Having satisfied all
the stringent paperwork requirements we were free to roam.
Roam we did.
Straight to CIQ, which is easier to say than, Sultan Iskander CIQ Complex -Johor Bahru Checkpoint, to give it the full title, and I might add a completely separate Customs centre to the one I had been traipsing to and from during the morning, so we
could commence our adventure of getting across the Causeway into
Singapore. It's a little more complicated now than it was in 1942,
but only the first time I guess.
There are few (no)
instructions on the Malaysian side, but quite often following the
flow will suffice. Actually at one point a Singaporean resident gave
us a few helpful hints and made sure we followed him.
You can of course drive across if you have a vehicle, but if not, its on foot through the checkpoints and then buses across the Causeway itself.
Through Imigresen and
then a short bus ride takes you across the Causeway. For the princely
sum of 2.50RM each, you can get a bus across the Causeway and right
into the centre of Singapore- if you know which bus you are looking
for, on the other side!
Through Immigration on
the Singapore side, and then the mystery of the buses is revealed.
Two buses 170 (the one we had tickets for) and the 170X (we guessed
express, looking at the length of the comparative queues). We opted
for the 170X.Correct assumption -it was not the one we had tickets
for! So for $3.30 SG each, we were on the express bus, with a seat!
It took about 40mins once we were on the bus, and possibly it was a
15min wait for the bus to turn up.
The buses drivers don't
give change, so small denominations are helpful here.
Disembarked at Queen St
bus depot, and made our way to the handily nearby Bugis St MRT.
Bought 2 day unlimited travel on MRT and Singapore Transit buses and
we were off to our hotel.
I love the transport
systems in Hong Kong , Singapore ,London , Japan from memory and
other essentially crowded places, that have wonderfully seamless
travel systems.We have a lot to learn from them.
Found the hotel which
we had booked down in Chinatown. The only glitch being, that although
whilst booking on line I had clearly specified that we needed 3
single beds, that had been lost somewhere. Room changed and third
bed/towel etc promised.
We went out and I
introduced Chris (and Jo ) to Simlim Square- electronic heaven. Jo
glazed over as quickly as I did and Chris had only almost finished
one floor of six!
From there we ventured
out towards Bugis St and eventually wound up in Little India, where
we dined.
Back to the hotel to
find the bed still hadn't materialized , but it appeared very quickly
after a visit to the front desk!
Next morning strolled
down along the Boat Quay
 |
| Along Boat Quay there are a variety of bronze sculptures this one depicting the kids who used to jump into the river until the river became a non commercial centrepiece for redevelopment |
 |
| This is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (and Casino)with the bizarre boat shape structure atop the buildings. its down near Merlion Park . this was taken as we sailed past east bound but I forgot to put it in that blog! |
Back to Simlim Square
with Chris , for the remaining 5 floors, whilst Jo went to explore
Arab St.
We met again at the
designated time,had some late lunch and back to the hotel, so I
could grab my bag and head back to the boat. They then went to check
out Chinatown and eventually made their way to the airport for their
night flight back to Oz.
My return trip was
trouble free. I used the travel pass to Kranji on the MRT, then a
5minute bus to the Causeway, reverse process through CIQ formalities, and
the most confusing aspect was finding a bus once through the
Singapore Immigration. The first one I tried indicated no, not for
me, despite other people jumping on as it backed away. Second attempt
also failed, but third bus seemed happy enough to take me. Crossed
the Causeway, found my way out of CIQ and Ubered myself back to the
marina. The entire process taking about 2.5hrs from the time I left the others at the hotel
No comments:
Post a Comment