Ubah (Change) is a coming to Bolehland?
Woke up early morning at 04:45. Quickly got the rest of the essentials packed and left the house to catch the 0536hrs first train at Tanah Merah to Bugis. Even though it was the first train of the day, by the time it was at Tanah Merah MRT Station, almost all seats were taken as the train was the model with some all standing cabins. Managed to find 2 seats and proceeded to sit down. Michelle commented that so early in the morning there should not be any aunties on thr train since she was sitting on the reserved seat. True to form, at Bedok MRT a whole pack of 5-6 aunties came on board. 2 of them did a 5-metre dash towards the 2 remaining vacant seats like their lives depended on it and then some. Mentally sighing I nudged Michelle and we both gave up our seats to them.
Was not long before we reach Bugis. By then a light drizzle started, the sky was still dark and the morning wind chilly. It was not really surprising to me that quite a handful of fellow MRT commuters were also heading towards Queen Street. Took the Singapore-Johore Express this tine round as the Causeway Link looked liked it was not in service yet. The queue was thankfully short in comparison to normal and the journey to Woodlands immigration was uneventful.
Blur sotongs in orange this time tested the patience of ICA and everyone. Somehow I always encounter people having issues with the automated system whenever I get to woodlands immigration. I guess it will be many years to come before everyone in Singapore become accustomed to it.
Reached iskandar at 0640. Crossed Malaysian customs 0643. Chop chop today. Was even faster than Michelle die to failure of automated system. Had breakfast at KFC eating my usual favourite breakfast burger and ice milo. Arrangements were made to borrow Michelle's recently sold car for the trip back this time. Someone has to really assess the medium to long term plan on how the semi-regular Kluang return trips would be done.
The buyer of Michelle's car has generously loaned us the car for the next few days. The tar journey to Kluang was more or less uneventful and we met up with her parents at a coffee shop Where they were eating breakfast with their friends. Eating over there is almost a national pastime and once we linked up with them all carefully laid plans can be discarded for dice rolls. After the breakfast, we headed over to the "new"' house.
Aircon. Sweet Jesus. Do not EVER let it stop. Hustings are quite aggressive at Kluang. Posters and banners are almost everywhere. strung out in long drapes of cloth like string across trees, posters wrapped around trees like sarong and party flags hung on string like laundry. Definitely a tremendous amount money is spent on producing these materials. I guess it must be like this in all the different states and it makes for some very colourful livery and outdoor decoration.
The elections this time is considered to be possibly the closest ever in the history of Malaysia with the stakes being so high, naturally crazy rumors abound and Michelle's father has advised us to quickly vote and get out of bolehland. There is some belief that violence might break out in some areas with gangsters paid by various parties to cause a ruckus. People are also afraid to stay out late in the night. Rumours abound that once most ballots have been cast, those unused ballots papers in the late afternoon will get...erm some "assistance" and be magically filled up and stuffed into the ballot boxes.
Sounds like tomorrow will be interesting. Let me end this entry with some pictures of the streets of Kluang. Just great. Let us hope everyone here gets home safe and sound. No scratch that, let me hope I get home safe and sound!
Was not long before we reach Bugis. By then a light drizzle started, the sky was still dark and the morning wind chilly. It was not really surprising to me that quite a handful of fellow MRT commuters were also heading towards Queen Street. Took the Singapore-Johore Express this tine round as the Causeway Link looked liked it was not in service yet. The queue was thankfully short in comparison to normal and the journey to Woodlands immigration was uneventful.
Blur sotongs in orange this time tested the patience of ICA and everyone. Somehow I always encounter people having issues with the automated system whenever I get to woodlands immigration. I guess it will be many years to come before everyone in Singapore become accustomed to it.
Reached iskandar at 0640. Crossed Malaysian customs 0643. Chop chop today. Was even faster than Michelle die to failure of automated system. Had breakfast at KFC eating my usual favourite breakfast burger and ice milo. Arrangements were made to borrow Michelle's recently sold car for the trip back this time. Someone has to really assess the medium to long term plan on how the semi-regular Kluang return trips would be done.
The buyer of Michelle's car has generously loaned us the car for the next few days. The tar journey to Kluang was more or less uneventful and we met up with her parents at a coffee shop Where they were eating breakfast with their friends. Eating over there is almost a national pastime and once we linked up with them all carefully laid plans can be discarded for dice rolls. After the breakfast, we headed over to the "new"' house.
Aircon. Sweet Jesus. Do not EVER let it stop. Hustings are quite aggressive at Kluang. Posters and banners are almost everywhere. strung out in long drapes of cloth like string across trees, posters wrapped around trees like sarong and party flags hung on string like laundry. Definitely a tremendous amount money is spent on producing these materials. I guess it must be like this in all the different states and it makes for some very colourful livery and outdoor decoration.
The elections this time is considered to be possibly the closest ever in the history of Malaysia with the stakes being so high, naturally crazy rumors abound and Michelle's father has advised us to quickly vote and get out of bolehland. There is some belief that violence might break out in some areas with gangsters paid by various parties to cause a ruckus. People are also afraid to stay out late in the night. Rumours abound that once most ballots have been cast, those unused ballots papers in the late afternoon will get...erm some "assistance" and be magically filled up and stuffed into the ballot boxes.
Sounds like tomorrow will be interesting. Let me end this entry with some pictures of the streets of Kluang. Just great. Let us hope everyone here gets home safe and sound. No scratch that, let me hope I get home safe and sound!
The DAP rocket is used to pimp the PR coalition flags of DAP, PAS and PKR. To be truthful I think it is quite eye catching.
Not to be outdone, the UMNO shows their super-sized and super-repetitive flag.
For some reason this form of poster is quite popular. Drapes of long cloth strung out on poles like virtual barriers and guide on the road. Due to the colour scheme I can help but think it looks like Singapore Police Force's "crime scene, do not enter" tape barriers.
This form of poster just strikes me as somewhat of an overkill. But maybe that is the point, to be really in your face and takes up your field of view.
I like this picture because it show just how much posters and flags are used to try to capture the eyes of the voters. In fact I think people will barely notice the left arrow sign amongst all the sea of blue.
I could not capture fully this interesting scene but basically the road for several tens of metres leading up to this bridge had flags all the way. On the left it was PAS flags, on the right BN ones. Then at this bridge they are all mashed up in deadly embrace for the voters' eyes. I guess these flags would help shield those crossing on the bridge from the deadly UV rays of the sun.
[Update 04th April, 21:39]
Just came back from dinner at Michelle's old place to the new place. As we drove back, we came up along a DAP rally car I guess is what I should call it. The guys in there were enthusiastically waving 3 DAP flags. My only worry was if they were not careful and hit some power cables or something as they drove along the narrow roads. They were shouting "ubah!" along the way as well.
On our way back, we also went by a DAP ceramah/rally with loads of people wearing yellow shirts. The crowd is very huge. Probably at least 100 metres away from the speakers there are still people crowding and listening to them. People as they drove by the rally sounded their horns to give their support to DAP. Here is a distant shot of the rally from as Michelle drove us back. Organisers had people the ground with light sticks to guide traffic as it was a dual carriage way at the rally site and there were cars parked neatly at either side and these parked cars occasionally came out and needed much help and guidance to get out without causing an accident. Here is a shot of the rally in progress. As Ali G said, MASSIVE.
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