Today it was early rise and shine time once again, only this time I was doing the border crossing from Malaysia to Singapore via Woodlands.
For those unaccustomed to border crossings from Malaysia to Singapore by bus, it's a bit of a non-event. I boarded my shuttle at Tune Hotel Danga Bay in Johor Bahru. We were taken to the CIQ (Malaysian checkpoint) where we all got off the bus, went through immigration and customs, had our passports stamped to say we'd left Malaysia and got back on the bus.
We drove over the bridge to Singapore Woodlands Checkpoint, where we got off the bus with our luggage (well, okay, I got off the bus with my luggage), went through Singapore immigration and customs, had my luggage scanned, my passport and entry/exit card stamped and then got back on the bus. In true Singaporean style, the border crossing was quick and efficient.
Some 30 minutes later we arrived at Resorts World Sentosa. I looked around for a locker but even the ones that were SGD $30 per day were too small for my suitcase, so I had some breakfast and got a SGD $10.80 taxi to Backpackers Inn Chinatown (a hostel and guest house set up in an old Chinese shop house in the heart of Chinatown). Custom here says that the taller the shop house, the more money the original owner had. This is three stories high so I'm guessing the dude was loaded back in the day.
I dumped my suitcase with the boys at the hostel and set off for Chinatown MRT station. I bought an ez-link card for SGD $12 and whacked another $10 on it, figuring that would get me around as needed for the next few days. I then caught the MRT to Harbour Front station at Vivo City Mall, and used my ezlink card to pay for my SGD $4 monorail and island admission back to Sentosa.
First stop on Sentosa was Universal Studios not long after opening time at 10:15am. I hadn't yet bought the express pass as it's SGD $50 and I figured I'd see how I went. After learning wait times were up to 75 mins on some rides I thought "stuff it, I want a good time not a long time" so I coughed up the SGD $50 for the one-ride-only version and stashed my stuff in a very expensive locker (SGD $4 per hour).
Be careful, the lockers don't give you change and will often eat your money!
Second stop was the Jurassic Park ride. This was after the first stop involving a quick bash through the boring and clearly aimed at kids Madagascar Crate Ride. The Jurassic Park rapids ride was actually pretty fun and yes, you get drenched. I then hit the roller coasters - Revenge of the Mummy (most of it is in the dark and it was pretty good), the Canopy Flyer (wicked) and Transformers 3D (aweome). Sadly the others were broken and closed for the day so no going upside down 5x for me!
After a quick walk through New York and Hollywood, I hit the Enchanted Airways baby roller coaster and then it was off for photos with Optimus Prime, Beeteljuice, Sesame Street characters and Kung Fu Panda. I took a few photos of the walk of fame stars and that was that. All done.
In summary, Universal Studios Singapore is a boring as bat poo park with very few rides and it's really expensive. Save your $74-$79 and don't bother - it worked out at about $12 per ride, so not worth it. Go to Legoland or Adventure Cove Water Park instead.
I then had lunch at Ruyi. I was enjoying my rice and pork when some dude and his wife decided to stand right in front of my table and stare at me while I was eating. They clearly wanted my table but had no manners and didn't feel like asking how long I'd be. So, I started eating my lunch at a rate of about six grains of rice at a time and started right back at him. After about 20 forkfulls Mr Eye Problem got the hint and turned around. I kept eating slower than a wet week because quite frankly, he was being a twit. Eventually another table freed up and he moved on. As soon as they sat down, I wolfed the rest of my lunch and bolted. Idiot awaiting table pounce like cat so I slow down lah. Annaliese 1, rude couple 0.
Adventure Cove Water Park is awesome. My tip is to get here early if you're going to go, so that you're not taken out by feral children and feral German tourists on the water slides and the Adventure River. A good way to just cruise along in a tube and wait for your lunch to go down is on Adventure River. It's a long, long river that you can just float along and enjoy the sights. At one point you go through a tunnel with fish overhead, it's pretty cool. The Bluwater Bay wave pool is pretty awesome too but be warned, you may get sucked into the deep end corner and it gets a little frisky over there. I had a chill out at the lookout area where there are giant bean bags you can relax on.
After an ice cream, it was into the long, long monorail (Sentosa Express) queue for a ride to Palawan Beach. Things have changed immeasurably on Sentosa and Palawan is not the same. All the food court is closed for redevelopment and you can't get a patch of sand at Palawan beach now to save yourself.
Next stop was Go Green Segway Adventures, where I had two Segway Fun rides. Believe me, they were fun! I had to safety up with elbow and knee pads plus a helmet, then graduate from a short training session before I was let loose on the fun ride course. There was a girl in front of me who clearly didn't pay any attention and twice drove her Segway into the bushes. There's always one! After my rides I spied a cute little black and white kitten who gave me cuddles then fell asleep in my arms. I miss the cat now. Darn it.
I walked over to Tanjong beach, which is now a total joke. The Tanjong Beach Club has been built and taken over that beach too. Six years ago, I was the only one swimming there. Now, I was the only one not drunk or playing beach volleyball. I guess you really can't stop progress. I sat there dumbfounded, disappointed and a bit depressed.
After the shock of Tanjong, I rode the beach tram back to Beach Station and caught the free shuttle bus which runs from 6-9pm from Friday to Sunday, the the lobby of Vivo City Mall. I caught the MRT back to Chinatown and found a great little hawker food centre called Thousand Taste where they do a mean roasted pork noodles for SGD $3 with soup. Sitting down at the table, I was soon joined by a couple from Chelsea (Melbourne). Small world!
After dinner I headed back to the hostel where for the first time in ten days I didn't have to do my laundry in the bathroom sink. There's a pretty good and fairly quick washing machine here, so I updated the blog, finished a movie, hung up the laundry and now, having seen geckos in the bathroom, I will be going to sleep with the sheet up to my neck.
I've had no mobile internet all day, so it is nice to be back online with free unlimited WiFi.
More tomorrow - the plan was to do the duck tour and the hop on, hop off buses - so we'll see.
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