Buying a ticket home. It’s suppose to be easy, it’s suppose to be painless. But when you combine school holidays, Sundays and rainy days, you’ve got yourself a perfect storm.

I was trying to go from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. My normal choice of transport is the bus, as that takes me just over 5 hours and it’s reasonably cheap. Tickets are normally plenty, so I didn’t bother buying a ticket till the day I wanted to go. On this day, I couldn’t be more wrong.

It was a Sunday. My normal ticket avenues were fully booked. Going through the more luxurious coaches also came to nothing. I tried the train and it was fully booked apart from a late night train, which was more than a 10-hour journey - I’m still not going to make it in time for work the next day. Plus, there were only first class cabins available. It’s more than 4 times the bus ticket. The budget airlines were also gone. So as a last resort, I went to where all buses congregate - Puduraya.

Puduraya is an old bus interchange. It has buses going to different parts of Malaysia. It offers plenty of choices and flexibilty in terms of destinations and time availability. It’s also a cheap way to travel, most of the time. However, it comes at a price. You are at the mercy of the chaotic timetable.

You are told the timetable, but that remains as that, the timetable. If you’re lucky, the bus will come slightly late. On that day, the 3.30pm bus arrived at 7.30pm. As for my 5.30pm bus - it didn’t arrive at all. The rain probably didn’t help with the bus schedule.

So I got a refund with no solution. I told my boss I won’t be able to make it to work on Monday. And I stayed another night in Malaysia. If I have made the decision earlier to go back on Monday instead of Sunday, I would have had the whole Sunday to spend relaxingly, rather than spending the morning hunting for tickets, the afternoon still hunting for tickets, the evening waiting for a no-show bus, only to take a train the next day, and using up my annual leave.

I wasn’t willing to spend 10 times the money to get a normal flight ticket. I don’t have work pressing enough that required my presence on Monday. Would I have made a different decision given the same situation again? I think it’s a resounding yes. It’s partly about money, but for this case, time is more important. I would rather spend the time exploring Malaysia, meeting up with friends, than waiting for the bus which did not arrive.

Note to self - time well spent beats money well spent