Backlog: Malaysia - Singapore Travelogue pt.3

Our journey is far from over. It was almost 1 am in Singapore, and we've got practically nowhere to go. We were left wandering in Chinatown by cab ($ 8.20) from Queens Terminal and spent almost an hour in local 24 hrs restaurant that actually still filled with many patrons. Finally, exhaustion took its toll (at least for me) and walking with that huge backpack isn't much fun anymore. This is our first (of second) mistake in Singapore soil. Checking in to the nearest hotel in Chinatown (Hotel 81) that cost us dearly ($ 179 for a night). But, all in all, it has been a pretty adventurous trip, and me and my wife were actually excited to re-enact our journey next time despite this wrongful decision (my decision, if I may add) that cost us a lot.

We spent almost nine hours in that hotel. At 11 am, we checked out, heads to one of the apartment in Chinatown, and got ourselves a small place to stay for a night for a measly $ 40 and the fun of the day had just begin.

Little do we know that on that particular day, Singapore is celebrating its National Day. Therefore, it was especially crowded that day, and we saw red shirts everywhere. We begin our day by going to the nearest MRT station, Chinatown. The very first thing I noticed in Singapore is how everybody using some sort of card as their payment. Thus, the very first thing I wanted to have is that card. Luckily, there's a Ticket Office in Chinatown MRT station (not all station had this office, and in Chinatown it only opens from 12 pm) so we asks the very helpful lady behind the counter for a card. She offers us a Daily Tourist Pass ($ 8 / day each with $ 10 deposit refundable upon returning the card within 5 days. Total: $ 18). We were so lucky to have this card for given the standard tariff, and the amount of time we were using the transportation either by MRT or bus, had we didn't have the card, we would spent $ 30 - $ 35 minimum on tickets alone.

Commuting in Singapore is a no-brainer if you're good with maps and I'm considered myself very very good with maps. It took very little for me to memorized the MRT map and means to go to various "recommended" location to visit in Singapore. The first location we're visiting is obviously Orchard Rd. We travels there with MRT which involving switching trains halfway through, took a lunch there (I personally, didn't really liked Orchard Rd. perhaps because other than Starbucks or Movie theater, I generally hated Shopping-Malls and I don't really see why I should treat Malls that littered Orchard Rd. differently) and quickly went away albeit not quick enough to my liking.

Another obvious site is Melion Park. We really have no idea where to go, even my friend who has been to Singapore for an n-th time doesn't really have the clue either (I told you before, he was a spoiled-and-freakishly-rich boy). He said it was in Sommerset, and so we go there by MRT, but we saw another Malls and I hate it already. One of the local citizen pointed us to City Hall and this is where we, for the first time, actually seen the ridiculous crowd who celebrated the National Day. People flocking the street in front of the Esplanade theater, all the way to the bridge that led to Melion Park. My wife, who wanted to visit the lion statue in Melion Park, put a second thought and decided against it after we saw the ridiculous crowd which make it near impossible to go near the statue.

After few photo shoots, we go to Bugis Village for souvenirs (they're cheap! This is where you need to go to bought souvenirs, if you asked me) and a light dinner. Afterward, we went to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal almost all the way to the eastern side of the island to bought our home ticket to Batam. Of course, the Terminal is almost closed. But, we learnt a valuable lesson that there's actually another Ferry Terminal just two MRT stations from Chinatown (Harbour Front). Our feet is already sore from walking all the time, but as the nice lady in Tanah Merah said that the last ferry from Harbour Front departed at 10 pm, we decided to go to Harbour Front. Only to find out that they don't sell tickets in advance. Exhausted, but happy, we decided to go back to Chinatown and immediately fell asleep.

For fear of no tickets available, we head to Harbour Front early in the morning to bought three tickets to Batam at 1250 pm. This is where I made my second mistake. The nice lady asked me, "Pulang balik?" (Going back?) which I had wrongfully assumed that she asked wether I was going back to my home country to which of course I said, yes. An hour later, my wife revealed to me that she actually asked wether I want a two-way ticket to which I had given a "Yes" for an answer. That set us back $ 41 each, and three unused one-way ticket to Singapore from Batam that valid until July 31st, 2009 which we're planned to use for ourselves later this year.

The ferry went exactly on time and you know the very first thing my wife and I did right upon our arrival in Batam? Local food, plenty of rice, plenty of chillies, and a glass of warm tea. That made my day.

All in all, it was a very nice experience. My wife and I brought $ 400 and RM 200 and we are left with $ 40 in small change. But, there's a plenty room for improvement that I dare to say, you could spent two days and two nights in Singapore with only $ 150 and still able to brought back souvenirs. Professional wise, Singapore is a place I would love to work in. Superb transportation system that renders the ole reason of "caught in a traffic jam" largely useless and laughable. But for a mid-range salary man, I still prefers Jakarta than Singapore to raise a family. Much.

By the way, we had already planned our next "unplanned" trip. Instead of going south from Kuala Lumpur, we're going to try to head north from Kuala Lumpur. Penang, Phuket, and perhaps as far as Hanoi if our budget permitted.

Fin.

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.

Backlog: Malaysia - Singapore Travelogue pt.1

Generally, I won't say that I'm in favor of traveling. Not enthusiast, at least. Hence, when an opportunity to travel appeared before me, I wasn't really hyped up for the task. However, time and again, I found myself actually enjoying traveling. The past week is one of an instance where I found myself enjoying traveling.

I was on an office's errand in Pekanbaru last week. A week off-work for a three days duty? Why not? So, me and a couple of friend from the office went to Pekanbaru. On an impulse, my wife bought me a ticket to Kuala Lumpur, and one of my friend, unknowingly asked me, half-joking, about going to Singapore after Pekanbaru. I told him about me and my wife's plan to go to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and shown him our respective round-trip tickets and he immediately jumped into the wagon and so, there we were, three of us, with a huge baggage, two laptops, plenty of dirty clothes, and a totally unplanned trip.

Mind you, none of us three has ever gone to an unplanned, unsponsored trip to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore before. My friend comes from a rich family (filthy rich family) that never in his life he stayed in less than a 5-star hotel whenever he went to Singapore with his family and no, I'm not kidding. My wife and I comes from a rural village where our idea of delicacy is simply plenty of rice and chillies and had planned to have this trip as cheap as possible. Go figure how we managed our differences.

Malaysia

Initial plan: 0840 hrs from Pekanbaru, 1025 hrs arrived in Kuala Lumpur, immediately bought an over-night train ticket to Singapore, spent an evening sight-seeing in Kuala Lumpur, enjoys local delicacies, etc, and finally head to Singapore with a 2230 hrs train, scheduled to arrive in Singapore around 0400 hrs. Perfect plan, if you asked me.
Miniscule details: None.
Execution: Our plane got delayed. Instead of 0840 hrs from Pekanbaru, we departed at 1015 hrs. Arrived at Kuala Lumpur at 1155 local time. My friend, whose passport due to expired in 4 months immediately put himself in trouble at the custom. Apparently, it seems that there's a new rule that your passport must had at least six months of remaining validity before entering Malaysia. We had no idea about this rule, although that the custom in Pekanbaru has warned us about it. The custom dude even said in a harsh tone that my friend shouldn't even be permitted to enter. Fortunately, my friend could produce our return ticket from Batam and wise enough to keep his mouth shut (he was Bataknese and they often stereotyped as being hot-tempered) and so, he was permitted to enter.

After having a small lunch at the airport, we decided to head to Kuala Lumpur. This is our first time in Kuala Lumpur so we spent a little bit of time fuzzing about deciding what to do next in the terminal. We decided to go to KL Sentral as its name suggest that it was located in the center of Kuala Lumpur and after asking for direction a bit, we board a bus (fare: RM 9) that heads to KL Sentral. The trip took an hour, the road was definitely better than in Jakarta, but the driver seems a little bit timid that although the road was beautiful, wide, and traveled by few, the driver put his speed at check all the time.

In KL Sentral, we're asking around a bit for means to travel to Singapore. This is where our plan deviates greatly. Only three tickets available for the night train, first class (fare: RM 125 each). But, the ticket-master refused to sell us ticket because the tickets were meant for two females and one male not one female and two males as our party currently consists of. Even a persuasion from my wife couldn't wavered the ticket-master to sell us the tickets. That leaves us with only one option even if my wife disapproved greatly, we couldn't see any other feasible way to travel to Singapore. Bus.

For a RM 7, we ride a taxi to Pudujaya bus station. I tried to converse with the taxi-driver but he doesn't flinch, either he is deaf (which is unlikely, given his profession) or he loathe us for bringing huge baggages to his taxi and for traveling a very short distance to Pudujaya (you could actually walk from KL Sentral).

Arriving at Pudujaya, we tried to keep up with the plan of bought an advance tickets to Singapore as late as possible, and spent an evening in Kuala Lumpur but of course, there's no ticket to satisfy our needs. Improvising greatly, we asked for a direction to Johor Bahru instead and bought three tickets (RM 27 each). This include us running around crossing the crowded street, bumping and probably stepping another passerbys, with our heavy luggage (my friend's total luggage was around 18 kg, mine has around 12 kg, and my wife has around 7 kg). The trip wasn't actually as bad as I would've expected. We could really get some decent sleep from KL to Johor Bahru and except for one stop where we were ushered to switch bus by the driver, there's nothing to complain about the trip especially considering that the fare was one fifth of the train's fare. Without accident, or anything worthy to report, we're arrived in Johor Bahru bus station around 2130 hrs local time (Almost 5 hrs travel).

But our problem actually had just made its official start. To be continued.. tomorrow.