Crossing Borders [Malaysia to Singapore]

It was my first time to cross a country border and the excitement that I had was undeniable. But it was my most unforgettable trip of last year because of the so many bloopers that we had. I can't help but laugh while remembering them.

And since mistakes teach us a lesson, I thought that I might just write about those that I have committed in this trip that other people may learn from.

We stayed at a hostel behind Berjaya Mall in Bukit Bintang which I consider as a very good location for travelers going by bus to Singapore. The bus ticket station is just right on the opposite side of it. 

The double-decker bus we were on for seven hours!

What I remember is buses depart per hour but we had to take the 10am bus so we can have time for exploring when we arrive in Singapore. Yet the ticket that we got was for an 11am trip so we had to request if we can be chance passengers for the 10am trip, and we did get two slots. As the bus went off, I think we did one stop before the Malaysian immigration and another stopover before passing through Singaporean immigration. The trip usually takes five (5) hours but it took us seven (7) hours to arrive at the city of Singapore. Here's why:

1) We spent so much time at the CR

When our bus dropped us off the immigration, we were asked to get our bags. After doing so, we headed to the CR. I just did some retouch but my friend peed and pooped that we eventually lost sight of the people we were within the bus.

2) Immigration cards are supposed to be filled out before lining up (stupidity overload lol)

We were clueless about the immigration cards so we already lined up without having one. Luckily, I was a bit of wondering why we hadn't filled out anything yet (my experience in Burma not having the card while passing through the immigration was a good example). So I took notice of the people lining up ahead of us and they did have cards with them. We let off our cue and filled out the cards. But the immigration was so strict, they don't accept erasures. So we had to fill out thrice before we got them perfect with no erasures.

3) We thought that after passing through the immigration, we need to look for another bus to get us to the City proper

Here's to a more stupid assumption. We already had all our baggage with us so we thought the bus that we booked was just until the immigration. But it didn't, they waited for an hour! The reason why we had to take our bags out was for security checking. I still remember the faces of those Chinese passengers staring at us because we were the only ones they were waiting for! It was kind of an embarrassing- yet-funny kind of experience though.

Marina Bay Sands in daylight but this was actually taken at 7pm! Emphasizing that because in the Philippines the sun sets at around 5-6pm.

But before we went into the 'trouble' of traveling to Singapore we were aware of the fact that the city is expensive (hell yeah!) so connections within the city were a big help. We also had to make sure that we have a bottle filled with water because I was told that water there is more expensive than soda and I have proven it to be true.