Our trip to Singapore was rather uneventful. Alvin slept the moment he sat down, Owie and I talked for a while then dozed off after an hour or so.
Got our first jolt of adrenalin when we arrived at Malaysia's Immigration Office. Owie left his departure card at our house, admittedly my fault, and the immigration officers won't let him through. After 30 minutes of looking for it in our bags and looking for blank arrival/departure cards which you normally find scattered around in immigration offices, Owie was able to secure one with a scalper outside the office. He paid MYR 1.00!
We arrived at Singapore at around 7:30am. Looked for a money changer then took a taxi to Glenn's place at Yishun St. WOW! The taxis here have GPS on them. This wasn't my first time here but it was my first time in a taxi. Alvin wouldn't leave the taxi without taking a picture of the GPS system.
By 8:30am, we were at Glenn's place. It was nice to see Glenn again after almost a year. We made breakfast and cleaned up quickly after eating because we had to catch our ferry trip at 11:30am to Bintan, Indonesia. The port was still an hour away. I used the little time we had to find and book some cheap hotel in Bangkok, Thailand for I still hadn't done it yet. We left at 10:15am! We couldn't hail a taxi!! At 10:40am, we were on our way!!! We were gonna miss the trip!!! As soon as we got to the ferry port, Alvin ran as fast as he could... good thing, Glenn and I read the reservations wrong!!! 11:30am was the trip back from Bintan to Singapore. Our trip from Singapore to Bintan was at 12:15pm!!! *sigh* *relief*
I slept throughout the ferry trip and was awoken by Owie's tap on the shoulder. We were booked at the Nirwana Beach Resort. The place is so serene. I'd recommend this place if you just wanna have a vacation and relax. The food's nice. We were on a food trip. Lunch buffet when we arrived. Grilled food for dinner - steak, lamb chops, chicken and salmon. And breakfast buffet which comes with the package. The night life wasn't that inviting.
Day 2 : Indonesia-Singapore
Went out for an early swim. Had breakfast then headed back to Singapore. Reached Yishun St. at around 2pm. We got to meet Aldrin and Gilbert later in the afternoon. It's been 4 years since I saw Aldrin. Gilbert just moved to Singapore a month ago. We had a good time. Aldrin even treated us to Starbucks!!! RARE! The meeting was short lived. Alvin, Owie and I had to be in the airport for our flight to Bangkok at 8:30pm.
Day 3 & 4 : Bangkok, Thailand
We arrived at Bangkok at around 12:00am. No one was gonna pick us up. We had to find someone to translate Golden Horse Hotel to Thai characters to show to the taxi driver. When we got out of the airport, I was again amazed by the taxis. Not by the gadgets I found inside, but by the color - PINK. All taxis were brightly colored. Bright pink, orange, blue, green... Crayola could use them for advertisement. We soon found out why the hotel was cheap. Our room smelt stale and it looked like no one has booked a room but us. Pah! Who cared? We just wanted somewhere to sleep and keep our things in.
The next morning, as we were about to start our temple hopping adventure, we met a schoolteacher on the street. He talked to us in Thai. He saw the confused look on our faces and explained to us that he thought we were going to some festivities because Alvin and I were wearing yellow shirts. To our surprise, it was a holiday. They were celebrating some festival for Buddha. Almost everything was free!!! The schoolteacher helped us get a "tuk tuk", Thailand's version of our tricycle to bring us to the different tourist spots. We went to around 4 to 5 temples. To bad we were able to enter the Grand Palace. At night, we went to the famous Suan Lum Night Bazaar. So far, the trip to Bangkok has been worth it.
On the second day, we went to the floating market. Too bad we were late. We didn't see much and we paid a lot for the trip and boat ride itself. We'll charge it to experience. I'm sure it won't be the last time we'll be there.
After 4 tiring days, it was time to head back to Malaysia. We reached our house at around 10:30pm.
{Next chapter : Precious moment - The Departure}
No comments:
Post a Comment