We are living in southern Malaysia. Rebekah, Jordyn, and I decided to visit Singapore for an adventure day. We would get to border hop, see some great places, eat great food, and have a relaxing day in an English-speaking country.
This is how the day went.
9:30 am – took an Uber from the hostel
Once we were in the car we discovered Uber can’t cross international borders. That makes sense. The Uber driver took us to the bus station to catch a cab that can cross borders.
10:15 am – arrive at the bus station
We debate the price. When we decide on the price we realize the driver wants Singapore dollars which we don’t have. Oh joy. He decides to take us anyway and proceeds to drive like my grandmother who somehow rode both the gas and brake.
11:30 am – arrive in Singapore
Pay the taxi by credit card. The doors wouldn’t unlock until the payment processed. That wasn’t weird at all. Wander about some to find the ticket counter for the S.E.A. Aquarium.
12:00 noon – begin touring the aquarium
It was awesome! I’ve included some pictures and a video to give you a glimpse inside.
2:30 pm – leave the aquarium looking for lunch
We ate at Chili’s. It was delicious and expensive. We walked through Candylicious candy store both before and after lunch.
3:30 pm – taxi to botanic gardens
4:00 pm – Singapore Botanic Gardens
We went for the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden & the Healing Garden. The children’s garden looked great online: lots of interactive stations and fun learning experiences. No adults without children are allowed inside the children’s garden without setting up a special viewing. What?! That wasn’t online. So we went to the healing garden, mostly to look at all the toxic plants. The toxic plants are locked behind a gate unless there is a tour. Argh! We walked around a little bit and decided we were tired.
5:00 pm – Uber home
This driver was very adamant that he couldn’t cross the border because he didn’t have a passport. So we asked him to take us to the customs checkpoint.
5:30 pm – crossing the border
We asked the taxis to take us across. None of them would. One finally explained to go through customs, get on a bus, go through customs, get on a bus. OK? We followed the signs through customs. Following signs stopped being as effective after that. We followed the sign that said To Johor; that’s where we wanted to go.
As we walked under the last such sign a security officer stopped us. She asked, “Walking?” We smiled, confused. She said, “All the way down.” We looked at each other and just kept walking. And walking. And walking. We walked across the Singapore-Malaysia border.
We walked at 6 pm, on a highway without a sidewalk, after walking miles earlier in the day, with only a liter of water each all day, crossing lanes of traffic, for about 2 miles. We finally got into the Malaysian checkpoint, went through customs, and found a 7-Eleven to grab a Gatorade.
8:00 pm – Uber to the hostel
It was definitely an adventure day!
Now for the pictures and video!
Outside the entrance was an art display of felted sea creatures. They had names representing different regions who have great sea creatures.
This is Papa. He is a hammerhead shark. Papa in Swahili means shark.
This is Kiranam. He is a manta ray. His name is Malaysian for ray.
Selfie with the fresh water fish.
I “climbed” a tree at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Monitor lizards roam free all around the gardens.
We made sure to visit the Foliage Garden since foliage is apparently one of my most popular words.
The sun beginning to set over the Malaysian skyline as we crossed the border.
It was a long and great day. If you haven’t had an adventure in a while, go find something fun/relaxing/interesting to do soon. It’s good for the soul.
Here’s a video with more moments from the aquarium.
