In Continuum.

Back On A Jet-Bus

I came back on a jet-bus,and look what the hell mother nature did to the country i came from.It poured like never before along the highways of Malaysia,and the comment i gave to WanWei when we stepped off the bus on the first night on Saturday morning came into my mind."Isn't it the monsoon season?" i said,as we strolled through the streets on Kuala Kumpur at 430am,with Jerry the cousin and Terence the friend of the cousin leading the way.But that is besides the point for now,since i shall go into more details in other entries.

The three-lane highway shrunk to just one at three points along the highway,and i was already getting agitated as the supposed arrival timing closed in,and we werent making much progress towards Johor,with the signs along the road saying that we were 265km away from the city.It was frustrating,but it's not like horning at the cars in front,or cutting the throat of the construction workers behind the barricades would help.We were stuck,fact.

So half of the Coldplay songs went by with me in a dream.With my head against the window of the bus,i fell asleep with the steady vibration of the glass going through my skull.I missed half the songs,and when i woke up it was already halfway through Clocks,but what the hell.I finished the song,and went on to Continuum.I missed half that album too,and the last note i heard was John Mayer's long drag of the note after the word "You" at the end of "I'm Gonna Find Another You".The rain kept falling,it never seized.I dont remember it raining so hard in recent days,and it sure seems like it is going to be the pattern for the next couple of days all the way till Christmas.Interestingly,when Chris Martin sang the words "When the tears come streaming down your face..." in "Fix You",i looked out into the rubber plantations ouside and the water streaking down the window.It was a strange sight,with the green being distorted by the refraction of light through the little droplets of water.It was a little melancholic in a way,and soon enough i found myself sound asleep once more.

Nearing the Malaysian customs,the traffic slowed down to a dead stop.I dont remember even being stuck in a slow moving traffic for that long - if it was moving at all.In front of us,thousands of cars - literally - lined up one behind another towards the exit towards Singapore.Our bus was trapped behind another,smelling its exhaust and reading "TaiPing to Johor" a million times,with the clock ticking by a second at a time.We were supposed to reach Singapore at five plus,but by 6.30 we were still in Malaysia.So you can imagine how slow the traffic was moving,and the rain sure didnt help at all.And they said being stuck on CTE is a driver's nightmare.They havent been over at Johor at that hour apparently,and it was a Monday.Imagine if today's a Sunday.Oh my,i might still be on the road at this hour!

Along the Causeway and beyond the giant white pipelines,the ocean disappeared into the rain.Like a great big fog surrounded the bridge or something,the scenary was completely consumed by the rain.We stared out through the window at what was supposed to be the sea in awe,and wondered what happened to the country we came from,with that sunny image we left behind that night.

At Singapore the situation was bad.The streets were flooded,and the traffic did not ease up at all.More red lights before our windscreen,with the white lights going in the opposite direction so fast,it was as if they were mocking our slow speed.We were crawling,and i had the urge to crash through the window walk the rest of the way back to Singapore.

At the Singapore customs,the rain crashed through the windows along the corridors,lightnings shot through the sky,cracking it open and letting in sudden blasts of blue lights.The thunder was as if the sky really was cracked,and little people scrambled towards their buses on the other side of the customs,shunning away from the rain and blocking their faces with newspapers and luggages.I probably was the only person in awe of the coming rain,the stormy Christmas.Sure,we dont get snow here in Singapore,but i welcome rain with opened arms too.We can cuddle with the people that we love indoors,and we dont even need a heater or thick blankets to enjoy it.It can be a great thing i must say,to have a rainy Christmas instead of a snowy one.At least the music at the windowsill is much more pretty to the ears.

So it is still raining now,and for some reason i have a smile on my face.I am tired from the long bus trip,which for some reasons felt more excruciating than the one i had in India.Probably because of the vibrant display of stupidity on my way home,which included the retarded taxi driver and other matters.But other than that,i am just glad to be home,sitting in front of the computer and telling my blog about my trip,and of course talking to the beau.It is a great feeling to be on the same piece of land with her again,to know that we are merely eight bus stops away from each other,rather than eight hundred kilometres.

I am here,and that's all that matters.

Hey,it's great to be back.And as for tomorrow,i cant wait.