Bummin' around

This morning we decided it was time to test out Singapore's famous public transport system. To date we had tickets on a system of tourist buses that drove set loops and gave a commentary but they expired so we had to find our own way about.

A couple of comments about public transport in Singapore. To date we had just grabbed a taxi when we needed to get anywhere the buses didn't take us, taxis are cheap and plentiful. Our highest cab fare was just under $20 from Changi airport to the hotel in the City, you could get from one end of the island to the other for under $30. The Mass Rapid Transport (or MRT) is the subway system. It is fast, reliable, and very clean. The MRT doesn't have a time table it just runs every 10 mins in peak hours or 20 mins outside peak hours. And if the MRT can't get you where you are going there are lots of buses, many of them double deckers. Tourists can buy unlimited travel for 2 days for $16 so that's how we got around.

We hopped on the MRT at City Hall and headed to Tanah Merah station which was about 15 mins away. We wanted to go to an island off Singapore's east coast called Pulau Ubin, we had seen it on TV and wanted to get out of the City so we decided to head for there. Once at Tanah Merah we had to catch the No. 2 bus to Changi ferry wharf. The bus wound around the suburb of Changi and went past the infamous Changi Gaol. The Gaol is still in use and very, very big. Some sections of it were obviously very old but others were quite new. Also over the east side of the island is Changi airport and lots of military bases - we saw army and air force bases but I bet the navy was out there as well.

Once at the elaborately named Changi Ferry Terminus we had to wait until there were 12 of us and then we could board a bum boat and pay the outrageous $2.50 each for the 10 min trip across the Straits of Johor to Pulau Ubin. Lots of shipping around as well as big barges loaded with sand presumably for land reclamation.

The bum boat was a very basic affair but it did come complete with flower pots - see photos.

Pulau Ubin has been described as Singapore 50 years ago, it was more like Singapore 100 years ago. There was a wharf, a seafood restaurant, a police station and about 10 places with 100s of bikes for hire. Luckily it was very quiet when we were there so we hired a couple of bikes for the massive fee of $8 each and went for a ride. There are lots of mountain bike tracks but we stuck to the sealed roads and made our way to the other side of the island to look at Malaysia. After an hour or two we made it back to the wharf and sailed back to Singapore island. We actually had to go through border security as lots of people must come from Malaysia this way.

We made it back to the MRT and came back to Bugis station. T had heard about a lane in the Malay quarter she wanted to visit - Haji Lane - and it was really cute. Loads of trendy shops and boutiques. I offered to buy T a burka but that was met with an eye roll. We wandered around for a bit and then hopped on a bus to the National Design Centre. It is Singapore Design Week and the NDC is just around the corner from the hotel so we dropped in for a look. Really interesting with some clever designs of everything from eye glasses to buses to bridges.

It was Singapore Sling-o'clock so we headed down for our nightly slurp, wandered around Raffles Centre for a bit and then headed back to the HotelRead more