A Report of LIA Candi Outing to Singapore

Going to Singapore does not seem special for other people who have been abroad many times. But for many of us, the participants, this long waiting outing is really something we’ve been expecting. Just try to imagine, we had a kind of installment for this. We were quite lucky to get a tour travel that permitted us to install 4 times for this outing. Therefore, some students were attracted to join. Well, this is the report from the writer’s experience. Here we go.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Friday morning, some butterflies flew here and there in my stomach, waiting for some late participants. The flight was at 12.40. I looked at my watch, it was about 12.00, but there were two students who said earlier they were on their way. I got on my nerve waiting for them. When they finally showed up, I was about to blow up at them, but her father apologized. Pheeww… Has he been on a flight that requires all passengers to come at least one hour earlier? I just wonder. The tour leader guided us to go to the gate to do a kind of screening for our baggage. Some bottles with mineral water, perfume, etc. were rejected to go through. Fine. As long as the airline takes the responsibility if there’s someone who got thirsty. Lol.

The flight was great. It was a fine day with great weather and a great experience we were going to have. We got there at around 3.00 o’clock in the afternoon. The time is one hour earlier in Singapore. At glance, all participants were amazed with what they saw. Some of them even took some pictures in every side of the airport. The board of announcement, the lobby, the public telephone, etc. at that time, we just dreamed that our local airport would be just the same as Changi airport. As soon as we got out of the airport, the bus was waiting to take us to the hotel.

The hotel was quite luxurious for the outing that originally had backpacker concept. But then, we just felt grateful to get such complete facilities that it would make us comfortable during the vacation. By the way, the hotel’s name is Parc Sovereign hotel. It is located on Albert street. It was quite close to Bugis street, a shopping center. The buildings around the hotel are great to take pictures. No wonder that some participants were eager to pose in front of those buildings.

After having a rest for some time, we were ready to start exploring the nearest shopping center, Bugis. Many kinds of souvenirs are there to offer to tourists. The price is almost similar to one store to another. Take an example, you can get 3 or 4 T-shirts for 10 dollars, 18 to 20 key holders for 10 dollars, 3 or 4 watches for 10 dollars, etc. I am not really sure whether we could bargain here since the price tag is always on top of the things.

Shopping is not really our main goal for going to Singapore. Experiencing new things is a great excuse for us who have small budget. Hahaha. We browsed for dinner after shopping. As Moslems, we had to be careful in deciding the place and the menu to choose.  I was lucky to get a place which sells rice and roasted chicken. Don’t ask me whether it is tasty or not since it’s the only menu we could choose. Feeling full, we were to continue our exploration to Little Buddha, or Mustafa. In this place, we can find a lot of souvenirs with Indian people as the sellers. We felt like watching Bollywood movies here since they speak Hindi to one another. The souvenirs sold here are not far different from the ones in Bugis street.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Early in the morning, we were told to gather at 8 o’clock to have breakfast. Some still had jetlag with the different time. That’s why they were late to show up. We got noodles, toast (if you are willing to toast the bread by yourself), ham, and juice. It’s not bad to start the day. We realized that we would have a long and might be tiring day during the day. City tour by bus was the first itinerary. We enjoyed the modern and artistic buildings around the city. What we could do was only taking pictures from the bus since we didn’t stop by. We finally visited Merlion park, a park with lion statue as a symbol of Singapore. There were a lot of tourists competed to take picture with the statue. Besides the statue, we could see the beautiful beach, amazing buildings which I was not sure what they were hahaha….

Being satisfied after taking pictures in Merlion park, we moved to Chinatown. It is a place to shop souvenirs. However, the tour guide said that this shopping center is much cheaper than the previous shopping centers we dropped by before. Well, only few of us took the chances for shopping while the others had fun with taking pictures here and there. Actually, judging from the temple located in the Chinatown, I can say that temples in Indonesia, Semarang for sure, are more spectacular and beautiful than the temple we visited in Singapore.

It’s 1. 00. PM. Lunch time. We got our lunch in Sentosa Island. Here, lots of interesting places are offered to spend our time exploring. But, before that, we needed to gain our energy. Lunch. It’s gotta be rice there hahaha. We found a quiet cozy place called ToastBox. For your information, we only got 5 dollars for one meal. Therefore, we only had few choices for the menu. Well, we were doing backpacking, right? Even if we had a lot of dollars to spend, our local taste limits us from choosing those unknown menu. I finally had mee rebus, it’s kind of noodles, very rich and spicy. Some friends of mine had Tom Yam, a kind of noodles, too. The rest had nasi lemak, a portion of rice with some pieces of fried chicken and sunny side up. Each costs around 4 dollars.

As soon as we finished our lunch, e headed back to Sentosa island. Universal studio is one of attraction places that attracts many tourists who go to Singapore.. Only few of us went to Universal Studio since it costs us a lot. We preferred exploring every corner of Sentosa island. Take some places we could explore while we were there. Song of The Sea is kind of opera concert which is held close to the beach. The ticket costs 15 dollars. Only three participants watched the opera and they said that the singers felt exhausted so they didn’t perform at their best. By the way, they got the ticket at 9.00 PM. Just imagine how exhausted the singers since they had to sing the whole day. Another resort we could go was the beach. I’m not sure of the name of the beach. The white sand and great view are nice to take pictures. Speaking about beach, Indonesia is rich with this natural resource since Indonesia is well-known as an archipelago country. Cleanliness is one thing can’t be compared with those beaches we have in Indonesia.

Another thing that makes us amazed is monorail called Sentosa Express. It brings us from one place to another place in Sentosa island. It’s free. Express means fast, and Sentosa is the place where we were. So, Sentosa Express really brings us as fast as our blink of our eyes. What I could remember was get on and when some of friends of mine said to get off, we already got to another place. It’s like magic. Hahaha…  This monorail is prepared by Singapore government to satisfy the tourists. So, if you want to go here and there, move from one monorail to another, just do so.

The day was getting down without we really realized it. The steps of our feet were getting heavier. We needed to take some rest so that later we could continue our last night in Singapore. Some public transportation is available, taxi and bus from Sentosa island park. Yet, some friends wanted to experience modern transportation called MRT. MRT or Mass Rapid Transit in Singapore is totally new for us even though it was opened in 1987. To get on MRT, we headed to the station. Before we decided which route, we had to make sure which route that is located near the hotel where we stayed. We studied the map to make sure of it. There was no one next to the station that could give us information of how to get the ticket. There was only notice stated that we have to use at least 4 dollars to get the ticket. After we were sure of the route, one of us volunteered to buy the ticket. She put her money on the place provided and pushed the screen the destination she headed to. Some looked very nervous to do the same thing. Well, this is called technology illiterate. hahaha… I felt grateful to have some friends and students who have spatial intelligence. They can read map, a skill that not everyone has it.

We had some rest after we got to the hotel safely. Some participants had appointment to one another to go to certain places. Some went to Esplanade, some went shopping to Orchard Road, some went to Song of the Sea to see the opera, some explored to Marina Barriage and the others continued exploring elsewhere. We really didn’t want to waste every minute staying in the hotel doing nothing. 

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The last day of our amazing vocation. Oh, noooooooo… The wake up call from the hotel really woke us up from reality that we had to go back to Indonesia. Thanks God, I did the packing the night before so I didn’t have to do a lot of things while I was drowsy. But still, the tiresome in my whole body after a long walk really made me move slowly. It happened to the others, though. That’s why, three participants were so late to rise that made all of us see red, including the bus driver. He said that we wouldn’t make it to get to the airport on time. The flight was at 9.40 AM. When finally they showed up, without having their breakfast, they bus driver sped up like crazy. I couldn’t imagine if we were late for the flight. Fortunately, we got to the airport in time. We rushed into the screening section. It was 9.00 AM. We were so relieved that we found another side of Changi airport to take pictures hahaha…

We landed in Indonesia around 10. 30 AM. Clock should be turned to local time. One hour later than Singapore. And yes, everything seems to be one hour later than Singapore, the people, the escalator, the service in the airport. Back to normal life. LOL. Another thing that made us feel at home was the rate for phone. Goodbye roaming.  Roaming really made us left behind in the modern Singapore. We even didn’t catch up the latest news of tsunami that happened in Japan on Friday. Well, every cloud has a silver lining. During the trip, all of us were not busy with our own mobile phone like we used to do due to the killing roaming.

The rest of the third day was spent in Soekarno Hatta airport because there was no direct flight from Singapore to Semarang. It was a bit tiring and boring to wait in a such long period. What we did was lying here and there, chatting and showing pictures from our camera. Lying here and there, something that is impossible to do in Singapore. 2 day-trip in Singapore really gives us a great experience on culture. Disciplines and fine put us in a different world. Now, we have to wake up that Indonesia, Semarang for sure, badly needs to catch up all the things from Lee Kwan Yew’s country. 


Written by: Ms. Lala