Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on A Shoestring #2: Man Plans, God Laughs

Day two, here it goes our plan. From Kuala Lumpur we were going to travel to Singapore, arriving at Golden Miles Complex, Beach Road by bus departing 9 am using Konsortium Bus Express (MYR 42.00/way/person). From Batu Caves, we planned to take komuter train, Seremban Line to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan, Bandar Tasik Selatan to catch the bus. It would take normally about 5 hours to reach Beach Road from Kuala Lumpur, Terminal Bersepadu Selatan. So it would has been arriving at Golden Miles Complex at 2 pm. We had the plan that when we reached Singapore, we would like to join in Singapore Footprints Walking Tour at Singapore River and surroundings. Tour departs at 4.30 pm so we would still have enough time for having lunch and taking a rest before continuing our itinerary to visit Merlion Park until visit Sentosa Island and watch Songs of the Sea in the evening.

Singapore Footprints is a project conducted by group of university students who work voluntary to provide free guided walking tours in purposes of educating and entertaining tourists and locals about some interesting and heritage places in Singapore.

Man plans, God laughs

We got prepare from 6 am before departing to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan. But then, my cousin invited us for having breakfast outside at a foodcourt near to his apartment in Taman Samudera. He said the foodcourt was built in 1920’s.

Having breakfast at food court near Banjaria Court.

We went to the foodcourt by car. We had nasi lemak, roti canai, and tea o (sweet tea without milk added) for the breakfast. After having breakfast, we planned to transfer Lintang and Damar to their school in Lorong Tun Abdul Razak. It’s close to Komuter Station, Putra, so we were going to reach Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) from Putra direct to Bandar Tasik Selatan (MYR 1.40/way/person). We reached Putra Komuter Station around 8.30 am. We’d been too late to catch the bus to Singapore. We reached TBS around 9 am, so we changed our plan and looked for other departure schedule then we had the bus departing at 10.30 am.

Situation Near Ticket counter Terminal Bersepadu Selatan.

The stories remain. The bus stopped in Johor Bahru for taking a break before continuing to Singapore. We reached the check point in Malaysia before crossing the border to Singapore around 1.30 pm. One time, the bus driver reminded us not to bring illegal stuff even an intact box of cigarette. Then he told us that he could only wait for 40 minutes, in case we delayed to come out from Singapore immigration checking. No bad feeling.

We stepped down from the bus and entered Singapore immigration check. From the distance, two officers came up and asked for our passport. We showed them then an officer brought us in to a room. One by one we entered the room consists of big spraying machine. We stepped up to the machine and our body was sprayed. It was likely such a sterilization procedure for the first time visitor.

Then we went to 2nd floor for getting entry permit. When we were queuing, another officer approached us and checked our passport again. He asked us politely whether this was our first time to visit Singapore. It was a yes. Then he asked for us to follow him came in to the office. It felt like we were going to be locked up abroad! “Is there something suspicious with us?”, I asked myself.

[To be continued…]