Changi Airport, The Best Airport in the World

Finally, my last post for our Singapore and Melaka trip! I am in a hurry to finish this series because I have some more current things to write about and I felt like I was already losing my momentum. So, anyway, our last day in Singapore was Monday, the eighth day. Our flight with SilkAir is at 1PM, so we had to be at the airport by 10AM. We left our cousin's apartment at 9AM and rode Uber to the airport. We loved the Uber car we rode because it fitted all our luggage (about 12, excluding our hand carry). We arrived at the Terminal 2 of the airport in a breeze (about 20 minutes) and checked in in about 10 minutes, and passed through immigration in seconds. Silkair and Singapore. I will save up money just to be able to fly with Silkair all the time. Very efficient!

One Sunday Guide to Singapore from Changi to Orchard

Day 7 was technically our last day in Singapore. Our only main thing to do on that day, which was a Sunday, was meet with our Inday Ellen, who worked with us when we were still in college, and is now working for a Singaporean family. We have agreed with Inday Ellen that we would meet at Orchard Road so our first destination was Orchard Road.

Random Bus Rides and Home-cooked Meals in SingaporeHo

On our sixth day in the city-state of Singapore, we finally took the time to relax, chill, and feel Singapore outside of its touristy places. We slept late, bought food from the market, cooked at my cousin's apartment, sat with locals at a bus station we don't know where, and rode (and ran after) random buses.

One Day Guide to Singapore Chinatown, Merlion Park, Makansutra, Clark Quay

Despite the fact that we arrived at our cousin's apartment at 11PM, exactly 12 hours after we rode the bus from Melaka, we were energized to tour downtown Singapore on Friday. We also had to get up and get moving because we were meeting friends and family that evening. Our cousin had work so we explored the city state on our own. We started our tour with breakfast at McDonald's at the White Sands mall at the Pasir Ris train station.

DIY Walking Tour Around Melaka UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

On our second day in Melaka, we decided to make use of our remaining time before our taxi picks us up at 10:30 in the morning in the hostel. We had breakfast at the Ola Lavanderia Cafe. We decided to have big breakfast because we knew we would not be eating inside the bus during the 4-hour trip. It was also a good thing that we ate a lot because we did not expect to get stranded at the Tuas Immigration for a good four hours.

Shopping, Eats, and Night Life in Modern Melaka

I only know of Melaka (or Malacca) in my history classes as one of the most important straits for commerce. Melaka is an ancient city and my reason for visiting is it because it has been named one of UNESCO's World Heritage sites. Before stepping foot into Melaka, I envisioned old buildings, Chinese-style shophouses, and wooden houses. What I didn't realize, but later learned after an hour of reading a book on the city in the guest house where we stayed, was that Melaka is one of the states of Malaysia, and its capital city is Melaka City. So, I was quite surprised to find shopping malls selling international brands. Despite the many books, websites and blogs we can access these days, nothing can really replace real-life experience of traveling. We learn a lot.

DIY Walking Tour of Melaka's Dutch Square

Photo by Joel Lopez.

The historical portion of Melaka lies in parallel with its river. It is a small portion of Melaka City, and an even smaller portion of Melaka, the state. Melaka, according to Malaysia's tourism website, is the heart of the nation. We were in Melaka for its heritage and culture, and taking a DIY walking tour was an easy feat as it is very doable. When we arrived at Layang-Layang Hostel, the attendant gave us a "welcome kit." The welcome kit was a printed map of all the places to eat in Melaka, keys to the hostel, instructions on how to rent their bikes, and tidbit that there is a free walking tour in the city every Thursdays every Thursday at 9AM and 1PM, which will run for at least 3 hours each tour. All you need to do is show up at the tourism office, at the Red Square, before the designated time and sign up for the tour. If you can't avail of the tour, a DIY tour is easy to achieve because the historical portion of the city is not that big but I think a more knowledgeable tour guide would have made our tour fun, interesting, and insightful.

Where to Stay in Melaka: Layang-Layang Guesthouse

Layang-layang Guesthouse was one of the many gems I found in Melaka. This was my first time to book with AirBnB, and my first time was great! The search in AirBnB started when I could not find a good hotel in the city that was within our budget, which was P500 to P600 per night per person. I settled with Layang-layang among the numerous options because I liked their photographs in the AirBnB web site.

How to Get There: Bus Ride to Melaka

Our side-trip to Melaka started early on our third day. We left Pasir Ris at 6AM, which in Singapore time, is still dark, and arrived at the Golden Mile Tower at about 6:30AM. There are two buildings there. The more popular one is the Golden Mile Complex, which was where our taxi driver brought us. The Golden Mile Tower is just next to the complex. When we arrived, there were a few people waiting for buses. I thought Golden Mile Tower was a bus station. It isn't. It's just a building and passengers just wait outside for their buses. There are no seats. When we arrived, I went inside to the Starmart Express office to have our tickets validated. It is easy to spot your bus because there is a name + number. While waiting for our bus, we decided to buy breakfast at Coco Eatery, which was the only stall opened that time.

Mt. Faber, Henderson Waves and Pasir Ris Community Center

 From Sentosa, we rode the cable car to Mt. Faber. I was adamant in going there because I learned there is another merlion there. I was hoping to see all the seven official merlions of the city-state during the visit but I was only able to see four. We got lost for a while after getting off the cable car. Turned out, we have to enter the souvenir shop. This led us to the restaurant, then to the bell of happiness, and the road to Mt. Faber. Mt. Faber is really just a hill because it was not very steep (at least in comparison to our mountains here). We found the spot almost deserted and the trees gave us a much needed respite from the heat of the sun.

Mt. Faber Cable Car + Sentosa Island

On our second day, we woke up excited to explore the city state of Singapore. Our cousin's apartment is in Pasir Ris, the town next to the Changi Airport, but is several towns away from the city center. In fact, it takes us one hour to get to the city center either by bus or train. While commuting may take long, I did not find it too much of a hassle mostly because the transportation system is efficient. The sound of the school bell and children buzzing woke me up. Turned out, my cousin's neighbor building is a community school. I instantly loved the place because it reminded me of my grandma's house, which is located across our town's elementary school

8 Days in Singapore + Melaka for P34,000

2016 was a good year for me. It was the year my husband and I went on our first international flight and the first time my siblings, my husband and I went on a trip together. How did it go? It was fun with a lot of walks. I joked that the Singapore trip will cripple me. Hahaha. Our trip was not budget travelling nor was it a luxury trip. It was what I call an affordable trip. So, I’m going to share our expenses, planning, and itinerary, some tips and tricks we did to save few pesos (and SG dollars and ringgits), and a few lessons learned from the trip.