Kalaulah jambatan menghubung Labuan - Sabah menjadi realiti, alangkah bestnya! Aku akan tarik nafas lega panjang-panjang. Bye-bye feri! Sengsara juga bah naik feri ni, leceh habis! Sudahlah booking kena bayar di Public Bank (bukan online macam Air Asia). Lepas tu you need to fax the bank in slip along with the details of your travel (date, time etc) to their office. Lepas fax of course you need to be sure if they receive your fax or not. Once you call them, this is normally their answer "bila fax? Nama? Company?...belum terima lagi, nanti kalau terima I call you...your phone number please?" Tunggu dua, tiga jam tiada juga call. Last-last you ended up calling them yourself. Bukan itu saja 'kelecehannya', kena pula bayar itu bayar ini. Bayar feri lain, bayar kastam lain, bayar landing fee Jabatan Laut lain (tu dia! ada landing fee lagi, padahal landing kapalterbang pun free of charge saja). Kena declare barang lagi. Isi borang itu...isu borang ini. Terlari-lari kau from one counter to another.
Yang saya geram, pernah sekali tu, one week sebelum tarikh perjalanan, saya inquire (through telephone) concerning the consequences if we change our vehicles at the last minute (our problem is, we're not so sure if the vehicle that we stated in our reservation will be available on that particular day or rather we're not quite sure which vehicle to use...maklumlahkan terlampau banyak kereta!...ahaks!). The reply I received was "nda apa baitu, bawa saja kereta kamu...tiada apa-apa juga tu". At the terminal, to my surprise we have to pay a penalty, 50% of the normal rate! Grrrrrr!! I was told the penalty is only RM10 if I make the changes earlier or within 24 hours. That's the whole idea why I inquired one week earlier...to make the necessary changes so as to avoid penalty but since I was told so and so, I didn't proceed with the changes! Dalam urusan yang agak complicated sebegini, we expect professionalism tahap gaban lima bintang but then it's not what we're getting. At one time the custom officers (upon checking our belongings), told us we don't need to declare our goods that consist of some testing instruments including a small domestic genset. Three months later, another officer told us the opposite. Upon asking when was such rules been enforced the reply was since time immemorial! The most grumbles you'll hear from the passengers are the departure schedule. Never on time...I tell you!. Mostly an hour late otherwise it's a thirty-minute delayed not to mention the two hour sail. So there you go, why the bridge is badly needed (at least by me). If it becomes a reality, not only that it'll erase all the hussles above but I think it's gonna be a magnificient structure ever built on Borneo island.
*By the way, I was talking about the vehicle ferry from Menumbok to Labuan not the express ferry from Jesselton Point KK to Labuan. That one I heard is quite efficient and still required even if the bridge exists in the future.
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