Uniquely UTC

Been flying around a lot lately so it didn't escape me that my passport was expiring in six months. KH told me that there is an online renewal, but I wasn't confident with the photo submission. I didn't want to be rejected due to some technicality on that and end up needing to turn up at the immigration office anyway. Since I only had the weekends free, my only choice was UTC. Read some online reviews and finally decided on UTC Sentul.

I woke up at 6:00 AM and left the house thirty minutes later. Still took me forty minutes to get there in the early morning traffic. The downside of UTC Sentul is the lack of parking. The basement parking is the domain of the government servants and the wet market operators. So, I had to make a few turns around the block to find available parking. And since I was so early, many lots were taken up by people who lived above the shop lots or at the nearby low cost housing. But lucky for me, I found a spot on my second try.

Fearing that there would be a queue already, just scrambled upstairs. I looked hither and yonder but couldn't exactly find the immigration office. Then I noticed a bunch of people loitering at one of the food court tables. One of the ladies had something that looked like a passport in her hands.

"The immigration office is there, behind the shutters. The last I came, there was a long queue, but it's so quiet today. I wonder if they're still operating."

Lining Up for Passport

Guess I came to the correct place then. I took a seat too and started reading Tater's book. At 7:30 AM, a young lady rolled up the shutters revealing the Malaysian Immigration logo. Everyone shuffled forward and formed a queue in front of the glass doors. Turns out that the water bottle I saw in front of the shutters earlier was actually a woman's attempt to 'chop' her place at the head of the queue. Lol.

Imigresen

Waited an hour for the office to be opened at 8:30 AM. I was the ninth in line. Not bad. By 9:06 AM, they had processed my application, taken my photo, and accepted payment. The last time I renewed my passport it was MYR300, now it's MYR100 cheaper. Yay. Since I had to wait an hour, I made my way up to the National Registration Department to replace my NRIC. Been meaning to update my address. No need to furnish any proof to change one's address, but you show some proof to charge the religion. I left mine as "Tiada Agama". Paid the MYR10, got my photo taken, received a temporary NRIC, and was told that I could get my NRIC at 11:45 AM. So surprised that it only takes half the time to renew one's passport.

JPN

By that time, I was hungry as heck, so I went back down to the food court to have breakfast. Spied a stall that sold Nasi Dagang Terengganu, which is such a rarity in KL. Immediately went for that and I was not disappointed. With nothing else to do, I went downstairs to explore the wet market. Didn't take me long because it was quite small really. Before long, I was back upstairs to collect my passport and NRIC.

Nasi Dagang

Pasar

Got home at noon and had lunch with mum at home. She had a massage appointment at 2:00 PM, so obviously KH and I made the best of that. After our Happy Hour, we went to Wave Cafe, Puchong Jaya where we met up with SK and Dan. Wave Cafe is a nice place to have waffles and soft serve ice cream, but if you're a vampire, do avoid the place because it's super bright. Advisable to bring along a pair of sunnies. The signature Belgian waffles are fluffy and crisp, but I wasn't very impressed with the soft serve ice cream (tried Honey Lavender). FYI, they open late, from 3:00 PM till midnight. Dan was telling us about his gastric problems. His gastroenterologist put him on a strict diet, so he just sat there with a glass of water. Poor thing.

Cozy

Signature Belgian Waffles

SK wanted late lunch, so we went to Fu Wah after that. Craved for their baked char siew bun so I ordered a piece. When it came, I thought they had put it through a shrink ray. Inflation! SK had their Swiss chicken wings (I think they use premium soy sauce for that, excellent) and salt-chili pork chop. One last event before I called it a day-- a wake, but I'll leave that for another post.

Macau Chicken Wings

Comments

Derek said…
Such a busy day! Don't recall you went on a Saturday.
William said…
@Derek:
Yep, it was a market day.
Twilight Man said…
You were so smart as usual. My other friend had glitches and had to end up at the counter to settle his passport online renewal woes. Ours is a really scary country with blunders.

My old friend and family were flying to Europe for a holiday when the wife's passport barred her from leaving for back dated unpaid taxes. This spoilt the whole family's trip and wasted 4 air tickets. Her last job was an air stewardess over 20 years ago! She was shocked to discover there was an error in the system at the tax office which cleared her name eventually. My friend wanted to kill the officers for the 4 air tickets wasted!
William said…
@Twi:
An unfortunate incident! Three of them should have proceeded and the wife could have flew in to join them later.
Tater said…
Hope you enjoyed the book!!!!!

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