Together with my mother and my sister who finally graduated after 3 years of struggle in a dead town located in a really secluded area, we went to Singapore for a last holiday before I'm completely surrounded by books and will circumnavigate around them and only them for the next one and a half year, and before my sister is completely bound to a job she could no longer taste the sweetness of freedom and the merriment of laziness.
Since Singapore is not completely an alien country - I had been there before, the culture there is more or less the same, and the language there is English, a language I'm partly proficient at, and what makes it more enlightening is that the accent is almost the same as Malaysian accent, making it hard for anybody there to be able to distinguish me from the Singaporeans if I can speak fluently (if you stammer, people will realise something is amiss) - so we weren't exactly very excited. We only wanted to visit two places - the Zoo and the Science Centre. Others aren't listed but not exactly ruled out. The priority needs to be done first.
We went down by a night bus. The driver was a Malay young guy. He was very, very young, perhaps pushing 30. He smoked, and was surprisingly garrulous. On the way down he kept mentioning "mengantuk" (sleepy), which was understandable. Who isn't tired and feeling sleepy at night? He drove very fast for a bus - about 110 km/h - and I literally fear for my life. But thank God he was a professional driver - another surprising thing for his age.
He drove us from BM to Seremban, then from Seremban a different driver drove us to Larkin, where we changed a bus and went down to Singapore.
Without EZ link card, travelling in Singapore was quite a hassle. You need to pay slightly more for MRT and bus, and you need coins. We bought 3 EZ link card and travelled from Marsiling MRT station to Yew Tee and walked our way to my uncle's abode. He was working and so was his wife. Only my aunty's sprightly parents and my cousin were at home. Without wasting more time, we went to Singapore Zoo.
The entrance fees was exorbitant - $20 per person. $20 x 3 = $60, and after conversion it is around RM150. That's the bugbear about travelling to a country where the currency is bigger than your's. You simply need to spend more, unless the cost of living in your country is much more higher than the country you visit, than that would be a huge relief and you can fork out your money as much as you like.
Singapore Zoo was simply impressive. The area was big. The scenery was simply memorising. Greenery completely encompassed the entire Zoo, and completely grew in the inner section of the Zoo. All animals were given a wide space to roam around or rest, and their home there were authentically natural, exceedingly green and comfortable, and they were given first class treatments and foods that not even humans could enjoy. The animals there were all healthy looking. They were strong, fit and active. Unlike the animals in Taiping Zoo where all animals were on the brink of death or suffering from terminal illness because their home is so dilapidated or dirty that even visitors sympathised them for the poor quality treatment they received.
We had our lunch in a MRT station - and it sucked. Foods in Singapore isn't as great as Penang food. Sorry Singaporeans, I cannot tell lies. The food in Singapore are good, but not as good as Penang food. Economy rice there are sold in a different fashion. Here, in Penang, you'll be given a plate of rice, and you scoop whatever dishes you want yourself. Therefore, you could take up to 5 persons shares of vegetables and meats - if you could finish them. In Singapore, you're barred by a glass. They take the plate, you tell them what you want, and they take for you. No freedom in choosing food.We came along my cousin's house at night, after we finished our dinner. But because we were so tired, we couldn't wait for our cousin's to return home and went to bed instead. That day marked the day we slept the earliest - 9.20pm.
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