Singapore

The journey to Singapore has been voted as officially the worst journey of the trip, with 2 votes out of 2. We booked the night bus from Penang, which painfully goes through Kuala Lumpar, where we’d be returning only a few days later for our flight. Even more painfully, we found out after booking the bus that it’s only £7 more to fly, and about 10 hours quicker. Damn it. 

Anyway, what’s one more night bus? We thought. Oh my, how we underestimated this one.

The Journey from Hell

The journey began in Penang where we got a taxi to the bus station. From there we were loaded onto a mini bus to another bus station. From here, we got on our bus, hooray! Which we naively expected to take us to our destination. The seats were reclining and quite comfy, and the possibility of sleep didn’t seem too far fetched. All was going smoothly, until we stopped just outside KL at about 3am to drop off some people. As the bus went to leave, we could hear the engine struggling to start again. We spent the next hour on a motorway slip road, listening to the driver frantically revving the engine. Finally he admitted defeat and another bus turned up which we were herded on to. From here we continued to the Malaysian border, at about 7am. We were tired and confused, and made to get off with all of our bags. Once we’d been stamped out of Malaysia, we walked back to board the bus, and the driver pointed to yet another bus, this time an over-full public bus, where we had to stand in the aisle with our bags for the border crossing into Singapore for a good half an hour. 

Then once again it was back off with our bags. We always have a habit of picking the wrong queue for things, and unfortunately got stuck in the line for passport control for about 30 minutes while everyone else sailed through. Once finally through, we went down to the bus terminal, and (no surprises), the bus had left without us. 

By this point we were weary and a bit grumpy, but along with our new friend Alizé from California, we navigated the metro system, taking 3 trains and walking for 10 minutes, FINALLY arriving at our hostel. 

15 hours of travel, 2 countries, 8 different vehicles, 2 extremely tired girls. Luckily our hostel let us have late breakfast when we checked in, and our room was ready shortly afterwards.

Exploring Singapore, Day 1 

Despite the awful journey, and feeling like zombies, we only had 3 days in Singapore and wanted to maximise our time there. So we were straight out to explore! First we hopped on the metro to Chinatown and wandered through the streets soaking up the atmosphere. Next we went for lunch at the Maxwell food court, which had been recommended to us. There were many different cuisines so we excitedly hurried around them all. Until I realised not one of them had a vegetarian option. I learned pretty quickly that Singapore is not very veggie friendly, especially if you’re eating street food! Luckily, there was a salad bar that did amazing salads, so I built my own meat-free salad. Chloe also got a salad….good start to the Singapore food from us! We also grabbed ourselves a much needed coffee to try and soldier on!

Next we went and explored Merlion Park, with the famous lion statue. From here you had a great view of Marina Sands hotel, the science museum, and the bay. 

By the end of the day we were exhausted – we had walked 16km and were totally burnt out. So much so we ended up grabbing a pizza and eating it in the hostel before having an early night. 

Kranji War Memorial

On our second day we were up early and on a long hour and a half journey to the other side of the city, to Kranji War Memorial. This is one of the places I’ve wanted to visit since planning the trip, and for a very personal reason; my great uncle Joe is buried there.

Joseph Ovenden, my grandad’s brother on my mum’s side was a Gunner, serving with the 118th Field Artillery from the Royal Artillery in Woolwich. He was sent to India during WW2 in 1941, but was only there for a very short amount of time, before news of the struggles against the Japanese in Singapore came through. Unfortunately the 118th were sent as reinforcements to Singapore, where their equipment was not set up for the terrain, and none of them had experience of jungle warfare. They arrived in time to take part in the final week’s battle in Singapore, which unknown to them was a battle we had already lost before they even arrived. Joe’s regiment lost 22 men in this battle.

Following this, Joe and the other survivors became Japanese prisoners of war, and we believe he was made to work on the Burmese Railway construction, during which many more of his regiment were lost. Joe survived all of this, but was tragically killed 2 months shy of the end of the war, in a bomb raid on the camps by the Americans. On the 16th June 1945, Joe lost his life, aged 27. Joe was buried at Kranji War Memorial and has rested there ever since. 

I have many memories of my grandad Dennis, and my great Aunts Rose and Mary, and I particularly remember Rose mentioning her brother Joe who died in the war. My grandad and great Aunts were incredibly important to me, so I wanted to pay my respect to their brother. 

After a long journey, we arrived at the most peaceful place in the city. Kranji is on a hill, at the edge of Singapore, surrounded by the skyscrapers and hubbub of the city, whilst being its own little peaceful haven. 

The memorial at the top of the cemetery was a striking one, listing the names of all those lost. There were many rows of pristinely/kept graves, with elegant planting. Following my mum’s detailed instructions, I easily found my great uncle’s grave. I’d taken along a photo of him which I propped up against the grave. It occurred to me that he had been buried there, so far from home, for 72 years. I felt sad and lonely for him, so I sat with him for a long time, and told him about our family now. I felt sad to leave, but pleased to have visited – it’s such an important part of my family’s history. If I ever return to Singapore I will make another trip. In the words of his mother, who wrote to him during the war, ‘Keep Smiling Joe’.

Gardens by the Bay

After a moving morning, we headed out for the afternoon/evening at the Gardens by the Bay. Here we saw some superb structures with climbers all over them, and lots of different themed gardens. It was really cool to explore! Then at 7.45pm, the light show began. They have these every night – the plant towers are all lit up and a light show is designed to music, with the climatic moment to Nessun Dorma. It was fantastic! 

Universal Studios 

On our final day in Singapore we decided to treat ourselves and have an entire day of fun at Universal Studios! 

We headed there early and went straight to the biggest rollercoasters to try and beat the queues – we managed to ride the two biggest within the first half an hour. It was certainly a shock to the system though! There were plenty of rides, shows and cinematic and interactive experiences. The Stephen Spielberg interactive show was great, and I absolutely loved the 3D Transformers tide, despite never having seen the film; the 3D work was absolutely superb. 

We even went on the Madagascar-themed Merry Go Round! But by far our favourite ride of the day was Galactica, which we went on about 5 times. It was a pretty extreme rollercoaster, and we loved it! 

By 6pm we were absolutely done – our bodies really couldn’t handle being thrown upside anymore, so we headed home! 

Cocktails at Marina Bay Sands

We finished our time in Singapore in the fanciest way possible – with a Singapore Sling each on the rooftop of Marina Bay Sands hotel. We enviously looked over the hotel guests enjoying the rooftop infinity pool, and vowed to return when we’re rich (rooms start at £400 per night….our trip average is about £4 per night!!) 

And with that, our short but active stop over in Singapore had come to an end. We had one destination left in Asia, so before we knew it we were back on the bus the next morning, back through the border and headed to Kuala Lumpar – our last stop! 

Annie x