My Crappy Experience on Malaysia's Public Transport

After celebrating lunar new year with my relatives in my parents' hometown, my sis and I decided to take the long-distance-bus from Setiawan back to Sungai Petani so that my other sisters can sit more comfortably in the car. I have not been taking Malaysia's public transport for a very long time but I thought "why not?" since I've been taking public transport for almost everyday when I am in Japan. Furthermore they are a good practice (of diesel consumption and reducing air pollution) right? So we booked our ticket from the ticket booth with "Sepakat  Lumut - Sungai Petani" written on a cardboard hanging in front of its glass wall. After the ticket lady handed us our tickets, part of me was suspicious because the name of the bus company printed on the bus ticket was not Sepakat but Kesatuan instead. But then, I thought maybe Kesatuan is the main company with a lot of tiny branches with different name, by Sepakat being one of them, I didn't questioned the lady why and so on. 

30mins prior boarding the bus, we saw a very old and washed out Kesatuan bus stopped at the bus station. We looked at each other worriedly and afraid that the Kesatuan bus might be the one we will be riding because it has the same name as the company name printed on our tickets! So we went to double checked with the ticket lady the number plate of the bus will we be boarding, and tried matching it with the number plate of the bus we saw just now and guess what? BINGO. Little can we do about anything but to get our asses on the bus.

Just when we thought of opening the trunk to put our luggage inside, we realised the trunk door was so rusty. We were really worried that the trunk door might fall apart once we slammed it down. haha. Since nobody else was putting their luggage inside the trunk, and we do not want to risk breaking down the door, we had no choice but to bring our luggage aboard as well. 

The bus might look terrible from the outside but the seats was pretty spacious with 3 seats in a row (2 on the right and 1 on the left). However, the cleanliness is so awful. I really can't help myself to stop thinking about how long have this bus not been cleaned and how many germs and bacteria are crawling on my skin (and hair). There are even dirty marks of juice on the floor. I just hope the bus can speed up so that I can reach faster and get off that filthy bus.

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I used to take the long-distance-bus when I was studying in Shah Alam. Whenever I was taking these buses, I really loathe it when these happened. Those who have been on a long distance bus should have experienced this at least once.

    1.  Some bus companies will sell more tickets than the number of seats available
   2.  Most bus companies will ask you to switch bus halfway along your destination. Which is super annoying.
   3.  They are never on time 

I really cannot stand either one of them happen but both of that case happened on the bus I was riding. But luckily we went on the bus early and got our seats secured. And passengers to the north did not have to change bus. Phew. 

But I pitied one aunty who has no seat all the way from Setiawan to Iskandar (a town near to Ipoh I think). She kept on nagging and complaining said the lady from the ticket booth didn't tell her that the ticket was sold out when she bought it. See? The staff/s selling the ticket is/are trying to earn extra cash from selling more tickets than they are suppose to. It's really heartbroken to see how people from my own country acted this way. What a corrupted society.

It was 6.25pm and my nightmare started to begin. After 3 hours ride from Lumut, we have only reached the Ipoh Amanjaya Terminal. 3 freaking hours for 83km??! I remember the traffic was not bad at all but why on earth were we still in Perak after 3 HOURS??! After the bus stopped at the terminal, the driver shouted "SEMUA TURUN, TURUN TURUN!". Everyone looked so confused but they got off the bus anyway. One of the passenger tried asking the driver what happened and when will the next bus reached but he just replied "Tunggu situ sudah!" while pointing to the empty space in front of the bus.  

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The culprit 

(Quick updated : my family have already reached Sungai Petani by that time and they even sent my sis to her university in Penang island). 

My sis and I waited for 20 minutes and decided to go to the counter/ticket booth to ask when will the next bus arriving. Can you guess what the guy said to me? "Tak tahu la" (I don't know). I glared at him and asked "kenapa tak tahu? (why don't you know) kamu ada bus timetable kan? Next bus dari sini ke utara datang bila?" (you have the bus timetable right? so when is the next bus to the north coming?).  And he replied "lambat lagi" (still have to wait for a while).

After visiting that booth, we went to other booths to ask for immediate boarding ticket and even went directly to the bus driver to ask if there are seats available but no avail. We thought we had no other choice but to wait for our bus to come but then we heard an announcement calling for passengers for bus going to the north. The announcement had been going for a while so I thought maybe the passengers are not showing up. So my sis went to ask if we can buy the seats and luckily the bus conductor said OK! 

The second bus I took was Transnasional. This bus definitely has better shock absorber, where the bus doesn't shake as much as it should when the road condition is poor. Furthermore, the driver is so much more alert and drive more stably compare to the driver of previous bus. I am so happy the bus look so brand new than and smell so much better than Kesatuan!!  So so much better and so comfortable. They even have LCD and great taste in movie selection to play!

I missed my dinner and only reached home after 8 hours of bus ride at 11.05pm. What an "awesome" experience right? Taking public buses on festive season is really not recommended. 

I really wish they have LCD display on the bus stop to show the departure and arrival time of the bus. How will the tourists know when will the bus be moving when the local does not even know? And worst, the person in charge of selling the ticket has NO IDEA AT ALL. All they know how to say is "Tak tahu la" and shake the matter off their shoulder.  Can you imagine that frustration being a customer? 

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Passengers waiting aimlessly at Butterworth station

I really hope Malaysian public transport can improve so that it will be convenient not only to us but to the tourist as well. 

On the last note,  never ever take any bus from KESATUAN bus company. Their buses look like rubbish and they feel like one too. Their service sucks and their drivers have no manners at all. Company like this should not exist and must be boycott. I really hope Malaysian's public transport company can learn from the Japanese in term of safety, punctuality and reliability. 

Have you ever had an unpleasant or unforgettable experience with public transport in any point of your life?
Please share it with me in the comment section below :)

Hope you enjoy this post.
May the public transport in Malaysia become better by 2020!