After going around some places in Indonesia, my office mate asked me to backpack abroad. He suggested to travel three countries, Malaysia-Singapore-Thailand. First time I heard that, I just open my mouth and thought he was crazy. Moreover, our office would not allow their employees to take a vacation more than a week. I also thought about the budget. Well, so many things came to my mind.

However, my friend told me to relax. He then shared his plan. We did not explore the entire those three countries. We just choose some of the cities at those countries. Our route will be like Surabaya-Kuala Lumpur-Singapore-Bangkok-Pataya-Hat Yai-Kuala Lumpur-Surabaya. Sounds impossible, but I believed him because we were travel in crime. We had already travelled together for some trips.

He said that we just need to prepare around two millions Rupiah for our trip (it was in 2012). It was including Universal Studios Singapore’s ticket. Wow, hearing the USS just gave me a positive mind. I really love theme park and I would love to come there. We just need 5 days off work. We can say that we have a family gathering to office.

Oke, then we prepared everything. Actually, mostly my friend did it for us. He choosed the flights, booked the hotels, buy the USS and bus ticket, exchanged money and everything. The only reason he asked me was my English was better than him. So, I can say that my contribution on this preparation was zero. Hahaha.

And the day has came. From Surabaya, we went to Kuala Lumpur by Air Asia. We arrived at KL in the afternoon. Actually, we did not have any specific destination in KL. The flight just much cheaper than Surabaya-Singapore. We will go to Singapore by bus in the night, so that we did not have to stay at a hotel.

Because we had already in KL, we decided to visit Petronas Tower, iconic building in KL. From LCCT (airport only for Air Asia) we took a shuttle bus to KL Sentral. We bought the ticket right before getting the bus. Sorry, I forgot the price. Then, we took monorail to go to Petronas Tower. It my first time to take monorail and I was kinda like it.

Then, we arrived at Petronas Tower. Even it was evening, many people were there. Of course, mostly took a pictures with the twin tower behind. We did it too. It was all free but we should pay if we wanted to go up the tower. In front of the tower, there was a pool where mostly people sat.

After that, we took a monorail again to Berjaya Times Square, our bus stop. I just found out that this was also a mall. The big one so that we can walk for a while and got some food. However, we were not comfortable to walk at this mall because we have not took a bath. It just a transit before we took a night bus.

For the first time, we were really doubt about the bus. We already bought the ticket online and it was said that the bus will be arrived from Berjaya Times Square. But, we did not see any bus station. It just stated that we should walk outside and find minimarket. The bus will be there at the time.

We did not have another option beside followed it. We asked security where the bus stop and he could explain easily. When we arrived to the area, we saw many people with luggage. And we heard the conversation that they also waited the bus to Singapore. Fiuh, we were relieved.

After we bought some food and drinks at the minimarket and waited a while, the bus has come. It was a big bus with a comfortable seat. It was also a level bus, but it was way different from our level bus. The space was so long, so that we can rest our legs and have a deep sleep. I suggested to buy the ticket online in an official website, because many fake tickets sold out there.

The trip took for about 6 hours. In the middle of my sleep, we woke up by the bus crew. Oh, we arrived in immigration. We asked to get off the bus and brought our pasport. I forgot that we entered the new country. It was our first time in bus imigration. The immigration was more simple than in the airport.

There was a long line in imigration check. When my turn, I was passed the check quickly. The officer did not ask anything. He just looked at my face and my passport photo. However, my friend was not.

The officer asked him to follow in the office. Oh my God! I was panic. What was happened to him? I did not allow to follow. I wanted to accompany him because I was afraid that he was nervous, so that he can not speak. I was prayed that the bus will be waiting for us. Our stuffs were still on the bus.

Waiting was sucks! Perhaps it was only 15 minutes, but it felt like an hour. When I saw he walked out and came to me, I was relieved. I asked why him? He said he did not know and they did not explain. He just asked the identity, purpose to come Singapore, and his finger prints. When he showed his document, the USS ticket, hostel booking, he allowed to go. Some people said that bus imigration check was more stringent than airport.

Fortunately, our bus still waited for us, so we continued the journey.

Mywowtravel.com is your wow travel story.

(to be continued toPart 2: Singapore)

photo source:

- my documentation

- google