On my way back to Kota Kinabalu (KK) from Vietnam I took the cheapest route, which is always through the excellent budget airline, Air Asia, to stop off in their hub, Kuala Lumpur (KL). I purposefully scheduled my flight to KK several days out so I could take a train trip down to Singapore and explore a little. At this point (November) I’ve been through KL at least 7 times and though I prefer East Malaysia, I find KL a convenient and relatively friendly/comfortable place.
My favorite place to stay is at the Aloft at KL Sentral station, which is right where the SkyBus airport shuttle picks up and drops off. (***Pro Tip: While booking your Air Asia flight, you can pay a cheaper price for the SkyBus shuttle (like $2 or $3) as part of your ticket and then use your boarding pass when you board the bus.) KL is also the main transportation hub of the city for various trains.
I use my Starwood AMEX points to stay there and always have a great experience. In fact, they improve in some way almost every time. Unfortunately I am mostly out of AMEX points now because I don’t use that card very often anymore due to their charges on international transactions. I use my Chase Sapphire now instead because there are no international fees. Take note, American Express! (***MAJOR Pro Tip!: Want to use a CC overseas without fees? Use Chase Sapphire (there are other Chase cards, too, if you can’t qualify for that one). Want to pull money out of an ATM without fees anywhere in the world? (Well, have them reimbursed.) Charles Schwab!)
One of the interesting things I noticed this time in KL was their relatively new “Ladies Only” train cars:
The couple of times I used this car, there were always a few men there, so I don’t know how effective it really is. And no, I don't think they identified as "ladies". I’m not sure how I feel about the whole idea, to be honest.
So for my journey to and from Singapore, I reserved my spots ahead of time on the night trains going both ways. This way I would save money on accommodation since Singapore is incredibly expensive. According to my expense spreadsheet, round trip it cost me $23.15. Unfortunately the way down I couldn’t book a sleeping berth, so I had to sleep in a normal semi-reclining train seat.
We were roused around 6am to get off the train and go through customs into Singapore. We arrived at the station shortly thereafter and I found myself a little confused about how to get to my hostel. Instead of standing at the bus stop sweating and exhausted, asking anyone who would look me in the eye how to get where I was going, I decided to find some breakfast and caffeine to chill the nerves and gain some energy for the difficult task ahead. This is always a good strategy for me, as previously mentioned.
And it worked. After some nourishment, my energy was boosted and I made my round-about way through the city per various people’s semi-coherent-and-not-always-accurate recommendations and found my hostel. It was one of the cheapest places I could find (for around $8 a night as advertised). It turns out that the lady running the place hates people who only stay one night because, as she says, it makes more work for her, so I ended up having to pay an extra fee which brought the total to over $11 a night. The experience was terrible, even for a hostel. I won’t complain anymore at you, but let me just say that if you want at least a semi-pleasant experience and to spend your money with someone who appreciates your business, then don’t stay at Empire Hostel. If you are interested in my review, it’s on Hostelworld. The one positive about the place is that there’s a great and very cheap “mayonnaise chicken rice” downstairs!
Now, about the city/country itself: All the things they say about Singapore are true: It’s clean, safe, expensive, public transportation is efficient and cheap and awesome, the food is great, and there is tons and tons and TONS of shopping. If you love shopping and expensive extravagance, this is the place for you.
At this point you should now have a good guess as to how I feel about Singapore. Ha.
Yeah . . . In an email I sent to my family I described Singapore thus:
“I am currently in Singapore and I must admit it is not my cup of tea. Three words keep running through my mind: overpriced, contrived, & novelty”.
The place has some fantastic architecture and a lot of it gave me that “novelty” feeling. Let me show you:
Sure, it was really “cool” but like a lot of Asian cities, everything revolves around shopping malls. It’s all about BUY BUY BUY!!! You all know I hate this.
Then there’s the Botanical Gardens . . . More contrived novelty that makes you feel like you’re in a Sci-Fi film:
Yes, yes . . . Very “neat”. Boy am I a killjoy.
I don’t know . . . I guess I prefer my nature a little more . . . Natural?
Anyways, let’s also be honest about something that infuriated me . . . The cost of a drop-in at all of the Crossfit gyms (at least as advertised on their websites). It cost at least $20 for ONE drop-in. That’s almost my entire daily budget! Yes, I understand Singapore is expensive. Yes, I understand Crossfit is expensive. I also understand that owners want to incentivize people to sign up for monthly rates instead of single drop-in rates. However, the daily rate versus monthly rate ratio was WAY out of whack in my opinion. It was on par with the ridiculous ratios I’ve seen in Ireland, which is the most expensive Crossfit I’ve ever seen. There is also a great argument to be had for welcoming foreigners (many which come through Singapore) in order to raise the profile of your gym as well as integrate with other parts of the Crossfit community, which only enhances and encourages diversity and improvement! Anyways . . . Instead of scrapping the whole idea of working out, I persevered (yay me!) and with a little research found out that the Singapore government supports these nice, updated, and well-maintained gyms placed strategically throughout the city in apartment complexes, and a drop-in for those was only: $4.83!
It was a self-programmed dumbbell & burpee WOD for me. I was able to shower there as well and prepare for my overnight train journey back. Afterwards I picked up an AMAZING “duck rice” by the train station and then rode the very crowded train (another downside of Singapore - holy crap it was after 10pm and the trains were too full to pick up any new people for almost the entire 1 hour journey!) towards my international train station.
Another thing I should mention, I guess, is that all I saw in that country outside of the city center was miles and miles and miles of HUGE apartment complexes. It’s all apartment complexes, it seems. My exposure was limited to train and bus journeys to and from the international train station, of course.
So while I didn’t love Singapore, (and it’s clear it isn’t the perfect place for Laura), it is still in general a very clean, organized, civilized, safe, and interesting city which I would absolutely go back to. And guess what? Most people I know who have been there LOVE the place, so I don’t think I’m hurting anything by not being a fan. I also know very well how mood can alter my perception of a place, and I admit that recently I’ve noticed some symptoms that make me think I might struggle with a slight case of what psychologists call an “underspending disorder” (something I’ll discuss in another post, perhaps). I admit there is plenty more to experience there than I gave a chance to in the 2 days I was there. Apology accepted?
For the train on the way back I got a sleeping berth, which ended up being the best one I’ve gotten in Asia yet! This train was awesome!
After a surprisingly good sleep, that morning I flew out of KL, headed to my month more of KK!
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