Singapore trip

Since Singapore and Malaysia are next to each other, so i paid a visit to Singapore as well after my visit to Malaysia. 

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is separated from Malaysia by the straits of Johor to its north, and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore strait to its south. Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial center and a cosmopolitan world city, playing a key role in international trade and finance. The port of Singapore is one of the five busiest port in the world.

By a quick info of Singapore above, we'd already know it's an expensive country to visit, so i was well aware of that when i planned my trip there. I did pretty heavy search on the internet to search for the budget hotel/guesthouse, but it returns with the lowest one is at 50US$/night already, and that's the cheapest one availalble. There is also other cheaper alternative out there if you're willing to share the room with other people. And i'll get to that when we're getting to where to stay part.

Enough with the expensive part. Isn't there any other cheaper way to visit Singapore? Oh yes there is, you're in the right place, and i'll go through all that in this post!

Getting there
Since it's the island, so don't expect there are many transportation by land to get to Singapore. yes, there is only one way if you want to travel by land. It's from South Malaysia through Johor Straits. Bus ticket from Malaysia to Singapore can be found here. One way costs from 20US$ to 50US$ depends on the class of the bus you're taking, and the travel takes around 5 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.

So rather than land, again i took AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur since the plane ticket was only 15$ one way, so it's cheaper and faster, why not? :D.

There is only one airport in Singapore called Changi Airport. It's pretty big for me. There are 4 terminals: terminal 1, 2, 3 and Budget terminal. Sky train is mainly used for getting around these terminals, but in case your airline lands in Budget terminal, you'll have to take shuttle bus from terminal 2, but don't worry, it's free for everyone.
Once you've landed, you might wonder what mode of transportation would be best to go to the city. It depends! If you go with a group of 4 people, you can share a taxi which costs around 18-20US$ from the airport to the city and would take around 40 minutes or less depending on the traffic. However, if you're travelling alone or two people only, taxi would not be a good choice since it's expensive. So you can take MRT from the basement of terminal 2 to anywhere in the city. But please note the MRT operates only from 4am-12pm, so if you arrive mid night, then you have no choice, but to take taxi. MRT from airport to city costs only 2US$ or 3US$ only per person.

Changi Airport Terminal Map

Getting around
I love Singapore this part. You can get anywhere very fast, and very cheap through MRT system. The MRT system in this country is quite efficient and easy to use, and can get you to anywhere within the country you want. Below is the MRT route map, and you can see it already covers everywhere in the country.

Where to say
During my trip, i stayed at two places due to some reasons that i'm not gonna discuss here. So first one is Backpacker's inn, located right in the heart of China town and only 5 minutes walk away from Chinatown MRT station. The next night, i stayed at Cozy corner, located right in the Burgis junction, in front of Intercontinental hotel. It's the main district in Singapore as well, so it's so easy to get around this place. These two places are highly recommended, and you can check them out. Other budget places are: Sleepysams.
Where to eat
Well, foods in Singapore are not expensive if you don't go and eat in a fancy restaurant. You can look around and get a 3$ meal. People eats very healthy foods there, so it's a bit of tasteless to me because they don't use a lot of salty stuffs or MSG. At night, you can hang out at Esplanade park where there are many many kinds of food that you can choose from. I love the food at this place, so many choice until you can't decide what to eat. And from this place also, you can select from the cheap foods up to the most expensive ones.
Attractions
Singapore is quite small island country, so most of the attraction places just stay pretty close to each other. I'll start off with where i stay first. First night i stayed around China town, so it's just easy to walk up to the China town, and around this place there are many mosque and Chinese temple if you like to visit them. Second night, i stay around Bugis area, so there is this Bugis junction. It's a shopping mall with part traditional, part air-conditioned, part open space area. One signature feature of this mall is its glass-covered shopping street, a first for Singapore in its time. Besides Bugis mall, there is also another mall called Ilumo, it's just right on the other side of the street off Bugis. The mall is too big and too empty, but the outside decoration is quite nice to have a picture with it. Those white things also light up at night.

 

Bugis Junction

Ilumo shopping mall

Ilumo at night

Ok, those are the place within walking distance from where i stayed. So off from where i stay to other places further. You'd be hearing a lot about Sentosa island in Singapore, so yes, let's go there. Again, we just need to take MRT to reach the station where there is bus service or cable car to reach to Sentosa. the MRT station is Habour Front, so you just stop there. Upon coming out of the MRT station, there you will see the bus station that go to many places. But take the ticket to Sentosa which is $2 Singapore per each person for the bus ticket to go to Sentosa, and the coming back trip is free, so basically S$2 is like a round trip ticket. Other alternative, if you want to go a more fancier way, you can do the cable car, but i'm not sure of how much the price ticket is. So i took the bus only, and it's only quick, like 15 minutes or less to get to Sentosa. And when you're in Sentosa, i don't need to tell you what you should do there because there are many places and activities to do there, but i gotta say the entrance ticket to each place is sooo damn expensive, so it's your own choice this time. The island is quite big, so there is free tram car service available through out the day, and get to around the beach front. There is one thing which is quite good about this place, there are good foods here and at reasonable prices. Coming back from Sentosa, you can also visit Vivo city, which is a really huge shopping mall located just right across the Sentosa bus station.

The bus to get to Sentosa with Orange color

And here we are Sentosa!

Artificial beach!

Tram car stop

Food stall in one of the restaurants

Dessert stall

The trip to Singapore would not be complete without visiting the Merlion & Fullerton park and Esplanade park because these places are business district and represent Singapore as a modern and contemporary country. So i just take the MRT from Bugis, and stop at Marina Bay station. Off from there, we just walk through out the Fullerton park to reach to Merlion. Unfortunately, when i arrived there, the Merlion is under maintenance, so it's inside a box, so it becomes like a joke to me with all the effort coming all the way down to see it in a box. :(. After the Merlion, just walk across the river, then you reach the Esplanade which people call it the Durian building because it has the durian shape. It's the art plus shopping building, and there was also free show off the river bank in front of the Esplanade as well when i was there around 6-7pm, but i'm not sure if it's like that everyday or just on some day.

Marina Bay Sands hotel

The Fullerton Hotel

Merlion is taking a shower! :(.

Merlion is under maintenance.

Esplanade

Esplanade = Durian building

Sorry, forget her stage name performing inside Esplanade.

One of the art showcased inside Esplanade

Free show on the river bank in front of Esplanade

After the show, i just walked again 2 to 3 minutes to eat at many many restaurant available at the Esplanade park. When finish eating i decided to go back, but for those of you who still have energy to go on, you can go and take a ride in Singapore flyer which is just around 5 minutes walk per what my estimation, and you can enjoy the night view of Singapore up there.

Food stall at Esplanade

Singapore Flyer

Singapore Flyer at night

And there is this last place that i miss out. It's the Orchard road, the shopping street. All the big shopping mall located along this road, but unfortunately i didn't have enough time to visit the whole place there because by the time i got there, it's already 11 something, so most shop already closed. So just took a few pictures and got back home. But i must visit this place the next time i visit Singapore.

Orchard road

Orchard road

And lastly is here just some pictures of Singapore in the past, so you can see how Singapore has advanced though out the years.

And that's the end of my Singapore trip from Jan 13th-15th, 2011.

Happy Travelling!

Malaysia Trip

I think it's time for me to start travelling and see the world out there. But travelling is not that easy, I'll need time and money. However, if not start it now, i'd never be able to see the world. So i give it a shot and start planning my trip with my available time frame with limited budget.

You don't need to be rich to go on a trip. Being backpacker is the most suitable for budget traveler .  The question is how to become a real backpacker?

Planing a head is the most important for your trip. here is our first experience in Malaysia. We spent 7 days from 7th to 13rd Jan, 2011. We planned our trip 2 months ahead , booking hostel, booking budget airlines (AirAsia during promo period), where to go, what to see. Our first experience was awesome. 

• Our first stop is Kuala Lumpur:

Kuala Lampur which translated as "Muddy Confluence" is the capital city of Malaysia which is abbreviated by the local as KL. It is the largest city in Malaysia in term of population. The iconic landmark of the city are Petronas twin tower and KL tower. Your trip would not be complete without visiting these two places.

Petronas twin tower

                                                           Petronas twin tower at night

                                                                        KL Tower

                                                                   KL Tower at night

Getting there 

I decided to take flight to Kuala Lumpur since it's within the promotion of AirAsia, so the price is fairly cheap. The terminal of AirAsia in KL is LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) which is owned by AirAsia itself and operate mainly for low cost carrier airlines. LCCT located around 50km to 60km

away from KL Sentral, and if you have to take taxi, it's around 1 hour or so depending on the traffic. I decided to take SkyBus, the red one, which then again owned by AirAsia to KL Sentral. One way bus costs 9RM and the schedule of the bus can be found here. SkyBus ticket can be bought when you book your AirAsia ticket, or on the plane itself, at the counter of arrival hall, or hop on the bus and pay, of course i wouldn't recommend the last option as sometimes the bus gets full passengers then you'll be kicked out! SkyBus will drop you off at KL Sentral where all bus and taxi will go to, it's like a bus station in KL. So from KL Sentral to the hotel, i took coupon taxi which is  a good system because you tell the guy your address, then you pay for the distance you go by just showing the coupon you bought from the counter. Why i say this is good? because taxi driver can't cheat you by driving around town and charge you more. Fare of coupon taxi from KL Sentral to somewhere near KL tower is around 15RM.

Bus going to the city, 9RM one way

    Coupon taxi from KL Sentral to guesthouse/hotel

Getting around

It's recommended to book the hotel near tourist attractions. That way, you wouldn't have to spend much on transportation since you can just walk to those places. From where i stay which is Tiara guesthouse, i can walk to tourist attraction places around. If you have to go further such as China town or Merdeka Square, you can take MRT which is quite cheap to go around under the ground. Just select the station nearest to the place you want to visit, and stop there. And here is the MRT route map. 

Where to stay

I stayed at tiara guesthouse which is 10 minutes walk away from Petroas twin tower, KL tower, Bukit Bintang area..However, it's not recommend to stay at this place as i just found out the house next door is the pub, so at night it's quite noisy from the neighbor, so you can't get a really good night sleep. Other recommended places around this area are: 41berangan, numbereight, pujangga-homestay.

In front of Tiara Guesthouse 

Where to eat
During the day time, you can hang out around Bukit Bintang area. Around this place, there are plenty choices of food for you to choose from or if you are at Petrona tower, there is also food court inside Suria KLCC which offer quite reasonable meal as well. As for the night time, it's strongly advised to go eat at Jalan Alor street which is like the street of night food restaurant which you can select any kind of dishes you want to have.

Street food

Attractions

I had 2 days in KL, so it's quite limited time for me to go everywhere in KL. So upon my arrival, my first visit is Pavillion mall and Bintang walk area which you can visit Low Yat Plaza, Lot 10, Sungei Wang plaza, Pavillion, Craft Complex.

The next day, i had to get up pretty early in the morning in order to queue up for the ticket to visit Petronas twin tower. You have to be at the basement of the building around 6am and wait for the ticket counter to open at 8:30am in the morning. If you're there by 8am, it's guarantee that the ticket is not available anymore since they issue the ticket for only 1640pc per day.

There are two packages for the ticket to visit the Petronas tower. Package A which is 10RM, you're allowed to see the SkyBridge that connects the two tower for 30 minutes. 

On the Sky bridge of Petrona twin tower 41st level

While package B costs 40RM, and you're allowed to see the SkyBridge for 30 minutes, plus you can go up to 86th floor and see the view from there.

View from the 86th floor of Petrona twin tower

In case you miss the chance of seeing KL view from Petronas twin tower, you still have a chance to catch up the view from KL tower which is pretty close to Petronas tower as well, i might say a 15 minutes walk. And there is also free shuttle bus service go to up the hill of KL Tower.

Yat Plaza which sells all the electronic stuffs, Bintang walk which is the walking district for tourist, Pavillion mall, Lot 10, Craft complex, the gallery. All these places are in the same area, so you can just walk from one place to another. And since i had only 2 days in KL, so i decided not to go to Genting because going there would take around 1 full day, so i give up Genting and explore the whole KL instead.

• The next place is Penang:

Penang is called "Hawker's Paradise" for some reasons. The hawker are strongly supported by the local as well as tourist. The strong support is because it is easier and cheaper to eat out any time of the day or night. George Town which is the main town in Penang was accorded a listing as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site which makes it even more attractive for the tourist like me to go and have a visit.  Penang is also called as "Pearl of the orient". Penang is the second smallest state in Malaysia by area after Perlis, and the eighth most populous. A resident of Penang is colloquially known as a Penangite.

Chhar Kuy Teov (Same name as in Cambodia). Cost 1US$.

Getting there 

You can get to Penang by BUS from KL which the journey takes around 5 hours, and the bus tickets cost between 40RM-50RM one way.

Another way would be going there by train, but i'm not pretty sure if the train is still running. You can check it out here.

The other option would be to fly in and that is my favorite choice since it's fast and i got pretty cheap flight during AirAsia promo which costs me 35RM round trip KL-Penang. However, after you landing at Penang airport, you will have to take bus or taxi to town again. Wait for the bus number 401E, that's the bus goes to Jetty Point which is the bus stop as well as ferry terminal at George Town. Bus fare is 2.5RM per each person. Note: prepare exact change for the bus fare as mostly you won't get the change back.

Getting around

Trishaw, taxi, rented car, motorcycle and bicycle or public bus – you choose. Of course there are various modes of transportation in the state but it really depends on where you are planning to visit. For me, i rented the motor bike and drive around because i'm from the country which motor bike is quite popular as mode of transportation and traffic condition in Penang is pretty easy to drive. I rented the motor bike nearby my guesthouse which costs only 30RM per 24hours, so you rent at 3pm, you return the next day at 3pm for the cost of 30RM, and gasoline is on you, but don't worry gas price is fairly cheap campared to my country. So you're set to go if you can drive motor bike with the map of the island, you can get anywhere.

Where to stay

I got a good deal at one guesthouse after heavy search on internet. It's crystal guesthouse, located right in the heart of George Town, cost me only 40RM per night, and it's near hawker's street. So it's pretty easy to go around from the guest house. Aside from this place, there are also recommendations such as: banana penang,  this place has full service, local tour, motor bike renting, visa to Thailand service....or old penang guesthouse or even this one Broadway Budget Hotel.

Lebuh Chulia street. A lot of budget guesthouses here

Where to eat

Can't decide where to eat in Penang? lol, you gotta be joking. There are lots lots of places that you can eat as you can see from the introduction of Penang, it's called Food paradise, so you can enjoy food everywhere on the street. And if you happen to stay at the places i recommend above, you can just walk to get foods from around those places. And the Hawker's foods are clean, don't be afraid to try out foods there. From what i hear, sometimes people from KL just drive all the way to Penang for the weekend just to eat the foods there. And go here to find a great list of great foods with address that you can check it out. Don't forget also to try all the dessert after your meal, they're great too!

 Laksa

Ais Kacang

Apong

Attractions

Where should i start in this section? Ok, let's start from George Town itself as it's where i stayed. It's the world heritage in the list of UNESCO, so in case you rent the motor bike the way i did, you can drive around the town and see all the heritage sites within the city such as Fort Cornwill, old buildings, Sun Yat Sen's house, City hall, the clock tower...all sites are just pretty close to each other, so pretty easy to drive around those places as well.

Fort Cornwill

Clock Tower

Seaside

If going a big further, you will reach Gurney Drive which is the seaside, you can enjoy the breeze from the sea by driving along the bay. And drive further, you will reach Ferringhi beach which is the nice beach in Penang, and keep driving round the island you will see Butterfly farm, Tropical fruits garden: it's where you can have buffet fruits after the visit with the ticket costs of 28RM per each person, Tropical Spice Garden which grow all the Spices type. And keep driving futher you will reach Snake temple, and Penang Bridge which is also the landmark of Malaysia or Penang. It has the length of 13.5km across the sea connecting Penang island to the mainland of Malaysia.

Fruit Buffet

Tropical Spice Garden

Penang Bridge

• The last destination in Malaysia is Langkawi:

 It's smaller than Penang island, but to me, i like it here better due to the nice natural view of the mountains and islands. Langkawi means reddish brown eagle in colloquial Malay. The Malay word for eagle is helang - shortened is "lang". Kawi means the colour reddish brown. There are 99 islands in Langkawi island. From what i know is that the prime minister really loves this island, so that every advertising effort or anythingdish brown. There are 99 islands in Langkawi island. From what i know is that the prime minister really loves this island, so that every advertising effort or anything put focus on this island, and the government even makes it duty free island to attract more people to come in. Aside from those effort, there is also man made waterfall to be one of the attraction sites on the island.

Eagle Square in Kuah Town

One of the island in Langkawi

Getting there

There are only two ways that can reach there either by air or sea becase it doesn't have the connecting bridge same as Penang. Hence, again i went there by flight because this whole trip, i got great price from AirAsia.

If you all like to see the view of the sea, you can consider taking ferry from Penang to Langkawi that takes around 2.5 hours and the ferry fare and schedule can be found here.

Getting around

I like this part in Langkawi because upon your arrival at the arrival hall of Langkawi airport, there are many booths along the way out which ask you if you want to rent a car. I would strongly recommend to rent a car because it's not expensive to rent and not to mention it's an duty free island, so gasoline's price is pretty cheap. For me, i did some negotiation with the car rental booth, and get a pretty nice car for 100RM per 3 days during my stay. And renting the car is pretty easy. They just get your passport number noted down and you give them the rental fee plus 50RM deposit, then the car will be ready outside of the arrival terminal waiting for you to check it out! And when returning, just come back to the same booth to drop the car key and get your 50RM back. Or if you don't want to drive the car, you can also rent the motor bike also. But to your comfort, i'd recommend car because even if it's too hot or it's raining, you can still drive it around, while motor bike you can't.

Our rented car. Pretty new. Less than 1000km used when we got it.

Where to stay

Accommodation in Langkawi is not as cheap as the ones in Penang. However, after a long research on the place, i'm sureyou can find a good decent place to stay. The famous beach in Langkawi is Cenang beach, so along this beach there are alot of good places to stay with various price range. So the one i stayed in was AB Motel. There are also other places along this beach such as: zackry guesthouse  or Malibest resort.

Our motel

Where to eat

Along the Cenang beach itself, there are plenty of restaurants where you can check out. The price is not expensive as long as you don't check in the premium ones. The one that i ate in was just around 100m or less form AB Motel where i stay, and the price is really reasonable. At night, you can check out where the night market will be because they have different venues of night market. Example, Monday night market is in Kuah town and Tuesdaynight market in other place. So check out where it is, then you can drive there to check it out and eat there. The foods are so so cheap at the night market and you will find variety of it.

Reasonable price restaurant near AB Motel

Wednesday Night market at Kuah Town

We have this back home too! :D 3 = 1RM

Attractions

I'll start off with where i stay first and since it's the most attracting beach on the island. Along the beach, there are Underwaterworld, and you can also buy the local tour for island hoping. The one the i bought was 25RM per each person, and they will take you to 3 different places/island. First stop is at Pregnant Maiden lake, this place is soooo nice, got pretty nice view, and it's the lake which is surrounded by island which block the sea water not to coming in to the lake, quite spectacular. Second stop is Eagle feeding, and the last one is at one of the island which got pretty nice beach and you can enjoy swimming there for around 1 hour or so, then the boat will come and take you back. All these activity would take you one full day already.

Map with attraction places on Langkawi island

Islands of Langkawi

Pregnant Maiden Lake

Eagle Feeding

So for the next day, you an drive all the way to Oriental Village where the Cable is staioned, but for a piece of advice, before going there, please check if the cable car is running on that day because cable car is closed for maintaining quite often to guarantee the safety of the visitors. Cable car in Langkawi is also a MUST for all visitors because it got pretty nice view up there. And just right after you finish taking cable car, you can just walk toward the 7 wells water fall near there and enjoy your lunch there as well. After you're done with the area, you can come back in the afternoon. Just around 5 minutes drive back from Oriental village, you will reach Kok beach which is a pretty nice beach and you can spend the rest of your after there and swimming, relaxing under the coconut tree with full of carpeted green grass. After you're done with it, just drive a few minutes back down, then you'll see a pretty light house, and you can catch the sun set from there which is pretty nice view.

Cable car. 30RM per person

Bridge crossing between mountains

Mountain and Sea view from top of cable car station

Kok Beach

Lighthouse by Kok beach

Among the three places, we really like it more in Langkawi because of natural beauty of the island with clear blue sea water and green island. But that's just us, so everyone has different preference. If you like to see more sky scrapper and modern buildings, you'll like it more in KL. Or if you're more into food or world heritage site, Penang would be your best place to be. And if you happen to like natural beauty of the place, then you're our kind, and you'll like it more in Langkawi too. That's the end of our Malaysia trip, and it's a great trip, so we promise to come back when we can. Goodbye Malaysia!

Happy travelling!

Wise travelling is travelling with plan!