Bagpackers to Singapore

This is a long post delay of my travel to Singapore during the Christmas Day on December 2022. I've not enough time to share in my blog about my special trip to Singapore. Or i can call it as a short trip to the Lion City with totally using public transport only. I went there with my sister and my friends for 2 days 1 night. 4 people for this trip. We are fully managed our time with various of activities there. As usual i have planned the itenarary. The purpose is to explore Singapore in Christmas. As we know, during Christmas month, there are a lot of beautiful decorations and colorful lights in Singapore, especially along the Orchard Road. The famous Christmas celebration held there. So, it is just a spontaneous trip but i managed to plan it well. Lets get back with the travel story about the "spontaneous trip". The public transport explorations will be begin here!

I know some of people afraid to use some country public transport because you are not familiar with the departure, arrival and location of the country. For me, this will be a good experience to explore several new things during travelling. All you have to do is, you need to study & do research about the country that you wanted to visit first. Trust yourself, be brave and bold to learn something new. Travel will build confidence and independent mind in you. After done some research of the country, finally i believe that we can rely on Singapore's public transport only. Easy, no hassle, nearby to all places, systematic, straight to the point and above all it is understandable. The exhilaration to fully utilize Singapore's public transport have started. There are several things need to prepare before enter to Singapore. 

• We are no longer require to prepare white card anymore. Please install My ICA in your mobile and you can search in Playstore or Apple Store.
• My ICA is your new white card. Present the information of your ICA when you reach to custom checkpoint.
• Prepare your vaccine certificate or MySejahtera app. They will check your vaccine certificate sometimes. Or else you cannot enter to Singapore. If you are lucky, you can pass the checkpoint without presenting your vaccine certificate.
• Make sure your passport is valid.

I think this is my fifth times go to Singapore. Ya quite few times because i'm staying pretty close to the country. Just a stone throw away. Basically, this is pretty quick trip just to enjoy and chill for a moment. It is very easy to go to Singapore by yourself. Super easy and hassle free. For this trip, we wanted to explore the country by using fully public transport. Singapore is famous with their efficient and convenient public transports, so why not if we experience it. We started the journey from Johor Bahru because my house is located in JB. We went to Larkin Central to ride a bus to go to Singapore. There are many type of buses which can go to Singapore. You can take Singapore's bus or JB's bus. Well of course we chosed JB's bus which is Causewaylink Bus. If you take Singapore's buses, u need to pay in SGD. We used Causewaylink because we no need to prepare the SGD currency. The bus ticket to Singapore by Causewaylink is only Rm2.60 for one way trip. You must make sure that you take the right bus because there are various type of Causewaylink buses. The bus number to Singapore is CW1 at Platform 1 which will be stopped at Kranji MRT Station. You can tell the bus driver which station you wanted to stop and you will pay the bus ticket according to the stop. Each stop has different price. We took the early bus around 9am. I am kinda excited to go to Singapore to fully utilize the public transports while having the benefit of using it. Our bus will straightly go to Woodland check-point. It took around 45mins to go to Woodland due to some traffic jam along the way and another 40mins waiting for the customs clearance. Then, we head out to the yellow line bus to take the Causewaylink bus to go to Kranji MRT. We waited the bus for 20mins only. Please keep your ticket bus from Larkin Central and show to the bus driver although the driver is different from previous bus driver. As long as you take the same bus it would be no problem. But, please keep your bus ticket and don't loose it. 

Finally we reached to the Kranji MRT Station. It is not crowded at all and super easy. From Kranji, we went to Woodlands MRT to buy Singapore Tourist Pass for 2 days. Guess what, this pass can give you unlimited access of public transport in Singapore such as MRT, LRT & buses. Just tap the pass card and you are good to go. It is unlimited access!! Worth it. For your information, you can buy 1 day pass, 2 days pass or 3 days pass which have different prices. During our trip, the 2 days tourist pass is SGD26 only. You can get back your SGD10 after you return the pass card at certain MRT station before you get out from Singapore. Nice! But recently, they have revised the tourist pass price - 1day SGD22, 2days SGD29 and 3days SGD34. SGD10 will be refunded after returning the pass card. Our first place to visit today is to Changi Jewel. Of course it is a MUST place to pay a visit when you are in Singapore. 

Before starts the MRT exploration journey, we took couples of MRT map to keep in the bag and for future reference later. Lets explore the Changi Jewel which is so famous among tourist who visits to Singapore. I think around 40mins to reach to our first attraction from Woodlands MRT station. From Woodlands MRT, we need to change line at Bishan to take the yellow line then change to green line at Paya Besar station to go to Tanah Merah station. Then, we took Changi Airport line to go to the Changi Jewel. Basically, we love the MRT lines because they are understandable and obviously easy. Finally, we reached the place. We spend few hours at Changi Jewel and mall there. Changi airport's mall is so big and variety of shops. We walked around the mall then we proceed to the most attraction that we were so excited about which is the Shiseido Forest Valley (FOC) and Rain Vortex (FOC). That day was the final week of Christmas eve. A very huge christmas tree was there. A lot of christmas's events were there too. My first impression to see the Changi Jewel in real life was absolutely amazing. I felt i'm in different world. A world full of glasses, trees and waterfall. Love and impress with the design, architecture, nature, landscape and concept of the building. There are alot of activities that you can do there. For your information, the entrance is free however in certain area you are require to pay an entrance fee such as mirror maze, canopy park/bridge and sky nets. My most favorite thing in Changi Jewel is the Rain Vortex!! When we enter the Changi Jewel the first thing that i amazed was the rain vortex. It is huge and round shape with massive of rainwater. It is at the center of the bu anilding. Such a great MASTERPIECE. I stood still and starred to it like a minute when entering the building. It is the world's tallest indoor waterfall that's surrounded by terraced forest. Well of course we spend almost 2 hours here. We climbed the terraced forest, enjoy the Rain Vortex view and walking around the Shiseido Forest Valley. We walked around and enjoyed the view for awhile. 

After couple hours spend time there, we decided to take MRT and went to Bugis Street. We went to Tanah Merah station and proceed to Bugis station in the greenline. After reached there, we took our lunch near Bugis Street. Then, after finished our lunch, we continued our walked to Haji Lane and Arab Street. A lot of tourist there. These are the very famous streets among tourist or visitor who come by to Singapore. There are variety of shops and restaurants. The famous murtabak singapore is located at this area. There also have a lot of Turkish and Moroccan shops nearby. Besides that, this route is where the historic mosque in Singapore is located which named as Masjid Sultan. It is such a beautiful mosque with big golden dome on top. We stopped and have a teatime near the Masjid Sultan and Arab Street to have a teatime at Chai shop. Next, we wanted to explore the Kampung Glam. It is very near and walking distance to Haji Lane street. Kampung Glam is a place where you can see mixture of native-Malay and Islamic culture combine together. This area is also well known among tourists. Later, we went to our hotel to check in, refresh and rest for awhile before carry on with our next plan. It was a bit gloomy in Singapore that day in the evening. We took a power nap to recharge our energy *grin*.

Alright. Night time activities were awesome. Ohh wait, it was raining heavily when we took our nap and that is why we were kinda late to start our night's adventures. But no worries. We are good in catching up things! LOLLL...all you need to do is well planned. We planned to go to Merlion Park, Marina Bay Sand, Garden of The Bay and Orchard Road. Well, it is Christmas's week guyssss! Forsure, there are so many wonderful decorations and colorful lights on that area. We don't want to miss it. That is the main purpose of our visit to Singapore. Luckily Singapore has an excellent public transport. The MRT there is so damn efficient and easy. We can go to any places without wasting our time. First, we managed to go to Merlion Park. We went to Bugis station and straight to the Raffles Place station. It is the closest station to Merlion Park which is very easy to find. After you went out from the MRT, just follow the signage to Merlion Park and you will arrive there. Merlion Park is the most popular landmark in Singapore. It is a park where you can see the symbol of lion & fish statue which known as Merlion. I think it is MERmaid + LION so it became MERLION. We spend around 40minutes there to enjoy the water & lighting shows there. It was so cool! Then, we took another MRT to go to Garden of The Bay which is the Garden of The Bay station itself. We spend out time here for almost 50minutes to see the lights show and enjoyed the view. It feels like jungle-heaven-in-the-city vibes. So sooo amazing. It has a christmas tree theme too. Ok then, we just continue our walking to go to Marina Bay Sand. It is pretty close to the Garden of The Bay. Just walk around 10minutes and you will see the full view of Marina Bay Sand Hotel and its colorful lights which shine brightly. You also can see the Eye on Singapore which is absolutely closeby. My first impression to see the Marina Bay Sand was mindblowing. It is a big building with shape like a boat/ship. Really admire the design and the massive cantilever walkway on top of the building. The most iconic cantilever walkway with several world records. The night view is breathtaking! Well guys i'm a bit excited when it comes to super-mega-structures thingyyy. *blinkblinkeyes* We explored for almost 30minutes there to see the vibrant & magnificant building, lakes nearby and the ferris wheel there. After awhile, we took another MRT to go to Orchard Road. We took Marina Bay MRT to Orchard station on the redline area. Guess what, this redline MRT has the biggest MRT station in Singapore which is the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. It has 6 platforms, 3 levels with 28m depth. However, the deepest MRT station in Singapore is Bencoolen which has 43m depth. Almost like 15 storey building height. Amazing right! Okay lets get back to the Orchard Road plan. We continued our exploration at that night to Orchard Road. We wanted to see the colorful lights and decorations along the famous road. Night on Christmas at this area are very alive. There are a lot of activities and events held there. We spend our time there to see and enjoy along the famous Orchard Road.

It was almost midnight. Time moves fast. We were so damn hungry and not much food stall or restaurant left opened. Therefore, we take a MRT to go back to Bugis Street which is very close to our hotel. The Haji Lane and Arab Street were still open at that time. Luckily, we found a middle east or turkish restaurant that was still opened. We ate turkish cuisine at Arab Street and our tummy were full. The food was so delicious although it was already after midnight..LOLLL! Then, we went back to our hotel, get some rest and sleep because tomorrow we got more adventurous activity to fill up.

The following day, we woke up early and had a light breakfast in the hotel. We pack our bagpack and checkout the hotel. Then, we took a MRT to Merlion Park again to see the morning view there. I also managed to take several photos with the Merlion-and-the water fountain coming out from the statue, the Esplanade, Fullerton Hotel, National Gallery Singapore, Marina Bay Sand building and Anderson Bridge. Afterwards, we took another MRT which is Harbourfront MRT to go to Sentosa Island. It is on the purple line. It took about 20minutes to reach there. After reached the Harbour Front station, just follow the VivoCity Mall signage then go to 3rd level of the mall. That mall is linked together with the Sentosa Island monorail. Guess where are we going? LOLL XD Well of course to the Universal Studio Singapore!! the USS! This is my second time to go to USS after 10years. I've been there 10years ago with my family. Right now, here i am. Still super excited about going to USS. We bought the ticket online because it is very cheap. We didn't bought the ticket on the USS website because it is a bit price. We bought our ticket from trip,com. The price is much lesser than other website. Pretty big differences! Ok lets get back to the main point. After we reach the 3rd level of VivoCity Mall, we wen straight to the monorail counter. No worries. The counter is very easy to find because it is very close to the escalator. You need to buy SGD4 for monorail ticket. However, we were lucky enough to get free ticket due to the Christmas week. So, we got free ride to Sentosa Island.

We took the free monorail to the island which is only 5 minutes ride. After reach there, we get out from the train and straightly go to USS. It is my second time to go to USS. It has been 10 years i went to USS. There are some several changes especially the theme park part. I found out the the Shrek's house is no longer there and it is under construction. Maybe they are upgrading the area forawhile. We played all the games there. We were having so much fun and did enjoyed ourselves alot. For me, the best part is the Ancient Egypt: Revenge of The Mummy and Transformer Ride 3D Battle. The roller coaster ride in Ancient Egypt is different from other roller coaster ride. We need to ride without any lights and blackout. Fully blackout. You don't even know what type of roller trail ahead of you. It will be a surprise and you need to play all along in the dark. Just enjoy the dark ride! Such a thrill!! Besides that, it also has reverse or backward coaster ride. OMGGG! I am so shocked at that moment! It's reverse guysss!!! Fast, drop and reverse..DAMMNNN! *adrenaline rush* Just imagine, it is total blackout and dark, and you are facing "THAT" moment. We were shouting in the dark like hell! LOLLL.. After all, it was pretty awesome experience ever. We enjoyed massively. So, i encourage you to try the Ancient Egypt roller coaster when you come to USS. IT'S A MUST! Because i think that ride seems like underdog and not much people try the game. Basically, people mostly will go to Transformer 3D Ride only..too much crowd there. But yeah Transformer 3D Ride is always splendid. We spend our whole day at USS and just entertained ourselves there. 

When it's nearly to sunset, we managed to get out from USS and went back to the USS bus station. yeah, this time we use public bus because the USS monorail were in longggg que. Luckily we got the Singapore Tourist Card which is unlimited and can be used for all public transports. We used the card to take a bus to go back to Woodland MRT to return back the tourist card and get back our deposit. After that, we head back to Kranji MRT station because we will take the same bus to go back to JB which is the Causeway Link bus. This time we need to pay cash in SGD to the conducter bus. The bus will stop at the JB Custom then will continue the last journey to Larkin Central. There was no traffic jam at the checkpoint and the traffic flow was smooth.

I guess, Singapore has the most awesome public transport ever. Super convenient! We love it! You guys should try it too. No regret no hassle.

Okay. Till we meet again for the next travel adventure as a bagpacker & traveler.

Do visit to my travel photos in my Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LIMIPHOTOGRAPHY) to see my journey to Singapore - Lion City.