Surprising Singapore

I was in Changi Airport on Christmas day to fetch my brother in law who was flying in from Narita Aiport. Our journey started from Gombak at 9.30am on Christmas morning yesterday. Hubby drove and we reached Batu Pahat at 1pm and we stopped for lunch and a bit of rest at his parents home. Then we continued the journey to Johor Bharu to fetch my sister in law and her daughter for the journey. It was our first time to travel into Singapore by car. The new Malaysia CIQ at Causeway was very modern and quite systematic. A bit of traffic, but I suspect that it was not as bad as normal days, everybody still in Christmas mood.

Cars queuing up at the Woodlands checkpoint

We had to go thru two Custom & Immigration checks- Causeway in Johor Bharu Malaysia and Woodlands Checkpoint in Singapore. At Woodlands, we had to fill in immigration departure card or whar they called the "white card". Then we had to purchase Autopass in order for our car to enter Singapore and our car was given 10 days free entrance excluding Saturday, Sunday & public holiday. If not, each car would be charged SGD20 apart from toll of about SGD4 (depending on which area you go in Singapore).

More cars in Woodlands checkpoint

Once we have gone thru the checkpoint, we continued our journey to Jurong to visit hubby's grandma who lives there with her son. The directions were simple enough, we just have to take the BKE highway, then turn into PIE highway, find Corporation RFd, and find block 404. All the highways are short-formed i.e. Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) and the road signs are clear which makes driving in Singapore quite easy. Plus the road is not congested and speed limit on the highwy are mostly 90 miles per hour. So a half hour drive is quite long especially when you are trying to keep within the limit as they will automatically impose fine once you check out at Woodlands.

From Jurong, we continued on to Orchard Road area which houses Mustafa Centre for a bit of shopping. I was told by my colleague that original branded perfumes are cheap there as the owner buys evrything in cash and bulk. So for original Elizabeth Arden's 5th Avenue of 125ml bottle will set you back only SGD 59 or roughly RM145, whereas in Malaysia it will cost almost RM300. Of course yours truly borong perfumes like there's no tomorrow. Sampai terlupa yang mak saya pesan belikan perfume Cinema by Yves Saint Laurent....takperlah mak...nanti saya gantikan dengan yang lain heh heh mak pilih jer mana satu yang nak daripada

bawah nih....

L to R: Hot by Benetton (EDT), 100ml -SGD13.00; 5th Avenue by Elizabeth Arden (EDP), 75ml - SGD35.00; Guess by Guess (EDP), 50ml - SGD45.00; Love in Paris by Nina Ricci (EDP), 50ml - SGD69.00; Hugo by Hugo Boss (EDT), 30ml - SGD39.00.

TOTAL = SGD201 =RM484 - - - -> Value for money!!!