HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

My Singapore Trip in December 2008

Prologue:

My first visit to Singapore was as early as in 1973 during my high school’s graduation trip. From June 1976 to March 1980, I studied for a civil engineering degree at the University of Singapore. After graduation, I returned immediately to Malaysia to work.

My third and fourth brief vacation trips with friends to Singapore were in 1984 and 1987 respectively.

In conjunction with the occasion of remarriage of my younger brother Thomas (aged 50 now, migrated to Melbourne, Australia since 1990 and divorced with four children) with Singaporean Jessie Goh, I brought my wife Soh Ai and three kids, Wai Kit, Wai Jen and Wai Kei, to Singapore again for the fifth time after a lapse of 21 years by car from Friday, December 19 to Sunday, December 21. Meanwhile, my youngest brother Thai San and youngest sister Ching Yueh (whose husband could not make it because of injury sustained in a minor traffic accident) went in a separate car on the same day.

Day 1 (Friday, Dec 19, 2008)

We left Bandar Sg Long, Kajang at 8.00am and stopped over at the Seremban Rest Area (Kawasan Rehat) along the North-South Highway for breakfast and meet-up with Thai San (after this Wai Kit and Wai Kei went in his car all the way to Singapore). After stopping for breaks at two other rest areas in Johor, we finally arrived at the Johor Baru Custom Booth at about 2.00pm (Thai San used the second link at Tuas). There was no traffic jam at the causeway then.

After passing through the Singapore Woodlands Checkpoint at 2.18pm, I bought the required Autopass for S$10 which is valid for 5 years as foreign vehicle entry permit. The Singapore immigration officers were friendly and helpful to visitors.

As I drove in Singapore, I felt very curious to look around at this place where I had once lived for 4 years in my younger days. It has progressed so rapidly that I could hardly recognize.

It took me something like 1 1/2 hour to drive around the city in order to locate the Harbour Ville Hotel (a budget hotel costing S$105 nett per standard room and S$135 nett per superior room) at Kg Bahru Rd. By the time we reached the Hotel at about 4.00pm, Thomas and his four children, Cam Wyn, Jer Shyn, Jen Shyn and Jel Shyn (all flew down from Melbourne for this occasion) were already there waiting for us. Thai San & company arrived just 5 minutes later.

(Thomas and I posed for reunion sake at Sentosa Island)

After checking in and unloading our luggage in the hotel, all of us except Thai San (who preferred to visit his friend in China Town) drove to the nearby Sentosa Island for sightseeing.

We spent the entire evening at Imbiah Lookout (the main activity zone of the island) where I paid for the children’s thrilling ride (S$49 for a package of 8 persons) at the Luge and Skyride and our 7.40pm spellbinding water show (S$8 per person, S$13 including food & drink) of the “Songs of the Sea”.

(Pictures show the children waiting anxiously to take on the thrilling challenge at the Luge and Skyride. Look at the safety helmets they had to wear for the ride!)

(The first cousins of the Lau family. Back row from left: Wai Kei, Wai Kit and Jel Shyn. Front row from left: Jer Shyn, Wai Jen, Cam Wyn and Jen Shyn. The only absentee was my thrid son Wai Yu who opted to skip this trip to participate and assist in a cadet reporters' training camp in K.L.)

One of my main aims of this visit was to see the seaside performance featuring a live cast with fascinating dramatic effects like water jets, lasers, computer imaging, bursts of fire and captivating music, just to compare with the musical fountain show also with bursts of fire in front of Wynn Hotel, Macau where I visited early this year. The Sentosa’s show has more features, but of course it is payable while the one in Macau is free for everybody.





After the show at 8.15pm, we left Sentosa and Thomas took us to the hawkers centre near Tg Pagar Plaza where he dwelled now for dinner at about 9.30pm. After that we visited his 2-room HDB apartment.

(Pic left shows Wai Kei and Jel Shyn, the youngest child of mine and Thomas respectively.)

It was quite a terrible (i.e. time-consuming) experience on the road as it took me more than an hour to drive back to the hotel. I missed the junction a few times and simply could not find the way back, despite knowing that Tg Pagar Rd is quite near to Kg Bahru Rd. It also surprised me that many Singaporeans did not seem to know where Kg Bahru Rd was as I pulled over and asked around at the bus stop and petrol station.

Finally, a Malay taxi-driver (while buying something at a petrol station at Qutram Rd) on hearing my enquiry offered to help guide us back to the hotel by following his taxi (as he was not carrying any passenger then).

On reaching the hotel, I stopped my car and approached the Malay taxi-driver to thank him and offer S$10 as a token of appreciation. He declined, but I slipped the note into his taxi and bade him farewell. What a friendly and helpful Singaporean Malay taxi-driver!

By the time we went back to our rooms, it was almost 1.00am midnight.

Day 2 (Saturday, Dec 20, 2008)

We (Thai San, Ching Yueh, Wai Kit and myself) took our breakfast at a HDB flat’s hawkers centre nearby the hotel (only realizing the next day that we were actually entitled to 2 free breakfasts per room but regrettably neither informed nor given any coupons by the hotel operator when we checked in). The food price here in Singapore is actually reasonable if the currency exchange rate is not taken into account. For example, porridge costs only S$2 and noodles around S$4. Coffee and pau are even cheaper than K.L. on a dollar-to-dollar basis.

At about 11.00am, we left the hotel to take a bus to attend Thomas’ wedding lunch (which was scheduled to be heldat 1.00pm) at Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) opposite the City Hall.

Initially I mistook that the bus-stop nearest to City Hall was Clarke Quay. As I was not sure about the exact bus-stop to alight, I asked a woman passenger and she was friendly enough to give some hints and we chatted on the bus. I also requested the bus driver to alert us when we reached the desired destination.

It was quite an impressive experience that a man passenger as he was getting down the bus turned to me to inform that the next bus-stop would be Clarke Quay (he must have heard me talking in the bus), and another woman passenger told us to follow her to alight as she was also going to somewhere near City Hall, just to realize later (as the bus-driver waved his hand in disagreement) that it was incorrect and she quickly apologized before alighting and said that even as a Singaporean she was not very certain of the exact bus-stop for certain destinations. I gathered that this seemed to be a common problem among most Singaporeans!

It was the bus-driver who gave us the final correct direction to drop off. We waved our hands at him as he drove on and I noticed his response of a smiling nod. What a friendly Singaporean bus-driver!

As we were still early at 12.15pm for the lunch appointment, we went inside the Raffles City Shopping Centre (where Soh Ai bought at the Robinsons Department Store a branded hand-bag and another item at a very reasonable price according to her) for a short while before walking to SRC.

The lunch at SRC from 1.00pm to 3.00pm saw three tables of guests comprising the immediate family members of the bride and bridegroom. The food served was delicious, slightly of different cooking style from what we used to have in Malaysian wedding dinners. Group photos were taken after the meal for the sake of commemoration.
(Pic shows back row from left: Ching Yueh and Thai San, front row from left: Jessie, Thomas, me and Soh Ai)

We had earlier in the morning contacted Soh Ai’s fourth auntie Bee Bee (who has been working in Singapore as a nurse for 17 years) and met up with her at 3.15pm at the Raffles City’s MRT station. From that time onwards, it was a long tiring walk until midnight with only two MRT rides in between!



(Pic from left: Auntie Bee Bee, Soh Ai and myself)

The places we left our footprints included among other places the Marina Bay, Outdoor Gallery/Floating Platform (overlooking the Esplande-Theatres-on-the-Bay), Merlion Park, Boat Quay and Clarke Quay (where Thai San and Ching Yueh left us at about 5.00pm to return to the hotel and checked out and departed for home later), China Town and Orchard Rd.

In China Town, it gave me a great sense of nostalgia as I once stayed in Tras Street which is not far from here where I frequented for one year from 1976 to 1977. The then University of Singapore’s first year engineering students had to study at the Singapore Polytechnic campus at Prince Edward Road, before moving to newly completed Kent Ridge main campus the following year.

From China Town, we took a MRT train at Outram Park to Somerset to visit the famous shopping strip of Orchard Rd.



This day happened to be the last weekend before Christmas which fell on the following Thursday and no wonder Orchard Rd was so busy and packed with crowds as night fell. The street performances of many varieties filled with the Christmas atmosphere along one side of the road were splendid and attracted so plenty of standing audiences that virtually jam-packed the walkway.



We took our dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung at The Paragon at about 9.00pm. This meal cost us S$99.30 and although auntie Bee Bee was supposed to treat us but I snatched the bill and paid instead. After all, her sacrifice of time to accompany us and be our tour guide must be acknowledged.

After dinner at 10.00pm, we did not feel like walking anymore. We took a MRT train from Orchard, interchanged at Dhoby Ghaut, to return to Harbour Front.

After we alighted at Harbour Front Station at about 11.00pm, again when I asked about the direction to walk back to our hotel, a few passers-by could not help at all. Finally I approached a Chinese security officer (introduced as Mr Lim) working in the nearby MRT station construction site. He was very kind to inform that he lived near Harbour Ville Hotel which is indeed little known to many Singaporeans. Although he was still on duty, he insisted to walk us back to the hotel as he was not busy then.

We chatted on the way and I was surprised to listen to him talked fairly critical of former PM Lee Kuan Yew about Chinese education policy and etc. I told him that back in the late 70’s, no Singaporean coursemates of mine would want to discuss about domestic politics with we Malaysians and I was amazed at the outspokenness of the present generation of Singaporeans. Time has really changed!

As we arrived at the hotel, I wanted to offer a few dollars to him so that he could take a bus ride back to his worksite instead of walking back alone. He refused and quickly walked away. My kids and I could only wave our hands at him to express our gratitude. What a nice and helpful Singaporean!

I did not feel the time taken for the walk as I was immersed in chatting throughout the journey, but Soh Ai complained that it actually took about half an hour. Again, we reached our room past midnight and our feet were really sore!

Day 3 (Sunday, Dec 21, 2008)

I woke up at around 9.30am in the morning, very late by my normal standard. It must be due to the exhausting walk the previous night.

After checking out of the hotel at 10.10am, we proceeded to the Singapore Science Centre at Jurong East where we had breakfast cum lunch at the MacDonald before visiting the centre. (Admission: S$12.80 for adults incl. IMAX movie package, S$ 6.00 otherwise.)

We also watched the 40 minute IMAX movie entitled “Wild Ocean” at the Omni-Theatre started at 2.00pm. This documentary film was about the epic underwater struggle for survival among the breaching whales, frenzied sharks, herding dolphins and diving gannets filmed off the Wild Coast of South Africa. The symphonic giant screen in this five-storey high dome-shaped theatre was a real eye-opener!

We left Singapore via the second link at Tuas at about 3.30pm. The out-going traffic was very smooth, but the in-coming traffic to Singapore at that time was bad with long queues in front of the Tuas Checkpoint on the Malaysian soil.

At about 6.00pm, we went to Melaka town for dinner in a Chinese food centre along the busy Jalan Merdeka, Bandar Hilir. After that, we stopped by Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall which was new to us (I found out later it was only opened 2 years ago and we had not been to Melaka for quite a while now) and unexpectedly watched a 1/2-hour entertaining stage performance of non-stop dances and Christmas-related songs by a group of glamorously costumed “Jimmy’s Dancers” at the atrium.

We left Melaka at about 9.30pm and reached home at about 11.00pm.

In conclusion, this Singapore trip was quite hectic but enjoyable on the whole. My total expense in Singapore was about S$ 1,800.00. The overall highway toll charges amounted to about RM 120.00.

For the record, the currency exchange rate was:
S$ 1 = RM 2.425 (27/11/2008)
S$ 1 = RM 2.40 (08/12/2008)
For credit card payment in Singapore:
S$ 1 = RM 2.547 (21/12/2008)