TRAVELLING WITH PLAN!: 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.