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Memories of a scammed ride in Puduraya

Part of the facade of Pudu Sentral at the left, view of telecom tower in the background

The air was humid and the crowd inside Puduraya, Kuala Lumpur’s biggest central bus terminal, was almost chaotic. I just came from more than a 6 hour ride from Ipoh in Perak and was tired. The next best thing I wanted was just to lay down on a bed in an airconditioned room and don’t want to walk and still look for a hotel.

A taxi driver came to my rescue and offered to take me to one for RM70. I was too exhausted to mentally compute and was thinking that it was a normal rate and just obliged. Only to find out then that I was just taken for a ride around the city and the hotel was just near Puduraya. I was scammed.

But that was 12 years ago when I had my first trans country trip from Bangkok to Singapore and I was still a novice traveler.

Fastforward, 23 Oct 2012 and the then Puduraya Terminal has now been transformed into a modern bus facility. It has undergone a major renovation in 2006 and renamed to Pudu Sentral in 2011. Airconditioned, free wifi, centralized counters and has a systematic flow of passengers from entering to booking a ticket down to going to the platforms and taking the bus.

While I have become a much wiser traveler now, I was impressed very much with how the then Puduraya Terminal has been transformed into Pudu Sentral.

This is a short photo essay.

Airconditioned ticketing and control area
Stairs leading to the loading bays below. The place is swank, modern and clean.
At platform bay 14. It’s a very organized bus terminal which Manila doesn’t really have
My bus ticket for Alor Setar. Booking one is quite systematic, from ticket counter to platform bay and bus assignment.
Waiting for the bus to accept passengers. There was quite a delay and we only boarded 15 minutes from the set 1030H departure time.
Inside the bus, conductor inspecting one of the tickets. While seat number was indicated on the ticket, it was free seating inside.

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