With the earlier-than-expected exit from my AirAsia AK407 flight from Padang and immigration, I headed down to the Transportation Hub to get the Skybus (AeroSky Ventures) to KL Sentral because I thought I had time. I didn’t pre-book my bus ticket this time round as I had wanted to keep my KL transit options open. But I guess I was going to regret catching the bus this time round.
I purchased my bus ticket to KL Sentral as per normal from the ticket counter.
The ride from klia2 to KL Sentral costs RM12. I purchased my ticket with just 8 minutes to spare for the bus’ departure.
Heading out to board the bus to KL Sentral, this time using an actual Skybus bus.
The journey out seemed pretty normal.
However, shit got real at the KLIA Toll Plaza when the bus engine decided to stop functioning when the bus stopped at the toll booth. The driver tried restarting the engine, but it was as if the bus had run out of diesel (impossible).
The driver went to the back of the bus to figure out what was wrong with the engine. This took about 10 minutes, but the bus got moving again anyway.
An AeroSky Ventures bus passed my bus by.
The bus choked up again before Putrajaya Toll Plaza, and the driver went to check on the engine again.
The bus stalled yet again before Putrajaya Toll Plaza (Maju Expressway) on an uphill incline, which was pretty difficult for the driver to get it restarted and going again since it was a manual bus.
Another AeroSky Ventures bus passed my bus by.
Luckily, the bus made it through the toll booth despite the stop.
However, this was short-lived.
The bus stalled in the middle of the MEX, and the driver had to pull over to the side. Yet another AeroSky Ventures bus passed my bus by. This seemed like the longest stop yet. It was particularly worrying for me too since this is only a transit for me, and I still had to return to klia2 to catch my flight back to Singapore. Maybe it was an unlucky move today to head out to KL city.
But after everything was fixed by the driver who had pretty oily hands by now, the bus moved again, slowly. I guess he finally fixed the problem as the bus did not stall again after this fourth time.
Passing by the monorail depot, with the equally stalled 4-car monorail parked inside. I’m not sure why the driver took this route instead of bypassing Midvalley though.
Bypassing the old Kuala Lumpur Railway Station.
Bypassing Little India.
Finally heading into KL Sentral.
The bus finally arrived at KL Sentral at 3.36pm, a journey which took 96 minutes as compared to a typical journey of slightly under an hour. As such, I had missed the KTM01 bus connection to Sentul where I was hoping to catch the active 81 Class to Batu Caves for a joyride.
So far, this has been the only bad experience I have with AeroSky Ventures, though probably with no fault by the driver. In fact, the driver should be the hero of the day, single-handedly fixing the bus 4 times by himself while on the move. I hope AeroSky Ventures has fixed up this bus (WYM 6331) already to prevent such breakdowns, especially if it happens en route to the airport – that will mess up a lot of things for every passenger on board.