Preface
Hey folks ! Well at first , I decided to pen down a detailed blog on our experiences during Singapore – Malaysia vacations along with great things to do and best places to visit there,but then I thought,most of such information (except of course the personal experience) is already available online ,that too in abundance. Hence , instead, I considered it better to write about that one major mistake which I committed during my Singapore-Malaysia tour , so as to make sure that my fellow future travelers may avoid the same & can enjoy to the fullest.
A little pictorial journey first to give you a glimpse of Singapore & Malaysia :
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The Mistake
Since I was planning for a family vacation at Singapore & Malaysia for long, so I was keeping a continuous check on package prices offered by various popular travel portals in India .Then One fine day ,after a gap of about 10-15 days ,when I started searching for Singapore -Malaysia package again,to my sheer delight, the package price offered by one of the reputed portal had reduced by about 10000 INR per person (around 155 US $ ).Considering we were three – wife & the child who was no longer a baby – I was happy that package included everything I wished for, including Indian Dinners and I was saving roughly around 30000 INR (465 US $) too.
On inquiring , I got to know that reduction in the prices is because instead of staying at Singapore city, we will be residing at a Hotel in Johor Bahru – one of the oldest yet commercially growing cities of Malaysia – which is less than 25 km from Singapore. I was told that it will take less than an hour to reach Singapore from Johor Bahru everyday and considering that it resulted in reduction to the tune of 30000 INR , it didn’t seem to be an issue at all.
That’s the MISTAKE I made guys .I won’t call it a “Trap ” but still, I will strictly advice – DO NOT opt for Johor bahru at all and stay in Singapore only for exploring Singapore,even if you have to pay some extra bucks.I will tell you why :
Every morning , after you leave your hotel at Johor Bahru , travel agents will first take you to Malaysian embassy where your passport will be stamped for – Exit from Malaysia.
Then ,from Malaysian embassy, they will take you to Singapore embassy (about 10 minutes in between) where you have to carry all your stuff with you as your passport will be stamped for – Entry into Singapore
Cycle gets reversed during return in the evening – first you have to go to Singapore embassy to exit Singapore & then you have to go to Malaysian embassy with all the luggage etc to enter Malaysia i.e. your passport will be stamped 4 times a day. This is to be done every single day you decide to visit Singapore from Johor bahru (3 days in our case).Though overall time taken is about 50 min in the morning and 50 min in the evening but it gets really irritating and cumbersome as you have gone there for enjoying & not for standing in the ques in a relatively tensed atmosphere .It becomes even more tiring if you have a child with you. And then ,if its a group tour,then you have to obviously wait till everyone is done. Though our overall experience at Singapore & Malaysia was very good ,especially at Singapore,but this embassy wandering did put our mood little off and could have been avoided. That’s why I thought it to be better to let other tourists know about this.
I hope this blog proves little helpful to the fellow travellers.
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