It is post election (many people travel to their home district to vote) as well as the middle of a big school break, and buses to our next destination are booked.  We were afraid we would have to wait a couple days or else take a longer route to try to get to Pulau Tioman, but fortunately ended up checking at the right travel agent to purchase a ticket.  It looks like any other Chinese shop/travel agent with a counter overflowing with candies, dried fruits, and cigarettes and a sign listing various bus routes hanging overhead.  Yesterday, the lady said she had only one seat left on the bus for tonight, but that she would see what she could do to get us another seat.  Not quite sure how that would happen, we decided to wait and see as this was our only option to leave tonight on a direct route to our next destination.  We checked back at the shop this morning, and sure enough she had gotten us two seats on tonight’s overnight bus.  She told us to come back at 9 to go to the bus station.  After another afternoon of killing time before our bus departed this evening, we picked up the bags from our guesthouse and walked to the shop around 9pm to catch a ride to the bus station, or so we thought.  “My Friend,” as Matt called the Chinese lady, walked with us out to the street and pointed to a corner and told us to wait.  We thought maybe she was pulling her car around, or possibly sending us to the station in a cab, as we watched her walk across the street to a taxi station.  She disappeared from our sight and we worried about getting to the station in time to catch our bus.  Finally, we saw “My Friend” again talking to a group of people across the street, and then another person here and there.  She started passing out tickets to a bunch of guys, Thai fishermen who had just returned from a quick trip across the border to renew their Malaysian visa.  She spoke with some other travelers and directed them to wait at the corner with us.  It became apparent that this woman was no ordinary travel agent hawking bus tickets.  Perhaps, we mused, she owns the bus?  Maybe this was how she was able to arrange an extra seat for us?  We enjoyed a quick chat with her about Malaysia and its various destinations as well as listened to her tell us about how she liked the shopping and cheap food in Hong Kong.  “My Friend” warned us like a good aunty to be careful in KL because it is a big city with crime…but seeing as I’ve worked in two cities myself, one particularly crime ridden, we weren’t too concerned by her warnings.  (Many people we’ve met in various countries living in smaller towns don’t usually like their respective country’s large [inevitably crime ridden”] capital city.)  The bus pulled up and our suspicions were confirmed when she stepped on board and began collecting tickets.  It’s not every day you get a chance to chat with the Don of the Bus.