The journey of me and Miss Hera continued to
Singapore by night train. Basicly, Singapore is more expensive than Malaysia
and we still had to count the budget well. We survived with credit card
companion haha… Singapore is one of the safiest city for female travelers. I
heard what happened in India. That’s really sick. We love friendly people and
atmosphere of Singapore. Different from Indonesia, here are many spaceful and
leafy areas for pedestrian. Every corner in Singapore is well-laid-out. This
small country has done a great job to achieve an advanced tourism management.
Singapore is a melting pot where I saw many races from all over the world
gathered. We also noticed that cleaning employee in restaurant always senior citizens. They pick-up used dishes and
clean tables. They have to survive and keep productive in their old age.
Our precious note, consists of direction guidance, places to go, budget, etc etc...
Well, enjoy our journey story…
Part 2 : Singapore
Departed from KL Central on May 9th at 23.30, arrived at Woodlands Immigration Office Singapore the next morning at 07.30. Exploring Singapore until May 12th , back home to Indonesia at 14.00 from Changi Airport to Bandara Husein Sastranegara Bandung. After long waiting for our bags at the airport, I came home at around 17.00 . Hoome…
Great holiday. Someone is a fans of my orange shoes :p
Where We Stayed
Since Singapore is an expensive city (to us), we
chose to stay in a hostel, 5-bunkbeds female dorm. I booked ABC Hostel via
internet on their site paying 48 SGD (for 2 person) down payment and paid the
rest 48 SGD while check-in. We also had to deposit 10 SGD per person returned
on check-out time. The hostel located on Jalan Kubor in Bugis area, about 500
meters or 15 minutes walking from Bugis MRT Station. Not far from Masjid
Sultan. My first impression about the hostel is clean, friendly staffs and nice
environment around neighborhood. Shower rooms and toilets separated near the
dorm. We had breakfast bread with butter and jam, coffee and tea. In the kitchen
area they also provide for guests a refrigerator and washing machines. No food
or drink allowed inside dorm, we dined at the backyard of hostels. I began to
like the hostels when in one early morning a male staff entering our room to
show the dorm to two new-comer females. Hey, this is a female dorm I thought.
How about if we were in the middle of changing our clothes?? Well, this is
Singapore. Next time I stay in a hotel or hostel in private room type.
- Bus (from Woodlands Immigration Office to Woodlands MRT Station)
- MRT to everywhere around Singapore. We are happy that Singapore transportation system is so integrated and easy for tourists. We used EZ Link valid for MRT and bus. One funny thing happened when a Swedish lady wanted to take our photos (because she saw I carried kikki.K shopping bag, a brand from Sweden), we talked for about 3 minutes about Sweden and she said goodbye at Little India station then the MRT left the station. Me and Miss Hera just sat inside MRT and had chat, a minute after we realized that we also had to took-off from MRT at Little India Station hahaha….silly… Another stupidity when we didn’t notice that eating inside station is prohibited and fined 500 SGD. We had our breakfast on our first day in Singapore inside MRT station on a bench before we headed to hostel with CCTV camera right above! Luckyly, no security came and fine us!
- Santosa Express (from VivoCity Mall to Santosa Island)
- Air Asia Flight from Changi Airport to Husein Sastranegara Airport Bandung
Places We Visited
Botanical Garden – A huuuge garden divided into
smaller thematic gardens. We only had a power enjoying Healing Garden and
Evolution Garden. Too tired to walk all around the garden.
Merlion and Marina Bay Area – the main attraction of Singapore. Merlion and Marina at the evening was so beautiful. We walked along the area stunned by the lights from high buildings. We saw several guys were doing a jogging at evening around Merlion and the bridge. We asked couple of Singaporean for the nearest MRT Station from Esplanade but no one could give us information, we saw in the map there are Esplanade and CityHall Station but where is it exactly? So we had to go back to Raffless Palace Station...ooh feet...
Merlion and Marina Bay area at night is ro-man-tic....
Orchad Road – we visited the street just because our curiosity since Orchad is a legend among shoppers. We knew we couldn’t afford to buy anything here except if there were above 70% sale event haha… but eventually, I did shopping at kikki.K stationery shop inside Ion Orchad Mall.
Mustafa Center – this was where we bought some oleh-oleh and snacks. Hersheys chocolate and branded perfumes are might be cheaper bought here than other place but not other stuff.
Sentosa Island – this is where Universal Studios located. We didn’t but ticket of USS, we only enjoyed public attraction of Santosa Island. The other Merlion statue also located here. Not easy for both of us to explore Santosa. We had a false strategy. Before Santosa we did some shopping at Orchad and Mustafa Center. Brought heavy shopping bags around Santosa was tiring….trust me…
China Town – a spontaneous place we visited there. Turned to be a good decision, we found very cheap souvenirs. I love the old buildings there. And no need to walk far from MRT Station :)
Clarke Quay – a spot where you can spend hours here just to chill and hang out besides the river. Seeing people doing reverse bungy was quite interesting. We fell in love with the ambience of Clarke Quay.
Bugis Area – last day in Singapore, we spent it by walking around to Masjid Sultan and Bugis Street before catching the flight back to Indonesia.
Masjid Sultan at night and day
What We Ate
We also always tried to find meal suitable to our
budget, 3 SGD per meal. Miss Hera still pushed herself to eat another cheap Roti
Canai in Singapore (I think when she got back to Indonesia she won’t eat it for
months haha…). Looking for food in Singapore means watching carefully for halal
label. We took the safe step, having a meal at a muslim Indian resto or
similar. For me, holiday must be enjoyed and not delimitating my appetite in choosing food I ate. I was having
the most yummy lunch in Botanical Garden foodcourt Nasi Goreng Ikan Bilis with
a glass of orange juice while Miss Hera ordered another Banana Roti Canai (o my…).
Breakfast in hostel then enjoyed it outside at the backyard was not bad. A
portion dining in Singapore is a jumbo portion for us. When we had our dinner
at Makan Sutra Hawker Center at Glutton’s Bay near Esplanade, Marina Bay area
we ordered Mie Rebus and surprised with the big bowl cost 4 SGD per portion. We
should’ve had just bought one portion and shared together, that could save the
money. That was what we did when we had lunch at Mustafa Center, we only bought
a portion of Dum Chicken Briyani (plus a glass of rose milk for me).
Addicted to this ice cream...only 1 SGD...yumm...
Around Orchad and Merlion there are also an
fruit-flavored ice cream seller priced 1 SGD. My turn to treat my only
travelling friend some durian ice cream along our walks to Esplanade. Nom…nom… At
our last night in Singapore, we only could afford buying dinner from 7 Eleven
mini-market : egg-sandwich and shared one apple (pathetic…). At the next day,
we searched for a lunch inside Changi Airport but could not find any suitable
with our last dollars. Last February when I travel here, I bought lunch inside
Changi at Burger King, not more than 5 SGD for a burger and a big glass of
drink. Now the cheapest food there is above 7 SGD. We entered the plane with
empty stomach with 5 SGD in my pocket. Inside plane I was asking a steward the
price of a menu in SGD, all food priced 6 SGD. Not a good exchange rate then :(
I decided to buy in Rupiah cost 54.000 Rupiah for a portion of Nasi Kuning and
a glass of Teh Tarik Max-Tea while Miss Hera chose only Nasi Lemak 39.000
Rupiah. Whoo…I can buy Max-Tea in supermarket only for 6000 rupiah contain 5
sachets. Blah!
Makan Sutra Hawker Center was so crowded, no table for us. We had to take our meal outside and ate near pedestrian area...
I bought a bottle of perfume for mom, KitKat
Green Tea and assorted peanut at Mustafa Center. Glad to find this KitKat
because actually it is only available in Japan. In China Town I found t-shirts
and a lovely Indian wallet, also for mom. Miss Hera bought some oleh-oleh for
her family at home. I also bought some candies at Hersheys Store at Santosa. Met many Indonesians doing shopping there… My favourite shopping moment was definitely in
kikki.K store. Discount 20% for purchase above 50 SGD and planner book bonus. Miss
Hera provoked me to buy Wedding Notes, it helps me preparing my wedding, she
really insisted. Ok, I gave up and bought it. I also fell in love for a Kitchen
Notes and one more item (it’s a secret…it’s a gift for someone). The owner of
the shop talked with me a lot about the shop and all those cute items. That day he
had a program, he donated 20% of sales income for homeless cats. There were
also four kittens ready to be adopted. How nice…
I looove kikki. K and the little kitty....
What I bought and Miss Hera with a giant Hersheys chocolate syrup bottle...
Money We Spent
- Flight Ticket from Singapore to Bandung per person above Rp. 1.000.000, sooo expensive …we bought in February…
- ABC Hostel 24 SGD/night/person. We spent 2 nights there.
- We only brought 100 SGD per person from Indonesia, include shopping budget 50 SGD. But I used my credit card around 89 SGD total for doing shopping in Ion Orchad and Santosa . Leaving Singapore I had 5 SGD left -__-
What We Missed
Universal Studios , beaches in Santosa Island, Song of the Sea Show, free laser show at Marina Bay, dine-in at a halal resto near Masjid Sultan, and so on… All places in Singapore are interesting haha….
Overall, our holiday were soo fun! Adios Singapore…
Sorry for the photos quality, we shot with only a cellphone camera. See you on my next travel journey!
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