Rajen was already in Singapore and I had to take the train into Singapore. It was a 10-hour journey and Rajen got me a sleeping berth so that the arduous journey wouldn't be too hard on me. He wanted to get me a 1st class sleeping berth but it was all sold out. :(
I've taken both the economy and the 1st class berth previously and yes, it makes a world of difference. If I am not mistaken, the 1st class berth cost RM198 one way while the economy one cost RM38. What's the difference? In the former, you get to sleep in a "room" for 2, have your own toilet, plenty of space for your luggage, sandwich or some snack with a drink, wider berth. The latter? Just look at the picture above. It's so cramped. For once, I thanked God that I am not tall and neither am I too big a size. The entire berth is 2' X 6'.
I brought 2 books to read incase I got bored - Mercy by Jodi Picoult and The Shack by William Young. I finished one book (Mercy) on the train and could've finished the other but I had motion sickness and had to resort to reading only when the train stopped at the different stations.
I managed to sleep for the whole of 3 hours (midnight to 3am).
At 4.40am, we arrived at the JB train station and the immigration officers came on board to check our passports. I think the whole ordeal took about 45 minutes. And we were off again.
We arrived at the Singapore Immigration at about 5.30am and we had to disembark to get our passports stamped. There was a long queue but I was in no hurry. Even after I was done with the Immigration, the doors of the building were locked until 7.30am. Sigh! What a waste of time.
The train pulled into the Tanjung Pagar Station at 8.42am. Well, there you have it! The 10-hour journey into Singapore which began at 10.38pm.
It was a long time since I last took a train into Singapore (well, only 3 years ago!) and I kinda lost my bearings and had to ask around as to where the nearest MRT Station was.
By then, I was a little hungry and wanted to eat at McDonalds. It's a must for me to eat a McDonalds breakfast everytime I come into Singapore. I think it was the hash browns (at that time, the McDonalds in Malaysia didn't serve hash browns) that got me into making this a tradition.
I walked into a 7-eleven and asked 3 questions:-
Q- Where is the nearest McDonalds?
A- No McDonalds here. Must go to Chinatown
Q- Where is the nearest Post Office?
A- Just around the corner
Q- Where is the nearest MRT Station?
A- Just cross the road and further down on your right is the MRT Station
I went to the Post Office to post some letters and then walked to Burger King for my breakfast. The Shack proved to be interesing and I read about 100 pages of it before realising that time was slipping away.
Reluctantly, I took the MRT to Clark Quay and from there, asked directions to the Grand Corpthrone Waterfront Hotel. I made a lot of wrong turnings because some people gave me wrong directions (Grrr!)
It was a good thing I knew how the hotel looked like (pic 1).
I headed towards the direction of the hotel (pic 2) but after a while, the road curved and what I thought was the hotel (because of the curved structures) was actually another hotel (pic 3). Grr...
It took me 45 minutes in total to walk from the MRT Station to the right hotel and I arrived there hot and sweaty. Yuck!
I took a long bath and headed out again.
Once again, I decided to walk to the MRT Station. I still had no clue as to where it was because I went round in circles earlier. I stopped at a shop nearby and asked where the nearest MRT Station is. The man answered, "There's no MRT Station here"
Hello!!! Didn't I just asked where is the NEAREST MRT station?
I decided to be more specific. "May I know where the Clark Quay MRT Station is?"
"It's a 15 minute walk", he replied.
Phooey! 15 minutes is nothing to me!
The weather was great ... until I saw that the bright blue skies had turned into a glowering shade of grey. I told myself that all I needed was 15 minutes of no rain.
It wasn't a 15 minute walk and I walked in the rain for all of 3 seconds. :) And yes, I got seriously wet.
I took the MRT to Orchard Station, thinking of going to the Popular Bookshop which is right above the station but to my surprise, the way up was blocked off. Worse still, Popular was no where in sight. :(
I tried to use the underground way to Takashimaya but that too, was blocked off. I had no choice but to use the escalator up to Orchard Road. They really did a great facelift (pic above) of the station.
I went to the Borders bookshop nearby, browsing to see if there were any books (with huge discounts) that interest me. None!
Just above the bookshop was this place - Memories. I spent at least 2 hours here. (!!!) Needless to say, I spent lots of $$ here too. :( Most of what I bought were papers.
Now, you might wonder ... paper do not cost much but get this ... even at a 50% discount, the cheapest piece of 12"x12" paper cost me 55 Singapore cents... which converts to RM1.30 per sheet. Most of the plain papers cost between S$0.55 to S$1 each and patterened papers cost between S$1 - S$3.50 each. I bought a lot of every type. So go do the math.
I wanted to go to Burger King for lunch. I had in mind the Mushroom Swiss with chicken burger but for once, they said that they couldn't change it from beef to chicken. There was nothing else that I liked, so I went to Takashimaya to look for food. By then I was kinda tired and wanted to sit for a while. I saw MacDonalds and had a Spicy chicken Burger (yummy). By then, it was about 4pm and I was super famished. I didn't even bother with the many looks the people were shooting me at the way I gulp down the burger.
After lunch, I went to Kinokuniya (again to see if there were any discounts on the books I am interested in), and then to "Creative Hands", which is just one floor above. Once again, I spent some $$ there.... sigh!
Spotlight was my next destination and if you know the layout of the shopping malls, you will know that it is two stations from the Orchard MRT Station. And yes, I walked there. I think it took me 30-40 minutes to get there.
I met Frances for dinner and we went to MacDonalds. I didn't eat much because I was still feeling stuffed from my late lunch.
When we went back to the hotel, I finished reading "The Shack" before going to bed. Sleep came very quickly as I was exhausted by my day's shopping.
Looking out of my hotel room window was this awesome view.
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