July
18, Wednesday & July 19, Thursday
KL Sentral near Gate B
By this time the fresh blouse I had put on in the morning was completely soaked from sweat. Walked back all the way around the building, and back to the main level, where I am now searching for GATE B, which is nowhere to be found with the instructions I have been given. I finally spot the security police office and go in to ask for more directions. FINALLY, some clear instructions; the only problem is that it is only 12:30 and they won’t open the gate to Gate B until the train comes in from the North, heading for Singapore. Oh, and guess where the track is? #*$*&$^&# ! Back down a different set of escalators and elevator. The seating area was pretty much occupied so I decided to go buy a sandwich and drink to bring on the train with me. While I was waiting for the gates to open, I had an interesting conversation with a lady about my age who was heading back home. One daughter lives in KL and two sons are in Australia; she filled me in on the economic situation of both Malaysia and Singapore. She was of Chinese descent and confessed that although she had lived her entire life in Malaysia, she had never learned the language. She spoke Mandarin and English but could only understand basic Malay. We were advised by loud speaker that the train would be 25 minutes late arriving at KL Sentral. By the time it finally arrived, I had been standing for 2 hours and my feet were killing me.
The ride to Singapore was 6 hours and unfortunately, there were trees lining the tracks most of the way, so I didn’t get to take many pictures. Plus the window by my first class seat had a broken seal and it was fogged up from the outside heat & humidity.
The train to Singapore
One of the rare pictures I was able to take of the Malaysian country side
So guess which part of the city my hotel is? Bukit of course!
I’ve booked into the Hotel IBIS for one week, on Bencoolen Street. It’s close to the downtown core where many tourist attractions are located, so I will be able to walk around a lot.
It is so familiar, it feels like I'm home again. HA HA !
I had a nice meal at the hotel “Flavors” restaurant, had a shower, caught up on some emails and Facebook and finally went to sleep very late!
July 19, Thursday
I woke up fairly early and read for awhile, “Shake Hands with the Devil” by Romeo Dallaire, which I had not yet had the chance to read. Love that Kindle on-line book store! It looked like it might turn out to be a nice day, but by 11 am the clouds rolled in and by noon it was raining.
July 18
After breakfast, I
had a leisurely morning getting my luggage back together for my train ride to
Singapore. I checked out at noon and
headed for the KL Sentral Station. What
a difference from when I arrived. The taxi
dropped me off at the main entrance of this HUGE complex. I have no idea why the bus did not drop us
off here when I first arrived; it would have made my life a lot easier. In any case, since I had booked my train
ticket on-line, I needed to find the ticket office to get it printed. Not such an easy task in such a huge
building. I saw a ticket office off to
the left, but it was for local KTMB trains.
The signs for the Express trains pointed down the escalator. Not a good
idea with my huge suitcase, so I walked around the main floor looking around
for an elevator. Down I went, in search
of the ticket office, which was nowhere to be found. I finally located someone who worked in the
station and asked where the ticket office was:
back upstairs to the “local” train wicket. Back up I go and get my ticket printed, and
head back downstairs to follow the signs to the KTMB Departure area. It seemed like they made us walk all the way
around the perimeter of the huge building, only to find out that this was the
Departures for the Airport! ! #*$&$^&# ! So where was the departure area for the
Singapore train? YOU GUESSED IT…. BACK
UP TO THE MAIN LEVEL. 
KL Sentral near Gate B
By this time the fresh blouse I had put on in the morning was completely soaked from sweat. Walked back all the way around the building, and back to the main level, where I am now searching for GATE B, which is nowhere to be found with the instructions I have been given. I finally spot the security police office and go in to ask for more directions. FINALLY, some clear instructions; the only problem is that it is only 12:30 and they won’t open the gate to Gate B until the train comes in from the North, heading for Singapore. Oh, and guess where the track is? #*$*&$^&# ! Back down a different set of escalators and elevator. The seating area was pretty much occupied so I decided to go buy a sandwich and drink to bring on the train with me. While I was waiting for the gates to open, I had an interesting conversation with a lady about my age who was heading back home. One daughter lives in KL and two sons are in Australia; she filled me in on the economic situation of both Malaysia and Singapore. She was of Chinese descent and confessed that although she had lived her entire life in Malaysia, she had never learned the language. She spoke Mandarin and English but could only understand basic Malay. We were advised by loud speaker that the train would be 25 minutes late arriving at KL Sentral. By the time it finally arrived, I had been standing for 2 hours and my feet were killing me.
The ride to Singapore was 6 hours and unfortunately, there were trees lining the tracks most of the way, so I didn’t get to take many pictures. Plus the window by my first class seat had a broken seal and it was fogged up from the outside heat & humidity.
When the train
arrived at the Woodlands Train Station in Singapore, I opted to take a taxi
rather than the MRT system. It was past
8:30 and I did not feel like towing my luggage around to locate the train to
the downtown area. Good decision. I had a really nice cab driver who gave me
lots of information about Singapore.
Population
= 5,183,700 , of whom 3,257,000 are Singapore
citizens. Everyone else is a foreign worker. He told me that the
majority of the population were of Chinese descent. He also said that the city is very safe
and that the locals respect each other’s cultures and religions. The other interesting fact is that in school,
children learn English as the primary language, but they must also learn the
language of their cultural heritage:
Mandarin, Malay, Hindu, Tamil, Arabic, etc. Most people here speak more than 2
languages. Instructions are printed in
at least 5 languages! And Canadians
complain about 2. ... Really? He also advised me that everything was more
expensive in Singapore which means that many of the locals need 2 jobs to make
ends meet.
“Singapore, the Lion City, lies between Malaysia and
Indonesia, with a total area of 693 sq km and a coastline of 193 km. It
consists of one main island and several other surrounding islets. It is often
described as a gently undulating central plateau that contains water catchments
and natural reserves. There is a small cluster of hills at the centre, and
mangrove swamps along the coast, especially in the northern and western
regions. The highest point in Singapore is Bukit Timah (a hill), with a height
of 166 m which is situated in the central region of the island. The mainland
measures 47 km from east to west and 28 km from north to south.” So guess which part of the city my hotel is? Bukit of course!
I’ve booked into the Hotel IBIS for one week, on Bencoolen Street. It’s close to the downtown core where many tourist attractions are located, so I will be able to walk around a lot.
It is so familiar, it feels like I'm home again. HA HA !
I had a nice meal at the hotel “Flavors” restaurant, had a shower, caught up on some emails and Facebook and finally went to sleep very late!
July 19, Thursday
I woke up fairly early and read for awhile, “Shake Hands with the Devil” by Romeo Dallaire, which I had not yet had the chance to read. Love that Kindle on-line book store! It looked like it might turn out to be a nice day, but by 11 am the clouds rolled in and by noon it was raining.
I needed to go out anyway to change my Malaysian Ringit to Singapore
dollars, so I went out with my umbrella to a nearby shopping centre where I
found a money exchange place, ate lunch, purchased a few items to munch on and
walked around a bit in the mall. The
rain did not look like it would let up any time soon, so I headed back to the
hotel, picked up some tourist brochures and a city map and headed back to my
room. Nice quiet day. I can take the MRT system to get to most
tourist attractions and they also have a Hop-on / Hop off bus system as well. That
should make my life here fairly easy.
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