A week after returning from Europe, I had this strange urge to head down to Singers to check out the Sale (yes, despite being disappointed in the last two sales). Perhaps it was because I felt denied of shopping in Amsterdam but I didn’t do much pondering as to why but embarked on my usual research. Luckily for me, there was an offer from Firefly for only RM10 (which amounted to a whooping RM102 after taxes and charges. Well, it was still lower than AirAsia). I decided to take First Coach there and fly back the following morning. As for accommodation, a friend is currently pursuing her Master at NUS so I emailed her asking if I could stay with her for a night. She emailed back to say no problem and I immediately bought the tickets.
I woke up really early on Saturday morning (even earlier than during Ramadan!) and left the house after 6.30 am. The coach left sharp at 7.30 am and I tried to sleep but there was this annoying noisy girl sitting diagonally across me. Strange how the man behind me could be snoring away when the girl was being so bloody irritating.
It rained intermittently after we entered Malacca all the way to Senai. I was worried that I’d be stuck in some mall because of the rain but the weather cleared just before we arrived at the Second Link Expressway. We had to get down at both Johore exit and Singapore entry points of course to clear immigration. I like this route as it was very clear. As luck had it, I chose the ‘wrong’ queue at the Singapore entry point and had to wait ages for the immigration officer to process the passports of the ladies ahead of me. While queuing, I noted that some other counters actually asked for the MyKad of my fellow Malaysians. This happened to me before at Woodlands when I took the night train - and I actually left my MyKad at home – but not when I flew over. But really, why should I show my MyKad to a non-Malaysian anyway and does a non-Malaysian have the right to request to sight our MyKad? I don’t agree with this at all. The immigration lady who served me didn’t ask for mine though. So why did the other counters ask for it? If my passport could be processed without the immigration lady sighting my MyKad, why did the other counters need it to process the others?
Anyway, it was just before 12 noon when we left the immigration complex. The ride to Novena took about 30 minutes and from there, I took the MR to Newton and walked to Scotts Road. I could have taken the MRT to Orchard but being a busy station, I wanted to avoid it and the crowd at the underpass. Besides, I wanted to stop at DFS Galleria on Scotts Road; if I had stopped at Orchard, I would need to double back to DFS Galleria before returning back to Orchard.
Next, I headed for ION Orchard. No avoiding the underpass this time so I reluctantly joined the thronging Saturday crowd. I got hungry there and headed for the Food Opera. There were two lovely blue winter jackets at North Face that would prove very practical in one of my future trips but they were both in L size so I didn’t buy any (and the nearest other North Face store is at Suntec City Mall).
After lunch, I headed for Wisma Atria, Ngee Ann City and Takashimaya before crossing over to Paragon. I even went to check out the Toys R Us at Paragon in search of binoculars but the ones there didn’t look powerful at all (well, they were only S$12.95 or so). My Singaporean friend sent texts asking if I wanted to meet for tea while I was in Paragon and we agreed to meet at 5.30 pm. He was somewhat surprised when he saw me empty-handed. Five hours of walking and browsing and yet I hadn’t purchased anything!
We had our drinks at the Far East Plaza where among others I discovered a supermarket that sells toiletries at lower prices. We hung around to chat until past 7 then decided to return to Orchard.
My friend (the one doing her Master at NUS, let’s call her WR) sent a text saying she was at ION Orchard (in reply to my text asking for her opinion on bags) so we took the underpass across. I introduced them both, we chatted for a while then my Singaporean friend took his leave.
It was almost 10 when we finally emerged from DFS Galleria feeling hungry. We hadn’t had dinner yet! We decided to head for her digs at College Green and have dinner at the nearby stalls. Now, getting a bus or cab at 10 pm on a Saturday is next to impossible and we waited for ages in the taxi queue before spotting a bus. We abandoned the queue and ran to catch the bus instead. Thank God the taxi queue and bus stop are nearby.
It was past 11 pm when we finally reached her double-storey flat and after midnight when I finally crept under the duvet.
Woke up at 7 am on Sunday and got ready. After breakfast, WR walked me to the bus stop from where I took a bus to Little India MRT. It took more than an hour to get to the airport from the bus stop outside College Green (waiting for the trains, changing trains etc). At Changi, I had to take a shuttle to the budget terminal (why is Firefly classified as a budget airline?).
I browsed the shops but didn’t buy anything, the exchange rate being steep as it is. Sighted a vacant terminal and used it to access Twitter before heading for the gate. The flight from KL was late in arriving so we only took off at 12 noon (my flight was originally scheduled for 8.30 a.m. and I only found out on Thursday that it was combined with the next flight. Even then, it was quite empty) and landed at Subang at 1 pm.
So that was my 24 hours in Singapore. Hope your 48-hour weekend was good too and nowhere as exhausting as Jack Bauer’s!
I woke up really early on Saturday morning (even earlier than during Ramadan!) and left the house after 6.30 am. The coach left sharp at 7.30 am and I tried to sleep but there was this annoying noisy girl sitting diagonally across me. Strange how the man behind me could be snoring away when the girl was being so bloody irritating.
It rained intermittently after we entered Malacca all the way to Senai. I was worried that I’d be stuck in some mall because of the rain but the weather cleared just before we arrived at the Second Link Expressway. We had to get down at both Johore exit and Singapore entry points of course to clear immigration. I like this route as it was very clear. As luck had it, I chose the ‘wrong’ queue at the Singapore entry point and had to wait ages for the immigration officer to process the passports of the ladies ahead of me. While queuing, I noted that some other counters actually asked for the MyKad of my fellow Malaysians. This happened to me before at Woodlands when I took the night train - and I actually left my MyKad at home – but not when I flew over. But really, why should I show my MyKad to a non-Malaysian anyway and does a non-Malaysian have the right to request to sight our MyKad? I don’t agree with this at all. The immigration lady who served me didn’t ask for mine though. So why did the other counters ask for it? If my passport could be processed without the immigration lady sighting my MyKad, why did the other counters need it to process the others?
Anyway, it was just before 12 noon when we left the immigration complex. The ride to Novena took about 30 minutes and from there, I took the MR to Newton and walked to Scotts Road. I could have taken the MRT to Orchard but being a busy station, I wanted to avoid it and the crowd at the underpass. Besides, I wanted to stop at DFS Galleria on Scotts Road; if I had stopped at Orchard, I would need to double back to DFS Galleria before returning back to Orchard.
Next, I headed for ION Orchard. No avoiding the underpass this time so I reluctantly joined the thronging Saturday crowd. I got hungry there and headed for the Food Opera. There were two lovely blue winter jackets at North Face that would prove very practical in one of my future trips but they were both in L size so I didn’t buy any (and the nearest other North Face store is at Suntec City Mall).
After lunch, I headed for Wisma Atria, Ngee Ann City and Takashimaya before crossing over to Paragon. I even went to check out the Toys R Us at Paragon in search of binoculars but the ones there didn’t look powerful at all (well, they were only S$12.95 or so). My Singaporean friend sent texts asking if I wanted to meet for tea while I was in Paragon and we agreed to meet at 5.30 pm. He was somewhat surprised when he saw me empty-handed. Five hours of walking and browsing and yet I hadn’t purchased anything!
We had our drinks at the Far East Plaza where among others I discovered a supermarket that sells toiletries at lower prices. We hung around to chat until past 7 then decided to return to Orchard.
My friend (the one doing her Master at NUS, let’s call her WR) sent a text saying she was at ION Orchard (in reply to my text asking for her opinion on bags) so we took the underpass across. I introduced them both, we chatted for a while then my Singaporean friend took his leave.
It was almost 10 when we finally emerged from DFS Galleria feeling hungry. We hadn’t had dinner yet! We decided to head for her digs at College Green and have dinner at the nearby stalls. Now, getting a bus or cab at 10 pm on a Saturday is next to impossible and we waited for ages in the taxi queue before spotting a bus. We abandoned the queue and ran to catch the bus instead. Thank God the taxi queue and bus stop are nearby.
It was past 11 pm when we finally reached her double-storey flat and after midnight when I finally crept under the duvet.
Woke up at 7 am on Sunday and got ready. After breakfast, WR walked me to the bus stop from where I took a bus to Little India MRT. It took more than an hour to get to the airport from the bus stop outside College Green (waiting for the trains, changing trains etc). At Changi, I had to take a shuttle to the budget terminal (why is Firefly classified as a budget airline?).
I browsed the shops but didn’t buy anything, the exchange rate being steep as it is. Sighted a vacant terminal and used it to access Twitter before heading for the gate. The flight from KL was late in arriving so we only took off at 12 noon (my flight was originally scheduled for 8.30 a.m. and I only found out on Thursday that it was combined with the next flight. Even then, it was quite empty) and landed at Subang at 1 pm.
So that was my 24 hours in Singapore. Hope your 48-hour weekend was good too and nowhere as exhausting as Jack Bauer’s!
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