Singapore Short trip

11th of January 2011, one of the beautiful date. (11/1/2011) How did you spent this special day?
It was pretty special as it was birthday of two people I know. Happy Birthday to Chris' 22nd and Sheryl's 23rd. May your wishes come true~

Anyway, I didnt spent my day with them. It was announced a public holiday in Johor (Woohooo!), a memorial day of the late Sultan (i was told, it's not Sultan's birthday celebration, LOL). So, more holidays! Yeah! My friend and I was invited to a self-tour trip to Singapore few days before. And we agreed.

I was told that initially, we were supposed to travel in group of 8, with the birthday girl. After a while, the trio couldnt make it, left the 5 of us. I barely know them. We were university-mates for 5th year already, but we never been close before. I just recalled their names yesterday. A-ha. I'm bad.

Anyway, the journey begun at 6.58am on my watch. They picked me up at my hostel. It was so cold. Traveled all the way south to the Johor Checkpoint. Before entering, we had bah kut teh. Being someone constantly having Klang's bah kut teh, this is an interesting experience. Johor's Bah kut teh tastes lighter. The soup is obviously clearer. I miss Klang's bah kut teh. I couldnt tell if it's good or not, since I had tried better ones. So, no picture.

By 8.30am, we were at the checkpoint waiting to conquer enter Singapore. Here I am again, visiting Singapore. To many people, entering Singapore is a routine, as many study and work in Singapore. To me, it's an annual visit. I visited in end of 2009, early of 2010 and another early of 2011. Whatever it is, every visit was different.

The first stop upon entering Spore is always Kranji MRT. After settling all the Ez-link, we headed to Bugis.

Bugis is a street shopping venue which is very much similar to Msia's petaling street. We walked round and round as our gentlemen dont have maps with them.

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple

Sri Krishnan Temple

So, a random walk and bump, we visited a few temples, shopping complex and a food court. What's for lunch? Random food available. While others chose to queue at the longest queue, I and another friend chose to buy food we like. There's nothing special about the food we had, so no review.

Next stop, China Town, a must-go in my every visit. Basically, walking around and looking at the chinese cultures just like malacca. (We kept comparing Spore and Msia in terms of the similarity, not people/law/lifestyle)

Anyway, we visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple at South Bridge Road, Singapore. Well, as said, I had been visiting Chinatown on every visit, but had never visited the upper floor of the temple. My first time and it was great. Although most of the time I dont understand the Buddhism practices. I should have known of this upper-decks-visit earlier because it's informative yet FREE admission! No place in Malaysia is so informative yet free. Even the broken, old museum in Malacca need admission fees.

We spent around 1 hour touring the temple and museum. Not bad. Will visit again.

MARINA BAY@DEC 2009

What's next? Marina Bay! Woohoo...before this visit, Marina Bay was yet to open for public visits. However, it's not 100% completed even in this visit. So, I'll be back soon!
First stop, Marina Bay casino. Situated right in the shopping mall. Singaporean and PR need to be pay $100 for each visit. For foreigner, free admission. So, we entered the casino upon producing your passports to the security. Ladies' bags and sling bags are allowed. They have bag check-in service available. So even if you go with your luggages, they'll take care of it and again, it's FREE.

This visit was pretty fun as we explore the most luxurious place in Singapore, Marina Bay Sands. It is beautiful. Truly the first class venue.

We spent our time walking around the place as the Civil Engineering students look through the constructions.

At the other end of the building, cars were waiting. We bumped into some VIPs who were having their meetings earlier. We waited to see the VIPs, but we dont recognize those people.
WH was taking pictures of the VIPs. A tourist asked him to find out who was the VIPs since he was snapping photo with enthusiasm.
Tourist: Who is that?
WH: I dont know.
Tourist: Then what's the point of you taking photos???
We: [Laughed out really loud.]
Later, two luxurious sports cars stopped in front of us, as if it stopped for us. Haha. Another crazy photo session went on.

After that, we walked to the entrance of the skypark. After checking out the price, we walked off. We kept that for next time.

Next, a quick stop at Orchard Road. The walkway for rich people. LV, Prada and Gucci are everywhere. We named it, Spore's Pavillion. But obviously much much larger than Pavillion, in fact, the whole area is filled with branded shops.

Then, exit Spore and here we are, back to JB.
Ta-ta, Singapore, but we'll be back soon. Don't miss us. XD