The So-So SinGaPoRe TRiP

After my graduation trip in December 2007 to Wellington, I finally had another over-the-sea experience last 30th November.

Unlike the majority of my Degree mates who went to Europe, Australasia, East Malaysia, and other countries in Asia for their vacations, I could only afford a day trip to Singapore..hahaha! That is good enuff already for a full-time student right? ni pun dh cukup x sedar diri...wuhuhu..

I took a long time to share with you about my Singapore trip in this blog coz I want to have all the pics with me first. Without the pics, it's difficult for me to remember every possible significant detail along my trip, Finally, I manage to collect all, although I now realise that I didn't take as many pictures as i normally would on a trip. What had happened to the vain me? haha..

This trip was made possible by Zira. It was her idea to go to Singapore since her bf would also be coming to Malaysia at that time. And when she pujuk-ed me to go along with them, I was kinda tempted... Singapore actually didn't tempt me that much, but I thought to myself "When else will I have the chance to go to Singapore after this?... everyone else has been to Singapore.." I have been to other countries but never had a real trip to Singapore, the nearest country to Malaysia. So despite clearly being the 'third party' and a so-called pest between the two lovebirds, I accepted Zira's offer.

We went there by train from KL Sentral. The journey was about 10 hours. We departed at night from KL and arrived early morning in Singapore. We chose the bed seating for both ways so that we could just sleep throughout the journey. Plus, this is the trick to having a trip to Singapore without spending any money on accommodation..hahaha. Financial constraints obviously made us creative.



So our trip to Singapore officially started around 8 am (we managed to bathe at the Singapore Railway Station) and ended around 10 pm of the same day. Without having any plans to venture out to Pulau Sentosa, 14 hours of going around Singapore city centre was more than enough.

Then, we bought an insanely expensive map at the Railway station (no choice ma...) and went to the nearest MRT station to start our journey on the foreign land. To be honest, from the moment I stepped my foot on Singapore until the end of the trip, nothing impressed me that much about this developed country. In fact, we were kinda tired at first finding our ways on the streets and following the directions at the MRT stations since the signboards were just as unreliable as Malaysia's. Not really tourist friendly la... But it amazed us how fast the travelators in Singapore were. Maybe this explains their fast-paced lives and why the country's economy is sooo far ahead from Malaysia.

After hopping on and off a few MRTs and following the not-s0-helpful map, we managed to find the Merlion Park. Zira and I were so eager to take pics there, coz it seems to be one of the must-see attractions in Singapore. Macam x sah la pi Singapore kalo xde a pic with the Singa yang terngaga luas2 tu...huhuh.. Here are some pics around the Esplanade and Merlion Park. Click for bigger view.






OK, continue... as we were taking pictures around that area, the city was suddenly pouring with rain... we waited for a while for the rain to stop, and when it drizzled, we continued our journey to the nearest MRT station and went to Orchard Road. We were beginning to get used to taking the MRT (and the super-fast travellator), its deposit system for all travel cards (we needed to pay extra $1 first for each card and then retrieve our deposit when we reached our destinations. Our journey was made easier since all of us bought the 1-day travel card for MRT of about 8 Singapore dollars each. If not, buying one ticket at a time, and retrieving our deposit for all of the tics for each journey would surely consume our golden time. Thank God!













I thought Orchard Road, which was said to be the shopping heaven, would impress me. Again, I was disappointed. Yes, I didn't plan to shop at all, but I was hoping that it was special in some ways. I hope it was different. Na-ah. In fact some Malaysian malls still impress me more... huhu.. Maybe if I were to visit Singapore 20 years ago, I would find Singapore city sublimely awe-inspiring. But now... nah, in fact I didn't exactly feel like I was in a totally different country where the currency exchange rate was about 2.5 times higher than our Malaysian ringgit.


Then after realising that nothing was so special about Orchard Road, we decided that it was time to experience the cultural side of Singapore by going to the Little India. It was still pouring at that time but we didn't really care. We just HAD TO make full use of each minute we had there.


So we strolled along a few streets there, and found some pretty cool Indian shops. In fact, Zira bought a preee-tayy Punjabi suit! Finally!

Then by MRT again we went to Chinatown. At first we faced a bit of a difficulty finding the real Chinatown. But later on, when we discovered it, we went CRAZY!!! It's like the bigger and less-dodgy version of Petaling Street with VERY cheap items, especially souvenirs! We spent quite some time there and were tempted to buy lotsa things.. I was so terrifyingly close to buying my most favourite Vera Wang Princess perfume there.. hahah.. it was said to be original.. dunno la... But later on, after more rationalising... I resisted the temptation. Gila hebat kan?? haha.. It's alright, For the time being, I should just stick to my Haiku Avon perfume which just costs me only about RM 30.

We also stopped for a while whilst shopping, had real Coconut drinks in the middle of the Chinatown... and lastly found the famous temple there and snapped a few more pics! Weeeee! Chinatown is surely the must-visit place in Singapore. and it made our trip worthwhile. It was probably the only place that might tempt us to go to Singapore again next time.





After having a pretty difficult time leaving Chinatown for good, we decided to go to the Chinese Garden. Actually we were running out of places to visit..hahah! Could you believe this happened to us DAY TRIPPERS???

It was pretty far from the city (little that we realised this until our feet sore standing all the way in our journey there on the MRT). And to be honest, there was nothing much there. The garden was not spectacular... but since we were already there, we still snapped a few pictures. According to the signboard, there were Chinese and Japanese Gardens there. But we still couldn't tell which one is which even after our 1-hour stroll there. Told ya the signboards were confusing...
















Then, after the sun set... we didn't have any idea of where else to go except Orchard Road, since the only place we could think of having dinner was the Burger King there, where we had our lunch. So we had a 10-minute dinner there..and rushed back to the MRT station to return our travel cards by 9 pm. If not, we would not get back our deposit.

Then we walked back to the Railway station and hopped back into the KTM train to return back to our beloved country (cewah..). So by then, officially, our trip had ended.

All in all, it was a so-so trip... if it wasn't for Chinatown, the trip would not be worth it at all. I enjoyed the experience nonetheless. After this, I could at least say that I have stepped my foot on the land of Singapore, which was once a part of Malaysia.

Thanx Zira n Warren for making it happen!