Singapore
Singapore - derived from the words 'Singa' and 'Pura' = Lion City.
One of our favorite cities. A perfect small getaway, away from our homeland.
A two-hour plane ride. Clean, neat, organized and structured.
Multi-cultural and modern at the same time.
A small country with a huge potential.
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The picture above is one of my favorites (it's also one of my best photos taken by my old iPhone). So, the story of how we ended up taking a short sudden trip to Singapore was pretty ridiculous. Exactly a month after we went back from Sweden (we were already married by then), my nanas had to make a KITAS, which is basically a Permanent Residency Card. We were pretty sure we googled everything before we applied to the immigration office in town. We handed in all the files we were supposed to submit, not once, not twice, but 3 times, because we made ridiculously small mistakes like, my ID Card wasn't printed on an A4 paper (I did it on an A5 to save papers yo). Then, just when we thought we got everything, it turned out we had been wrong. The super bitter lady working for the office was telling us that in order to apply for a KITAS, my nanas had to apply for a VITAS first. Which is basically a shorter-term visa (not card) stamped on nanas' passport.
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We thought.....ok....fudge. We actually understood the whole procedure wrong. So, we asked the bitter lady what did we need to apply, and she was like.. "ma'am, you and your husband must submit these files, pay the invoice to the immigration office in Jakarta, and fly to Singapore to get your husband's VITAS stamped on his passport. Then, after you get back here, you apply for the KITAS". And there was no way in hell we could get our VITAS stamped in Indonesia, it had to be anywhere else in the world except for the country you want to live in. And this all happened after we went to Sweden, and had most of our money invested somewhere.
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So, whether we liked it or not, we had to have a short visit to Singapore. I was actually quite happy because I hadn't been to Singapore for at least two years since I moved to Japan. But, we were also concerned since we just started working in the family company. In spite of it all, we booked our flights and 2-nights stay later that evening.
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We stayed at Hotel Boss in Lavender. The name is cool and awkward at the same time. It's almost sarcastic because "Boss" is the word describing who we are not. Hotel Boss is so close to the bus station and the MRT station. WE LOVE LOVE the location. It's also got a minimart and a food court right next to the lobby.
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So, we finally got a free room upgrade. I didn't even know what he said, but we got one with a higher floor, and a city view! The room was tiny, like any other big cities' hotel rooms. But it was modern, and comfy. Don't have the picture of the room, since my old phone broke. But we managed to save the city view!
Hotel Lobby. Sitting here while my nanas worked his way to get a free room upgrade.
The view from our hotel room is the Haji Lane
We went in April, Singapore was humid and scorching af. We couldn't take more than a 15-minute walk, it was ridiculously uncomfortable. We spent most of days after breakfast either by the pool or in our room. The pool is one thing I love the most about this hotel.
The pool's on a higher floor, so we could have a good look at the pretty buildings. But because it was super warm, unfortunately the pool water was also warm.
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We personally loved the trees and how lush it is on the pool floor. There's also a gym right around the pool, it's a square-shaped glass-walled room, super futuristic and fancy. No barefoot / slippers / bathing shorts / durians allowed.
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The hotel is just a 10-minute walk from Kampong Glam, Arab Street and Haji Lane. Due to the crazy temperature in the day, we mostly traveled in the afternoon - evening. We hadn't had a good evening walk in Indonesia, cause it's just more mendokusai and a little bit uncomfortable. So we took our chance here for a good evening walk out after a nice dine out at Kampong Glam Cafe.
We also did a slow walk to Bugis Street, which also wasn't far from our hotel. Honestly, we couldn't even stand being inside for more than 15 minutes because every tourist who wants to do some shopping goes to this specific market area.
DAY 2 : another unexpected fucked up thing happened.
After a nice evening walk out, we went to bed and woke up the next day to a nice city view. We went to the Embassy of Indonesia, took about 15 minutes by MRT. We were sure this time that we would get all the files right. But it turned out...we still didn't. And this time, it wasn't our fault.
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When we paid our VITAS invoice in the immigration office in Jakarta, we were told by the admin officer there that it would only take LESS THAN A DAY to get the VITAS stamped on the passport. He specifically said, "Paling cuma 3 jam bu, sudah bisa diambil lagi paspornya", which translates to "it'll only take 3 hours, then you can come and collect the passport again". But the sour lady from the Immigration Office in Singapore said, "no no no, Indonesians always make the same mistake. The office in Jakarta always say that. It takes 2 days, you come back in 2 days". Believe me when I said we were pissed off as hell. We had booked our return tickets for the next day. We had to spend an extra unexpected cost to cover another person's mistake, and that's the worst feeling of all. MAJOR FACE PALM.
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Feeling like utter shit, we took a slow walk to Orchard Rd. Had to calm ourselves down, and just embrace it. We booked another flight home for the next 2 days, and another extra night for the room. Felt like we were completely fooled but what else could we do? So we enjoyed Orchard Road, even not for long.
At the end of our trip, we actually felt less angry and completely overwhelmed with our short hectic getaway. This is one story we will never forget. And it's the story we tell our friends who have a similar case like ours, hoping that they will not make the same mistakes we do.
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Here is some pricing info for our hotel :
Price per night was: Rp 1,500,000 ++
Agoda: https://www.agoda.com/hotel-boss/hotel/singapore-sg.html?cid=-146