Thursday, November 22, 2007

Travel Secret : Enjoy Singapore without spending a DIME

Singapore has always been on the global spot-light for transit options; not withstanding the fact that Singapore Airlines(their major one) does not exactly offer basement bargains ??!!
In order to explore this anamoly DD (that's Detective Deepak) put across his pointed hat and his Dad's credit card to zoom away on a trip to New-Zealand and a single day transit at Singapore.
To his surprise he discovered, that transit options simply expand his horizons as far as travel benefits he was entitled to.. which includes not having to wait for a VISA stamping, or paying for it either, and experiences he would surely experience on his stay.
Armed with a Detailed Map and his piped curiosity he set around to discover Singapore without spending a DIME.
(Note Timings and $ are all Singapore unless specifically mentioned)
9.00 AM - Flight arrives into the land of Lee Kuan Yew, this ensures that DD gets his breakfast on schedule. Everything going as per schedule.
9.30 AM - Rushes across to the end of Terminal 2 (Landmark : the forest settings) where you shall find two counters; one of them for the Free Singapore Tour and the other for the free Transit across to Singapore.
Upon closer inquiry with the beautiful lady behind the counter DD realizes that his options boil down to either the "Colonial Tour"(All major land-marks of the city and the Bum-boat ride (no pun intended)) or the "Culture Tour"(tour around lil india, china, japan, et all).
After all for DD juggling options are much like catching speeding bullets, and within a blink of the eye (not cause of the girl behind the counter) he decides to book for the 11-1 PM Colonial Tour.
11 Am - 1 PM - Accompanied with a tour guide whose only other side job was to tickle us with his PJs and arm us with the rich history of Singapore we set ahead to explore the major land-marks of Singapore including the Mythical Merlion, the opera house (or the building that looked strikingly similar to Sydney's opera house), strolling across victorian type houses and mordern goliaths of steel and concrete and last but not the least the awesome bum-boat ride.
With the help of the guide he also marked up all the places in the MAP (in case he needed to come back later)
1 PM - Rushed back into the visitor center after they scrutinized my well forged passport (jus kidding), and minutest later hopped on to the 1'0 clock Free Shuttle which goes into the city. Good for him, he also got a free Lunch coupon which he did readily consume(not the coupon of course) upon the course of his arrival at Bugis Street.
Just as his stepped down upon the streets there appeared a momentous task of finding directions throughout the labrynth of Bugis Street and Lil India(which is around 15 min walk from the drop-point). Unfortunate for him though, he did not have bread-crums and hence could not do a 'la hansel and grethel to mark his directions from the contact point till his shopping spree but thanks to the mordern day GPS system he could swing back and forth across the places upon foot.
Here he was DD dandily swaying across the streets of singapore and then suddenly a mental sms arrived to remind him of his assignment-part2 : To find the cheapest electronic store in Singapore; quick as a photon surfs upon the cosmic wave he took to his task and unearthing another untill now not-known fact beside a tiny not yet discovered Electronic shop called Naranjan Electronics (Location : Close to Mustafa's Mart - THe shopping mecca of Singapore, behind the Mosque) .
Here is a sample survey which is presented to redeem himself
Case in Study : Samsung 7.2 DigiCam (with ASR, 4x , et all)
Indian - Costs around 15,000 INR/-
Singapore Shops - 430 S$ = 12,900 INR /-
Mustafa - 330 S$ = 9,900 INR /-
Naranjan Electronics - 270 S$ = 7,100 INR /- (including a 2 GB card)
7.00 PM -After indulging himself in a shop-till-you-drop scenario he arrived back to the pick-up center to avail his free shuttle back to the airport around 7 PM .Note: You only need around 1 hour before your flight departure to check into Chiang airport (which by far is the fastest i have seen or heard about)

10.00 PM - Sipping his much needed Orange juice he relaxes with the in-flight dinner. Job Well Done

I sure hope that DD has now given you a good enough reason to explore the option of Singapore as a Transit option and also to explore the entire singapore with only a __________ in your purse.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

awsum blogs man...u seriously proved 2 b a true sagi...kewl...n this blog was amazingly good..keep up t good work :)

Unknown said...

awsum blogs man...u seriously proved 2 b a true sagi...kewl...n this blog was amazingly good.all t best .. keep up t gud work :)