Singapore Detour 23-25 Nov 2008

Short post on recent Singapore trip

I guess (M'sian) people go to Singapore for:

1. Shopping for things unavailable in M'sia
2. Art, indie movies & concerts

Mine is #2, but that'd be in a different post later (I hope haha..)

Anyway, cheapest way to Singapore is by bus (RM 32 one way) to Larkin bus terminal, JB. Then take another bus from JB to Queen Street bus station, S'pore (RM 2.40). But u have to get down twice for immigration check (M'sia once & S'pore once). Keep yr bus tickets with u, u need to show it once u board the bus after immigration.

We (me & friend, Miele) wanted to save, so we stayed at a backpacker's hostel, walking distance from Queen St. Cost RM55 per person per night (6 bed female dorm, common bathroom). We only used the room for sleeping, so it was not too bad.

Note: Do bring a torchlight (don't want to disturb yr room mates) & selipar jepun

We got friendly room mates from Thailand & Sweden, they were asking about how to travel to Penang & Langkawi, so being a Penangite, Miele was extremely helpful to them ;-)

Right, on with the things to do / see in S'pore:

Independent movies

E.g. Miele told us (plus a S'porean fren - Nut, who played host), that Muallaf (film my Yasmin Ahmad) was not being shown in M'sa, but it'd be playing in S'pore's The PictureHouse. The poster read: "The film M'sia may never get to see"

Shopping

Where? Orchard Road / Bugis area had a lot of shopping malls.

I didn't check out anything actually, but it'd be worth it if the things u planned to buy were not available in M'sia. Otherwise, you could get it cheaper in M'sia.

Art

Esplanade - the durian shaped hall, which held shows/concerts - something like Sydney's Opera Hall, but of course, I have never been to Sydney, so I shouldn't really compare it. It's by the S'pore river, where the S'pore lion 'fountain' is also situated.

The Eye

Actually, that's not the name, I forgot, although Nut mentioned it to me already. It's like our Eye on M'sia giant ferris wheel, also by the S'pore river.

Food

Obviously food is cheaper in M'sia. The value, or rather 'digit' is almost the same as M'sia, just that you need to convert into SGD (1SGD = RM2.40)

e.g. we bought thosai masala for SGD 3.50 or RM8.40!! It'd cost me only RM2.50 in M'sia

A Big Mac (burger only) costs me SGD 4.20 or RM10.08

Btw, all the fast food outlets are halal, except Moz Burger

Public Transportation

is superb! very well linked, covers most of the areas, u can get almost anywhere with public transport