MBI ought to be ashamed of Medan Gopeng Bus Terminal

We were supposed to pick up our old friends from Leeds, Stuart Hirst and his wife Sarah (both retired lecturers of Leeds Metropolitan University), from Medan Gopeng at 1.15am early this morning. We arrived half an hour early and looked for them, having experienced before a bus from Singapore which was more than an hour earlier than scheduled.

We waited in the waiting area of the half-lit and rundown bus terminal. Both inside and out, the atmosphere was fairly dark and gloomy. No parking along the road exit was lined with big stones to prevent cars from parking, so crude and unsightly and pedestrians could even trip over them. It was a disgrace even by our Malaysian standard, eg. as compared with Batu Gajah's underused one. I know there is going to be a new bus terminal at the new development area in Jelapang and Medan Kidd is going to be improved upon too. But isn't maintenance of any existing bus terminal a priority regardless of whether there is going to be a move to another place? The impression I get is that it will be used in the current shameful state until the new terminal is ready!

Anyway, fortunately Stuart sensed the place they were dropped (actually a make-shift taxi stand) along Jalan Gopeng could not be the Medan Gopeng bus terminal and he walked 500 metres to it looking for us! Apparently, Yoyo the bus operator serving between Ipoh and KLIA /LCCT does not have the right to go into the terminal, which was why they had to drop off passengers along the main road.

Within a short period, this was the second time we had difficulty when dealing with foreign tourists arriving in Ipoh by coach. Earlier, Cheng's Brazilian friend who came from Singapore mentioned he will be getting off at Gopeng. How was he to know that the name could confuse us as to whether he meant Gopeng town or Medan Gopeng bus terminal? My wife and Cheng actually went to Gopeng town first to make sure he wasn't there before going to Medan Gopeng! Last night's confusion was due to our not knowing the actual drop-off point of Yoyo. Let this be a lesson to those with similar arrangement with foreign tourists or even local visitors from out of town.
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