I was in Singapore for a few days before getting on a boat for Australia.

The journey to Singapore went well. It involved several modes of transport and a bit of improvisation.

I didn’t know exactly how the journey was going to go before setting off, just that I had to get up early and that there was a good train that I could be on and one or two other less good ones.

I got up early in Melaka and went and got something to eat. Nothing was open at this time, other than a wife-and-husband porridge restaurant, so I waited 10 minutes in there (until the porridge had finished cooking) until that was ready. On returning to the hostel, I found that Stanley, the hostel owner, was around. He gave me some ideas on getting to Singapore and gave me a lift to the closest bus stop. Here I bumped into two people who were on the same public bus in the other direction, about 2 days earlier.

In the bus terminal, I walked around until I found the bus that I needed. People were saying that in order to get to Gemas, the station I had got off at on the Jungle Line, I needed to change in Tampin. This had its own train station anyway, so as soon as I saw it on the bus I hopped-off. I had a roughly 30-minute wait in Tampin, when I called the hostel in Singapore and reserved a bed for 3 nights, at roughly 60% of the advertised price.

On the train I was torn between getting something to eat from the restaurant car (a counter at the back of my carriage) and waiting until I got to Singapore. I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, but the choices looked uninspiring, so I decided to wait. After a while though, I couldn’t wait any longer and went back, determined to buy something. The woman had packed-up, as she was getting off at the next stop, but gave me a piece of banana cake from her handbag, that she was saving for herself, for free. I ate this gladly and this kept me going until I got to Singapore.

At the second to last station I got my passport checked by Malaysian officials and then at the final station, Woodlands, I got checked-in to Singapore. Once in Singapore, I had to find an ATM machine to get Singapore dollars, find something to eat and then get a bus to the nearest MRT station. Once here I got the metro to where I was staying.

The time spent in Singapore was as follows:

Day 1 – looking for somewhere to stay (the hostel was full for the second night)
Day 2 – looking for a rain coat
Day 3 – looking for a rain coat, seeing Wahida (who I had met in Chengdu)
Day 4 – preparing for the voyage, going round the botanical gardens.

I had to board the container ship at 21:00, so getting there after the botanical gardens was a bit of a rush.