Amazing Three Days in Singapore

To start off, I want to thank Allah SWT for making everything that comes my way, thanks for your help with anything and everything. Secondly I would like to say thank you for Mr. Sonny Sugema (Idea person, the head of Taqwa, Cerdas, Kreatif foundation); Mr. Ihsan, Miss Osi, Miss Nurhayati (my great English teachers); Ibu Mia (my superb concelling teacher, tour guide as well) and those of you who have already contributed to the first Alfa Centauri Annual Spelling Bee. and all those Alfa Centauri Spelling Bee participants who fought hard in this competition.

Well  I had never expected that I could win a free ticket to Singapore, actually. Because you know sometimes practice is not enough, a half of it is luckiness. Yeah I guess I was lucky. I had never expected some words I spelled would make me go to Singapore.

Singapore is a very small and somewhat clean country that is very strict. Over years, Singapore has earned the name, Fine CITY, yeah because it’s so tiny. I think Singapore is even smaller than DKI Jakarta. I would say Singapore deserves to be called the cleanest city in the world. I was so impressed by the strict rules by the Singapore Government. There are so many tall buildings. The weather is pretty hot, I think it is as hot as Jakarta. There are three major various linguistic groups, they’re Chinese, Malays and Indians but the majority is chinese. I think they don’t really speak straight English I mean they don’t really care about the grammars. I heard they speak Singlish (Singapore English), yeah I kinda agree with that cause I didn’t quite get what they said when they started speaking English. Singapore is unlikie other Asian countries. No crime, no corruption and you are safe even when walking alone at night

The City

The streets are very clean cause there are strict laws against littering of any kind, i think. I didn’t see a beggar sleeping on the streets or holding out hand in cupping position to take mercy on them. Not like Indonesia, you can see some beggars everywhere. But I don’t know exactly cause I didn’t explore all of parts of Singapore. One surprising thing I saw was, singing beggars? Haha yeah I saw two. But the biggest differences, there are more creative than singing beggars in indonesia. They bring their props such keyboard, speakers, violin. And I guess, it’s good to hear, at least better than Indonesian singing beggars.

The Transportations.

Well you know, I didn’t really see so many private cars. Maybe just some, but not as many as in Indonesia. Soo its rarely honks. The drivers were so friendly and nice, they tended to stop their cars then let us cross to the other side. I heard from Bu Mia’s family who live there that owning and driving a private car in Singapore is very costly and the car park charges can be very expensive. Maybe that’s why Singaporeans tend to use public transportation to switch it instead of using private cars. The public transportation in singapore is wonderful. It’s very clean, punctual, comfortable and easy to understand. Some public transportations I experienced were the bus, the train and taxi. As I noticed, there are two major bus operators in Singapore, SBS and SMRT, it’s pretty cool lol the service is good, very comfort, good seats and costs less  than the train or taxi. You can see some advertisments on bus! Adverts are often placed a on the side or front of a bus and they have good designs and pictures, so i think its so eyecatching. And I saw double decker bus for the very first time!! haha you’re free to mock me. Next public transportation is train or MRT (Mass Rapid Transit). It’s faster than SBS or SMRT, of course! I think it only takes 3 minutes to get the next station. It costs more than SBS or SMRT. And I found its pretty cute, we need a self stored value card to get into the train. We have to pay  fares by restricting entry only through the fare gates. We get this ticket from General Ticketing Machine. Yeah it’s comfortable as well but  i think sometimes you might hate it when it comes no seat available and you have to stand for several minutes. I didn’t mind though, it was still nice! I love how singaporeans giving up their seats to those who need it. The last public transportation I experienced was taxi. It’s not really different from the taxis in Indonesia though. Okay it led me to take comparison between public transportation in Singapore (SMRT, SBS, and MRT) and public transportation in Indonesia (DAMRI, KPAD, even busway, KRD, etc). Its a shame on us -_- Its not really safe, uncomfortable, broken seats, arrogant people who don’t wanna give up their seats to those who need it, *bau tujuh rupa* hahaa i don’t wanna translate it to english but yeah its true. I hope Indonesian and especially the government to improve it at least to be better, safe and comfortable.

The food, shopping area, amusement places.

I don’t really know about it. It’s just my experience. Day one, we ate Blackpepper beef, yeah we can find it in Indonesia so its not really unique. Day two, we ate Tom Yam Instant for the breakfast, I didn’t really like it though. For the lunch, Adam and I ate Nasi Kari (Aww actually I wanted Nasi Goreng, as Bu Mia offered us but too pity it was out of order, the only ones who got it were Fathin and Hasna). Gotta say, Nasi Padang is better! hahaa. For the dinner, I tasted Indian food for the first time, I guess. Yucks, sorry my tongue didn’t match with Indians tongues hhehe. We ordered Nasi Briyani. I think its pretty weird, it tastes fine but be careful you may find spices (which I don’t like it at all. I bite one and eww i threw it up). Weird thing, Adam got his plate very clean yeah I mean he ate all of it haha WOW. Day three we ate McDonald’s at airport, it’s not really different from McD in Indonesia, just one thing, I didn’t find rice? Yeah. And you can easily find McDonald’s, starbucks, subway, pizza hut in singapore. Some of them open 24 hours. And if you want to try something different, there are frog legs or pork all over. We stayed near Kallang (Geylang road) and it’s very very nasty. You may smell pork and beer along the street.

Okay that’s all about the food now let’s move on to the shopping area. Main shopping area in Singapore is Orchad road (yeah its very awesome) but the stuff here would be so damn expensive. Yeah we were there but didn’t buy anything hahaha. We bought souvenirs and some stuffs in China Town. Its cheaper, more traditional, you still can try bargaining unless if the price is stuck on the price list and yeah it’s pretty safe and comfortable. We went to Mustafa Centre, luckily. There are some international brands up there such chocolates, snacks,  candies, and other things you find in supermarket. Yeah we bought chocolates!

Amusement places? Well I don’t really know. We just went to Science Centre Nanyang Technology University or NTU (You might think its not amusing but for me it is lol). Science centre is an awesome place with a great architectural that promotes scientific and technological education for public. It reminds me of IPTEK Sundial Kota Baru Parahyangan lol its pretty similar like that but Science Centre is way cooler! Bu Mia said that we need 6 days to explore all of stuff there hahaa WOW. Oh yeah next its about Nanyang. Nanyang is one of the best university in Asia, or maybe the world? It reminds me of David’s Case -_-. Yeah there are plenty people from Indonesia who study there. Nanyang is soo very large!

Lesson from Singapore

I noticed the most was there were no fat people in Singapore, no I’m not kidding. People walk, hard-walking. The motorists are ever mindful of crossings even without the obvious walk sign coming. I was impressed by the posters in buildings and parks telling people what they should do, what they shouldn’t do and I knew I would  be fined if I broke the rules. And It also surprised me.  You know Singapore does not have any natural sources though. In 1965 (if im not mistaken) Indonesia helped Singapore to achieve independence by mobilizing it. Living with no natural resources, now it  has developed the busiest port in the world and become a rich country AND more developed thn Indonesia. The fact is the government have good regulations and strict rules. Well rules will not ever work out if people don’t obey it. I think people there are well educated. They WORK HARD and they’re DISCLIPINED. They have worked for it, they deserve it. Well it’s time to look at our country. There it is over crowded, crime, corruption, pollution, littered, we don’t care about others. Let’s learn from Singapore. Singaporeans are just people like us, we’re as same as in ASEAN. Well its not too late. We can reach out their spirit, satisfication and dedication. Yet there’s difference, THEY OBEY THE LAWS and they’re very DISCLIPINED. I think, disclipine is the key and that all matters.

One precious lesson from this trip, I love the way Bu Mia guide us. She left us, in a place where we have dealt that we would meet again. She wanted us to use our english by inquiring us to interact to people there to know the street or the lift. Or she left us at the airport so we had to get through the gate to the airplane by ourselves. She wanted us to be independent, I guess. I hope someone from Alfa Centauri could study in Nanyang though it’s not me but i do really wish that i could get that gold chance. But “wish” apparently is not enough, I know I have to study extra hard to make it happens, and it’s worth to fight and I am willing to stick to fight!! I would like to say It’s the BEST trip I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t trade this worth experience to the world.

Thank you.

Advertisement