It’s 2 AM where I have to be in bed already since I’ve got more intensive support coming up tomorrow. But to mark this week, I feel like I have to post something. Luckily I managed to activate my STARHUB GRPS thus enabling me to move around today and giving me the chance to watch the magnificent fireworks in the Waterfool show at One Raffles Quay, instead of sitting duck in front of my laptop waiting for emails that may never come.

It’s really not a new thing that people work or learn in a different city from where they are living thus making them go back and forth between cities everyday. In Indonesia, many people live in Bekasi or Depok and work in Jakarta. But here, in Singapore, I found a different story.

Today, when I was about to go back from Esplanade and got confused on how to reach the MRT of City Hall, I met these two persons around my age who kindly showed me the way to the MRT station. As we walked, we chatted a bit, until this part of conversation :

Meke : “Are you local?”
Him : “No, I’m malaysian.”
Adrian : “Oh. So Where do you live in Malaysia?”
Him : “JB.”
Adrian : “JB? Johor Bahru?”
Him : “Yes. But I work here. So I travel back and forth everyday. Takes me like two hours.”

I’m quite surprised to hear that. Working between cities is not a new thing, but between countries? It’s a totally different story for me. How is that possible?

The scenario proves that it’s very likely. It only takes you SGD 1 to travel from Johor Bahru to Singapore by Bus. The travel time is only around 40 minutes, much shorter than the travel time from Bekasi to Jakarta. Passing the border is also not too much a hassle if you have the S-Pass (employment pass). Unlike the normal tourists, the immigration officer will just sweep your S-Pass and there you can go after in just a split second. Very convenient, indeed.

Apparently, a large proportion of Johor Bahru inhabitants are actually working in Singapore due to higher payment. With fresh univ grad salary, around SGD 2000, you can still save a lot. Rough calculation if you work 22 days a month, and have lunch and dinner every working day in the hawker center, it will just cost you max 22 days x SGD 20 = 440 SGD per month. You still have another SGD 1500 (Rp. 10,000,000.-) you can spend for other things while actually in Malaysia, everything is far cheaper compared to Singapore, sometimes very similar to the price in Indonesia.

What do you think? Isn’t it very attractive?