#139 Singapore

Singapore is a very interesting little place. It's both a city and country in one, incredibly multicultural, vibrant and modern, and best of all everyone speaks English and it is very clean and safe. However it is also one of the most expensive places to visit in Asia, so best for a short trip or as part of a long stop-over. Overall I really enjoyed my short visit, and honestly it looks like a cool place to live.

The highlights of the city are the gardens, in particular the Botanical Gardens (which are free) and the Gardens by The Bay (paid attraction). When I visited it was in the summer holidays and the height of the Pokemon Go craze, so there were lots of young people crowded around the Botanical Gardens on their phones. I appreciate nature and getting out  for a nice walk but I'm not hugely interested in types of flowers etc so in hindsight visiting just the free Botanical Gardens would have been more than enough for me, and probably for most people too.

Cloud Forest

The Gardens by the Bay were quite expensive but since it's one of very few attractions there I splashed out to pay for it. The Cloud Forest was really cool, but you have to be careful as the misting only happens for a few minutes every few hours and unless you're there for that it's a bit pointless, so plan in advance. I was lucky and happened to be walking in just as misting started, so I ran around the different levels taking as many photos as I could while it lasted, then when it was over I finally relaxed and went back around again taking my time. I had an enjoyable time and since the domes are temperature controlled it was really nice taking a break from the heat, but overall unless you really like flowers it's not amazing and probably isn't worth the money.

The Gardens by the Bay area is also where you will find the Super Trees and also for a good view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel with the Infinity Pool on top. The only way to get to the pool is to stay at the hotel which is obviously very expensive so I didn't do this. The absolute highlight of my visit was the SuperTrees light show in the evening. They change the music and theme every few months, and when I went it was a 70's disco theme which I absolutely loved beyond words. You can pay to walk around the trees but it's only a small walkway between two of them so it didn't look like it was worth the money.

Shopping

There are tons of shopping malls and high class boutiques around the city, which for commoners like me aren't exactly budget friendly. Despite this I liked my visit to The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, it had a little Venetian boat ride going through the mall which is a first for me. It also had a deck out the front with a great view of the water and city skyline, I came here in the evening at sunset and waited around until it got dark.


The good places for eating, shopping and souvenirs would be Chinatown and Bugis Street which both had lots of stalls. There were also two malls beside Bugis which had familiar high street brand names and restaurants.

The Shoppes

Chinatown

Bugis Street

Transport

The best and only way to get around Singapore is the MRT (underground trains) which is very easy to use, very clean and safe and quite cheap too.

For getting to the country itself, I incorporated a visit to Singapore as part of a wider trip which included Thailand and Malaysia, which I think many tourists do. There are a few options for this including train, plane and bus, and in the end I flew to Thailand, flew to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, got a bus to Singapore and then flew back to Thailand again. It's slightly more expensive to travel from Sinagpore to Malaysia than vice-versa which is interesting, and therefore I decided to go to Kuala Lumpur first and travel to Singapore.

I had originally planned to get an overnight train but they changed the schedules and routes shortly after I booked so I had to think fast, and opted to get a bus instead. The bus was luxury and the ticket was quite cheap, but the downside was it took a long time - we left KL at around 7am but didn't arrive in Singapore until around 1pm. Sinagpore Changi Airport is supposed to be the best in the world with all these crazy attractions - but to be honest I saw very little of this - there was a small Japanese garden, a small sunflower garden on the roof, and a small cinema room, which were nice but nothing particularly amazing like I had imagined.

#138 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Unfortunately, I had less than 48 hours in Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur. Thankfully, it's quite small and I found I could just about get everything I wanted to see done!

Getting to KL

My first piece of advice is to try plan carefully when you will arrive in KL. I got an early flight from Bangkok and arrived in KL early afternoon on a Monday - and immigration was absolutely madness. I had to wait in line for 1hr40mins, there were hundreds of people in front of me and very little/no information from staff. I think avoid Monday mornings/afternoons as it seemed to be clearing up by the time I finally got through.

So when I finally arrived at my hostel, showered and prepared to go out it was about 5pm and quite late. I made friends with a Spanish girl who was also in KL for the same amount of time as me, and we went out together. First we headed to the Central Market, Chinatown and City Gallery (home of the I <3 KL sign). Thankfully these were all within walking distance of each other and easy to find. There weren't particularly spectacular and we didn't spend a long time, but they were nice and a good place to visit in the late afternoon or early evening before dinner.

Food

Our hostel was located beside the popular Jalan Alor street food street and we ate there, although be careful where you eat as some of the Chinese restaurants have giant menus and are not actually so cheap (and forgot to put in our order, so eventually we left and went somewhere cheaper further down the street). Make sure to watch out for all the durians (well...more like smell out!) too.

Batu Caves

On our second day we headed off to the wonderful Batu caves. It was very cheap and easy to get to, we simply caught one of the regular trains from KL Sentral for only 4ringitts (90c!) return that took about an hour. The train is very clean and modern, and there are even women only carriages! The caves themselves are free to enter and look very remote and exotic despite being so close to the city. It really is an amazing, WOW-factor destination without all the hassle. Perfect!

Best Place for a View

On our way back we visited the famous Petronas Towers. I wasn't eager to actually go up the tower since it was very expensive (85rm/€18), and it turned out tickets were completely sold out for that day by the time we arrived (around 2pm) so if you do want to go up make sure to go early in the morning or get tickets in advance.

We went to the Skybar located at Traders Hotel that night to take photos of the Towers at night. It was quite busy and there were no seats at the window, but we found a couch at the window and sat there and took photos. No staff approached us to take our order, and so we got away without even having to buy a drink. They also weren't strict on dress code - we didn't look bad but we also didn't dress up either!

Although my time in KL was very short, I felt I could still get a good feel for the place and I had a very enjoyable time. I didn't get the opportunity to visit the Islamic Arts Museum but I have read good reviews so I would encourage you to visit there too.

#11 Arrival in Japan

And so I have arrived in Japan. My suitcase was bang on 30kg, which was absolutely fabulous! The flight to Dubai was good. The airport wasn't great, you have to walk a long way around it and there are very few seats for the amount of people. On the flight from Dubai to Narita there was no one in the two seats beside me so I could lie out which was nice. Going through security at Narita took a long time, partially because a lot of travellers didn't seem to have any of their documents in order. However the Japanese were very efficient (as expected) and moved as fast as they could.

I am in an airport hotel and haven't left since I got here last night. I'm in work training until Saturday when I'll be moving into my apartment. The weather is nice and bright but very hot and humid, luckily there is air-conditioning all over the hotel and on the buses.

#7 Flight Plan

Today did not start well. I was awoken rather rudely at approximately 7.30am by a phone call, which had stopped by the time I fumbled to find my phone and forced my weary eyes open to see an unknown, foreign number. I called it back, and was directed to the company HQ in Japan. After being put on hold for quite some time I was put through to someone who told me that my Certificate of Eligibility, which I bring to the Embassy in Ireland to get my Japanese visa, will be sent out shortly. So things were looking up.

For such a simple form it causes mucho stress

I went back to sleep and around 11am I woke up again and checked my emails, to see that my flights have now been booked. By some miracle, I have been put on the flight I wanted - Emirates Dublin to Dubai, and from there to Tokyo. I am now a very happy camper.

I will depart Dublin in the afternoon of the 20th August, and after a 7 and a half hour flight I will get in to Dubai shortly after midnight on the 21st. I will proceed to wander aimlessly around the airport for about 3 hours until my next flight, nearly 10 hours to Tokyo. All going well I should be in Narita International Airport in Tokyo by 6pm on the 21st of August. Splendid!

Oh, and I will be leaving from terminal 2 in Dublin. A very important but admittedly very petty detail which had been bothering me.

Dublin Airport Terminal Two. . .the place of dreams!

I was on the Emirates website and I was able to look up the planes I'll be on and their facilities, although I am travelling economy and not first class it still looks pretty swish. For the slightly longer journey from Dubai to Tokyo I'll be travelling on the A380, the largest passenger plane in the world (apparently it can fit 555 people). It has two levels - the first being for first and business class, while the lower deck is for the plebs in economy. The economy layout is three seats - aisle - four seats - aisle - three seats. If you follow. More chance of an aisle seat, but less chance of being seated at the window. I'll try survive though!

Check out this badboy! [credits: Emirates]

The next step was to look up luggage requirements, which is thankfully 30kg and not the 23kg I expected. Although the first 30kg is free, I am only allowed an additional 2kg (which will cost €100) so I spent a few hours today doing a trial run on the weight of my suitcase. It looks like I will be needing to cut back a little, but generally you will fit a lot in with the 30kg.


And finally, I will be doing the same trip home on the 21st of December. It will take me a total 16.8 hours flying time to get from Dublin to Tokyo, but strangely enough it will take me 20.2 hours in a plane to get from Tokyo to Dublin.


It seems after months and weeks of waiting things are starting to move very fast, before I know it I will be there and back, and on to Sweden.

Soon. . .

#2 Japan Flight Assumptions

Although I do not book my own flights to Japan (the company books them for me), I have spoken to a friend who works with the same company and I can assume that I could be travelling BMI from Dublin to London Heathrow, and then Virgin Atlantic to Tokyo Narita. This arrangement means I would have to depart from terminal one in Dublin Airport, instead of terminal two. This upsets me greatly as I was looking forward to heading to the new terminal, where so many of my peers have tagged themselves before they leave to go on a wild J1 to America, or to find a job in Australia. For me, terminal one is for cheap family holidays to Gran Canaria or cheap drinking holidays for the students to Santa Ponza. But we'll see. Maybe I can leave Terminal two for my flights to Stockholm. Maybe.

I had originally thought I had to arrange my own flights, so I was checking online and the cheapest flights I could find were around €535 (one way) which was Dublin to either Abu Dabi or Dubai, and from there to Tokyo. These were operated by Etihad Airways and Emirates. I was looking at the Virgin website and the flight I was quoted was £1,022 one way! That is way more expensive than most of the ones I had found online. The prices will be going up the closer it gets to when I leave, so I am happy I won't have to worry about that.

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