Thursday evening - The journey begins...
from Shah Alam. My mum sent me off at the Komuter station since she are on the way to sent my sisters to tution class. Bid my farewell and then hop on to the train that arrived 10 min later. Arrived at KL Sentral in quite clueless condition since I'm too early. Nothing better to do, I went to the food court and ate some dinner. Not long after that Forza arrived and joined me. Around 10-ish, we hop on to KTM Ekspress Senandung Malam (RM 43.00 for a single trip in 2nd class bed coach) to Singapore. Forza is a bit sick so as soon KTM pple done checking tickets, he snoozed off. While me, just walk around looking for the cafeteria hoping to find interesting stuff to do. Na'ah, still NBTD and the cafe is quite a long walk, from my second class bed coach to first class cabin and through third class coach...damn! Tried to doze off but what i get is restless night...travelling at night means there's nothing to see. Finally I dozed off but around 2.00 am, I got a SMS from Albert...
, what a bummer. My sleep destroyed...but then i just krrooohhhh~ happily making maps later.
Day 1 Friday - 5.30am
"Imigration card!" woke me up...apparently KTM staff already distributing the Imigration Entry card. Took it and filled it...no mood to sleep again. Not long after that, we arrived at Johor Bharu station. This is where Malaysian Immigration officer checked all the passenger passport...abord the train itself. We got to wait for quite a while for the officers to check some of the foriegn fella onboard. After that, we arrived at Woodlands checkpoint. In Singapore alrdy, wooohooo! All of us got to bring our stuff down and go through the checkpoint...damn, quite a bummer. Then, we have to board the train again...chait! Straight on to Tanjung Pagar after that. Along the short journey from Woodland to our final stop, we got acquinted with this foreign fella which I really have no idea what is his nationality (born in Brazil, educated in Germany and work in South East Asian area for more than 20 years...what the fish?). He asked me "Are you Malaysian?" and I give him the obvious answer. But he struck me with this word "You don't look like Malaysian. You look more like...Jimi Hendrix." I guess Jimi rolled in his grave when he said that. Later we discussed about the importance of knowing your roots "I have no roots...really.", Malaysians vs. Singapore..."You know what kind of girls I like? Singaporeans Malay girls...they are much open and you know...*wink*" ROFL!! and his admiration of Shah Alam (he stayed in PJ for quite a while so he knows Shah Alam) "It's a very unique city. Very fluid and harmony although sometimes the road system kinda...too many roundabouts!". Very friendly and funny guy.
Day 1 Friday - 8.30am
Fuh, finally we arrived...without further delay, we head on to Tanjung Pagar MRT station. It wasn't an easy feat since both of us are actually first timer here (excluding the trip with family, that's why
). With the help of my big, complete and comprehensive map 2005/2006 version of Singapore atlas (RM 39.90 at MPH One Utama), everything is a breeze. So we look at the route, giving a blur look around and then, we started to get our grip on. Bought ez-link card and off we go to Bugis. The Bugis Backpackers Hostel...so easy to find, it just across the road from the station. The hostel is like...right in the middle of everything. There's a shopping complex called Bugis Junction nearby, Bugis Street (Singapore equivelent to Petaling Street), KFC, BK, McDonalds and bunch of other stuff. Even the expresse bus terminal to JB, Melaka and KL is like 300m away. After we checked in, I went to McD to get some breakfast and just bring it over to hostel. Forza still sick and we pretty much rest ourselves till late afternoon.
After some much needed nap, we off to Merlion Park located somewhere near Esplanade...just to take picture with the infamous half-lion, half-mermaid statue. It's not as big as I remember...that's the start of our on foot journey. Raffles statue, Fullerton Hotel and the so durian's Theatre at the Bay among the stuff we passed by. After a short teh tarik break (this is where Forza discovered the price for a box of ciggies ROFL!), we start walking again along Esplanade towards Suntec City. A nice sea breeze and watching pple jogging, dating and kissing...a floating temple in the sea and the so enourmous Ducktour boats is kinda nice. I can hear a jazz tune in my head almost instantly. After quite a walk, we arrived at the Fountain of Wealth, the world record holder since 1998 for the biggest fountain in the world. That thing are right next to Suntec City Mall. We just take a lazy stroll walk around the place, there's nothing to buy anyway since we dirt poor. And then, we decide to grab our dinner at Geylang...so another long walk from Suntec City to City Hall MRT interchange. It's quite interesting walk actually since from the walkway to the station is actually CityLink shopping mall! They turned it into a god damn 1 floor shopping mall! Oh, there's where HMV located...grabbed a snack to hold me before dinner.
Geylang...finally we got to see some Malays...most of the time we could only see Chinese or ultra modern Malays. And Malay food of course. You can't really find mamak in Singapore...but Geylang offered ample food for both of us. Just not enough chair for everybody which a bummer. After a good dinner, we went back to our hostel where both of us practice few runs for tournament next morning.
part 2 will be uploaded soon...stay tuned!
