Having spent three days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it was time to travel on to Singapore, the final destination of our Southeast Asia trip. Singapore is an island off the southern tip of Malaysia. Flying into Singapore was certainly feasible, but getting to the airport and going through all the security and immigration seemed like a lot of hassle. We decided to take a bus. We looked into a train, but no trains travel that route directly.
There were several options of buses we could take with different amenities. I tried to book one bus that seemed particularly nice. Unfortunately it came back as no longer available. I ended up booking a pretty standard bus with no real amenities.
Our morning began rather abruptly. About 5:00 I got up to go to the bathroom. As I walked there, I realized I was walking in water, and I heard a steady drip. Something was leaking. I had to call the front desk twice before someone actually came. Actually two men came. One did fix the leak. The other cleaned up the water. By the time they had left, we were pretty much wide awake even though we didn’t want to be.
After breakfast we finished our packing. We took a taxi to the bus station which was at the back of a strip mall. It was not immediately apparent where the bus station was. Someone finally pointed us to an area on the second level of the mall where we checked in and waited until the bus arrived. We then had to drag our suitcases back down the escalator and over to the bus. It wasn’t very convenient. It was made worse because I had just bought an iced tea, and I was trying to hold on to it while dragging two suitcases around.
We finally settled into our spots on the bus. I was surprised to see an entertainment monitor on the back of the seat in front of me. I figured it probably didn’t work, but it did. This allowed me to listen to music on the trip. I listened to the same track over again about four times.
Leaving the city we saw quite a bit of construction going on. The skyscrapers and highways reiterated that this was a modern city in Malaysia that is continuing to grow.
During the first part of the trip through Malaysia, we passed through a number of small towns. However, these towns seemed to still have modern architecture as well as popular world wide fast food joints like McDonald’s.
After a few hours we stopped at a rest stop for a break. There were a number of food stands around a big open area. They had both local and international food brands. The bathrooms here were really large with common shared sinks out in the open.
During our stop we engaged one of the other passengers in conversation. She is a citizen of Singapore, but lives in Kuala Lumpur. She’s a musician and said she felt more freedom in Malaysia. She seemed to feel that the lifestyle of Singapore was more rigid. It was an interesting take on the differences between the cities.
As we continued our journey south. one thing I noted was how green Malaysia is. Palm trees were quite prolific along the hills and filled the landscape.
Here and there I saw old looking stairs going up the side of the hills right by the highway. It was quite unexpected.
I also realized that we were traveling on a toll road. We saw a tolling point as we were leaving Kuala Lumpur. We saw more at the southern end of Malaysia. It almost seemed like they were coming every five miles or so. They had modern scanner technology in use at the tolling points.
Just before we reached the border of Malaysia, we had to go through Malaysian immigration which proved to be pretty much nothing. There was no line. I gave the agent my passport. He stamped it and handed it back. In the next room there was a baggage scanner. I started to take off my backpack, but they waved me through. That was it. Back on the bus.
Then we had to go through Singapore immigration and security. First our bus pulled into a lane for buses. It took a good 15 minutes before we moved up to be able to unload. We had to take everything with us. Here our bags were put through a scanner which went pretty quickly. Then we came to some turn styles. They scanned our passport, and then we were to move on. I thought we were done, but couldn’t get a second gate to open. Then I realized they were taking my photo. I was supposed to be within a frame, but the photo kept failing. Then an agent told me to take off my glasses and stand farther back. That worked, and I was finally on my way feeling somewhat embarrassed by my ineptitude.
It was still probably a half hour before we got to our destination in Singapore, which turned out to be a hospital next to a mall. We saw a taxi stand and thought we were good. Not so. The taxis that showed up were already spoken for. A receptionist suggested we go to a different location as more taxis were there. That didn’t help. Finally someone suggested that the information desk of the mall could call a taxi for us. I found the concierge desk, and the woman was helpful and willing to call. However, she said I would need to pay in cash as she was using her app. So then I had to find a place to change money.
After I exchanged some money, the concierge ordered us a taxi. She said we needed to go back to the first taxi place we had been, and the taxi would be there in three minutes. So I went racing down to get Silvette and go back to the first location. On the way back the concierge met us saying a different taxi was going to pick us up so she came along with us to make sure we got to the taxi. She was a really kind and helpful woman, and we did finally get a taxi.
Our drive to the hotel took longer than I expected, but we were glad to finally be in our hotel. In general hotels in Singapore are more expensive than Vietnam or Malaysia. This room was the smallest we had on this trip yet the most expensive. After checking in we went out in search of something to eat. We found a restaurant serving different options and had a Hawaiian pizza. They used chicken for the meat, but overall it was good.
Tomorrow we will begin exploring this major city. Our first task will be to figure out the transportation system. The first time is always a bit of a challenge. I’ll tell you how it went next week.
Credits: The picture of us by the bus was taken by a fellow passenger. Silvette Lee took the photo of me walking to immigration in Singapore.