Above: Noodles drying in the sun in a traditional part of my hometown, Kuching.
Today I fly to Kuching for Christmas with my family. Being the festive season, flights out of Singapore were expensive and I saved SGD80 by flying out of Senai in Johor. It seemed like a good idea when I made the booking because I wasn’t working. But now that I’m earning again, it felt like a dumb idea.
As it turned out, it was relatively easy and the bigger inconvenience was getting to Senai 5h before departure and killing time till bagdrop 2h prior to the flight.
- 0930: Left aunt’s apartment in Katong by taxi.
- 0950: Departed bus from Queen St bus station bound for the causeway.1020: Arrived at Singapore CIQ.
- 1030: Back on the bus for the short ride across to Malaysian CIQ.
- 1040: With x-rays not in use on the Malaysian side, I was out in JB Sentral! There had been no waiting anywhere. I looked for the counter to exchange my preprinted voucher for a free ride to Senai airport. The counter was nowhere to be found so I went to the bus where I was told it was no longer available. I paid MYR8 and hopped on for an immediate departure.
- 1100: Depart for Senai airport.
- 1145: Arrive at Senai airport, 2h15 after leaving the house. Unfortunately this is 5h prior to departure and 3h till bagdrop opened.
- Senai airport is privately operated and it was good to see how it has even improved further. I managed find a good spot in a cafe for lunch and do admin on the computer. The outside now even has commercial shopping areas and eateries. Weather-permitting, one could walk to that mini-town next to the airport whereas during my previous visit, the airport was in the middle of nowhere.
There’s even a small hotel (Hotel Zamsaham), for people who wish to overnight before an early flight. This is great for Singapore-residents who wish to avoid the morning rush through the border to catch some flights (especially to Malaysian domestic destinations) that aren’t available from Singapore.
Time passed very quickly doing admin (including invoicing) at the restaurant after lunch. I packed up and wandered the terminal briefly buying a tube of Colgate Pro-Relief toothpaste from the chemist. That turned out to be about 40% cheaper than in Kuching at a supermarket; it was on a 30% promo but their standard price was still cheaper. Good to know that airport shopping isn’t always a con.
I tried AirAsia’s self-service bagdrop which was really cool. Scan boarding pass first and then scan pre-printed bagtag. Your baggage allowance is validated and then a warning flashes before the belt rolls away … whirr and it’s gone. They also have an option for home-printed bagtags (A4 folded and inserted into a plastic sleeve).
I spent over an hour in the Plaza Premium lounge airside. It was a little worn, converted from the area vacated by Malaysia Airlines. The food didn’t look the best but it was pretty good, especially the awesome Johor Laksa. It was my first experience with this variety of laksa; it has a mashed fish gravy like the Penang variety but not sour. The noodle used (according to Google) should be spaghetti(!) but they used what they called mee laksa which appeared identical to Chinese kwayteow tikus, aka lor she fun aka bee thai bak.
It was short flight to Kuching. Flying off from Senai, I couldn’t help noticing how the surrounding area has become so industrialised since my last visit.