Bus Misadventure

So we almost found ourselves riding off to Ipoh last Sunday night. That would have been all well and good if Ipoh wasn't approximately three to four hours north of Kuala Lumpur. It would have all been fine and dandy if I didn't have work to attend to the following Monday. Well, how did we find ourselves almost heading off to Ipoh, you ask? 

Easy. We simply hopped on the wrong bus.

Partner-in-Crime was already waiting by the bus when we got to Kitchener Road. Ate Di and I had taken the wrong MRT exit and had to go through India just to get there. I had the printed itineraries. But we all needed to make a quick detour to the bathroom so we asked the driver to wait for us. He said, "Okay." We made a mad dash to the ladies toilet. Then we ran as fast as we could back to the bus and seated ourselves in our assigned seats.

"Where are you going?"

"KL."

"KL? No, this bus is going to Ipoh. Go and check at the office."

Office??? Ate Di and I knew it. Buses going to KL usually had ticketing offices nearby. We found it strange that we could immediately get inside the bus with just our printed itineraries.

We scrambled out of the vehicle, scanning the perimeter for the said office. Where was it? We saw another bus and I asked the driver if it was going to KL. He said it was but I had better check with the office first. I told him, "Please wait for us." He said, "Okay."

When we go to the ticketing office, it was already 10:10 PM (our bus was supposed to leave at 10). The ticketing lady exclaimed, "Why so late ah!" and gave us our tickets and complimentary mineral water bottles.

We double-checked the tickets and it turned out that our real bus was thankfully the one with the driver who graciously waited for us after I asked him to.

Lesson learned: when booking buses online, look for their ticketing office first before making yourself comfy in what could be the wrong bus.

Check your ticket.