Singapore

#524

26th December

As I said, the next post after Recap Sem 1 would be talking about the one-day trip to Singapore and no doubt I quite excited for this trip haha.

As a record of mine, the first foreign country to visit is actually Taiwan on December last year, and the second one goes to Singapore.

So, basically you should know that Singapore is a small country but very well and modernly developed.

Well then, maybe your first impression about Singapore would be high-rise buildings, residential buildings equipped with modern facilities etc. But that is only true for some regions in Singapore, and the rest are actually quite flourished with green plants and reserved parks.

The main tourist attractions are mostly focused at the south part known as Downtown Core, but if you want more entertainment then Sentosa Island i.e. Universal Studios is the best choice.

Okay, so let's talking about this journey, shall we?

This trip wasn't planned (or may?) and I just follow my friends for the trip since this is quite a good chance before exam.

Among seven people including Jia Le, Chung Yang, Pei Ting (these three are Johorians), me, Jun Xian my roommate, Mei Yean and her friend (dunno her name XD), four of us had went to Singapore to work so it would be very easy for me to learn very quickly.

Trust me, my roommate had worked there for entirely 8 months, so definitely he knew everything in Singapore while my 3 Johorian friends lead us the best transport to Singapore (and also the custom).

Since we went there two days before Christmas, so you can imagine how terrible would be the traffic on Johor-Singapore Causeway. So make sure, if time allows, take the best time to Singapore. 

Our starting point set at Skudai Parade, and we took a bus direct to JB Sentral for about RM2.70. After reaching there, the first thing you have to do is passing through the Malaysia custom which is pretty easy and pretty fast with automatic machines.

The next one is depend on your luck, there are lots of buses for you to ride on to across the Causeway, and the price ranging from RM2 to RM4, depend on the drop-off destination.

Yet, a worse thing we experienced is the traffic congestion, which took us 30 minutes to reach the custom and another 1.5 hours to across the custom due to long queues.

Well this should be expected but it was considered fast that day, so such condition sometimes could be inevitable but another smart way is to pick a suitable time to across to Singapore.

After safely passing through Singapore custom, then you could either take bus or MRT to downtown core. However, the fastest way is taking bus because there is a highway straightforward to the city centre.

Well, not quite a good day for us as we waited the bus for almost another 1.5 hours and we decided to change another bus.

Malaysia Custom

Singapore MRT Station

Outside square of Somerset 313.

Reached Newton Circus and so we decided to have lunch at Aston's, a western restaurant at Bugis Street Mall. 

This was recommended by Jun Xian, and one set meal cost $10.90. Even it looks expensive if change it to Malaysian Ringgit, but the price included one main course and two side dishes.

That was the first lunch in Singapore and quite fit the stomach for whole day long.

After that, we took a walk and had window shopping at Orchard Road, consider a must when visiing Singapore.

Hmm... How should I say? I couldn't spend much money during the trip becuz' there are way, way too much branded stores along the streets with countless malls.

Same as what I saw in every MRT, out of MRT there will be a shopping mall and my gosh the money couldn't spent on those items too.

Just then, we took MRT to Gardens by The Bay, and it is a humongous place to walk through every single part of it. 

But, somewhat this is what I said before, a very peaceful and nice natural park best for jogging and strolling. 

It is just behind the iconic Marina Bay Sands so you could witness the full view of it here.

Some places in the Gardens by The Bay required paying fees but if you want it a free trip there're lots to look and walk for free as well.

Anyway, we walk across Marina Bay Sands and went into Shoppers At The Marina Bay, another big mall as wide as Marina Bay Sands. 

Here again, lots of branded items and it is very much like a luxurious version of Paradigm Mall.

As the sky goes dark, we decided to leave Singapore around 7.30pm as we have to catch up the time to avoid traffic congestion.

We took the MRT straightforward from Marina Bay back to Woodlands, waited for another bus to custom. 

Fyi Malaysian passports are now eligible to use automatic machines to pass through Singapore custom, which is a recent good news as this will be pretty easy and save a lot of time as well.

Fortunately, the journey back to JB Sentral through the Causeway is very smooth and it took only about 5 minutes lol.

It was around 10.30pm so it is very usual that that place won't be stuck at that time, but it is still depend on the dates and contingency like traffic jam may happen anytime.

Malaysian custom is easy to pass manually because we are Malaysians right? So, if you want to choose automatic machine, it is okay but that was much slower actually.

Our dinner just settled at JB around 12am lol couldn't believe that lunch can hold me for such a long time.

...Ready for it? It's the time to see some selfie and wefie pictures!!!

Anyway, here marks the end of the first trip to Singapore, and pretty sure that I will visit Singapore again next time, probably next year.

The total money spend for this trip is a fair amount of $25 including lunch, MRT and some drinking stuffs.

It is quite reasonable when visiting Singapore, so I can't argue much about it.

This have to thanks to my friends who guided me throughout the trip and I can make such a simple post.

Well, maybe you would ask about where is Merlion? What about Singapore Flyer? and others...

But because of time limit so we couldn't visit that much places in such a short time, so maybe I would take pictures on those attractions, or maybe we would go to Universal Studios next time.

Since this trip is insufficient for me to post travelling trips, so I would end this post here.

Waiting for my next trip to Singapore again, and there could be much more to talk about.

Bye!