It should be universal knowledge by now that when travelling across the Causeway during peak hours, especially long weekends, it could take hours to clear immigration.
During such long waits, people have resorted to having ‘picnics’ in their cars or at the immigration hall. Another struggle we’ve now heard of is having to make a 2km trek to a nearby toilet, as experienced by one woman on Saturday (22 Oct).
The situation grew especially unmanageable when only one working cubicle was available, proving a discomfort for elderly visitors.
However, she noted that authorities did all they could to manage the crowd, which had grown out of control.
Jeynelle Ng, aka @buffbaby88, posted a TikTok on 22 Oct, explaining details about her ordeal.
Source: @buffbaby88 on TikTok
Speaking to MS News, she said she started her journey at 5.30am. But traffic wasn’t moving after she had passed Tuas Checkpoint.
Ms Ng said there was high traffic at the checkpoint due to many visitors travelling home for the public holidays.
As a result of the longer waiting hours, several people exited their cars to go to the restroom. This proved problematic, however, as there were no toilets in the vicinity.
The travellers had to approach the customs booths to ask for directions to the nearest toilet.
To control the crowd and manage operations, officers began turning them away. Initially, only those who may not be in urgent need of the washroom were turned away. However, Ms Ng said even the ones who did were not allowed entry too.
Ultimately, many began making long trips to reach a nearby toilet. Ms Ng told MS News that the trek to the restroom was around 2km for her.
It comprised a single cubicle near the Malaysia checkpoint and was initially locked. Soldiers, she noted, refused to let travellers use them, likely due to the size of the crowd.
Eventually, a man grew angry and reportedly kicked down the door to unlock it. At this point, the authorities had run out of options, so they allowed the travellers to use the cubicle.
“[The] queue to pee was crazy… the worst was [elderly people] who were on walking sticks in the queue as well, waiting to pee,” Ms Ng said.
The situation escalated to a point where she let an elderly lady, who could not stand on her own and had a helper, go first. “Empathy had to come in place here,” she added.
The more urgent cases had to resort to urinating by the roadside, Ms Ng said.
It was a memorable experience for Ms Ng, who noted that this was the first time she had ever trekked to a toilet while waiting to clear immigration.
“I even saw this one guy sitting on top of his car sungazing,” she said. Her vehicle was also stationary for one to two hours.
However, Ms Ng pointed out that the authorities did all they could to manage the crowd. It was, unfortunately, out of their control, due to the sheer volume of traffic.
She eventually managed to clear immigration at 11am, around five hours after being stuck in the jam.
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Featured image adapted from @buffbaby88 on TikTok.
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