Asia - SIN Dec 20-25...Best place to go from here

My girlfriend and I are going to be in Singapore from Dec 18-25, and after spending a couple of days there we would like to travel somewhere else. However, we are both students that will be graduating in January and have very little cash to spare. Is there any destination that is worth going to, but not so expensive. We were looking into Phuket, which was about S$400 for 2 nights and return flights from Singapore...the price has probably increased by now. All suggestions would be appreciated, since it is our first time to Asia. Thanks!

There are lots of suggestions on the Trip Reports, Northwest, Hilton and Mileage Run Forums.

Some places you might consider are Bintan and Batam (short ferry rides from Singapore), Malacca and the east coast of Malaysia, a day trip to Johor Bahru, Langkawi using AirAsia which just started to fly to Johor Bahru. Singapore is the most expensive of the three countries. In general, it is much cheaper in Malaysia and Indonesia.

If you forget western amenities and travel as the local population do, you can get by without spending a fortune.

You could always take either the bus from Singapore into Johor Bahru (see this post for more info http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/Forum30/HTML/000257.html). From the Johor Bahru bus terminal, you can fly up to Kuala Lumpur on Airasia (www.airasia.com) very cheaply (RM$19.99), or even take an express bus (RM$20). The current exchange rate is US$1 = RM$3.8.

The downside about taking the Airasia plane is the travel from the Kuala Lumpur airport to downtown KL costs about RM$30 one-way. The bus takes you directly into downtown KL.

Actually, there are special buses for Air Asia customers only that do the trip for only 10 ringgit. See the website (http://www.airasia.com) for details.

I'd spring for the KLIA Ekspres though if I were you, it does the trip in 28 minutes in much greater comfort, while the bus will take 60 minutes on a good day (and trafficwise most days in KL are bad). The KLIA Transit service, all of 7 minutes slower, even has a promotion right now: 2 adult returns for RM 98 (list price RM 140).
Or, if you're really cheap, you can get a RM 10 return to Putrajaya, get off, wait for the next train, and buy a RM 10 return to KL...!

More info: http://www.kliaekspres.com/