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Ooooh looks like a new robot series is coming up. According to ANN, its gonna be 52 episodes. Usually anime series go for 26 episodes. I might just hold to my robot hobby for a bit longer. Everyone knows that when a new anime airs, the robot toys will follow.
Anyways, I am getting behind on blogging about my trip back in February 2010. So when I was in Malaysia, I had a one day trip to the land of Singapore. From Kuala Lumpur, one can either
a) take a plane via Air Asia ($$$) or
b) take a bus to Singapore ($) or
c) you can drive there ($$)
I think taking bus to Singapore is the best way for a discerning budget traveller. And example of this coach service is Aeroline.
Air Asia will be good if you get those dirt cheap promos which you have to buy like 1 year in advance.
Now I will talk about driving. The obvious thing about driving either by car or bus is it takes DONKEY YEARS (1 donkey year = 9 human hours) to get there. My butt went numb on me my many many times. Actually recalling back to my trip, I change my mind and highly recommend you to fly there. Forget about being a discerning traveller... your body part/s (in this case my butt) is more important than money! I truly hate sitting for prolonged periods of time, I despise and/or loathe it!
Thankfully, there was rest spots along the way with restaurants and toilets. I remember the trip took a whole day maybe 9 hours? When I eventually got to Singapore, the customs queue was horrendous. Traffic was a stand still both ways coming in and out. I suggest if you still insist on driving maybe hire a masseur to massage your butt :)
Look at the queue. Nasty.
The customs building. Looks very omnious. Very prison-like.
When I finally got to the booth where the guy sits on his throne and looks at your passport.
Custom immigration dude said, "VEP".
I thought he was addressing me as a very important person and thus give me money.
I replied, "Yes, in ten dollar notes please"
Custom immigration dude answered, "Where is your VEP? Your Vehicle Entry Permit".
So being new to the country, one must have these VEPs to be able to drive your own car around in Singapore. You must buy them at their office. So the dude called someone to escort me to their office (again this took awhile about 10minutes and yes, I was holding up traffic and all the cars behind me were saluting me with one finger). A lady custom officer came on her bicycle to escort me to the office to fill a form and buy my VEP. You must use Singapore dollars to buy them so come prepared. Apparently if you plan to stay longer in Singapore you can top up these VEP cards at any 7-11s. So you have been warned, weary traveller.
Singapore is a tiny country but it has almost 5 million people living in it. The first word that comes to mind is CLEAN.
Yes I think Singapore is the only cleanest asian country in the world. Boo to Malaysia!
Very modern. People hear are very trendy. I wish I was trendy.
SK-II Spa! All the ladies love SK-II.
Now once I was in the land of the free. The next hurdle is navigating one's way around Singapore. My destination was Ibis Hotel on Bencoolen. On the highway is easy and I enjoyed the scenery. Singapore is as old men says, "Mmm, indeed a very clean city". It was difficult to get to this hotel, even though I could see the Hotel on Bencoolen Road, there was no access to the hotel and instead, I discovered that I have to go one big round and enter from the back. I was frustrated to the max especially with the local drivers were honking at my foreign plated car. I suggest this hotel put specific directions for those driving to get to their hotel rather than putting a map on their website. I was going round and round in circles trying to get to this hotel.
The view from my hotel room.
So after that nightmare, checked in to a really small room. Its tiny, its only a shoulder's width from the foot of the bed to the wall. The 'desk' was a piece of wood fixed on the window sill. The wardrobe had no doors and it was again shoulder width. It flooded after every shower because of poor drainage due to years of pubes accumulation? However, the room was clean and nice wooden floors but I will not come here again for the money that was paid to stay here. Oh yes! There was a sign in the bathroom encouraging guests to reuse their towels to conserve water. What!? Personally, as a guest, I want fresh towels as I believe this is part of the hotel service! What an outrage! Raarrrr! I always hit 155L/day of water back in Australia and I think Singaporeans and Malaysians should embrace this idea rather than asking guests to recycle their towels.
Price : 1 out of 5 stars
Overall rating : 2 out of 5 stars
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