Galen & Rebecca Kennel’s Weblog

We get up early and slip out of the quiet guesthouse to get some breakfast before we leave to catch the bus to Singapore. When we return, we find that the wooden, double doors have slipped shut and locked and the only way to get back in is to buzz the doorbell. After buzzing several times and waiting what seems like forever, Galen decides to push on the doors open – he manages to do it without damaging the doors. Once inside the front porch, we can use the keypad code to open the inside door.

After collecting our bags, we go down to the bus stop a block away and wait for the #17 bus to the bus station. It takes the bus a half hour to meander through town and find its way to the station. We are looking to catch the Melaka 707 Express to Singapore which delivers one to the Queen St. Station downtown, rather than the Lavender St. Terminal a little farther out.

We arrive at the station just in time to buy tickets (RM 17 each – about $6.00) for the 9:00 bus. Most of the trip is on the Malaysian #1 freeway through rolling hills of oil palm. We reach the border crossing about noon – where we get off the bus (after making a mental note of the license plate number and the name of the bus so that we could actually find our way back onto it) to go through the Malaysian passport control. Then it is back on the bus and on to the Singapore customs where you take your bags, go through a security scan and then the passport people. It took us a while to get through as we somehow picked the slow line. We were the last ones getting back to the bus which had moved across the border to the Singapore side.

Singapore is actually an island – actually many islands, some of which have been joined with the main island through land reclamation. It covers about 272 sq. miles and is one of only three city states in the world. Our bus crosses the bridge linking Singapore to Malaysia.

It is hard to tell when we are actually in downtown Singapore – the streets and boulevards are lined with enormous trees – the whole city has the feeling of being in a park.

Once our bus delivers us to the Queens Street station, we are eager to find the toilets as we have been travelling for over 4 hours without a chance to relieve ourselves. As in most of Asia, a person is sitting at a little table in front of the toilets collecting money. Unfortunately, he won’t take Malaysian Ringgits and we don’t have any Singapore dollars. I leave Galen with the luggage by the toilets and go looking for an ATM. Surely there must be an ATM near to the bus station.

I end up walking about 3 blocks – I don’t find an ATM, but I find a money changer. I hand over my remaining Ringgits and he gives me a terrible exchange rate. I complain about the rate, but he claims that is the going rate. At this point, I don’t feel like arguing.

Back at the bus station, Galen has managed to sneak into the toilets while the man wasn’t watching. Where there is a will, there is a way.

We had made an internet reservation at the Inn Crowd, as everyone we talked to said it was difficult to find lodging in Singapore. I had requested a double room, but none was available so we ended up with a dorm room. This should be interesting.

The Inn Crowd is located in Little India less than a km from the station. It is an easy walk, as the sidewalks are wide and clear of obstacles. People actually walk in Singapore, I guess because cars are restricted within many parts of the city and public transport is convenient.

The hostel is a beautifully restored shophouse. Inside young people are lounging around, reading, chatting, and checking email. What are we doing here? Suddenly we feel quite old.

We check in and take our bags up to the second floor where we find the room we will be sharing with up to 12 other people. Shoes are left at the bottom of the stairs – there are no shoes allowed within the hostel. The room has 6 bunkbeds and a veranda where the luggage is to be stored. I lock my laptop to the bed frame and we go out in search of another hotel. Surely we can find something better than this. It’s a great place if you’re 23, but it doesn’t quite feel right for us!!

There are a few hotels around the area – they’re all full. We check our guidebook again and decide to look at the Bugis Backpackers Hostel. The hostel is on the upper floor of the Bugis Shopping complex – a mix of shopping stalls and shops. The sidewalk is full of tables and stands of bangles, sunglasses, flipflops.

At the top of three flights of stairs we are met by a locked door and a sign to buzz the buzzer for entry. Once through the door we are faced with the “queen” of the guesthouse – an older woman (probably about our age) who makes sure that everything runs according to the rules in the book. They don’t have any rooms available right now, but we can book into a double room for tomorrow and the next day. No, we can’t see the rooms. And she wants the full cash payment in advance.

She asks where we are staying now and once she finds out that we are staying in a dorm room, she lightens up and jokes about people our age staying in a dorm room while she bustles about preparing the paperwork for our booking. 76 Singapore dollars per night for a bedroom with no windows and a shared bath, no internet service and no kitchen facilities. That’s about $50. Welcome to affluent Singapore.