Backlog: Malaysia - Singapore Travelogue pt.2

We don't know who had made the decision, or even if a discussion has been made that led into such action. I remember throwing a question of wether we should stay for a night in Johor Bahru before crossing the border to Singapore early or straight ahead to Singapore that night as well. All i know is that we found ourselves standing in line for a transit bus that led us to Singapore. It was 2230 hrs.

The driver asked us where we're heading. Stupidly, I answered (most of the time, I had assumed the role of leading the party and did all the questioning-and-answering) "Singapore" The driver said, "Singapore is big, where is exactly you're going to?" I said, "Chinatown" The driver frowned a bit and later said that he could take us as far as Queens Terminal and the fare is 5.40 for three. I found out later that the bus was numbered #170 and didn't passed Chinatown at all and the fare he asks was in Singapore dollar which I had paid in Malaysian Ringgit that due to the minimum light and an almost identical color of 5 Malaysian Ringgit and 5 Singapore dollar went unnoticed by the driver. This is a genuine first time mistake in my part. I could assured you that the mistake was not deliberate, and I genuinely felt sorry for it.

Thinking that everything is going to be alright, we rode the bus away to Singapore. Despite the situation that we had no idea whatsoever whence we're going to head in Singapore and the fact that it was a mere hour away from midnight doesn't damped our spirit. In fact, we're so high spirited that we felt like singing. I was, for once, excited about traveling.

Singapore

Initial plan: Arrive at 0400 hrs, look for an apartment to rent in Chinatown, and sight seeing for the whole day.
Miniscule details: A map of Singapore that shown MRT line.
Execution:

Upon crossing the border to Singapore at Johor Bahru, we got hold up at the custom due to our religion (I say, WTF?) which apparently was obvious judged by our goatees. My wife cleared though, but me and my friend had to spent almost half an hour questioned. Of course, we are cleared eventually, but really, just because we had goatees we had to be detained? Even if it's for a short while, I was quite insulted. Anyway, the clock hits 2330 hrs when we finally stepped into Singapore's soil. Imagine, 2230, no means of transportation, no local acquaintances, no nothing. Yet, we were happy and chatted excitedly about the previous event even took some photographs (only minutes before we saw a $500 fine notice for taking pictures. Fortunately, no one spotted us taking photos).

We sat around for a while in the custom discussing of what to do. There were buses coming and going but we have no idea which one to take, and after all, our bus that we took from Johor Bahru bus station has obviously leave us behinds for we took quite a long time in custom.

When the night goes on, we decided to board any bus available. And again, noticing our big backpacks, the driver asked us where we are heading and he pointed us to board bus #170 instead. Moments later (considering that it was almost midnight, it's amazing that there's still buses available), we board the bus. Upon seating, we are wondering wether we should pay or not. Again, I did the asking. I asked the Indian bus driver wether we should pay or no because we've already paid the other #170 driver at Johor Bahru for taking us to the Queens terminal. To my surprise, he urges me to sit back and asking none.

And finally, we've got our first view of Singapore and it has been a long day.

To be continued.. tomorrow.