Universal Studio Singapore

We started our journey to Universal Studio Singapore (USS) from Johor Bahru (JB). The bus ticket was available at the ground floor of Merlin Tower. A few bus companies were operational, but we only managed to find one with the bus departed at 8:30 am (707 Travel Group). We bought two-way tickets with RM10 per person. The ticket from USS back to Johor Bahru was sold at SD5 at the ticket counter at USS, instead of RM5. So, it was more worthy to buy the return ticket at JB. We parked our car at the basement of City Square with the rate of RM25 per day- expensive but safer choice.

Merlin Tower, 8:15 am, most of the counters were still closed (upper left), with only Nusantara 707 Travel Group provided bus to USS at 8:30 am (upper right). We boarded the bus in front of the old Johor Bahru train station opposite of Merlin Tower (lower left). The bus was new and very comfortable.

As we traveled on weekday at non peak hour, we just experienced minor congestion at Singapore. The whole journey to USS from Merlin Tower took us around 1 hour 40 minutes. 10:10 am, we reached the front door of USS. Our cousin at Singapore helped us to buy the tickets a day earlier, so we didn't face much problem at the ticket counter.

Photo with our cousin Mia Ming and our sister Kelly (first and second from the left) in front of Universal Studio.

With Kelly's extensive planning, we went straight to Transformer The Ride (delayed one to two minutes by the Sesame Street Stage Shows), followed by Revenge of the Mummy. After the thrilling rides, we buffered ourselves by slow-paced Treasure Hunter ride. Our queuing time for all three rides were remarkably short- 15 minutes for Transformer and Treasure Hunter each, and we were actually the first few to enter the Revenge of the Mummy roller coaster ride, with zero waiting time.

Autobot model standing on the street opposite of Sci-Fi City (left). The queue was quite long for the ride, but we managed to get to our turn in 15 minutes (middle). While waiting for our turn to hoop onto the ride, we enjoyed the transformer themed surrounding and the videos showing the background of the world of robots.

The Ancient Egypt is well themed with giant statues. It is next to Sci-Fi City.

The entrance to Revenge of the Mummy ride. It is a roller coaster with most of the time, moving with high speed and twisting in the dark. As people can't see anything around, it is advised to keep the our head to the headrest. The dark surrounding diminished the thrill and increased the possibility of walking out with a strained neck due to its unpredictable and out-of-expectation motion.

Time was running fast. We went straight to the WaterWorld live show at around 12 pm. The show ended 20 minutes later with lots of gun fires and explosions. Then, we went to The Lost World where we took the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure and Canopy Flyer, with less than 15 minutes of waiting time respectively.

This live show brought us back to the movie Water World by Kevin Costner. The whole area was covered by metal plates resembled the settlement in the movie.

The stage was not very big, but well decorated. The seats were divided into three zones- wet zone, splash zone, and dry zone. During our visit, the dry zone was only safe place to stay dry. By the way, you will not get wet during the show. The water is basically splashed purposely by the supporting actors in funny ways before the show begins.

Gun shoots, explosion, and smoke are the main attractions. The storyline however was weak.

You will get soaked in Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, especially in the last 60 seconds of the ride. You really need a raincoat. Well, you can buy a raincoat at the entrance to the ride with SD4, or you can buy a cheaper one outside. For those who travel from Malaysia, you can get a cheap disposable raincoat with RM2.50 from Seven-Eleven. Along the ride,  we can see some dinosaurs moving their heads, waving their front legs, and making some noises. The movement of dinosaurs looked unrealistic.

Canopy Flyer is a suspended roller coaster. It is nearby Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure. With about two minutes of riding time, it was a bit too short for us. The photo shows a view during the ride.

Our advices- wear shoes and store all the loose items at the rack provided before riding Canopy Flyer, or your cap and flip-flops might ended up landing on the roof top of the building. 

Next station, Far Far Away. We found Shrek 4-D Adventure was interesting, and Puss-in-Boots mascot was cute. The rest like Donkey LIVE and Enchanted Airways couldn't really raise our interest to walk through the entrance. We visited Shrek's tree house before joined the street party hosted by King Julien and other characters from Madagascar at 3:15 pm. Of course, the cutest characters were the Boogie penguins! Then, we moved on with King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round and Madagascar: A Crate Adventure.

We went back to Far Far Away to take photo with Puss-In-Boots at 4 pm. The time for photo session with the big cat was not available in the leaflet. We were lucky to receive the information from a cleaner in the theme park. Exhausted, we took a rest at Mel's Drive-in fast food restaurant at Hollywood street. There, we enjoyed french fries, cooling air, sipping Coke, and watching the show from the Street Party entertainers- Mel's Dinettes and the Cruisers!

Entrance to the Far Far Away.

House of Shrek (upper left) and castle of Princess Fiona (upper right), along with few shops and food stalls along the street.

Photo session with Puss-in-Boots.

"We like to move it move it!" energized the hot afternoon.

Excellent performance by the Cruisers at Hollywood's street stage. Watch their performance at Youtube by secretayu21.

Recharged, we went back to New York street to pick up the leftovers- Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase and Light, Camera, Action. To our surprise, Light, Camera, Action! hosted by Steven Spielberg was a stunning show that really gave us the "Hollywood" feel. We watched the Monster Rock at Pantages Hollywood Theater before we started shopping around.

Light, Camera, Action! is a must visit in USS. It is located at New York Street (upper left). Although the 5 minutes show was stunning, the visitors were not many during our visit (upper right). By the way, the first row of spectators might get wet due to the splash caused by the falling building at the right side of the stage. Spaghetti Space Chase is a Sesame Street themed ride. It is a gentle and cozy ride.

Hollywood street houses many souvenir shops.

New York street is around 50 meters long, with a few eateries and rides.

We were lucky to visit USS at none peak season. There were not many visitors in the park. The longest queuing time was encountered at the Canopy Flyer, and the shortest was the Revenge of the Mummy. Well, none of them exceeded 15 minutes. We went straight into a few shows and ride as well with almost zero waiting time (Shrek 4-D, The Revenge of the Mummy, Party-Go-Round, A Crate Adventure, and Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase).

Plan ahead and be early. Go straight to the most interesting rides as early as possible before the queue forms. Do not go around the park theme by theme (although that is more systematic). For us, we have four main targets- the Transformer 4-D Adventure, Revenge of the Mummy, Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure, and the WaterWorld Live Show, which we completed all of them before 1 pm. Then, we went around with slower pace, picking up the "leftover" rides and shows later.

The food and beverages are expensive, at least for us. Converting SD1 to RM2.50, a simple meal with burger plus fries and Coke can be RM42++. So, bringing some snacks, bread and sandwiches might be helpful to save some money. A milk shake at Far Far Away costs RM17.50 but it costs around 1/3 at Mel's Drive-in. So, if you really wish to take something in the park, do go around and survey the price of the food, of course only if you mind about the price. How about the drink? Worry not, the drinking water fountains are available at all the entrance of the restrooms to keep us well hydrated.

We went out of the theme park around 8 pm. Although the park was closed at 7 pm, the shops continued their operation till the visitors left the premises. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Mia Ming afterward, and headed back to JB at around 9:30 pm.

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Singapore 2

Orchard Road will never missed its place from our list when we talk about shopping in Singapore. From Orchard Rd. to Dhoby Ghaut MRT stations, there was a belt of continuous shopping centres with their own identities. We chose a few of them, walked around, and took some nice food there. There was a nationwide shopping fair during our visit. We managed to grab a few clothes with good bargain there, although we are not good in shopping at all (or should said not so interested in shopping).

On the right: Photo showing Betty on the walkway of Orchard Road. The rest showed the shopping centres- from antique to contemporary.

Vivo City, the largest shopping mall in Singapore, was a place that shopaholics should not miss. We went to Vivo City on our way to Sentosa Island and enjoyed a wonderful meal there.

The historical trails, which stretched from City Hall to Raffles Place MRT stations, promised a different view. The historical buildings were well maintained there, backgrounded by the skyscrapers with international brands. From City Hall Station, we walked towards seaside with great view of Cathedral of St. Andrew, crossed over Padang to War Memorial Park, took a great view of City Hall and Supreme Court, Victoria Theatre, Parliament House, Arts House, Asian Civilization Museum, and last but not least, the statue of Merlion at Merlion Park. That was the trip that we enjoyed the most, as we journeyed back to the historical part of Singapore (exclude the Merlion).

Clockwise from left: Merlion; City Hall and Supreme Court of Singapore, Victoria Theatre, The Arts House, and War Memorial.

Singapore really looks like our home country in culture and lifestyle. For us, we never feel alone there, as we could communicate easily with English and Mandarin, even with Bahasa Melayu there (Most Singaporean can communicate with English). Even the food there tasted almost the same with our food here. With assistance from my uncle and some of our friends, we were able to hunt some of the nice food around.

Wherever we go, we will not hold back with local delicacies. Clockwise from left: taking breakfast at Boon Keng Market (just a few steps away from boon Keng MRT Station) with local "kueh-muih"; view at one of the hawker centre; dim-sum and famous Singapore Chicken Rice at Food Republic.

There are some changes in Singapore - More Chinese speaks Mandarin now, rather than English, compared to my last visit. Besides, there are more motorbikes and bicycles on the road than the old days. I wish to share a scene that is not easy to catch in Malaysia - old folks from different races sat together at the food court, talking and laughing to each others in English. That scene really touched my heart!

Clockwise from top: MRT networks which look like shopping centre; advertisement in the station; bicycles were widely used across the residential area.

Going places in Singapore was easy with MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) network webbing across the island. So, an advice from us, stay near to the MRT station, then almost all tourist spots will become nearer to you. For more information about Singapore, well, there is a good map at Singapore Streetdirectory, MRT directory, tourist information at official site for Singapore Tourism Board and Sentosa Island. Of course, you can always visit Tripadvisor for latest ranking of hotels in Singapore.

Lastly, we wish to foward a big THANK YOU to Uncle Gregory, Peter and Magdalene for all the hospitality and warm assistance, nice to have you all in our way.

Back to All Our Destinations.

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Singapore 1

Singapore, a small lovely country south of Peninsular Malaysia, was an attractive destination that we visited June 2009. I visited the island for a few times before, but it was the first time for Betty. She went to Singapore first to conduct a workshop at Republic Polytechnic and I joined her three days later. We visited several places, which can be categorized into fun and thrill, historical and shopping trip.

For fun and trill, where else besides Sentosa Island? Honestly, the island didn't change much since my last visit a long long time ago. Port Siloso and Underwater World almost remained the same, while The Song of the Sea, Dolphin Lagoon are new for me, while the beach...uh, felt like getting worse by the heavily dotted ships stretching along the bay. However, all of the attractions were new to Betty! We did a little bit of screening as there were too many tourist's attractions on that small island. We decided to visit the old part of the island first- Fort Siloso, which really brought us back to the history. The exceptionally attractive part of the fort was the wax models, and the description over the role the fort played during War World II. The visit visualized our knowledges and the background of the country. Well everyone, the wax model exhibition is really worth a visit, they looked so real until the guard there scared me, once he moved from his standing post.

Clockwise from top: Gate of Fort Siloso; the entrance; wax-models; underground tunnels; and the model of one of the canons.

The UnderWater World was a attractive tour spot with few hundreds species of fish swimming around us. After the tour, I really amazed by the consistency of the management, which keep UnderWater World nearly unchanged for so many years. I met my old memories in a lot of the corners in that aquarium. The ticket to the UnderWater World is complemented with Dolphin Lagoon, which is 15 minutes away by shuttle bus. The presentation by the pink dolphins was spectacular- flips, spins, tail walk, jumping over the hoop and playing soccer were just like one two three, A B C to them. Well, frankly from both of us, UnderWater World is missmatched to Aquaria KLCC or Langkawi Underwater World in Malaysia. However, a chance to watch the dolphins presentation and visit the old Dugong was still a suprise.

Clockwise from top: Betty tried to reach manta-rays beside "touch pool" of UnderWater World; Pink Dolphin perfomance at Dolphin Lagoon; and fishes, squids, and jelly fish found in UnderWater World.

At night, we watched the "fire and water" show (which we think the Musical Fountain is not a suitable name for it)- The Song of the Sea at Siloso Beach. The stage was set up in the sea while we sat on the beachside, faced the sea, pampered by breeze, , took a great view of the islands far away, and enjoying the show. With blasting fire, splashing water, and blazing laser effects, the show should be rated five stars excellency, with lousy story line. But who cares about the story? Special effects talked louder there!

Great scenes from the Song of the Sea show.

Well, a solid day trip in Sentosa might end up with tiring muscles and souring legs, but not for us. We chose leisure and steady way, with a lot of resting, drinking, talking, and skipped many places of interest on the island (which might be saved until next visit).


Our trip continued...

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