Another Torrid Journey Home

Yesterday journey home is another horrendous one for the records. Started my journey at 5.10pm and reaching home at 7.40pm.

It was raining heavily from 5.15pm to 6.00pm. Visibilty at times was only 50 meters.I had no choice but to ride slowly (about 50-60 km/h). It felt more like NEE (Never Ending Expressway) than AYE (Ayer Rajah Expressway).

After toiling in the cold hard rain, I finally reached Tuas checkpoint at 6.10pm to be greeted by a virtual motorbike standtill. The operations yesterday evening were way slower than usual. Normally it only would take 30 minutes to clear a 60 meters que. Yesterday it was near to an hour.


From the video below, Block D1 was totally unused. You can see the motorbike traffic was not moving at all while the cars were moving pass the bikes slowly.




And 2 minutes later, I was still rooted to almost the same spot. Furthermore you can see a totally different set of cars next to me.



Till this day, I still cannot understand why Tuas checkpoint management rarely make full use of all three blocks (D1,D2 and D3) during peak period.

Is this a mission impossible to them?
Or did the cold rain yesterday lowered the metabolism of Tuas ICA officers causing slower clearance process?

Until they figure out how to improve the situation at Tuas, we tambak riders will have to carry on with our jiak lat life.



Regards,
Kaki Tambak

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

Potong Jalan Diutamakan

For those who have used 2nd link before, you would surely have noticed some road cuttings on the stretch heading to Singapore between km 13.3 and 11.6. I have been meaning to post something about this strange occurrence at 2nd link for quite sometime. Finally took a few snaps to share it here.

These lines are hazards to motorcyclists. Fortunately tambak riders have good skills to overcome it.

Please click to enlarge.

Please click to enlarge.

Please click to enlarge. Click for a clearer close up.

If I am not mistaken, the cutting of asphalt such as this are for the purpose of repaving the roads.

Well the only problem is that the roads had been cut 2 damn years ago !!!!

When is PLUS(Projek Letup-Rayau UMNO Sulit) going to repave this bloody stretch ?????

Did someone cut the roads by mistake ?

Or did they plan the road cuttings a few years in advance??

Another 1Malaysia thingy ?

Motor accident didahulukan !!!

Potong jalan diutamakan !!!!

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

2nd Link Touch 'n Go Chaos

On the 14 Sep 2009(yesterday), PLUS made Touch 'n Go as the compulsory payment method for 2nd Link tolls.

Morning was still ok for those going south into Singapore. But yesterday evening was chaotic at the motorcycles section heading north. As shown in the video above, it wasn't any much better earlier this evening either. I was stuck at the toll booth jam for about 10mins.

I must admit some tambak riders who cut que by riding onto the grass areas should be blamed partly for the chaos. Compared to the deadlock on the Singapore side, this is peanuts and they ought to have restrain themselves from exarcebating the situation.

However, one thing we should notice though is how very little cars, busses and lorries that are queing for toll payments. Somehow we tambak riders have sort of prevented the 2nd Link from being a 100% white elephants.

Maybe PLUS should consider increasing a few more toll booths for us tambak riders. But please don't increase the toll any further. RM1.60 per trip already very ciak lat.

Regards,

Kaki Tambak

Motorbike Skided on Expressway

I was involved in an accident this morning. My motorbike skidded on the expressway. Suddenly, I landed in the middle of the road with my bike on top of my right leg and couldn't move. Immediately I looked behind and prayed the tailing truck don't run over me. Fortunately it didn't and I am still here to write this post. The next thing I knew, some tambak riders appeared and whisked me(and motorbike) away to the road shoulders. Never managed to catch who they are. But I would really like to thanked them and also the EMAS personnel who help to push my bike to the nearby expressway exit. Somehow I manage to ride my bike to the nearest car park where my colleague came to fetch me to the nearest clinic. For no reason, my bike just skidded out of a sudden and I could not get it under control. I still had no idea why and how it happened. I mean I was just riding at 75km/h. Was not in a hurry. slept ok last night. Both my Michelin tires in good condition. Only slight drizzle not heavy rain. And I am a very careful and seasoned rider/driver. I still don't know why. It happened too fast(bing bang and it was over). Not even time to feel scared. Thakfully, this tambak rider lives on to fight another day No greater joy than to be still sitting at home watching my daughter play. Very lucky minor wounds only, no bones visible. Tear through my raincoat to my pants. After bandaged. After bandaged.

Tambak Rider

Just came up with a new term 'Tambak Rider' referring specifically to kaki tambaks who cross the causeways on motorcycles or bicycles.

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.