Groverwhelmed Sunday: The roadtrip that went wrong (Part 1)

During our last Friday Unwind (a 60-90 mins slot for games, stories, casual chats) I was asked to share my most memorable travel experience.

I was immediately reminded of a roadtrip that I took almost 12 years ago with some of my best buddies. A lot of random things happened during this road trip which makes this trip quite memorable.

In 2009, I was working in Singapore and my gang (group of 7 friends) decided to visit me. I had planned a complete package for my friends: a few days of non-stop activities in Singapore, a relaxing weekend in an island in Indonesia and the highlight of this package: a roadtrip to Malaysia.

All of us were the most excited for this roadtrip. Little did we know that our chill, easy breezy roadtrip would turn into an adventure.

We left home at 10:30 AM empty stomach - I had hyped the street food of Malaysia (murtabak, nasi lemak, rojak amongst others) so we collectively decided why spoil our appetite with breakfast.

The drive to border was very smooth, the immigration check at the Singapore checkpost was swift and in a few minutes we were about to enter Malaysia.

At the Malaysian checkpost the immigration officer inspected our passports and asked us to park our cars and follow him.?We thought may be the protocols in Singapore and Malaysia are different. We were taken to a building and were asked to wait in the holding area.

After 30 mins the officer came back with passport and he gave back 6 passports and kept one. He opened this passport and read the name: Manjunath; sorry you can't enter Malaysia, you need to head back to Singapore.

6 of us had Malaysian Visas and Manjunath (fondly known as Manju) was seeking a visa on arrival.

Manjunath explained to the officer that he has submitted the necessary documents to get a visa on arrival. He even went ahead and shared a month old email interaction with the Malaysian Embassy in Riyadh (he was a working in Saudi at this point) which clearly indicated that Indians working/living outside India can get visa on arrival.

The officer was now confused, he asked us to wait again. 15 mins later he came back and responded:

Sorry Manjunath, this border can not give you any visa. You can try the?second border.

I cannot guarantee that you would get an entry from this border, but you can definitely try. In my opinion, your should not drive to Malaysia. Try the aerial route. The airport authorities should be able to give you this on-arrival visa.

We, however, were too excited about the roadtrip and decided to give the second land border a try. The officer smiled at our decision and asked us to give back the 6 stamped passports. We were confused - he said, boys since you are not entering Malaysia now I need to cancel your entry stamps.

We drove back to Singapore. 3 hours had passed and we were now getting very hungry. We decided to get some food in Singapore and then head to the 2nd border.

At the Singapore checkpost, I collected all the 7 passports and gave them to the officer. I was hoping for a quick entry but instead the officer looked very confused. He commented: you guys exited Singapore and now you are re-entering Singapore where did you go? I don't see any entry & exit stamp from Malaysia?

We explained him the entire story. He asked us to park our cars and follow him. By this time, we were used to following instructions and officers.

We were taken to yet another office. Here we shared our story with 3 senior officers - they smiled and asked us to wait.

While we were waiting, I thought to myself: for the last 5 hours we had just been meeting officers and sharing our roadtrip plan - we now need to stop this Singapore and Malaysia border dance.?What if the second border is also not equipped to provide on-arrival visas.

I immediately opened my phone and started looking for flights from Singapore to KL; there were plenty. I called for a group huddle, looked at my friends and said: let's forget about the roadtrip to KL. I recommend Manjunath to head to Changi Airport; get the 1st flight out to KL. The rest of us would enter KL via road and meet Manju at the airport. Let's just prioritize entering Malaysia - the car is going to be with us. We can enjoy our roadtrip back to Singapore.

Back then we were clingy young boys - the idea of splitting and asking Manju to travel alone sounded a bit evil. After hearing this plan, Ravi (fondly known as RC) came forward and shared - he would accompany Manju and enter Malaysia via flight. The rest of us can drive to KL as planned.

The 5 of us were back in the car praying for a smooth entry back to Malaysia. But as expected the officer at the checkpost after looking at our passports gave us the very familiar confused look. We looked at him and said: should we park our car and follow you to the office? He said, Yes.?

We had to explain the entire story again (hoping that this would be the final time) - the senior officers broke into laughter and asked the checkpost officer to grant us entry. I looked at my watch and it was 5:30 PM. After 7 hours, we were finally going to enter Malaysia.

We drove past the border, there was absolute silence in the car - no excitement, no frenzy. We parked our car next to the 1st street vendor we saw - he looked at us and said: are you guys ok?. We responded: no we are too hungry please, serve us whatever you can but really really fast.?

For the next 20 mins the 5 of us did not utter a word - just ate and ate.?

After regaining our energy we drove non-stop towards KL and reached the airport at around 11:30 PM. 15 mins later, RC and Manju came out of the arrival gate. After all the drama, we had reached out destination. But we were still a few kms away from our hotel. I asked the gang to wait for 15 mins; the day was going to end (random superstition) and I was hoping with the day the drama would end too. Little did I know that this was just the start of our adventure, new day was going to throw us new surprises.

I will share the remaining surprises and adventures in my next Groverwhelmed?Sundays.

The big takeaway for me from this experience was never leave home without eating.