Kind of....
I spent the last 3 weeks gallivanting around Singapore and Malaysia. I figured I deserved a holiday seeing as though I work so gosh darn hard.
After a few days in Singapore I caught a bus to JB in Malaysia. We had to get off the bus once to leave Singapore and a second time to enter Malaysia.
There were 2 ways to go after entering Malaysia; one to the buses and the other to the town. I went to the town to grab some lunch before continuing on my journey.
Somehow I ended up in another customs line after lunch. I couldn’t figure out why, but I wasn’t too bothered about it. I showed the official my passport, got another stamp and headed for the buses. Alas, my bus wasn’t there, nor any others going in the direction I wanted. I asked a few people who gave me confused look until I found a policeman.
“Where you want to go?” he asked
“JB”
“JB? Where you come from today?”
“Singapore.”
“You go to Singapore?”
“No I came from Singapore, now I want to go to JB”
The policeman spoke to his colleague and they both looked at me suspiciously.
“Show me your passport” he said
He clicked his tongue as he looked it over.
“You left?”
“What?” I asked
“You already left Malaysia”
“Oh. I see.”
I followed the policeman as he radioed various people and talked to customs. He told me he’d made the same mistake when he first started working there. I breathed a sigh of relief when he lead me past customs back into Malaysia.
“Will it be OK when I leave?” I asked him
“Yes, yes, no problem”
What a splendid time I had in Malaysia; lying on beaches, playing with monkeys, trekking through jungles and eating all sorts of delicious food. Then all of the sudden it was time to leave again.
The man at immigration looked at my passport.
“Where is your departure card?”
“Ummmm….”
“Did you lost it?”
It was probably easier to explain that way.
“Ah, yes”
“Where did you lost it?”
“Ummm…”
“You must have departure card” he said
“OK I didn’t lose it exactly, it’s just, well, I accidentally left Malaysia” I explained.
He looked confused, rightfully so.
I tried to tell him my story in greater detail. The ridiculousness of my story combined with the language barrier made things difficult. He took me to a woman who spoke even less English and wasn’t very friendly. She spoke to him in Malaysian and I was told to follow the first guy.
He took me to an office like on ‘Border Security’. This was getting serious. An older gentleman in a military uniform escorted me through the open plan offices to small room with a glass door.
He sighed as he looked at my passport.
“Mya is it?”
“Yes” I said meekly
“OK explain me the whole story please”
He listened patiently and then said “you came to Malaysia on 5th April”
“Yes”
“And you also leave Malaysia on 5th April”
“Yes”
“Now is 22nd April”
“Yes”
“So you have been in Malaysia illegally for over 2 weeks”
“No. I mean, well, I didn’t mean to…”
He sighed again. “When do you leave Singapore?”
“My flight is tonight at 11.30pm”
He looked at the clock. It was 4pm.
“Hmmmm… you see if I take you to the authorities then they’ll detain you for a very long time.”
Oh my god. I was in a Malaysian immigration office and the man sitting across from me just said the word ‘detain’. Now I was freaked.
He picked up the phone and called about 5 different people, sighing and tutting and muttering ‘Mya, Mya, Mya’ between calls. Things weren’t looking so good.
I didn’t particularly want to spend the night in a Malaysian prison or miss my flight. I started wishing I’d purchased more comprehensive travel insurance. Maybe V Australia would get me on another flight, I was a Velocity frequent flier member after all.
The man opposite me spent half an hour trying to figure out the best way to handle the situation, he didn’t seem to want to detain me.
“Mya” he said “I think I close my eyes on you”
“Sorry?”
“I think I close my eyes on you. Do you understand?”
Boy did I ever! I was out of there 30 seconds later with a ‘void’ stamp covering my 5th of April exit, and a 22nd April exit stamp in its place.
Maya: 1, Malaysian Immigration: 0
