Wildman, I'll be in SIN for 4 days over the Memorial day holiday and plan a one day trip to KL on Tiger. Can you tell me how your trip went? Suggestions/warnings, etc?

Thanks

We found the Battle Box well worth the visit. It was fascinating.
http://visitsingapore.com/publish/st...attle_box.html

Yes, please let us know about the trip to KL.

Too late now, but I would second the suggestion about the Asian Civilisations Museum. There is also a Peranakan Museum in Armenian Street - just opened in April.

For a minute, I thought you were referring to Betel Box.... we just booked a couple nights there.

A less than 24-hour trip to KL is insufficient time to get a flavour of that city. I personally prefer KL to Singapore as the former is so much less 'sanitized'. Things to do in KL for that short period - shopping (Bukit Bintang area, Mid-Valley Mall), eating (Chinese, Indian and Malay cuisines are the local fare) and a bit of sight-seeings (eg. Indian temples, KL tower, huge Ferris wheel called Eye on Malaysia).

Traffic congestion is quite bad in KL, so do make allowance for time to catch your flight back. Airport is about 45 minutes from KL.

Another vote for the night zoo here. ^

Day 1: zoo/night safari combination.

Day 2: twiddle thumbs, drink some NewWater from the tap and wonder what's in it.

Day 3: repeat day 2

Day 4: In lieu of jumping from hotel room, do something crazy to try to get arrested just to feel something again. Best hope might be to take a container of propane on the MRT. ;)

Trip went Great!

NW MSP - NRT 12 hour flight, arrived late into NRT, just enough time to stop at WC for some sake and food (20 minutes) then off to NW NRT-SIN 7 hours 45 minutes flight arrived SIN at approximately 1:30 AM.

Six of us took airport cab (van) S$50. to Intercontinental Hotel arrived about 2:15 AM at first the front desk was going to let us check in early without charge (since I have Royal Ambassador Status.) Normal early check-in for RA member is 8 AM. However when he realized we needed three rooms, he changed his mind and wanted S$300 per room for the 6 six hours til 8 AM. We decided to walk the town, since we had not adjusted to the time zone yet. About an hour later, I convinced the group that we did need to get some sleep, since we would be in SIN for such a short time.

Check into Hotel 81 paid S$50. ($40 USD) for 5 hours. Then check-in to ICH with the free early check-in, UG to junior suite, free mini-bar (yahoo!) No luck on the club access though....rooms were great, bed was fantastic and booze was free! Came to about S$280 per night (including taxes.) Enjoyed the evening buffet for S$53 per person.....It was excellent, presentation and taste was one of the best I have enjoyed! Well worth the money!

Went to city center and bought Two day (they gave us three day) hop on hop off bus passes plus 15 additional tours, came to S$63 per person. It was well worth the extra for the additional tours. Did all but three of the tours, we had to keep moving to get it all in. Did stop for a back massage 30 minutes plus 30 minute foot massage for S$35. combined for each of us in China town. refreshed us a bit.

The shopping was not very good, prices are not that good. Figured we would wait to see what KL had to offer us.
Took the MRT to the airport, cost us a total of S$9. for all six of us after the rebate of S$1 for each of the cards that you turn back in at the electronic ticket station. Cheap!

Flew Tiger Airlines S$25. per person each way (which included tax, service charges, and airport fees.) The food place at the budget airport terminal very resonable, plus very tasty. I would recommend going there for dinner / lunch whether you are flying out or not!

Arrived in KUL at 1540 hours, $45 USD for taxi/van from airport to downtown hotel took us an hour to get to Marriott Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel. Was going to stay at Crowne Plaza, but no UG forthcoming so decide to save the extra $100 usd and stay at the Marriott for $264 MYR(which included taxes) Came to about $83. USD per room. Room was OK with great view of Twin towers (beautiful at night.)

Went to China town for evening of shopping, took monorail cost us about $3 USD for all of us total one way. Shopping was great! Bargainning was great! start at 160 MYR and buy for about 45 MYR. So many people paying more than what you can really buy for. Need to be willing to walk away. Fun and wide selection of stuff to buy! Took monorail back to hotel went to sleep about midnight.

Next day, got in line for ticketsto twin towers at about 9 AM, already long line. They let you get Five free tickets each, our time slot was noon. My wife and I each got five tickets. figured we could give four away.

Three went shopping at the malls and three of us went to the single tower KL tower, 20 MYR to go up. nice views, but they need to get new audio machines! Had enough time to stop by hotel for one drink then walk back to twin towers for our ride up to the bridge. By now all tickets had been sold out. Met a young couple from Ireland and gave them two tickets (very happy!) Then as I waited for the other three to join us, noticed another young couple turned away. Offered them two free tickets, guard told them that they were very lucky, the young couple from Holland was on their honeymoon. They were very excited because they would not have been able to wait another day to get tickets. So it worked out great and I was happy to see the other couples happy....so we were all HAPPY!

After a short promo film on the great Petronas company, it was a quick ride up to the bridge that connects the two towers....you have only 10 minutes to enjoy the view. Then the tour is basically over.

It is now 1PM, walk back to the hotel, check out, take cab 110 MYR to airport. Dang! forgot stuff in hotel safe, turn cab back after 15 minutes to go back to hotel. Traffic very bad, very slow on side streets. Now, 180 MYR for our little trip to airport (which included our detour back to hotel.)

Arrive back to SIN (plane late) 6 PM took MRT to bus station to go to Night Safari (take cab from airport, cabs in SIN cheap.) Arrived night safari about 7:30 PM. Watch show and took tram around to see animals. Very good tour, recommend it (at least to say you did it.) Left for airport at 11 PM $35 USD for cab to airport from night safari.

Used printed out BPs to get through security to airport transit hotel, for a 6 hour block of time, paid S$88 for triple room (rented two of them.) bath and shower in each room. Slept for about 4 hours before checking in at NWA counter and boarding flight for NRT.

Two hours at NRT WC, great food and drinks....probably one of the best World Clubs! Took NW flight NRT - LAX on 747. Two days in PSP then back to MSP! Now, it is time to try and adjust to the time zone!

Any questions, please ask away!

Wildman

nice report, perhaps you should post this in trip reports too.

presume you took the shuttle bus transfer from the MRT to the budget terminal for the Tiger Airways flight.

Yes, you are correct. Free bus shuttle from terminal one(lower level) to budget terminal. If you are going directly to the night safari from the airport, you should take a cab to save time. We took the MRT to the bus station and that wasted too much time (you have to travel back into the city and then out again, where as with the cab they can take the expressway that runs on the North side.)

Do you mean that you checked in online and printed boarding passes? With these you were able to pass through immigration, get your passport stamped, and checked into the transit hotel? And then you checked in again at the NW WC, which I presume to be airside?

I print the BPs out at the Night Safari. When we arrived at the airport, the immigration officer did not want to accept them as real BPs. He said the NW counter is closed, they are not boarding passes. I replied yes they are BPs, just the online version...we used them in USA all the time. He took them to his supervisor and the supervisor said no problem. All six of us were allowed to pass through, We then checked into the airport transit hotel in terminal one. I requested a 5 AM wake up call. At 4:30 the hotel front desk called my room and said the NWA was looking for the six of us. I thought we could just go to the gate and get our passports verified. However, NWA has a check-in counter airside. There is no WC, but one can use the Thai Airways lounge. I went there for a roll and coffee. Then I heard NWA paging us. So we went to the NWA check-in counter (airside.) They seemed surprised that we were able to get airside with the online version of the BPs. But that is the only way we would have been able to use the Transit Airport Hotel.

One thing that I did, which I believe helped was to cut everything else off of the 8 x 11 sheet, except for the BP. Because it states in BOLD letters at the top of the sheet THIS IS NOT A VALID BOARDING PASS. DOCUMENTS MUST BE CHECKED. Not sure if we just got lucking in getting through or not. I still do not know how NWA knew we were already through immigration. At first, I did not believe the front desk at the hotel that NWA had called for us, but I ask the NW agents and they stated that they did call the hotel looking for us. They stated that security is very tight in Singapore and that they needed to check our documents before we would be allowed to enter the gate area.

Another neat thing in Singapore is that if you are transiting for 96 hours or less, they will give you free passes for the MRT and Buses. The same program allows for free tours of Singapore. We didn't take the time to check into it. But did pick up a flyer on it.

Where did you learn of this program?? I have transited SIN for less than 96 hours MANY times and have never heard such a thing.

I tried to Google SIN transit and found the official website, but there's no mention of free passes.
Can you help?
Best, Dave

Did you mean to write Terminal 2 instead of Terminal 1? Budget Terminal's website makes no mention of a pickup point at Terminal 1.

I'm interested because I am planning to bus it to Changi Terminal 2 and then hop on the free shuttle.

I found this (below) but I don't fully understand the details at first reading. I'm visiting SIN from the US in August so any help would be appreciated. It looks like only PRC, Indian and CIS nationals qualify?