Should I be scared (Malaysia)

On my second trip to Singapore, a new friend suggested we travel to Malaysia for dinner. The concept of travelling to another country for dinner is difficult to reconcile when you live in Australia, but in Asia and Europe there is no distance between countries. We jumped on the local bus and within no time we were on the Johor-Singapore Causeway.

At the passport checkpoint, I enthusiastically joined the foreigners line whilst my friend Shanka went through domestic. Some of you will remember Barlow and Chambers (notorious Australian drug dealers), well they had been hung in Malaysian earlier that year. The immigration officer, to my ignorance, was quite heightened about Australians travelling into Malaysia, especially a young female apparently on her own.

His questioning of who I was, where I was going, how long I intended to stay and what was the purpose of my travel became more aggressive as my cool demeanour moved towards anxiety. I didn’t understand him, I didn’t understand what his problem was and I didn’t have enough knowledge of where I was going to answer his questions sufficiently. I can still feel the churning in my stomach. Sweat pooled on my brow as I tried to point out my friend who was waiting for me on the other side. I slowed my speech down to simple statements and tried to smile. After what seemed like an hour (was only minutes) we reached an understanding and he waved me on.

I was more scared afterwards when I realised the possible predicament I could have been in. I wasn’t carry drugs of course but an angry immigration officer can make your life hell. I learnt that assertive white females and angry Asian men have very little in common. This episode made me cautious at future border crossings. Be polite, smile, use short clear statements and don’t question what their problem is?