Border #34 Malaysia – Singapore: The border of the masses

Coming from: Johor Bahru, Johor State, Malaysia
Going to: Woodlands, Singapore
Documents required: Passport
Waiting time: 3 min (Malaysia), 26 min (Singapore)
Distance from Bern: 27.498 km
Rating: 3/10
I took this trip to discover the remote and rarely visited border crossings all over the world – such as this gem at the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border. The border from Malaysia to Singapore was quite the opposite – the Mallorca of the borders! Huge terminals, looking like airport buildings, manage to digest masses of border crossers in a matter of minutes. No wonder: They need to deal with all the Malaysians which work in Singapore and return home to Johor Bahru daily.

Airport feeling: Border terminal on the Malaysian side.

Using the terminals also feels like using an airport: Inside the terminals, yellow signs guide foot passengers (and on another level cars) to the control booths, which are located in a huge hall. In an efficient procedure, passengers are quickly processed and continue by foot to the gate – where they board one of the tens of buses which leave from the basement of the terminal. The ride takes only a couple of minutes, and on the other side the same procedure begins again. It’s like flying, without the airplane part in between.

So here’s the protocol of my own crossing:

5:52 pm: I join the queue in Malaysia’s Sultan Iskandar Customs and Immigration Complex.

5:55 pm: The Malaysian exit stamp is in my passport, I proceed to the bus boarding area in the basement.

6:00 pm: Departure of my Causeway Link bus to Kranji MRT station in Singapore.

6:08 pm: Arrival at Woodlands Checkpoint of Singapore. I fill out the immigration form, an unnecessary piece of bureaucracy still common in too many countries.

6:15 pm: I join the queue at Woodlands Checkpoint. On billboards, Singapore’s authorities threaten potential traffickers with harsh warnings (“death penalty”).

6:41 pm: Singapore’s entry stamp is in my passport.

6:45 pm: I arrive at the boarding area and can’t find my bus again. Obviously, the bus I had come with had already filled up and departed, but I expected another vehicle of the same line (Cw1) to turn up, which was not the case.

7:00 pm: I lose patience and take another Causeway Link bus instead, which luckily brings me into the city centre of Singapore.

Singapore’s Woodlands Checkpoint looks like a modern fortress.