Every weekday at 4.30am (for some even earlier), legions of Malaysians begin their daily journey across the southern border to work, many returning to Johor only well after dark. Time spent at checkpoints between the Singapore and Malaysia can vary from half an hour to four hours, depending on the day, time, season and sheer luck of the draw . I, too, take this daily commute to work.

Statistics from 2015 indicate that an average of 295,731 people make the land crossing every day. The two bridges connecting Singapore and Malaysia, the Causeway and the Second Link, are said to be the busiest border crossings in the world, with 126,000 vehicles moving across it each day. Of these commuters, 58 per cent travel by motorbike (more than 100,000 riders) and 36 per cent by car. Most of the others, like myself, travel by bus. Others take the KTM shuttle train between JB Sentral and Woodlands.