3 Days for Singapore! - Part 1

Hi! So if you are following my social media, you would see several post that uploaded during my visit to Singapore last weekend. Singapore visit was my-go-abroad-first-experience. It was Mbak Wahyu, co-worker at office that suddenly announce that there was a promo ticket to Singapore on the weekend. After long and galau discussion on skype group of another 2 co-worker that couldn't hold the tempting to take the ticket :p, We finally decided to go!

I'll tell the story as well as the tips for those who about to go to abroad for the first time, at the nearest country from Indonesia - like Singapore for example. So take a seat and read. This story is truly happened and would be nice if it can be your reference.

So, we booked the ticket for 4 of us - Mbak Wahyu, Mbak Annisa, Mbak Elsy and I. At that date, Mbak Wahyu and Mbak Elsy would sent to capital for job things, so we would depart from different city and different day. Since we would like to go together and had the same departure, Mbak Annisa and I decided to take a flight to Jakarta first, then off from Jakarta to Singapore together with Mbak Wahyu and Mbak Elsy on Thursday. So the flight from Jakarta - Singapore was around 800.000++ IDR on Friday, but we would like to depart together, we need to booked another fllight from Semarang to Jakarta that cost around 230.000 IDR - and THANKS GOD NO DELAY!

I know that it was finally not as cheap as the promo ticket offered, but I arrived at Singapore a day earlier and we had more time to explore our list :p besides, I have more saving and it quite enough to booked the  ticket from Semarang - Jakarta hehehehe

So after got the ticket, Passport! Mbak Wahyu and Mbak Annisa already have the passport, while Mbak Elsy and I need to create new one. So here we go! The process is quite fast (only take 3 days until you got the passport) and you need to pay 360.000 IDR in total. The terms, easy! googled it :p better not to take online because it took same procedure at the end. Just arrived at the immigration office as early as you can so you can line-up at the first numbers.

Next, the Itinerary. Mbak Wahyu create a folder on Google Drive and put there all files and documents we need, in case we need something urgent and it can be our shared folder to put all the information. Beside, the pdf of our tickets, passport scan, Singapore MAP, hostel voucher, Mbak Wahyu created The Itinerary. It's like a list of our activity during our visit. Day 1, day 2, day 3. What we do, where we go, if possible at what time, how much money we would spend (approximately), total, and so on. It help, really! It might change based on the real condition that we had but still we already have the reference.

Money! As we would like to trip in backpack-style (no pricey, keep the money, and consume as low as possible) we didn't take additional luggage. We bring 2 bags maximum; one small/medium bag to keep camera, passport, wallet and other important things AND big backpack to bring our shirts, pants, and another fabrics/toiletries. Keep it under 7kg, Changi Airport is very strict. Oh, money! we would like to talk about money. So, Mbak Annisa and I changed the money in the nearest and trusted money changer in town. It was Supit, but you can change it in another money changer that you think its trustable. I don't need to mention how much we have changed, its personal :p but you need to know the best time to change the money since the value quite high and change day by day. I forgot at which level the Singapore Dollar was, when I changed the money but I think it was quite stable and I got the good deal. Money, checked!

Stuffs. I was so proud of my prediction :p I mean the decision of how many shirts I need to brought was right! Usually I always run out of shirt or even overloaded and finally unused. Bring the right one. It's okay to use it two times as long as you don't use it all day long for the first wore :p Bring also small small volume of toiletries. Its better if you bring less than 100ml of fluid, but based on my experience, even if your bottle show 100 ml and the fluid is less than 100 ml, Changi Airport staff will keep throwing your toiletries :') happened to me haha except if you want to use luggage, so I think you can keep your 100ml toiletries on the suitcase, ya? CMMIW - International Departure is always strict.

Plan on The Day! So, I flight to Jakarta on Thursday at 1 PM, which is a working day. My day-off on Thursday was half-day day-off type, but I still had BIG MEETING in the morning haha but Alhamdulillah it was a short meeting, and I can cameback to office around 9 AM in the morning, so I can prepare last thing of work before I left (I was off on Friday so I need to prepare everything and entrusted to Mas Putra :D) I left office at 11 and I already put my backpack in the morning before I had meeting on the customer's office, so shortly we off from office. Not really because we dropped by to Mbak Annisa's house the her father drove us to the Airport.

Already checked in by Mbak Annisa's sister and our flight to Jakarta off in the right time, no delay! Because it took different airlines, so it was quite annoying if the flight from to Jakarta delayed. Ambyar sudah hahaha Arrived smooth and safely in CGK - and we finally off to Singapore at 7.30 PM since the airlines delayed. Here we go!


SINGAPORE FIRST NIGHT - Singapore Changi Airport
Like an udique people, I thought it was a mall! Hahah. So we spent the first night at the Airport. We arrived at Singapore around 10 PM and slept on the lounge until 3 AM. The lounge is actually for the passenger who has next departure. We warned to walk away and wait outside the lounge. We stay outside departure area until 5 AM and it still dark. Since our hostel check in was at 2 PM in the afternoon, so we decided to kept going to the hostel to placed our bags and clean up.


Our hostel was on Bussorah Street, Bugis and there are the biggest mosque there called Masjid Sultan. I was like a happy kid found free ice cream on the street. It's already Singapore, you couldn't find mushola/mosque as easy as when you are in Indonesia. You can find prayer room in the airport but it was not the time to have Subuh pray. My faith has been tested :') so you can imagine how happy I was when I found that beautiful Mosque. I pray and the girls were cleaned up there as well. We took shower! hahahah Allahu Akbar :'D The hostel was only 10 meters from the mosque, so we put the bags and heading to Little India at 9 AM to had some yummy indiana breakfast :p

Victoria Street - The road was sooooo quiet. I even can stop there in the middle while the green light was on!

 Little India MRT Station - MRT Station is the place where you can find the TRUE Singaporean people. Walk crazy fast, with the earphone and phone on their hands! Mind-blown!

Little India Arcade

Oh I forgot to tell you that during our visit, we only took MRT. It cost money? YES OF COURSE -_- but there, the transportation done by using a card. There a two option; SPT or EZ Card. SPT is mostly for tourist, so we 'rent' the card with deposit. I forgot the price but it was quite pricey plus we need to bring it back to the counter. But you don't need to top-up the saldo. You can go where ever you are and its free. There's also EZ Card. Singaporean use it because, it cheap and suitable for native. The price is 10 SGD with saldo 7 SGD and you don't need to bring it back to the counter at the end of your visit, you can bring it home and use again within 5 years if you have chance to back to Singapore. The weakness is, we need to top-up the saldo minimum 10 SGD each time your saldo has reach 3 SGD, because you cannot use it to pay your MRT. Uhmm wait, it actually can be changed by the end of your visit; so you bring the EZ Card back to the counter and you get the money based on the saldo you had on your EZ Card. Mbak Annisa and I did it at the end of our visit. Lumayan, 10 SGD, left on our EZ Card :p 

So, back to the track - we finally arrived at Little India and had no idea what to eat. Then suddenly from the corner of the street, we smell very goooooooooooodddd indiana spices. Here we were! The Mubarak Restaurant. I must say that it's like warteg in Indonesia but of course they served Indian food. I spotted Kari and I went to it! A plate of warm Chicken Rice Curry (OMG my mouth is watering right now) so here's the look of Chicken Rice Curry. Looks so common, but it taste good!

 A humble-yet-delicate Chicken Rice Curry - This might be the BEST Indian curry I've ever eat. The first place is made by Mbak Pinky's mom, and the first place is this. As well ;) 


Felt so sleepy and bit exhausted, but we were too early for checking if we ran back to hostel so we decided to take Singapore Sight Seeing Tour. It's an open double-decker bus for tourist and cost about 40 SGD for 24 hours service. But, since we took only an hour and its quite enough for us to explore each corner of Singapore City, so the driver only cost us around 10 SGD. I don't know if it's too pricey for a back-pack style but I think it's worth it. The bus took us around the city, to the famous and historical places, to the business distric center of Singapore, explain completely with audio guard spoke in 5 languages, include Bahasa Indonesia. We off from Little India, and we dropped again in Little India. 1 hours, explore the city for 10 SGD. You decide :)

I didn't take so many picture while the bus took us explore the city since it was too enjoyable to see the city, I forgot to snap and grab my camera :p It capture forever on my mind so! ;)


We spent the rest of that day only in hostel, sleep in the evening when the rain started to come. The Sleepy Kiwi hostel is own by Indonesian :) Sundanesse! The place is small but it cost lower than any other hostel that we would like to booked. We had single room with 4 bed right for 4 of us. Big AC, dim, and just so comfy to sleep since we got bit jet-lag and need some sleep. I woke-up at 4 PM and the rain stop already, but Mbak Annisa, Mbak Elsy and Mbak Wahyu was still slepping. So I decided to went out and took evening stroll around Bussorah, Haji Lane, Bali Lane and all around, by myself :D

Massive mural at Haji Lane

 Haji Lane - Too many cute things there. Be careful in a good way. TOO MANY!!!

 Haji Lane - Seems... familiar! :p 

Haji Lane - The most famous, hype street in Singapore. I strike-through my bucketlist :)

The story will continue, in the next post ;)



 


Comments

  1. I do not agree if it is not online register, because Jakarta is full of people who will make the passport. Ha ha. Thank you for the stories.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, I should add "in selected territories", then :p

    ReplyDelete

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