Riau Trip - Extended

After an approximately 1 hour ferry ride, we reached the Harbour Front. We were welcome by a quite intense rain. After finishing the custom stuffs, we headed to search for a hotel since we did not book our rooms in advance. We decided to stay in the Novena area, quite distant from the places of interest but hopefully a serene area. Due to the downpour, it was hard to find a suitable hotel for us. But finally, we got our rooms at Fragrance Hotel in Balestier Road.

Since the sun was already set, our itinerary for the rest of the day was visiting Orchard Road. We used taxis to get there and a little bit halted by the traffic jam along the Orchard Road, since it was near Christmas and everybody went shopping a lot.

Strolling along the Orchard Road was quite tiring and we headed back to the hotel at 10.30 p.m.

The morning after from our windows looked like this.

Since the hotel didn't serve breakfast, we strolled to a food court near Balestier area, the Whampoa Food Center.

Then we proceeded to our itineraries for the day.
First stop, The Merlion Park and Fullerton One.

Second stop, Bugis Street and Bugis Junction.

Third stop, Sentosa Island.

And then our short trip had to end. We checked out and headed to Harbour Front to catch our 8 p.m. ferry to Batam Center. We spent the night in Batam.
The next morning, December 18, we flied back home....

P.S.
There was something unusual about my Singapore trip this time. We experienced the glitch on the MRT system!!! Some said that they had problem on the electrical system at the North South Line route (the one that pass through Orchard Road area).

A couple of times I visited Singapore, I couldn't help but to wonder how they managed to run the MRT system so smoothly, reliably on time, and comfortably neat. People seemed to move so fast and confident. I even found the escalator underground were faster than our average escalator speed back at home.

And there we were, jamming and struggling for space on the train, because of the accumulation of people lining up waiting to be transported.