Linchakin: singapore

Life has been keeping me busy and I am grateful yet exhausted from it, to the point where I didn't realize that we are already in December. I was having my dinner, then looked at the phone's lock screen and it was December 1st 2017 I was like WTF I thought it was November 31st (when there isn't even any). I know right, I know.

Anyway for those who followed me on my social media channels, I hope you're aware that I just got back from Singapore. I had three days off on November so I didn't want to miss that chance to have some time for myself, hence the trip to the city of Merlion (booked the tickets literally two days before my departure date). My last encounter with Singapore was on October last year where I went for Halloween celebration with my friends at Universal Studio Singapore and it's honestly good to be back. After a year, it's still as good as I remember (well Singapore has always been great in everything) and as EXPENSIVE as I remember! I knew I kinda went on a shopping spree but I spent like $2500 in three days (didn't include the airfare and hotel) which I thought was kinda crazy, I mean the cafes there are so bloody expensive. I went to Central Perk for lunch, one meal and two drinks would cost me $70 and I spent almost $200 dining at Hai Di Lao. As this post is written and based on my personal opinion, Singapore is officially more expensive than Australia!

In this entry, I am going to share to you guys my brief experience going to the Gardens by The Bay Singapore to check out what they have in store for Christmas, three years ago I went here and the Christmas decoration was beautiful so I expected something to impress me this year, but before getting to that, let's give a moment for this beautiful Iced Cappuccino from one of my favorite coffee shops EVER which just recently opened in Singapore: OMOTESANDO KOFFEE! I went to the one in OUE DOWNTOWN and it's located on the 4th fl.

Iced Cappuccino - S$7

Smooth, creamy, just so freaking lovable!

The outlet in OUE has no seats so it's more like a grab and go thing, so right after purchasing my coffee, I booked an Uber and it was a short 5-minute drive to Gardens by The Bay! FYI I rode Uber the entire time in Singapore, I was just too lazy to get my fat ass to walk around even tho last week was just the perfect time and weather to be in Singapore, it was gloomy the whole time and would rain occassionally. I got a lot of questions about Uber in Singapore, I would say it's not crazy expensive comparing to the regular taxis, MRT and bus is of course the cheapest alternative but if you're lazy like me really just take the freaking Uber, not to mention sometimes you can get the fancy cars too!

There are two ticket stations there: one for the Gardens by The Bay entrance which located not too far from the drop off station and the other one specially for the domes which is located around the dome itself. The ticket costs S$28/person and this includes access to both Gardens by The Bay's Cloud Forest and Flower Dome, if you're planning to buy individual tickets to Cloud Forest or Flower Dome only then the ticket fare would be $16/person.

I really enjoy browsing back the photos and edited them, I hope you like the photos as much as I do *happy*

CLOUD FOREST

I arrived five minutes away from 4 PM where the next 'mist' action is scheduled! The Cloud Forest entrance is located on the lower ground where I purchased the ticket and boy as soon as I stepped myself inside the grand conservatory, the whole are was super chill (I heard they have some kind of chilled pipes in the ground slabs which would produce and distribute cool air) and the surrounding did make me feel like I was in a movie set, like this modern futuristic forest, especially the floating path and that ginormous 35-feet manmade mountain-fountain!

DO NOTE that mist show happens on these timings: 10 AM, 12 PM, 2 PM, 4 PM, 6 PM and 8 PM

The whole thing was such a treat to my senses (except for my palate): the cold, the sound, the feel! The manmade mountain that I referred earlier was actually this 6 stories tall building wrapped in plants where each floor has something different to offer whether from the view, the photo spot or individual deco! My suggestion is to browse the 6th floor first (Lost World) then make your way all the way down to the ground floor then exit. For posts like this, since it was more like me enjoying the view and everything, I might not have a lot of valuable information to share, but I have some photos that I captured from my visit and hopefully it's enough to make you hyped up, book your flights and go to Singapore soon for Christmas!

Quick tip: you can click on the photos and you can save the higher res pics! I NEVER trademarked my photos just because I think when people really want to freaking steal your photos they can, but one thing for sure they're not stealing my talent, and not to mention I'm glad that a lot of you love my wallpaper series on my Instagram Stories, the resolution of these photos should be enough for your phone's wallpaper.

Not much Christmas deco happened here in Cloud Forest, probably close to none, so if you're really here to check out the Christmas deco, then you should probably just skip this and go straight to the Flower Dome!

The Rafflesia Arnoldi flower (and the other plant details) are formed from lego!

Uber love how the mist adds in the mysterious touch to the whole venue!

FLOWER DOME

Gardens by The Bay's Cloud Forest and Flower Dome are currently the world's largest columnless greenhouses, with 3332 panels of 42 varying shapes, making it almost like a giant puzzle! Flower Dome is where you can go to enjoy the beautiful Christmas decoration in this cool-dry conservatory, expect to find beautiful Meditteranean and tropical plants here, and cherry on top they're mostly dressed in Christmas decoration at the moment! End of November-December is surely the right time to go and check out what Flower Dome has in store! Enough yakking just enjoy the pictures! You can stay as long as you want here and take as many pictures as you want, not sure when's the right timing to come but on the hour of my visit, the whole area was pretty packed (in contrary to the fact that there was no queue on the ticket station), the background of the photo taking is not that ultra glamorous hahaha!

First time seeing an actual black flower!

Christmas vibe!!!

My favorite shots from my visit, loving the Christmas lights bokeh lifting up the cozy Christmas mood!

English soldiers

Christmas decos everywhere!!!

So the final question: is Gardens by The Bay worth going? Depends on your interest, but while you're in Singapore it's cool to check them out! I mean for S$28 you can explore as long as you want, we spent around 2 hours in total exploring the whole area, but if you want my recommendation and ask me to choose one, that 'cool' factor wise I like Cloud Forest better, but since it's Christmas and if you want to have Christmas themes photos then go check out the Flower Dome!

Gardens by the Bay opens at 9 AM-9 PM daily, last ticket sale is at 8 PM! The nearest MRT station would be Bayfront (then exit B), but I rode an Uber here for comfort and ease. Special from 1 Dec 2017-1 Jan 2018, they extended the opening hours until 10 PM with last ticket sale at 9 PM!

Teaser for my upcoming blog post! Thank you for reading, and may this December brings you a lot of luck and luck!!!

Gardens by The Bay

18 Marina Gardens Dr.

Singapore 018953

+65 6420 6848

Opening hours: 9 AM-9 PM

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Map for Gardens by The Bay

So, while the hubby goes overseas to work for a month, my mother-in-law and I went on an impromptu trip to Penang and KL via train. :)

I booked almost all of our train journeys via KTM's website and also had loads of help from the very informative website Seat61.
See details of this trip here.

The only train journey for this trip which I didn't booked via the KTM website was the short 5mins journey from Singapore's Woodlands Checkpoint Railway station to JB Sentral station (costs SGD11 each).
This is because, if you book any rail journey that starts from Singapore on the website, the journey will be charged by SGD. Which is why I booked my journey to start off from JB Sentral station, because it will be charged in Ringgit.
Eg. SGD39 (Singapore to KL) vs RM39 (JB to KL)

Actually, our original plan was to take a regular bus across the causeway to go JB Sentral for shopping and dinner first, then board the train at JB Sentral. But then, we decided not to spend too much time loitering in JB while waiting for our late train, so we decided to just skip our shopping at JB and just board the train from Singapore instead.

Here are some tips for those planning to take these trains:

- The trains are EXTREMELY COLD (with the exception of the 1 particular train which we took from Butterworth to KL Sentral) especially the ones from KL Sentral to Butterworth as well as the one from KL Sentral to Singapore. Even though I was wearing a jacket, I was still feeling cold.

- Trains are not really that punctual. For example, my Singapore to KL journey arrived at KL Sentral about 1 and half hours later than scheduled, and my KL to Singapore journey arrived at Singapore 4hrs later than scheduled.

- Bring a packet of wet wipes with you. There were times when the water from the tap in the train's toilets were kinda cloudy...so I had to use wet wipes to wipe my hands after using the toilet since I didn't exactly trust the water from the toilet's sink.

Here is a brief itinerary for the trip:

24/9
2330-0650 Singapore to KL Sentral via Overnight train

25/9
0820 Arrival at KL Sentral station (train was late by about 90mins).
Visited KL (Petaling St, Central Market, NU Sentral shopping mall)
1550-2220 KL Sentral to Butterworth via train.
2240-2300 Took ferry from Butterworth to Penang
2330 Arrival at Hotel at Georgetown, Penang.

26/9
Explored Penang.

27/9
Explored Penang in the day
2040-2100 Took ferry from Penang to Butterworth.
2150-0540 Butterworth to KL Sentral via Overnight train.

28/9
0540 Arrival at KL Sentral station.
Relaxed at Hotel room most of the day, while shopped at Midvalley Megamall in the afternoon.

29/9
1420-0115 KL Sentral to Singapore via train.

30/9
0115 Train finally arrived at Singapore after a 4hrs delay.

Day 1 (24/9/2014): Singapore to KL

(Itinerary for this day)

2200: Arrived at Woodland's Railway station to purchase train ticket (SGD11 each) for just Woodlands to JB Sentral (this way, we board the train at Woodlands instead of from JB Sentral, they usually don't sell this short portion of the journey online)

2330 Boarded train at Woodlands Railway station

Since we still had to purchase our tickets for the short Singapore to JB portion of the train journey from the Woodlands Checkpoint Railway station, so we arrived pretty early at around 2200hr.

There wasn't anything much at the Woodlands Checkpoint Railway station, other than 2 vending machine (shown in 1 of the pics below) so if you need snacks for your train ride, you should probably bring it with you. When we asked for directions to the toilet, I was told that the nearest one which we could use was about a few minutes walk away near the supermarket, and not at the train station itself.

At the Woodlands railway station.

Only saw these 2 vending machines at the railway station, and apparently 1 of these 2 is out-of-order.

Woodlands Checkpoint railway station's main entrance.

Finally boarding the train.

If you could, try not to reserve a bunk that's near the doors, because it might get noisy with people opening and closing the doors.

My bunk.

People who are tall, try to avoid taking the upper bunks, or else you would not be able to sit up on your bed. I'm about 1.55m tall and the height was just nice for me to sit up. I guess people who are 1.6m and above would have problems sitting up on the upper berth.

Older folks might also have problems accessing the upper berths because of the awkward positioning of the ladders. Try to get them lower berths if you can.

There are 2 types of toilets onboard this train, the sitting type and the squatting type.

The water from the sink was a tad cloudy when I used it to wash my hands, so luckily I brought along wet wipes for me to wipe my hands after using the toilet.

There is a push-cart selling food, drinks and snacks onboard the train (they do not have a canteen car for this particular train though) and I bought myself a pack of mee goreng (fried noodles) for RM5.50.

Mee Goreng (RM 5.50)

After my supper and reading my e-book for awhile, I finally dozed off around 3am.

Day 2 (25/9/2014): KL to Penang

(Itinerary for this day)
0820 Arrival at KL Sentral station (train was late in arriving KL Sentral, was supposed to arrive at 0650am)
0900-1000 Breakfast at a coffeeshop (opposite YMCA) somewhat near NU Sentral shopping mall.
1000-1005 Took a taxi to Chinatown (Petaling St)
1010-1245 Walk through Petaling street and Central Market
1245-1250 Took taxi back to Nu Sentral shopping mall (next to KL Sentral station).
1300-1500 Had coffee, shopped, and bought some food from NU Sentral shopping mall.
1500-1550 Waited for boarding at KL Sentral station
1550-2220 KL Sentral station to Butterworth station by train.
2240-2300 Took ferry from Butterworth to Penang Georgetown.
2315-2320 Took a cab from ferry terminal to our hotel (Ren I Tang).

Although our train was supposed to arrive at KL Sentral at 0650am, but it was about 90mins late so it was about 0820am when we finally arrived at KL Sentral.

We deposited our luggage at a luggage storage counter at KL Sentral station and then we headed out to look for some breakfast.

Stored our luggage at this counter at KL Sentral station.

After walking through the new NU Sentral shopping mall opposite KL Sentral station, we finally came upon a coffeeshop (near YMCA Building) and decided to get our breakfast here.

What my mother-in-law had

What I had. Fried Kway Teow. It was pretty nice.

After breakfast, we took a short 5mins taxi ride to Petaling Street (Chinatown), but since it was still pretty early, so most of the stalls are still not opened yet. Therefore we didn't really spent much time here.

Stalls still closed.

After a quick stroll through Petaling Street, we headed for nearby Central Market (about 5-10mins walk) where we spent most of our morning shopping in the air-conditioned building.

Both of us actually kinda enjoyed our leisurely stroll at Central Market, where my mother-in-law also bought a skirt for my sis-in-law. There are many handicraft stalls here too.

After Central market, we took a 5mins taxi ride back to NU Sentral to spend the next 2 hours before we had to catch our next train to Butterworth.

Short break at Coffee Bean outlet at NU Sentral

There is a small supermarket at the basement of NU Sentral where I bought some food and snacks.

1550hr, time to board our train at KL Sentral. Since this is a day train, so there are no sleeping berths. Our seats are in the Premier section, but the seatings seems to be pretty old though. We get a free bottle of water and a snack (donut) for this journey for Premier tickets holders.

There is a canteen carriage on this train where you can purchase drinks and food.

This train was EXTREMELY COLD.