A Fine Land, Singapore!

Finally, the one week mid semester break has ended. Or should I say, unfortunately?

This one whole week was very meaningful and eventful. Although I got to spend only a few days at home, it was worth it as the trip to Singapore was awesome!

My first trip with my course mates to Singapore. Everything went on smoothly. Our first night when we touched down in Singapore, we met a quite unfriendly taxi driver. It surprised me that the taxi driver is a lady. It was not her attitude that let us feel uneasy, but the way she spoke to us. Kinda make me nervous when she said she cannot see when we tried to show her the address. We spent our first night at Teddy's aunt's house. Too fortunate to have a place to sleep as our initial plan was to spend the night in the airport.

The next morning, everyone woke up early for our next destination. Chee Wei missed the bus and was late. We had to wait him for almost an hour to reach Tampines MRT station. We carried our heavy bags and went to Dhoby Ghaut. It was a Saturday morning and it was Deepavali. There was an open house at The Istana, which is the official resident for the President of Singapore. We were lucky since it only open to public five times a year. We joined an event called the Istana Walk which needed us to scan QR codes at certain places. Upon completion, we will get a souvenir, which is a bookmark. It was a very nice experience there. Doing some common thing in other country just made it so special. =)

The souvenir and tickets for The Istana.

Well, just imagine that we had to carry our heavy luggage (backpacks), running here and there. It was really tiring! After having our lunch, a very nice burger known as MOS Burger, we traveled to Chinatown to check in to the Backpackers' Inn. The Backpackers' Inn is a small place, but it was comfortable enough for the six of us to stay for two days. It was equipped with lockers, hot showers and most interesting is, a kitchen! Pengwei get to cook his instant noodles!

It was drizzling when we were in the inn. When the rain stopped, we continue to travel. We had to change our plan during to time constraint. We were supposed to meet up with Yet Ying in Science Centre, but at the end, we went to Little India to see how was the Deepavali like. The only thing we get to see was Indians everywhere. Of course, since it is called the Little India. Perhaps it was a bit late for celebration when we reached there as we did not see any parade or anything. Just people walking around in the crowds.

We could not find any nice food in Little India so we traveled again to Boon Lay, which is near to Yet Ying's university. We thought we could meet up with her, but she could not make it. We had a very nice and delicious Malaysian food there! Well, the food did taste better than that in Malaysia. Four of us shared Klang Bak Kut Teh, and it was really nice. Chee Wei and I shared another cendol. It was better than that found in Penang. It uses gula Melaka as its ingredient. And hence, our first day in Singapore ended. Well, the weird me thought that it was very fun and challenging to take MRT back to Chinatown alone (I mean without our tour guide, Chee Wei) since we had to recognize and find the way back to the inn by ourselves.

The next morning, as we already familiar with MRT, we traveled to Harbour Front to meet up with Chee Wei. We were going to Sentosa Island!!!! =D The second day in Singapore, we were to visit the Underwater World Singapore, watch the dolphins, try out Skyline Luge and also Segway! We spent almost whole day there. The Underwater World we went was a small one. They have a bigger one, which is S.E.A., the largest aquarium in the world. The dolphins show was amazing! However, the most fun part was the Skyline Luge. Segway was very fun too. We learnt how to ride it, and even thought of making one. Haha! We took cable car up the hill for skyline luge and then took something like a go-cart down the hill. That was super fun! Everyone was saying that we gonna take another round but unfortunately, we had to catch up for the dolphins show.

In the evening, we had our dinner in Vivocity. Vivocity is a very nice place. I like it a lot. We were all tired and rested a while after dinner. We then continued our journey to Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay. We could only get the night view of them. In fact, I bet that there are more interesting things to do at these places in the daytime. But again, we have limited time. Anyway, it was great to see the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and also the Merlion! It was very beautiful. The night was so nice, especially when we were sitting by the river, enjoying the wind blow into our face. The scenery was an awesome one! The view and everything has deeply carved in my brain and in my heart. Love it lots! One day, I will definitely visit there again.

Our third day in Singapore, another day in Sentosa Island again. This day, we spent a whole day in Universal Studios Singapore (USS). USS is a must to visit when you are in Singapore. The tickets are expensive, but it is worth the price. It was fun seeing all those puppets and cartoon characters. The 4D theater was the best, especially the one for Transformer. It was kind of unfortunate when many stations had to close due to technical errors and lightnings. It was a rainy day that afternoon. Therefore, we could not try other thrilling and exciting stations. Although USS is a very nice place to play, I think that it is enough if you have been there once in your lifetime. At least there is nothing to be regretted. The fun part for that day was opening the locker. We had to keep our luggage in the locker outside of USS. Six big sized luggage in just one big locker, you can imagine how we squeeze them in. The locker could not open when we were about to leave and had to ask for assistance.

That night, we spent another night in Teddy's aunt's house. Pauline left for the airport, and we left to Tampines again after dinner. Everyone was tired. Luckily that night, the bus driver we met (a lady bus driver!!!) was very kind. We forgotten where we should get down, and she was very kind to tell us which station. Thank God we did not get lost and managed to find our way to the apartment. =) Early morning in the next day, after thanking Teddy's aunt and uncle, we left Tampines and took bus to Malacca, which was our next destination.

Singapore, a very nice island. Although it is very different from Malaysia in terms of transportation and is very organized, I still do not feel any much different than in Malaysia. It is like I am just travelling to another state, instead of another country. Maybe Singapore still has some similarities with Malaysia. To me, it is more like a combination of Kuala Lumpur and Penang. What I like about Singapore? After the three days spent in Singapore, I really like it being so organized, so systematic. The public transportation has make people's life easier in terms of travelling. They have clear guidelines for MRTs and buses. Even foreigner can easily travel here and there by taking the public transport. And it is really a clean, fine country, which makes me awe and love it.