I went to Singapore once with my family, June 2009. But I didn’t stay in Singapore. I stayed in Johor Baru, one of Malaysian big cities near Singapore.
From my place in Perak, I used train to get to Johor Baru. Actually there is a regular train that serve daily journey from Ipoh to Johor (also to Singapore), but the time is not right. This train departs from Ipoh around 11 am and arrives in Johor at 8 pm (Singapore 10 pm). It is not a right time to find any place or walking around, especially when you bring your family.
So, by checking the train schedule from KTMB, I found shuttle train from Ipoh to KL early in the morning and a train from KL to Johor (also to Singapore) that departs at 8.30 am. The time was just right, I arrived at Johor Baru Train Station around 2 pm. If you haven’t book any hotel, this is just a right time to look for your hotel. Anyway, some people said that Johor is not quite save, especially at night. So I made the right decision 
I already booked a hotel room for my family. Sometimes if you check the official web site of a hotel, you can get a good bargain. This time I took a family holiday package from a 5 star hotel, The Puteri Pacific Hotel. The price was good, comparably cheap with apartments in Singapore. For a comparison, you can have an apartment for two person in Lucky Plaza Singapore for S$ 80/night (2 person). I got RM 260/day for my family (2 adults, 3 children) in a suite. That’s roughly almost the same price if you count the kids for the apartment. So why bother a small apartment room if you can get a big deluxe room?
Any way, you can go to Singapore early in the morning since the intercountry bus is operating from 6 am to 11 pm. As soon as we finished our breakfast, we went to Singapore by bus. We have to alight twice, for Malaysian Immigration and Singaporean Immigration. Don’t forget to fill the white card . You can go by train too, but this train only operating early in the morning, around 5 am.
If you don’t have any problem, you can get to Singapore only in 30 to 60 minutes. Unfortunately, I had a problem. I don’t know what kind of problem because the officers didn’t do or ask any strange questions. Any way, it took 1.5 hours for us to get to the first bus station, the Kranji Bus Station which is also an MRT station.
From this station, actually I can go to Singapore Zoo by MRT and Bus, but according to gothere guideline, a taxi will cost a little bit higher for the four of us. So we took a taxi to the Zoo, faster and you don’t have to walk a lot.
The zoo is not a large zoo, but nicely arranged for walker. Don’t take a tram, because it is not worth it. Just take a walk, and you can see the animal collection. If you take the tram, you won’t be able to see the collection clearly. Most of the collection requires you to walk to the cage and see the animal, not from the tram.
My children only enjoyed the children facility, such as water park which is availabe for free. We spent our time mostly on the kidz zone, not seeing the animals . Anyway, you can spend as much as time you can for the Zoo, but roughly 2 hours is enough to see all the collection.
After we finished, we went to Singapore Science Center by Taxi. It is quite far from the zoo. The place has so many attraction such as theater and some science exhibition counters. The one I don’t like from this place is the counters are separated in parallel. If we don’t know where to go, we might miss some of the exhibition.
From science center we went to Jurong East MRT by taxi and continue the journey to Bugis Street for souvenirs. You can find cheap souvenirs here, especially the middle shop. Indonesian likes to shop souvenirs , so this place is not to miss.
After some souvenirs shopping, we went to Merlion Park by taxi. Unfortunately, it was already pass working hour. The taxi charged a surcharge that cost me more than the taxi fee itself. Anyway, we only took some pictures with the Merlion background and ready to go to the busiest part of Singapore (Maybe ), The Orchard Road.
Not much to see in Orchard Road, since Department Store are all the same in Singapore or Malaysia or even in Indonesia. So we just took a little walk and luckily found Indonesian food corner at the Lucky Plaza.
Don’t worry about transportation, as long as you can manage the time before 11 pm, you can still find public transportation, including the one to Malaysia. So if you still want to go to Sentosa Island to see Song of The Sea, you still have time.
We arrived at our hotel around 11 pm with so many places already visited in Singapore. So, it is enough for us to get around Singapore in one day.
Tips:
- Prepare for small money if you want to take buses, they don’t provide change.
- Use taxi if you have more than 3 person
- Please check the route by using gothere.sg
Have a nice trip to Singapore !!
source:http://www.schoolofuniverse.com/2009/07/visit-singapore-through-malaysia/
