Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Walking Down the Memory Lane: Singapore

I went to Singapore this last August! *i postponed the post until the year changes..*

For those who read my post from last two years, you would know that I went to Malang. Actually, it was at the event of grand team building for us divisions and bureaus of SPA FEB UI. Yep, I went to Singapore for a team building! I forgot to write a post about my trip in Malang, it was probably thanks to my superpower in procrastinating things :) However, I will not let this Singapore moment past just like that!

So, here I am writing a post about my Singapore trip, hehe.

unch
--- below would be my personal experience which may be irrelevant to you, feel free to skip this post!
--- I used mixed language for the sake of reliving the same feel/excitement


Preparation
I remember that I was very much worried about our grand team building trip. I did some research regarding some places to visit, which include Karimun Jawa, Lampung (!!!), Malang (again!), etc. I think it was one of my hardest task when I proposed the idea of having grand team building to my associates. I was afraid that I may accept rejections, that they don't like the idea of having a long trip with us (sad..). Lucky me, they greeted the idea excitedly! And most importantly, on that very day, the idea of going to Singapore popped up. I seriously considered the idea because our accommodation would be secured during our time there (thanks Airbnb girl??? HAHAH). It just seemed so feasible.

Other big obstacles would be about passport. Two of us (me included) didn't have a passport or a passport that has more than 6 months expiration date. Insan, who hasn't got a passport yet, had to make it in Padang so he could only proceed it during the holiday. The preparation process was making me anxious but thanks God one by one those obstacles went away. I was able to get my passport (and getting so much bonuses because of that in the end lol), we purchased our flight tickets, and so here we are ready to head for Singapore!

OH! I forgot that I had one more incident. I was first scheduled to have internship starting on July 17th until August 31st. That was a big no no for me.. I needed free time on the last week of August so that I would be able to go! There were several lag days after I finally get the information that I was able to just do my internship on July 3rd until August 11th. If it wasn't because of that, I didn't know what I should do! I swear after I told my friends that I could go on our agreed days, we purchased the ticket right away.

D-Day!

August 19th 2017 - Day 1
We were scheduled to go on a flight on August 19th 2017. Things didn't go that smoothly either.. On that day, Helen had to go separately from us. We were at the airport already while she just drove away from her home. Gile demi apapun itu deg-degan juga nungguinnya. Luckily we allocated quite a lot time before taking off. Oh, it wasn't enough.. After we successfully checked in before the locket closed, Irfan had to meet his parents. I didn't know what he did but... it.... was very lama it almost made us late for boarding!!! Well, not late though we came in just in time as people were told to board. However, the flight did take off 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. It was fucking surreal though at the airport until we finally seated nicely on the seats! I. REALLY. WENT. TO. SOMEWHERE OVERSEAS. WITH. THESE. FELLAS!
omg omg omg (Insan went there first)
The flight took about 1 hour and a half, I didn't quite remember either. However, I noticed it when we passed the Indonesian-Singapore border. I think we did see Batam just minutes before we landed in Singapore. Seems funny though, to land in a country which size smaller than Jakarta.

Arriving at Changi, we were elated to fine tap water. This thing would soon be the very first thing we search when going to public places and this thing made our water bottle seemed 100x more precious. Thank Helen for reminding us to bring water bottles! I didn't think this make a big difference until I found out how crazy pricey shit the stuff there, including water bottle. A fucking Aqua (with the exact brand) which usually cost me IDR3.000 (if it's IDR5.000 I would consider it overpriced and you'll find me cursing the seller) was sold at S$3 there. Yes, a damn IDR30.000. Are you kidding me Singapore...

Okay, so we were actually still at Changi! So, my friend (which I think prefers to be anonymous here??!?! hhahaha) were having digestive problems.. He went to the toilet like a lot and it seemed to worsen once we land in Singapore. After going out from the toilet, he told us his concern that Singapore toilets don't have water sprayer! Hahaha this soon would be one of our duh-we-miss-Indonesia thing.

We took quite some time at Changi because my friend also took quite some time too to go to the toiler (HAHAH mianhae!). And I think that make Insan wait for quite a long time... HAHAHA.

So, Insan actually took a different route than us. We went straight from Jakarta to Singapore while Insan went on his own voyage from his hometown to Malaysia and then continuing to Singapore. I didn't really know how he managed to find the route but I admired him because of this, though! Insan would wait for us at Bugis Street MRT station, so after we took MRT train from Changi, we need to stop at Bugis Street first.

Problem is, he didn't have internet connection. OK so guys, being on a foreign country without the internet sucks and I have gone through it once. Now, imagine finding a guy who doesn't have internet connection. Hm.

When we finally went out at the exit gate, we couldn't find Insan anywhere. Finally, we decided to walk though the whole MRT passage underground to find him (I didn't know the mechanism of MRT station naming or its structure, I just supposed that there are several stations named Bugis Street which I later found out harusnya gak gitu anjir). Since our friend is really struggling with hmmm menghentikan pergerakan cairan berlebih??? wkwkwkw so we decided to have the rest of them wait at Long John Silver (now I long for their salted egg dammit) while me and Evie went together to find Insan.

We walked. Like a lot. I didn't even know why we walked without any directions!! Finally after several thousand steps, Insan sent us a message! Turned our he walked back to Masjid Sultan, where he got internet connection earlier that day, and contacted us. OK so we headed to Masjid Sultan and... it was damn far from where we were. Lucky us that we gave our luggage to our friends having dinner at Long John, so we needn't walk with so many heavy stuffs. And finally we found Insan waiting! Lu seneng kan san pas akhirnya ga jadi anak ilang lagi w tau wkwkw.

He told us his story then.. He was supposed to arrive in Singapore at 4pm but instead he arrived at 7pm because of some troubles. He had trouble with the immigration people while entering Singapore. He suspected it was probably because he asked for an immigration stamp while he went to Entikong earlier in August (a suspicion though). Then he missed a bus and had to wait for another two hours. Wow, that was quite an opening remark for a grand team building.. So, it was super glad actually that we were able to meet as a complete team, seven people!

We were so tired so we decided to just head back home. I realized that Singapore's bus system was already well established, we easily caught on the buses that would take us to Evie's place. Oh, it was expensive too hahahaha (can't stop comparing it to Transjakarta fare. I can't imagine though how much was spent by the government to subsidize us these peasants!). Evie's place has two 7-11 counters nearby so we headed to one of them. I could find my favorite onigiri! This would soon be that one item that I bought probably too often.

At probably 11pm, we arrived at our (now I'll use our ya vie HAHA) place. It was super tiring but we felt dirty as well, so I decided to take a bath. I think several people from our group didn't take a bath that day, ewh memang. We finally fell asleep at 12am on that day.

August 20th, 2017 - Day 2
It's finally Sunday!

Helen had made us a super packed day, but we woke up very late that day. (now it's October 9th so I may have missed a lot moment..) We decided to grab a quick breakfast at 7-Eleven. I bought myself a onigiri since I like 7-Eleven's onigiri and that it was the cheapest HAHA. That day, we are going to go sightseeing around many public places in Singapore.

First, we took the bus to the Esplanade. I wasn't actually sure why we went here in the first place since we weren't planning on watching any shows. However, we decided to go instead. It was SO hot that day and we used our umbrellas. We took the MRT but I think the Esplanade isn't that reachable with MRT??? We took quite a long walk through the underground crossing (there were children practicing something lol) then we were at that suspicious place because all I could see were fences! The Esplanade was on the other side on the large road and we needed to cross the street, mind you I've gotten to be paranoid towards large roads in Singapore if it doesn't have any zebra cross painted on it.

Finally, we find another underground crossing, so we thought it was supposed to brought us in the Esplanade. We took the steps down and.. voila. We met this picturesque underground parking HAHAHA. I think we spend 30 minutes just to take pictures at this place. Ini mungkin yang dinamakan syok dengan lokasi baru, guys.
pic of the guys
After getting bored with taking pictures, we proceeded to the real Esplanade. We're there but.. just as we thought, we couldn't get to the theater because there were no free shows that day. However, I remembered reading in someone's blog that the Esplanade's rooftop is definitely something to look forward to. We went upstairs, and after some obstacles (read: tempat bagus buat foto sehingga kita stop dulu beberapa saat), we finally made it to the rooftop. It was not disappointing at all!!! Gua seneng banget sih berhasil naik ke atas karena: 1) BISA BENER-BENER LIAT DURIANNYA ESPLANADE, 2) GREAT VIEW OF THE MARINA BAY SANDS, 3) GREAT VIEW OF THE BAY, 4) WE FOUND WHERE THE MERLION IS (we were almost giving up on Esplanade to go to the Merlion instead). Oh, and no 5) THERE WERE FREE TAP WATER!!! We were literally burnt with the heat and fatigue so the tap water was like an oasis. (look at my first picture!)

We went back downstairs, taking another picture with the MSB in the background, and proceeded to the Merlion. I wasn't particularly interested in taking pictures with the Merlion since it was packed with tourists so we only took pictures from afar. I think it was almost 12 and we quickly moved from that place and went to the next destination: National Gallery of Singapore.
we looked super happy, didn't we?
Helen had bought us an online ticket so going to the NatGal was a must. We didn't want to waste SG$15! Gue pengen banget skip ini semua dan langsung bilang "akhirnya kita nyampe di NatGal" but I just can't.. Tempatnya jauh banget gila.. Well, sebenernya ga sejauh itu tapi gatau kenapa panas banget dan gue bagaikan melewati gurun. Oh, terus keselnya lagi adalah ketika sampai di jalan besar, kita dan NatGal dipisahkan lapangan rumput gede gitu.. terus kita takut nginjek rumput dong :)) Jadi, setelah beli es krim Singapore di ngko-ngko (yang banyak banget di Mangga Dua, baik es krim singapur maupun ngko-ngkonya), jadilah kita berjalan memutari lapangan rumputnya dan menuju ke NatGal. Oh, terus cobaan banget sih ini ke NatGal karena pengeeen banget langsung nyebrang begitu ngeliat pintu masuk, tapi kita takut dan akhirnya memutuskan buat jalan lagi ke depan agar ketemu lampu merah :)) Seriously a developing country like Indonesia is more efficient in crossing the roads (more prone to accidents as well sih but yeah). Another obstacle (read: Helen's AsNTM photo session), and we were finally in the National Gallery of Singapore!

First thing to notice: the air conditioner was a day saver.

Second thing to notice: the place is big as hell. and aesthetic.

We went straight to the ticketing counter and there were a loooong queue. We failed to get to the fast track line even though we bought the ticket online since the seller is actually a third party, however, I think this was a blessing in disguise. SO our ticket guy was this Indian-Malasian (now that I think about it he might be from Bangladesh) guy, let's call him Alberto. He asked us whether we were students and we said yes. "These are regular tickets, you know?" "Yeah" "Aren't you interested in the Yayoi Kasuma?" "Hmm, no just these regular tickets please." He continued working to our tickets, asking where we came from (we answered Indonesia of course then he started to make conversation in Melayu). After he finally gave us the tickets, he asked us again whether we wanted to go to the Yayoi exhibition. So I am highly skeptical in unreasonably kind people and Alberto is being weird. I kept thinking, did he want a commission for selling us special tickets or what, but I just said (grumpily), "We wanted to but we just didn't have the money." "Ok, save your tickets." He started to do something with his computer and I SWEAR I DID SUSPECT HE WAS GOING TO GIVE US FREE TICKETS BUT BOI ain't that too impossible???? And shit, he did give us free tickets.

We were high key surprised that Alberto started to panic and shooed us away. BUT HOW COuld we not be we were so fucking thankful for the free $15 tickets dude!!! That seriously lifted up our mood. We went to the exhibition, took a great deal of pictures (we spent around 2.5 hours there just as expected by Google).

We are not a big fan of art exhibition but that experience was definitely something to look for once in a lifetime!

we mistook this as the Yayoi Kusama exhibition but it turned out we were wrong HAHAHA

the real Yayoi Kusama experience
The clock kept ticking so we decided to move onto the next destination: the Marina Bay Sands. We were actually planning on having lunch but it was 4 o'clock already, so we took the bus to go to the MBS.

I didn't know if Singapore is that small or what, but as soon as we got off the bus, we met another attraction place in Singapore: the Helix Bridge. Another photo sessions!

At the MBS, we went eating at the Rasapura Masters. I have always imagined this place to be some kind of hawker's street (though I was suspicious as to why it was placed within the MBS) but Helen said it was cheap there so there we went. Alas..... the place wasn't as cheap as I expected it to be, duh! The cheapest (and probably not the most economically worthy dish) was $4.8 and the next cheaper dishes were already above $6. Ok Helen. We didn't have any other choice though so we ate there.

After eating, the next itinerary was to go to the Marina Barrage. I think this part is better given in bahasa since I want to be as expressive as possible HAHA.

Jadi, Marina Barrage ini adalah tempat untuk ngeliat sunset gituu kalau kata Google. Untuk ke sana, nggak ada transportasi lain dan kita harus jalan kaki melewati Gardens by the Bay. Mulailah kita jalan dari stasiun MRT MBS menuju ke tamannya. Jalan jalan jalan ngikutin Google Maps... kok gak nyampe-nyampe.. Jujur ini kita bener-bener ngelewatin tanaman-tanaman mencurigakan yang mungkin jarang banget kali didatengin sama anak muda HAHA. Parah, sejauh itu sampai kita capeeek banget dan bener-bener gayakin ini tempat tuh ada. So, after 30-40 minutes of walking, which is capek banget, tiba-tiba mulai ada tanda-tanda kehidupan.. Kita menemukan Satay by the Bay yang harusnya udah menunjukkan kalau udah deket nih si Marina Barrage. Ternyata bener aja, 10 menit kemudian akhirnya kita sampai di Marina Barrage! Tempatnya keren banget sihh, jadi bener-bener banyak rumput super hijau gitu dan banyak banget yang piknik serta main layang-layang. Dari Marina Barrage juga kita bisa ngeliat sunset.
ini mereka abis bersungut-sungut sama gue karena diajak nyasar
But did we see the sunset? :) Engga :) KETUTUPAN GEDUNG JIR. I think I read the blog wrong, or the person wrote the blog wrong... The place can only be used to see sunrise, sialan. However, it was a nice and soothing place. Since we are so tired, we went laying down together on the grass. Looking up to the dark sky, we can even see some stars coming out! Weird thing also happened, Insan and Irfan got Indonesian signal there.. We were really at the edge of Singapore. If you read my writing above, Singapore is REALLY close by to Batam and I suspect the tank ships I saw at the other side of the sea were actually Indonesians' tank ships.
can't see the sunset
After the kinda romantic star gazing, we needed to walk again to the Garden by the Bay to watch Garden Rhapsody. The rhapsody will take place at 8.45 pm but we didn't really plan on actually watching it. We only planned to look at it for several minutes and then go to the Singapore Night Festival.

Walking an equivalently long walk (but they insisted this one is the shorter route), we finally made it to the Gardens by the Bay. I actually forgot the name of the tree like structures, but you know what I meant.. We arrived just right at 8.45pm and the show was already starting! We decided to lay down again (since we were already dirty anyway) there to enjoy the light and music show that was playing above us. Gila bagus banget btw shownya...... Keren parah! Mungkin penyesalan gue adalah tidak datang lebih cepat karena akibatnya gabisa naik di OCBC Skybridge, tapi nonton di bawah juga udah bagus banget! Gue bingung mereka pake speaker sebagus apa karena suaranya sejelas itu walaupun musiknya dimainkan outdoor. Juara lah memang Singapore!
those stargazing nights are for sure to be remembered!
After the show ended, we wanted to take pictures! It was another stupid yet laughable moment of us since we tried so hard to make some structure so that we'd be able to take group photos by ourselves, tau lah, kita mencoba bikin tumpukan tas atau apapun gitu buat naruh hapenya Irfan (yang udah terbukti sangat bangus di kegelapan). Ini bodoh banget though karena kita ga berhasil. :)
ini bahkan Evie-nya ga kefoto HAHA
Seakan belum capek, setelah itu kita langsung menuju Singapore Night Festival! Sebenernya udah capek sih, tapi SNF ini acara yang cuma ada setahun sekali gitu dan pas banget ketika kita datang, lagi ada acaranya! Meskipun begitu, pas nyampe di lokasi sebenernya gue agak kecewa sih karena ternyata b banget? Idk if we actually skipped the good part, but pictures and videos on instagram were hella good! I guess you can't stay lucky for the whole day.. Karena sudah capek, kita akhirnya menuju halte untuk pulang. Ehh tapi sebelom itu, ternyata kita ketemu sekolahnya Kaesang! Terus agak bodoh gitu karena kita ambil fotonya pakai flash masing-masing supaya terang, wakakak.
semoga balik lagi (?)
Around 11pm, we finally arrived at our (WKWK) apartment! As usual, the bathroom order is Devy #1, then all the girls, Insan, and that's it. Habibie and Irfan never took evening bath hahaha jorok memang mereka :) Hari itu capek banget sih tapi, we took 22,000 steps that day, FYI.... Since the next day will be more tiring than that day, we went to sleep right away!

August 21th, 2017 - Day 3
It's Universal day!

We planned to go to Universal on Monday hoping that it would be less crowded. As usual, we started the day a bit late though compared to other days, we started our trip rather earlier, at 8.30am we were already at the bus stop.

We were using discount tickets purchased from the internet by our usual ticket master. At first we were already discouraged by the long queue at the entrance gate of the theme park, but luckily, our prepurchased tickets enabled us to skip the queue we could go straight in. There were technical difficulties with our tickets since the printing quality wasn't so good so the people had difficulty in scanning our barcodes. We must first download the .pdf tickets (luckily Helen sent us the .pdf!) with the sometimes-so-slow Passpod (more on this later!) before we could get in.

Getting in, the magic started! It was my first time going to a Universal Studio theme park and I gotta admit that they executed it well. It was like going to another world??? Haha well no that was exaggerating. I didn't know how good it was until I went to Dufan a month after that (the last I went to Dufan was 5 years ago), so I kinda underrated Universal's theme park back then.


Though not packed, we still underwent a long queue.. The Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure cost us two hours waiting for just five minutes ride. We were at first being paranoid that we would get soaking wet but.. nope. I honestly felt like wasting money on renting those safety lockers hmm.

Overall, if you go to both Dufan and USS during a short gap of time, you'll notice that: Dufan's rides are way more challenging to your adrenaline and they would surely get you very wet if not dizzy as hell (I threw up at Dufan). You cannot deny though that it was because Dufan's safety measure is incomparable with that of USS, so that must be it, lol. (as I was writing it, my friend sent me a news article about people being hurt while taking Dufan's Arung Jeram, duh! but it's okay guys accidents happen all the time right, try Dufan pls!)

My biggest regret at the USS was probably becoming too afraid that I didn't try their most extreme rides! I didn't get to try the Transformers and Human-something-roller-coaster ride (google says it's Battlestar Galactica). I def could try them arghhh sebel sebel sebel. But it's okay, at least I'll have something to look up for if I go there for the second time.

We spent a great deal of our time waiting, thankfully, USS provided us with our basic necessities so well (read: WiFi and drinkable tap water). I was always skeptical towards public WiFi but they proved to be reliable during our visit there. For a day, we can forget about our overheating Passpod modem :)) I also purchased a burger at a retro-themed restaurant called Mel's Diner. The restaurant looks very much alike Riverdale Pop's, though I'm sure that was just how mainstream American's diners look like.

At night, we split ways because: Habibie and I were too afraid of the Battlestar Galactica, Helen was too sick, and the rest went their own ways. Funny part is, we suddenly had the urge of betting our guts and try the Battlestar Galactica! It was comical remembering how we ran our way there since it's getting closer to closing time, tried to rent a safety locker in panic (it is required), and then proceeded to queue. Then guess what happened? Ha ha, right before our eyes, the queue was cut off. WOW NICE GUY USS. They actually had this super accurate waiting time estimate so we really couldn't argue since the estimated ride time would be after USS is closed.

When we were finally reunited, we took some pictures then went back from the USS. We needed to take some train to VIVO City to get back to the city, and guess what, another queue! Seriously guys, I started to feel that we spent much more time queuing there than we did playing! Thankfully I went there with the people I enjoy so we could kill time by chatting to each other so it wasn't really time wasted.

Back at the city, we hadn't had dinner so we, kinda rushing with time, tried to go to a famous food hawker center. We went to Zion Rd hawker center as it was close by to our apartment at 9.30pm, thankfully it was still open! Well, not all were still open, but the most famous one, No. 18 Fried Char Kway Teow was. I ordered the small size with a lemon honey juice from another stall. IMHO, the dish was kind of overrated?? I 100% prefer Akang's kwetiaw back in Jakarta as it was more to my taste, the char kway teow here were too sweet for me and the portion was too big, I think none of us finished our dish that night. We should've shared! However, the juice was delicious and refreshing, the taste was too strong and it kinda stung my throat, but it was actually good, so it's like having this guilty delicious feeling while sipping it hahaha.

OH! We finally bought Salonpas koyo that day from VIVO city's Guardian! We were more tired than the previous day even though we didn't really walk that long at USS. Probably it was because of the prolonged hours of standing, a Dancow video I watched as kids did say that standing requires your muscles to work harder, though. Btw, I just bought one pack of koyo in Jakarta few days ago, and surely those in Singapore cost us so much more.. We applied those koyo pads to our legs and finally got to sleep!

August 22nd, 2017 - Day 4
This is foto cantik day!

We were planning on having a nice dinner at Clarke Quay this evening and having several photoshoots in some spots, namely Little India, Little Arab, and Haji Lane. Well, the itinerary also scheduled us to go to Chinatown, but yeah. You know us.

It was quite confusing at first to find where this Little India is but as usual, Google Maps helped us to find the way! My impression of Little India: it's smelly :( Nah, it wasn't the kind of unpleasant body odor or what, it's just the strong incense smell that I found unpleasing. We ended up not spend a lot of time there and went straight to Haji Lane. BUT before that, we're having lunch at Bugis Junction. I didn't want to elaborate a lot of things now that I'm way too long into my stories and I have descending writing-motivation-graph HAHAHA but this is important since we.. met Nicut there!

Gue tau sih kalau geng BEM akan datang ke Singapura juga di waktu bersamaan, but boy I didn't expect that I'd meet them! At first it was my associates recognizing their friends, then when I met more of them, duh it's Nicut and the gang! I met Hisyam too, one of my staff back in Devout days. Well, hello guys! These guys were planning on going to Haji Lane and we didn't want to meet since it'd be awkward hahaha so we went on our separate ways!
Menjadi fotografernya saja pun saya senang
At Haji Lane, we took quite a lot of pictures, since it was why we're there for! We also found the spot that Rizky Febian used for his music video (I think). We met another BEM gals and asked Syekhan (who'd soon be Ketua BEM FEB UI lol) to take a picture of us there.
difotoin Ketua BEM FEB nih HAHA
It was hard to retell that day because really, all we did was taking photo! However, some incredible experience happen at the evening that day.

We were planning to eat out at Clarke Quay but it was too early, I was hoping to eat until it was late at night. So we proceeded to the Chinatown first to grab something to fill our tummy, we wanted to try shaved ice, in fact. While looking for the shaved ice place, we found this hawker chicken rice with one-star Michelin! I started having exposure to Michelin starred restaurant after I watched the movie The Hundred-Foot Journey (well, Ratatouille gave me the very first exposure but I really only recognized them as 'stars'). Eating at a Michelin restaurant was in my bucket list so I dragged my friends to eat there HAHA. The dish cost S$3.9 and we split the bill to four :) What can we do, duh, we're going eating that night!

After trying the dish.. hmm.. I think it really proved my Twitter bio: I'm damn blase over most things. I couldn't think of anything that made that dish special over all other delicious food that I ate?? Seriously a nearby bakmi would feel the same to me. However, I was pleased that I finally can taste a Michellin star dishes, an affordable one, even!

We then hop on a bus that would took us to Clarke Quay. One of our plan was to actually surprise two people who are having their birthdays, Devy and Evie. Problem was, we didn't know where to buy cakes! I tried googling it and found some place where we could probably buy some cake. So when they were waiting for their food, Habibie and I would go buy cake for them.

You guys have probably realize by now that we rely on 1 modem during our stay there, which I refer as Passpod throughout this post. When Habibie and I went cake-hunting, the modem was actually kept with them and we.. were forced to walk aimlessly with no internet connection! It was even more worrying when we found out the place that we were looking for was nowhere to be seen IRL. I am until now still amazed by how successful our random wander was that night. We were practically out there without connection but managed to find some decent mall place to get a cake! I purchased two cakes (which cost me more than any other cakes.. HAHAHA) and went back to our dining place about 30-45 minutes late. Devy knew but Evie was clueless about the plan! Overall, whichever their reaction was, I was glad that we were finally able to celebrate their birthday there during our trip.
makan cantik (?)
Then someone broke the news.

Helen was actually feeling a bit sick from the beginning of our trip. It started making her uncomfortable and she told us that she was considering buying a flight ticket back home before our grand team building ended.. Now don't get me wrong, I am not being selfish by not wanting the best for her, but I got my own mission for the group duh that needed to take place the night after that. Finally we reasoned to her and decided to stop the trip earlier that day and took her to a 24-hour clinic. We googled it and found that one of the 24-clinic available is at the Mt. Elizabeth hospital somewhere far from the hustle-bustle part of the city.

It was a 45-minutes trip (which was quite far comparing to our other trips) and we finally arrived at the place at 9.30pm, if I wasn't mistaken. We registered and were shocked af to find that the consultation fee after working hour was 90-ish SG dollars! It was around IDR 1 million if converted. But I guess the pain was unbearable that my friend agreed to that and so we waited for our turn. When we were up for the first checking, the (not sure what to call it? intern?) intern told us that if his diagnosis was true, the medication would cost us S$800. Hemm what the hell dude.. Again, my friend agreed to this so I just followed along.

Finally, we were called for the doctor. He did the examination, and then asking us whether we were students. Then he said something so kind to me, "I've been in you guys position as students, and I understand this might be expensive for you. This is not urgent and I think you can just go to the nearest general practice, it would just cost you S$30 comparing here, if you take the option then I would not charge you anything (including that damn expensive consultation fee omfg) and you can just go home."

GILA BAIK BANGET. PARAH. I HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS KIND OF DECENCY. JUST WHEN I THOUGHT, "no wonder doctors are making that much money." I regret not being able to recall his name, u know they introduce their unfamiliar name so fast so.. Any how, we decided to just go home since it was getting late, it was 11.30pm and the last bus took off at 12.

We arrived at the same station in our first night, again jaywalking by not taking the proper place to cross, then walked past McDonalds (DUH) and finally back to our usual 7-Eleven, then to our apartment.

It was midnight so as usual we took turns taking bath (with Insan always being the last person hehehe). While waiting, I looked at the TV and thought, this is one of the modern type I might be able to do YouTube here and I did. We jammed that night through TV-displayed YouTube, and probably that night we invented Boys as our my song! We went through a lot that day and singing along or just watching these videos on YouTube had proved to be soothing enough to our minds.

August 23rd, 2017 - Day 5
(Yes this is finally starting to come to an end)

Our plan for that day: to go to VIVO city and buy some Irvins, take Helen to the GP, and eat lunch at Simlim square.

We took the bus to VIVO city and damn I was shocked to find a long queue! It was 11am when we arrived and the stall were just opening at 10! Our purchase was limited to just 5 bags per person and the stock was limited, we were hearing announcements that this flavor this size had been sold out etc. We finally got 5 bags per person but I actually needed more so I decided to go back the next day. After purchasing our Irvins, we went to Simlim Square to eat lunch. When we got there, I was uncertain if this place had a famous restaurant. I mean, Simlim Square looked just like Mangga Dua with all those electronic stores. We went to this restaurant called Taste Good to taste their salted-egg chickens. OK so I'm starting to feel that this salted egg frenzy is all over Singapore and the people who are flocking to Singapore are us Indonesians. They even said that they are opening a branch in Jakarta this November. The chicken did taste good actually, it was also quite cheap compared to our other dishes.

Helen was actually feeling much better than the previous day and she said she no longer needed the GP, thanks God we didn't spend IDR 8 million the night before! However, we still went back to our apartment to store the Irvins. We were actually feeling tired and sitting on the comfy couch caused some of us to feel asleep. I was tired and fell asleep for several minutes; however, I decided that we needed proceed with our trip! We went far away here and it would be such a waste if we spent the evening just sleeping on the couch, however comfortable that was.

With such difficulty to move from the couch, we went to Orchard Rd! There might be little to see there, but we managed to kill (overkill, even) time by visiting some of the stores. We went to the Apple Store (at first we wanted to take picture there hahaha but we were too tired after days of losing faces(???)) and then walked in to one of the malls. It had the biggest Kinokuniya I've ever seen in my life... But I was disappointed to find that the books there were actually much more pricey than what I have here back home! A comic book cost you so much that I'm not sure why they have a greater literacy than we do, lol, it probably the striking difference of purchasing power after all. There at Kinokuniya I also came to realize how big of a wibu our group is.. I really didn't expect them to like Japanese things that much but surprisingly they do! Kinokuniya is one factor that made us overkill the time, we spent 2 hours, probably, at that store.
biasa, turis.

We then went eating at one hawker food centre there at Lucky Plaza, Orchard. The place was actually quite decent and they offered nice food with good price! I ordered chicken rice (at last) and yong tau fu. God, the chicken rice was not disappointing at all!!! I think I enjoyed that chicken rice more than what I had the day before, the Michellin star one.

At 8pm, we went back to our apartment, cleaned ourselves, and then came the event which I have prepared for (and was actually nervous for), the deep sharing :)) I looked forward to it because I wanted each of us know more about ourselves. We also shared our concerns there which I thought was nice. However, I think I might not conducting it in the best way since... hemmm me and Irfan weren't good at things like this and we also didn't have event like this back when we were associates. However, I did see my fellow associates at different and newer perspective since that day.

Cukup bahagia
We went to sleep at 6 (!!!!) in the morning. I was anxious because we needed to go to VIVO city to buy some additional Irvins for our last day! I am the type of a person who was okay sleeping late as long as the sun hadn't appeared, so I kinda hurriedly went to bed before 7am (the sun rises at 7 there). It just doesn't feel right sleeping when the sun is already up!

August 24th - August 25th, 2017 - Day 5 and Day 6
You might wonder why I merged these two days into one section. You'll know later..

I woke up at 9 that day, having slept for 3 hours since last deep sharing session. I woke Habibie up since we needed to go buy Irvins. We actually came 30 minutes earlier than the previous day but I just couldn't understand, the queue was much longer! More varieties were suddenly already sold out at some points of our queue and after some incidents, I got the last bags of chips! Phew, it seemed like my effort wasn't wasted after all. We decided to have a quick bite at McDonalds there, I bought the signature Classic Angus Cheese, which I really wanted to try, it was expensive but worth it! I liked the cheese so much and after all, chasing McDonalds menu seemed like my hidden agenda while abroad, lol.

Habibie and I then took the MRT to meet with our other fellas, we were going to meet at the MBS MRT station and went to ArtScience museum. I actually wasn't the type who like paying much money just for sightseeing HAHA and even if I did, I want to really enjoy it, not taking pictures while at it. However, our first day experience still lingered on my mind and I realize that it wasn't a bad idea at all.

ArtScience's tickets was a bit pricey compared that of The National Gallery of Singapore, given we can only see 1-2 exhibitions and the place wasn't as big as The National Gallery of Singapore. I went searching about the entrance fee before I went there and found out that we could get quite a big chunk of discount if we showed them our student ID. By buying tickets as students, we were getting S$5 deduction from the normal adult fare.

Now, the rest of the story was history and I feel the damn urge to write it in Bahasa for the best (writing and reading) experience. HAHAHA.

Sebenarnya ga banyak yang bisa dilihat di ArtScience.. Tapi ya gitu, interaktif banget isinya :( Di sana entah kenapa tiba-tiba kita semua jadi mewarnai, bikin art paper, main perosotan, dan hal-hal unfaedah lainnya. Pesawat kita akan berangkat jam 7 dan gue udah mikir sebenernya agar jam 3 sore langsung keluar makan dan segera sampai di apartemen untuk beres-beres. Taunya pas mau keluar, tiba-tiba ada yang mau main perosotan dong :( dan setelah itu ada juga yang jadi tertarik sama semacam mainan interaktif 3D gitu. Emang keren banget sih teknologinyaa parah, bener-bener art meets science. Sekeluarnya dari tempat itu, emang dasar gak mau rugi, kita naik dulu ke atas untuk nyari pameran lain. Di sana ada semacam tempat tiduran untuk nonton film animasi mengenai habitat orang utan. It felt so relaxing there, I felt like enjoying life! Dan lagi-lagi juga, ketika mau beneran keluar tiba-tiba ada yang mau ke toilet dulu atau apa, banyak banget hambatannya!
hal tidak penting (1)

hal tidak penting (2)

lucu juga ne
Akhirnya kami berhasil keluar untuk makan dan jam 4 baru berangkat ke apartemen.

Sampai di apartemen, ternyata packingnya belom kelar dan susah banget! Sumpah, bingung banget dengan alokasi beban koper dan juga alokasi Irvins yang sangat menggembung dan makan tempat itu. Untuk packing itu kita ada kali makan waktu sampai jam 6 sore. You know what happens at 6pm in every country? Rush-fucking-hour :) Gila, setelah selama itu di negeri orang dan terlalu nyaman sama lalu lintasnya, gue jadi lupa kalo di tiap negara pasti akan ada jam pulang kantor dan jam macet :( Hari itu busnya jadi lamaaa banget dan MRT tiba-tiba jadi penuh. Udah gitu MRT-nya gaboleh dipaksa masuk terus, sampai-sampai 3 temen gue ketinggalan karena ga kebagian naik MRT! Yaampun itu rasanya mau nangis karena gue bener-bener gatau mereka ketinggalan di kereta belakangannya, mendadak jadi kangen kereta negara berkembang yang bisa magic banget isinya..

Sampai di Changi, lagi-lagi kita lupa kalau Changi itu gede banget dan terminalnya jauh-jauh! Begitu nyampe di loket check in, eng ing eng kami sudah telat 10 menit dari waktu paling lambat untuk check in.

Rasanya? Wah lemes banget.

Gue bingung mau bilang apa ke keluarga di Jakarta yang udah mau jemput wkwk karena kan bodoh banget ya ketinggalan pesawat gitu.. International flight lagi.. Mau gak mau, dengan segala macam pertimbangan, akhirnya kami terpaksa membayar denda SG$ 95 dan mendapat tiket langsung untuk penerbangan selanjutnya. Itu gede banget sih jir dan bisa buat nyewa kamar di MBS semalem kalau ditotal dari 6 orang wkwkw. Insan untungnya naik di flight yang berbeda dengan kita dan dia berhasil nyampe di Jakarta lebih awal (meskipun nyampenya kemaleman dan pada akhirnya doi harus tidur juga di Soetta).

Malam itu, kami jadi berseliweran aja tuh di Changi. Nyobain McDonald yang ternyata murah juga untuk paket cheeseburgernya, terus ketawa-ketawa gak jelas mungkin karena hari sudah malam, tapi entah kenapa rasanya bahagia aja malah itu. It felt nice to embrace your grief with friends, no? Hahaha. Syukurnya adalah kalo di Changi karena airportnya bagus dan sudah karpet semua, kita nyaman-nyaman aja tidurnya. Keamanan juga sepertinya terjamin karena kayaknya kemarin gaada yang mikirin soal koper dan lain-lain. Masalahnya adalah pada AC mungkin yang terlalu dingin.. Sepertinya bermalam di airport memang butuh persiapan khusus, teman-teman!

Esok paginya, karena tidurnya juga udah kedinginan banget akhirnya kita juga bangunnya jadi pagi haha dan tidak ketinggalan pesawat lagi, hamdallah :') Sampai di Jakarta sekitar jam 9 pagi, ternyata cukup kangen juga ya?!?! Lucu banget sih ketika naik eskalator pertama kali terus semuanya masih pada berbaris di sebelah kiri HAHAH #negaramajumajuclub

sampai ke habitat

TL;DR
Perjalanan seru bersama saya dan Audit ke Singapura! (males bikin TLDR hehehe).

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