Day 2: Too close for comfort

Getting to the airport worked out well. I left the hostel around 5am and walked to the bus terminal/taxi stand. I ended up sharing a taxi with two Singaporeans. There was supposed to be 4 people in the taxi but we waited and noone else came so I paid the fare of two people (I couldn't wait any longer). IT was $16 S for two people. That took us right across the causeway into Johor Bharu in under 40 minutes. Going through customs was a sinch. The taxi driver even had the proper customs forms for me to fill out.

I found it interesting that the road from Sing to JB was dead at 5:45 am (the buses don't even start until 6am) but the JB to Sing road was crazy busy. The road was packed to a halt with buses and cars and people were walking in hords across the causeway towards Sing. I guess people in JB take advantage of the lower cost of living in Malaysia and higher wages in Singapore. Smart!

Once we passed customs I had to switch to a taxi that would take me to Senai Airport. On the way to the airport I saw people getting off what I can assume was a night shift at a hotel/resort waiting for buses. They were all in matching uniforms standing in huge crowds. It kind of reminded me of Mexico when we would see all the hotel employees on the buses.

I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare so I thought I would try my hand at a Malaysian breakfast. WEll what looked like yummy noodles turned out to have hidden fish heads in it. YUCK!! Needless to say, I didn't eat it!

This is when my day took a turn for the worse. When I checked in the airline told me that I did not have enough transfer time between my two flights. They said in the terms and conditions on the website that there was a minimum transfer time and I didn't adhere to it. Well I pulled out the terms and conditions (i had printed a copy) and didn't see anything like that. I also called the airline and emailed through the customer service site a couple of weeks ago to check and didn't get any replies. I had checked the kuala Lumper airport site and thought I would be able to transfer easily. As it turns out, Air Asia was one of the only airlines that was not included in that easy transfer procedure. The guy at the counter was sympathetic to my plight, thankfully, and let me put my big backpack on the plane instead of checking it. He gave me specific intructions on where to go to check in for the my next flight-I had 30 mins to get off the plane and check in again or I the check in counter would close and I would be stuck. As backup we had checked to see if there were any later flights that I could book but there were no other flights available to KK today.

Obviously it all worked out. I booted it off the plane soo fast and weaved in and out between all the slow people walking through the arrivals area. I felt like I was in a human frogger game. I ended up cutting in line at the check-in counter in KL (sorry to all the people I budded in front of) and still had 10 mins to spare. Phew! But I tell ya, waiting for my first flight and sitting on the plane was in no way relaxing.

I am in KK now and the stressful day made my private hotel room and big, clean bathroom all the more welcoming.

I has a restless sleep last night and got up at 4:30 this morn I think its going to be early to bed tonight. What a day!