Female Tambak Riders

The above pictures shows 2 female kaki tambaks on motorbike at the 2nd link. One is the actual rider(penunggang) and the other is the pillion(pembuncing). There are lots of pillion female kaki tambaks who travels daily with their tambak riders husbands or boyfriends.

However, there are not many actual female tambak riders around. Maybe the less than 0.1% of total tambak riders population. But there seems to be more of them using Tuas Chechkpoint than Woodlands. Most of them probably lives in Gelang Patah area and works in Jurong/Tuas.

I wish to express my utmost respect to these tough ladies who weather the torturous motorbike jams at Singapore checkpoints everyday.

Regards,

Kaki Tambak

Damn I Hate Fridays !!!!

Checkpoint traffic jams(vehicles or humans) on Friday evenings are usually the worst in the week.

Yesterday was no different. I reach Woodlands at 6.30pm. The motorbike que had already reached the bottom of the viaduct. I was only able to clear Woodlands checkpoint around 7.40pm. Betul-betul stuck dari siang sampai malam.

After queing for 20 mins, the checkpoint was still so far.

On the bright side a lot of tambak riders shut off their engine yesterday because the weather was cloudy and not hot. Lucky no rain in spite of the dark clouds. Or else I would be really crying in the rain.

Regards,

Kaki Tambak

Bus Captains of No. 170,160 and 950

Among the lesser known kaki tambak are the cross border bus captains of SBS Transit and SMRT Bus Service. They drive bus no 170,170x,160 and 950. As for CausewayLink(Malaysian cross-border bus operators), I will write about it in some other post. In Singapore bus driver are rebranded as bus captains to attract more Singaporean joining SBS and SMRT as drivers. But these two companies are finding it hard to attract Singaporean candidates. At the moment, at least half of SBS and SMRT bus captains are Malaysians. And the cross border routes which is the most arduous, almost all drivers are tambak riders. From my chat with some of them, these bus drivers either start work very early or end their work very late. For morning shift would be: a)Leave JB home at 4.00am and ride motorbikie to SG b)Reach SBS Bus Depot(Bukit Batok if I remember correctly) at around 4.45am to pick up their busses c)Then they need to reach Quenn Street or Kotaraya/Larkin by 5.30am For night shift it is something like: a)End of bus service at midnight b)Reach bus depot at 12.30am, proceed to wash and clean up the bus. c)Handover the bus at 1.15am, ride their motorbike back to JB. d)Reach home around 2am. Because of such odd hours, one of my mother friend's husband who drives 170 always relate how he fears being ambushed by motorcycles gang. Because these gangs not only rob but will definitely give you a good beating or might even kill you. Another of my mother friends relates how her husband suffering from hypertension dare not make medical claim anymore. He rather pay out of his own pocket instead of being singled out by his employer; thereby risking his work permit renewal. Due to the massive causeway jams, they are under great stress physically and mentally. Being stuck sometimes in the bus for 3 hours or more, they sometimes don't get to drink water or go to toilet like drivers of normal routes do. And you know lah with the SG culture, they also have to deal with complains on their punctuality,bus cleanliness etc. So fellow kaki tambaks, next time when you are on 170,160,950 or SJE . At least say thanks or give them these drivers a warm smile for our bus heroes to take home.

Can ride bicycle from JB to Singapore meh? (Part 2)

Map of route from Bukit Chagar CIQ to Woodlands Short explanation of the route used by kaki tambak on bicycles:

Park their car/motorcycles around Kim Teng Park and Jln Lumba Kuda

Ride their bicycle across the causeway and pass through both Checkpoints

Lock their bicycle at Woodlands Central

Coming back to JB is the reverse of above process

Jiak Lat! A kaki tambak pushing his broken down motorbike uphill. Reaching the 1st highest point. The 2nd highest point which is the new CIQ itself. The two highest point of this roller coaster route to the new CIQ are about 20 meters(5 storey high) above causeway. After the forceful opening of Bukit Chagar CIQ, kaki tambaks have to ride uphill and downhill on the extra roller coaster route(mark in red). And on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, you will also see loads of kaki tambak walking from Woodlands Central to Bukit Chagar CIQ.