<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Malaysia

To get to Malaysia, the cheapest and easiest option is to take the MRT to Kranji station and then catch SBS public bus number 170 towards Johor Bahru. The bus runs every 5-10 minutes and costs S$0.80 in addition to the MRT fare to Kranji (about S$1-2 depending where you start from).

At the Woodlands checkpoint, you alight from the bus and clear outbound immigration (the lines are very short for "Foreign" passport holders since most Malaysian commuters use a special automated card system). Then you reboard the bus and ride across the causeway before alighting again on the Malaysian side. Here again, there are separate lines for Malaysians, Singaporeans and "Others" so there is no queue worth speaking of. In my case, I spent less than 10 seconds at the Singapore side and about 1 minute on the Malaysia side. The delay on the Malaysia side was only because the officer was making sure I had no Israel stamps in my well-used passport.

You can then reboard the 170 bus and travel to either the KMT railway station (first stop) or the Larkin Bus Station (second stop). If your destination is Johor Bahru, I reccomend the railway station stop as it is right adjacent to the giganctic City Square mall where you can get some excellent deals on shopping. You can board the 170 bus at the same stops on the way back, or take the Malaysian "CausewayLink" service. There is also the "Singapore-Johore Express" bus service that runs nonstop from downtown Singapore to Larkin terminus.

On the way back, I was stopped by Singapore customs who wanted to check if I had bought any pirated CDs/DVDs but the entire thing took less than 5 minutes once they established I was clean. There was a horrible traffic jam on the causeway though, but actual immigration formalities took less than a minute each. </font>