easy due to its close proximity to singapore, we misjudged how long it would take for us to get there.
We left PGP around 8.30 am, and finished in Desaru around 3 in the afternoon, considering that when we caught the ferry back the following day, the trip from desaru to the changi beach ferry took 2 hours including waiting at malaysian ferry dock for 1 hour, the trip there was a little more eventful.
We found our way to Woodlands, where we had been directed we should take a bus to Johor. Once there, a friendly bus person told us which bus we should get to singapore customs and where to change after that.
That was fantastic, except that the customs lady in singapore was unfamiliar with our student passes, and decided we seemed suspect, so the 5 of us were escorted to the back room of customs. We of course found this hilariously amusing, and tried tremendously not to giggle as we waited our turn.

The darker, more sinister side of customs is really quite dull, and thankfully we were dealt with fairly quickly. The man behind the desk looked at us very confused and asked why we were there, this confused us, because we were certain that -he- should know. No matter, he soon granted us passage, and with yet another stamp in our brand spanking new passports, we headed into no mans land to cross the waters over to Johor Baru.
No sooner had we stepped off the escalator when we encountered our next problem. Somehow, 2 of our party managed to walk through a 1 way turnstile... to the path that leads to Malaysia on foot. This was not what we wanted, as the bus we wanted was on the other side of the turnstile. Unsure of what was going to happen, we waited for them. Thankfully, customs and security here seem to be very helpful and someone allowed them through a back door to get back to us (although I'm sure this was unconventional)
So, amused, we lined in the aisles to get on a bus. once crossed the bridge we passed through malaysia customs. Immediately after this it was apparent we were in malaysia. To reboard the bus, there were no ordered queues, rather swarms of people flooded towards the bus and entered via both front and back doors.
crammed inside, and not underneath the airconditioning, we headed towards the station where we would hopefully get a connection to desaru.

We got off the bus, and were immediately acosted by taxi drivers. Eyes straight forward, we sternly waived them off and attempted to locate the bus we needed. Thankfully, a considerate man who was with his wife and daughter offered to help us, and went off to get the information we needed. 10 mins later he was back armed with the facts. We should catch a bus to Kota Tinggu, from there we could get another bus to Desaru.
We thanked him profusely and waited. The bus filled and we were glad of the airconditioning. A little over an hour later, having taken in much of the malaysian Countryside, we arrived at Kota Tinggu. We stepped into a ticket office to enquire about the bus to Desaru, and with amazing agility, a woman upon hearing our request, ran full pelt out the office and stopped a bus just as it started to drive away. The Bus to Desaru left once every 2 hours, and we had almost missed it but for this woman.

Climbing abord the rickety bus, we perched on the edge of seats with almost no leg room. Suddenly very conscious of our white skin and western dress in a Muslim country, we tried to be discrete and respectful as we attempted to record our journey on camera.
The bus driver was a character and we seemed to spend almost as much time on the right hand side of the road as the left.
The journey was fun and we were surprised when the bus stopped in a small town. The place certainly looked like a terminus, but there was no ocean in sight.
We were informed a minibus would pick us up to take us to Desaru.
We tumbled off the buss into the heat. Picking up cooled (I wouldn't go so far as to say they were cold) drinks from the shop at the depot.

We were surprised to see muslim girls wearing the head scarf, along with popular tracksuit pants, but most of all, riding around on motorbikes. They smiled at us and one of the local youths came over to me to ask where we were from.
After a while, a car pulled up. Apparently our bus, was a taxi, but disguised as a normal car. Insisting everything was fine, the driver invited us to pile into his car and he would drive us to Desaru for 10 ringgat.
with 4 in the back (myself on someone elses lap) we took a malaysian taxi to Desaru.

To be Continued...