Singapore
It's commonly known for youngsters in Indonesia that if you want to travel abroad try Singapore first.
I finally went to Singapore early February only for 3 days. Not that I want to travel a lot, but there is one concert that I want to watch.
The reason behind the saying "try Singapore first" is directly felt when arriving at the airport. Changi is a modern airport with very clear signs allows you to not get confused on direction. We have decided to take the MRT to the hostel. To get to the MRT station, we need to change terminal, which is accessible trough monorail. Imagine if you are in Indonesia.. you have to ask the security first to know how to move between terminals, because there are shuttle bus but no clear explanation how to get to the shuttle bus. And also the shuttle bus is not easily identified because of all the buses, and taxis operating inside the airport.
Oke, back to Changi, in the MRT Station we have to by pass card for MRT. And because we haven't had this system in Indonesia, we have to ask the security on how to use the pass card. I bluntly asked could we use one card for two people. Of course we can't! After seeing the system that you need to tab the card on your departing station and the amount will be reduced on your arrival station. I understand why we can't do it. The pass price is SGD 12, included SGD 7 credit. If you want to stay around 3 days and going to travel by MRT I suggest you add around SGD 10. It'll be enough for 3 days.
Seeing the sight from the train, I don't thing that Singapore is much different than Jakarta. If Jakarta is neater, cleaner and less corrupted it'll be like this.
It was Friday afternoon; the train was quite packed with people, that I have to stand inside the train. Then, a nice Indian mother ask her child to stand up and give her seat to me because I'm disable.. There is a reserved seat for disable. This thing happened again on the second trip, which makes me feel a bit guilty because I use to be treated "equally" in Jakarta, that this time I tried my best to think for excuse like "you don't have to stand, I'm going down on the next station." Before you think that Jakartans are very cruel, a busway doorgirl once offered me a seat and I refuse it because it means kicking on girl out of her seat and I wasn't travelling far that time, and JFYI I'm considered disable only because I cannot use my left hand, therefore I'm still strong enough to stand on the bus/MRT with the help of my right hand.
All the MRT stations are very clean and modern. They have escalator and special lift for disable at every station. Jakarta is planning to build this MRT thing, but seeing what Jakarta's already have with how the government does the maintenance and the people that love doing vandalism, littering and spitting carelessly, I'm pessimist!
On thing with this MRT Thingie.. If you are from Indonesia or other country that haven't have MRT sytem or similar, I suggest that you travel with a person who can read map well, because we were a group of three indecisive people and several times we got confuse on which platform that we should take.. >_<
You guys know that Singapore is a fine city, right. That's the other thing that cause a bit "culture shock" because we are too free to do many things in Jakarta.. xP When we arrived, we directly using MRT and there's bunch of list of what we should not do such as drinking and eating. No problem for me to obey that rules, but it made me nervous when I need to drink or eat some snack in the sidewalk. Are we allowed to drink or eat on the street?
We were traveling backpacker style (or at least I'm the only one thinking that we were have to travelling backpacker style) therefore we life in a hostel (this is my first time living in a hotel). We booked a room for three (only for three of us) which turn out to be quite a claustrophobic room, with bunk bed for one person below and two person in the 2nd story. Why I call it claustrophobic, because the room is too small and no windows at all. The bathroom are outside the rooms and very small too, but clean and plenty, I never have to queue to use it. There is small outdoor pantry where they provide free bread and cereal for breakfast plus free flow of water, coffee, tea, milo and teh tarik! *loove teh tarik* Our Hostel located in Bugis, the famous backpacker area. It's near 2 MRT Station (Bugis and Nicole Highway St. - Nicole Highway is one of the St with the most beautiful view we have visited. You can see the Singapore flyer from here). There are plenty restaurant around here plus convenient store so you don't have to worried about getting hungry. The famous road around is called Mosque Street. There are several store incl. souvenir shops there. And there is one big mosque that you can visit even though you are not Moslem. We ate our first day lunch in Mosque Street. The restaurant that we had lunch was very expensive, but the food was delicious. Apparently, the food price in Singapore is quite expensive (I think esp. in Bugis since this is tourist area - even though the tourist are all backpackers). If you want a cheaper price, fast food can provide it.. >_<
We spent the first day to watch the concert (concert review is in the previous post) and the second day in Orchard Road and Little India. Before we went to Singapore, a friend has created an itinerary for this trip; she was supposed to go with us but cancelled it due to certain reason. We depend on this itinerary for this trip. When we arrived at orchard (using MRT) we were greeted by the huge ION Shopping mall above the MRT Station. The mall said to be expensive, so we come out of the building just to find dozens of other shopping malls.. @.@;; Since I was too overwhelmed, I lost my shopping spirit. xP Singapore really has LOADS of Shopping malls. Even some huge MRT Station has malls as its "roof".. Finally we decided to stop by at Takashimaya because it has Kinokuniya (the famous bookstore) and then stop by at Somerset 313 because of its HMV. After seeing several stuff in Takashimaya, I see why Indonesian middle-high class loves to go to Singapore, although the price is far less the same as Jakarta, the variety of product are far better than Jakarta. But I have to say that there is high level of redundancy in this area, for example there is M&S store in one mall, and you can easily find another one across the street or in the next 2 building after this mall. And it's not only M&S, you can easily find LV, versace, etc in minimum 2 shopping malls in Orchard.
Kinokuniya's Tribute to Luna Sea's Concert in Singapore
Somerset has it's own MRT station so we went to Little India from there. In the itinerary made, there is a good store in Little India that we must visit called "Mustafa Center". It’s a four-story-store where you can find anything. Clothes, Bags, Watches, Daily Groceries, Chocolate, Snacks, and the most important thing for tourist: souvenirs! A bit crowded, but I guess the prices are reasonable. Got a pack of Dilmah tea for SGD 3.75.
So we went out in Little India MRT Station, this turns out to be a wrong decision. This shop was closer to Farrer Park Station. It was raining hard that day that it was quite tough to walk from Little India St to the store.
It was Chinese New Year that night. So after the hard rain adventure and souvenir shopping in Little India we decided to go back to hostel to clean up our body and put down out groceries then proceed to China Town. Our hostel receptionist inform us previously that the MRT service ends at 11.30 PM. When we asked the MRT in Nicole Highway on whether there is extra service time since it's Chinese New Year but he said we should ask the person responsible in China Town St. Ah, this is quite annoying since we have to change 2 line to get from our place to China Town, we can catch the first MRT but we can miss the 2nd one if we get the wrong information. This is I guess the different between developed countries and developing countries like Indonesia. What I feel is that in develop countries people have more specific job that they only responsible for their own area, while in developing countries we have our own responsibility but also expected to understand other job as well. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Developing countries’ workers are more helpful but it can be a distraction to their main job, while developed countries tend to be less helpful but they can focus on their own job. Luckily the officer at the second station has the schedule of both lines.
Snake Lantern in China Town during Chinese New Year
China town was pack by people that night. Both main streets in china town were closed for this celebration. Being short and with the entire crowd, I can hardly see anything. We had a chance to see a little of Barongsai performance. The main show was in a middle of a stage in the main street and was delivered in Chinese. There are only small screens around, and no explanation on the rundown of the celebration. The only thing that we know is there will be a firework at 12.00 sharp. The crowded were unbearable, so we decided to browse at the stores that were still open and went home. We found 2 very outstanding shops there. One is the one selling handmade wood product such as chopstick, comb, mirror, bowl, etc. The other one is Tin-Tin shop. I'm not a fan of Tin-Tin but this one is really outstanding! They have huge action figure of Tin-Tin in the middle of the shop. It sells original merchandise of Tin-Tin from collector edition comic books, watches, T-shirts, action figures, tote bags, even color changing mug. but those came with "original" price as well. T-T We have to struggle against the crowd to reach the MRT station and we get back to the hotel before 00.00 because I remember listening the fireworks from the hostel's pantry.
Last day we went to Marina Bay because it is the landmark of Singapore and near our hostel. (We have to catch our flight in the afternoon).
Note: if you want to go to the famous ship-like hotel and Gardens by the bay by MRT don't stop at Marina Bay St. but on Bayfront St.
View around Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the bay is awesome, the giant tree looks like the future city, you can take a walk between the giant trees by paying 5 SGD. I didn't want to pay for it.. But later I bought TWG's Ice Cream for the exact same price.. (Who can resist an Ice Cream) >_< If you go to the left side of the giant trees, you will see Malay, Chinese & Indian garden and several restaurant in the flower dome.
We moved on to the shopping mall in marina bay. It is a very huge shopping mall with casino, theater and museum in it. At the very bottom of the mall there is small canal where you can ride boat there. The water came from the rain. There is a huge bowl at the end of the mall to capture the rain and drop it to the canal. (SUPER AWESOME!) The mall is connected to the MRT station so we went to hostel straight from there.
Ship-like Hotel
Rain-water-bowl
So there goes my first trip to Singapore. It was raining the whole 3 days. We didn't visit famous attraction like Universal Studio, Botanical Garden because our limited time & especially money. I completely forgot to take pictures with the famous Merlion statue..T.T The other thing that I regret is that I didn't have the chance to take a bus. Because MRT operated underground we don't have the chance to do city sight seeing while we mobilize from places to places, plus the buses look nice, unlike Indonesian bus.
Currently I don't have any reason to go back there, but if I have a chance to go there again in the future, I hope I'll have enough money and had a chance to do things that I can't do in this trip, like taking the bus and eating chilli crab. :)
I finally went to Singapore early February only for 3 days. Not that I want to travel a lot, but there is one concert that I want to watch.
The reason behind the saying "try Singapore first" is directly felt when arriving at the airport. Changi is a modern airport with very clear signs allows you to not get confused on direction. We have decided to take the MRT to the hostel. To get to the MRT station, we need to change terminal, which is accessible trough monorail. Imagine if you are in Indonesia.. you have to ask the security first to know how to move between terminals, because there are shuttle bus but no clear explanation how to get to the shuttle bus. And also the shuttle bus is not easily identified because of all the buses, and taxis operating inside the airport.
Oke, back to Changi, in the MRT Station we have to by pass card for MRT. And because we haven't had this system in Indonesia, we have to ask the security on how to use the pass card. I bluntly asked could we use one card for two people. Of course we can't! After seeing the system that you need to tab the card on your departing station and the amount will be reduced on your arrival station. I understand why we can't do it. The pass price is SGD 12, included SGD 7 credit. If you want to stay around 3 days and going to travel by MRT I suggest you add around SGD 10. It'll be enough for 3 days.
Seeing the sight from the train, I don't thing that Singapore is much different than Jakarta. If Jakarta is neater, cleaner and less corrupted it'll be like this.
It was Friday afternoon; the train was quite packed with people, that I have to stand inside the train. Then, a nice Indian mother ask her child to stand up and give her seat to me because I'm disable.. There is a reserved seat for disable. This thing happened again on the second trip, which makes me feel a bit guilty because I use to be treated "equally" in Jakarta, that this time I tried my best to think for excuse like "you don't have to stand, I'm going down on the next station." Before you think that Jakartans are very cruel, a busway doorgirl once offered me a seat and I refuse it because it means kicking on girl out of her seat and I wasn't travelling far that time, and JFYI I'm considered disable only because I cannot use my left hand, therefore I'm still strong enough to stand on the bus/MRT with the help of my right hand.
All the MRT stations are very clean and modern. They have escalator and special lift for disable at every station. Jakarta is planning to build this MRT thing, but seeing what Jakarta's already have with how the government does the maintenance and the people that love doing vandalism, littering and spitting carelessly, I'm pessimist!
On thing with this MRT Thingie.. If you are from Indonesia or other country that haven't have MRT sytem or similar, I suggest that you travel with a person who can read map well, because we were a group of three indecisive people and several times we got confuse on which platform that we should take.. >_<
You guys know that Singapore is a fine city, right. That's the other thing that cause a bit "culture shock" because we are too free to do many things in Jakarta.. xP When we arrived, we directly using MRT and there's bunch of list of what we should not do such as drinking and eating. No problem for me to obey that rules, but it made me nervous when I need to drink or eat some snack in the sidewalk. Are we allowed to drink or eat on the street?
We were traveling backpacker style (or at least I'm the only one thinking that we were have to travelling backpacker style) therefore we life in a hostel (this is my first time living in a hotel). We booked a room for three (only for three of us) which turn out to be quite a claustrophobic room, with bunk bed for one person below and two person in the 2nd story. Why I call it claustrophobic, because the room is too small and no windows at all. The bathroom are outside the rooms and very small too, but clean and plenty, I never have to queue to use it. There is small outdoor pantry where they provide free bread and cereal for breakfast plus free flow of water, coffee, tea, milo and teh tarik! *loove teh tarik* Our Hostel located in Bugis, the famous backpacker area. It's near 2 MRT Station (Bugis and Nicole Highway St. - Nicole Highway is one of the St with the most beautiful view we have visited. You can see the Singapore flyer from here). There are plenty restaurant around here plus convenient store so you don't have to worried about getting hungry. The famous road around is called Mosque Street. There are several store incl. souvenir shops there. And there is one big mosque that you can visit even though you are not Moslem. We ate our first day lunch in Mosque Street. The restaurant that we had lunch was very expensive, but the food was delicious. Apparently, the food price in Singapore is quite expensive (I think esp. in Bugis since this is tourist area - even though the tourist are all backpackers). If you want a cheaper price, fast food can provide it.. >_<
We spent the first day to watch the concert (concert review is in the previous post) and the second day in Orchard Road and Little India. Before we went to Singapore, a friend has created an itinerary for this trip; she was supposed to go with us but cancelled it due to certain reason. We depend on this itinerary for this trip. When we arrived at orchard (using MRT) we were greeted by the huge ION Shopping mall above the MRT Station. The mall said to be expensive, so we come out of the building just to find dozens of other shopping malls.. @.@;; Since I was too overwhelmed, I lost my shopping spirit. xP Singapore really has LOADS of Shopping malls. Even some huge MRT Station has malls as its "roof".. Finally we decided to stop by at Takashimaya because it has Kinokuniya (the famous bookstore) and then stop by at Somerset 313 because of its HMV. After seeing several stuff in Takashimaya, I see why Indonesian middle-high class loves to go to Singapore, although the price is far less the same as Jakarta, the variety of product are far better than Jakarta. But I have to say that there is high level of redundancy in this area, for example there is M&S store in one mall, and you can easily find another one across the street or in the next 2 building after this mall. And it's not only M&S, you can easily find LV, versace, etc in minimum 2 shopping malls in Orchard.
Kinokuniya's Tribute to Luna Sea's Concert in Singapore
Somerset has it's own MRT station so we went to Little India from there. In the itinerary made, there is a good store in Little India that we must visit called "Mustafa Center". It’s a four-story-store where you can find anything. Clothes, Bags, Watches, Daily Groceries, Chocolate, Snacks, and the most important thing for tourist: souvenirs! A bit crowded, but I guess the prices are reasonable. Got a pack of Dilmah tea for SGD 3.75.
So we went out in Little India MRT Station, this turns out to be a wrong decision. This shop was closer to Farrer Park Station. It was raining hard that day that it was quite tough to walk from Little India St to the store.
It was Chinese New Year that night. So after the hard rain adventure and souvenir shopping in Little India we decided to go back to hostel to clean up our body and put down out groceries then proceed to China Town. Our hostel receptionist inform us previously that the MRT service ends at 11.30 PM. When we asked the MRT in Nicole Highway on whether there is extra service time since it's Chinese New Year but he said we should ask the person responsible in China Town St. Ah, this is quite annoying since we have to change 2 line to get from our place to China Town, we can catch the first MRT but we can miss the 2nd one if we get the wrong information. This is I guess the different between developed countries and developing countries like Indonesia. What I feel is that in develop countries people have more specific job that they only responsible for their own area, while in developing countries we have our own responsibility but also expected to understand other job as well. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Developing countries’ workers are more helpful but it can be a distraction to their main job, while developed countries tend to be less helpful but they can focus on their own job. Luckily the officer at the second station has the schedule of both lines.
Snake Lantern in China Town during Chinese New Year
China town was pack by people that night. Both main streets in china town were closed for this celebration. Being short and with the entire crowd, I can hardly see anything. We had a chance to see a little of Barongsai performance. The main show was in a middle of a stage in the main street and was delivered in Chinese. There are only small screens around, and no explanation on the rundown of the celebration. The only thing that we know is there will be a firework at 12.00 sharp. The crowded were unbearable, so we decided to browse at the stores that were still open and went home. We found 2 very outstanding shops there. One is the one selling handmade wood product such as chopstick, comb, mirror, bowl, etc. The other one is Tin-Tin shop. I'm not a fan of Tin-Tin but this one is really outstanding! They have huge action figure of Tin-Tin in the middle of the shop. It sells original merchandise of Tin-Tin from collector edition comic books, watches, T-shirts, action figures, tote bags, even color changing mug. but those came with "original" price as well. T-T We have to struggle against the crowd to reach the MRT station and we get back to the hotel before 00.00 because I remember listening the fireworks from the hostel's pantry.
Last day we went to Marina Bay because it is the landmark of Singapore and near our hostel. (We have to catch our flight in the afternoon).
Note: if you want to go to the famous ship-like hotel and Gardens by the bay by MRT don't stop at Marina Bay St. but on Bayfront St.
View around Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the bay is awesome, the giant tree looks like the future city, you can take a walk between the giant trees by paying 5 SGD. I didn't want to pay for it.. But later I bought TWG's Ice Cream for the exact same price.. (Who can resist an Ice Cream) >_< If you go to the left side of the giant trees, you will see Malay, Chinese & Indian garden and several restaurant in the flower dome.
We moved on to the shopping mall in marina bay. It is a very huge shopping mall with casino, theater and museum in it. At the very bottom of the mall there is small canal where you can ride boat there. The water came from the rain. There is a huge bowl at the end of the mall to capture the rain and drop it to the canal. (SUPER AWESOME!) The mall is connected to the MRT station so we went to hostel straight from there.
Ship-like Hotel
Rain-water-bowl
So there goes my first trip to Singapore. It was raining the whole 3 days. We didn't visit famous attraction like Universal Studio, Botanical Garden because our limited time & especially money. I completely forgot to take pictures with the famous Merlion statue..T.T The other thing that I regret is that I didn't have the chance to take a bus. Because MRT operated underground we don't have the chance to do city sight seeing while we mobilize from places to places, plus the buses look nice, unlike Indonesian bus.
Currently I don't have any reason to go back there, but if I have a chance to go there again in the future, I hope I'll have enough money and had a chance to do things that I can't do in this trip, like taking the bus and eating chilli crab. :)