This travel photo blog won the 1st Singapore Blog Awards'08 - Best Photo Blog by OMY, S'pore Press Holdings. Welcome to tour around the world in my cyber corner! We went Ipoh-Perak, Malaysia last week, by coach from Singapore. It usually takes around 7 hours to reach Ipoh. But this time, it took us more than 8 hours to reach there. I am going to rant about Transtar (transport company located at Lavender MRT station).
First, the designated coach was scheduled to pick us at 9pm, but the coach was half an hour late.
Then half way along the route in Malaysia, the air-con suddenly stopped working. The air got warmer and stuffy. It was only when Jacky informed the driver then he knew about it.
After a while, when we were all sleeping soundly, he woke everyone up again and asked those going Ipoh to leave the coach and board another coach. No reason given. We had to stumble with our heavy baggages in the dark along a muddy path near the forest to the other coach. When we got up to that coach, I had to crawl into my seat as the passengers in front had reclined their seats while sleeping.
Bad experience with Transtar. No star for them this time. -_-
We dropped at this small bus stop when we arrived in Ipoh at 6plus in the morning. As usual, we waited for our relative to fetch us.
This is an old public bus in Ipoh, picking up passengers at the bus stop.
Read Hype about Ipoh food and older posts on Ipoh Attractions and Ipoh Food when I was there during Chinese New Year 08.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:56 am
oh Dear, so pity. Its often happened such thing. I almost got cheated when purchase bus ticket in kl. Luckily, i can manage my money back. I never been to ipoh before but every time i go to kl, a take trans nasional or nice bus. they are reliable. last june we take seri maju bus from golden mile to genting, and its was a pleasure journey…
October 10th, 2008 at 1:29 am
@dede: I googled about Transtar and also read some bad reviews about the company. We were cheated too, when we bought fake bus tickets in Johor. Got to be careful. There are crooks everywhere to cheat tourists.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I was Sexually assaulted while sleeping on a transtar travel bus from Singapore by the bus driver. When I ran out of the bus I noticed that he had also taken my cell phone.
I called the Transtar office many times to complain and to get help. They never did anything, they never even called me back.
Please stay away from this bus company they are criminals and do not care at all for your safety.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
@Kanae: OMG! That’s really scary! I didn’t expect Transtar is so bad! I feel that you should report to the police so that the police keeps a record of that. I hope this serves as a warning to others. Take care.