yeah....Things will only get better

Alright folks, I've gotten my tag board and my counter back. It had better not run away again.

Wonderful.

Went to Johor today. Not for shopping , not for the karaoke at Taman Sentonsa ( then again which KTV is open in the morning) but to meet a client. Was pretty happy that the road to the immigiration was very clear.

However, the customs officer at the other end had other ideas. He singled out some stuff in our vehicle as taxble items and therefore we have to declare and it's subjected to some tax and so on. He accused us of attempting to cheat and demanded that we pay a fine and the taxes that we were supposed to pay. Now, my colleague and I do not have that much Malaysian Ringgit. For your information, the amount demanded was RM1050. We only had half the amount.

My colleague, Tan, went over and asked for settlement on the spot. That was only met with a " Do not try to bribe me!".

We pooled in whatever cash we have. It was still some RM 150 short. Some distance away from the berth we parked our vehicle, we saw another Singaporean vehicle. A young men was seated outside his car. Staring into blank space. Tan struck a conversation with him. That young man had to pay a fine of RM8000. Not too sure what did he bring. Pretty ridiculous.

We went off to the money changer just across the immigration berths. Back with the money, the immigration officer somehow dissappeared. We asked around for him but he was no way to be found. A typical tactic I'm sure. Holding up the person, pushing him into frustration and hence agreeable to whatever amount one may quote.

Tan placed a stack of RM50 on the board.

"That's all we have."

The officer was adamant that we pay the full amount. It doesn't help a bit that we're not that conversant in Malay. We emptied our wallets and pockets.

Yups that's all we have. The officer insisted that we add another note to that. One more note and that's it. He took out a small note pad that was printed with receipts. Supposedly to be the official document. However,

1) The person making the payment was only known as Mr Tan. No passport number, nationality, address what soever.

2)Only RM 50 was written . Not too sure where the other went. For your information, we paid a total of RM400. Down from the RM1050. But well, he still pocketed RM350, or maybe even more. The receipt book is like something you will find in some traditional mama store. Defintely not some official document.

3) The officer issuing didn't indicate his name. Just scribbled some shit and that's it.

Oh well... looks like it's hard to find a single immigration officer there that is not prone to coffee money. Except this made it look official. You pay RM400,he writes only RM50. Not too sure where the rest went.

Thanks ah....