A group of friends recently returned from Sabah, and as a precaution, left Kota Kinabalu at 11am in anticipation of a massive line at the checkpoint. True enough, they only arrived in Bandar Seri Begawan just shy of 8pm. Imagine those who checked out of their hotel at noon or 2pm.
With the border closed at 10pm, there’s a very slim chance they would have made it to the checkpoint in time.
I have heard a lot of stories about Bruneians failing to factor in the queue time at the checkpoint, resulting in them having to extend their visit for another day. This actually happened to a friend. To add salt to the wound, all hotels were fully booked. So he had no choice but to spend the night in his car.
The way I see it, when visiting our neighbouring Malaysian cities of Miri and Kota Kinabalu by car, we should plan our journeys more wisely, especially during school holiday seasons, when more people cross the border than usual.
The authorities can only do so much to ease the traffic. If the travellers continue to ignore the likelihood of missing the 10pm closing time, they really have no one to blame but themselves.
Peanut Man
