Singapore used to be part of Malaysia, so you would think crossing the border would be simple. Instead, it was actually very time consuming. I took the MTR to Woodlands station, but it turns out that the Woodlands MTR station and the Woodlands train station are two different buildings entirely. The woman at the information desk told me to take a bus between the two.
I had always used my tourist pass on the buses, but it expired. I didn't realize you could pay cash on the bus, so I wasted 20 minutes trying to find a bus ticket machine like for the MTR. Once I got on the bus, it didn't go where I thought it was going to. The woman told me bus 950, but instead of it taking me to the Singapore train station, it took me to Malaysia! I had to get off the bus to go through Singapore immigration, which meant I had to pay the fare again. I used my last Singapore dollar to pay the fare.
Then I had to wait in a monster line after Singapore customs to reboard the bus. The line actually moved somewhat fast because they stuffed people in as tight as possible. As long as the driver could still turn the wheel, they kept packing them in. I'm pretty sure it was a safety hazard, but since we were now technically in Malaysia, I guess Singapore didn't care.
At Malaysian immigration, the lines were short but seemed to be going very slow. I expected to have to answer a bunch of questions about where I was going and why, but the officer didn't even check to see that my passport matched my face! I guess not too many Americans travel to Malaysia from Singapore with devious intentions.
Then the air conditioning stopped. It never started again. I walked a very long corridor to the new train station, completed in 2011. It had no air conditioning either. If it did, I guess they were trying to save on the electric bill.
I found an international ATM (after being rejected by multiple domestic ones with no English!) and got myself a supply of ringgits. I then promptly spent most of them buying my train tickets for Malaysia. The clerk didn't speak much English, but with my reservation papers, it didn't matter.
Now I had to figure out how to kill 10 hours before my train. With both backpacks full, walking around the city didn't seem like much fun. I drank some lychee tea (my new drink of choice) and sweltered for a while in the departure area. I decided that walking with backpacks outside couldn't be any worse than sweating while sitting in a giant glass building.
I found a shopping mall attached to the train station and decided to have lunch. The train station's only restaurant was KFC, so the mall food court looked better. It was actually pretty bad. Then again, my meal cost $2 USD, so I can't complain. My guava juice was less than a US dollar.
After exploring the entire mall, I found something fun to do! There was a movie theater upstairs! I watched Men in Black 3 in English! There were three sets of subtitles below for the other languages, but you could still see most of the screen. I have a great picture from the movie theater, but I can't connect my phone right now to upload it. I'll add it into a later post. Interestingly, there are no previews in Malaysia. I guess without the subtitles, it wouldn't really work.
After the movie, I explored the city around the mall, but it seemed pretty scary, so I went back inside. I was hoping to find a local restaurant, but had no luck. Instead, I found a place in the mall, but not in the food court. At least this one had a name. I ordered a seafood soup and asked for it to be spicy. I'm not sure whether she was just doing what I asked or if she was trying to punish me, but I certainly got something spicy. When I get my phone back, I'll post some pictures. It was the spiciest thing I have eaten so far, so I ordered a pineapple slush to help cool me down.
Now it's time to go back to the train station to wait for a few more hours. The train station has no wifi and I have no travel guide for Malaysia, so this could be a boring wait.
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