Hamdan Hamid Travel Site: Mersing n Singapore

Over the weekend, me, wife and 2 kids attended a wedding in Mersing, eastern Johor state and 350km from KL. Left home at 9.30am and reach Mersing at 1.30pm. Took the North South hIghway and exited at Ayer Hitam. We stop by a pottery shop to get some Spode ceramics. Spode are branded ceramic wares sold in the UK. Some are produced in Ayer Hitam. They are however, seconds items.

The road from Ayer Hitam to Mersing are secondary federal road. Only some parts are dual cariage way while the rest are single lane. Most part of journey took us through rubber and palm oil plantations.The wedding reception was hosted by the wife school mate while she was studying in Setapak Vocational School back in the early 80ies. Her ex school mates with their spouse chartered a bus while we drove since we were planning to drive into Singapore. After the wedding ceremony we joined them at their rented beach guest house at D Rimba, 15 minutes south of Mersing town. The beach has beautiful sand with islands forming the backdrop. We chit chat, played carrom and had coffee. We left for Singapore at 6pm. We drove-in to Singapore via the Second Link since it was less crowded. Stop by a rest area on the Malaysian side to fill-up the petrol since they are quite expensive in Singapore.

The queue at the immigration were mostly made up of Singaporeans spending their weekends at the beach, shopping and dining in Malaysia. We had to spend almost 30 minutes filling the immigration forms and doing all the needful. We should have fill-up the immigration form earlier to save time. Copy of car insurance and road tax are also required to purchase the autopass card costing SGD10. Autopass card tracks the car journey and tolls are applied accordingly. The officer adviced us to top-up the card later to ensure we will not be penalized on the way back to Malaysia. The same card can be used for parking and public transport use.

We reached the hotel at 10pm. We had booked Hotel Tristar in Geylang area for 2 nights costing RM350 per night. It was quite expensive considering the high exchange rate favoring Singapore. We parked the car at the hotel basement at the rate of 80sen per hour ie total GSD14 per 24 hours parking. I had some problem to use the auto barrier to the car park, so much that I had to reverse and get assistance from the hotel reception. I was told to use cash card which are available from any 24x7 outlet. Found one just outside the hotel and purchased one worth SGD30. Parked the car and we were in the room at last. Took a bath and went for dinner downstairs at the food court in the same hotel building. The popular stalls are Labu Labi food outlet, Teh Tarik outlet, nasi kandar, putu piring and more...

The closest MRT is Paya Lebar. Shopping complex are found at Tanjong Katong Complex, City Plaza and Joo Chiat Complex, are 10 minutes away.

Next day Sunday had breakfast downstairs at Labu Labi and later took the MRT at Paya Lebar to Punan Electronic at the Town Hall MRT station and later to Somerset and Orchard Road. Had lunch at Arab Street. Perform Zohor & Asar prayer at Masjid Sultan, Muscat Street.

The hotel provided free internet access. Login ID & password were available from the reception. Each login last for 24 hours. We spend the night updating facebook and the website. Later had coffee while watching life football on the big screen telly at the 24 hours food outlet downstairs.

The next day we went to Universal Studio Sentosa Island. The kids had been to the larger theme park in Disneyland Florida but they were still small to remember. Since I had been to other bigger theme park such as Universal Studio in LA and Disneyland Tokyo, this visit is not very enthusiastic especially due to the hot weather.
Rides in any park had the same basic features such as the bowl spin, roller coaster, water ride, train ride, 4Ds show, carousel, ferris wheel etc... They just change the backdrop to suit Universal Studio theme.

Took the MRT from Paya Lebar to Outram Park Station to Harbour Front Station. At Harbour Front Station on the 3rd Floor, there is a monorail service from Vivocity to Waterfront Station (first station) where Universall Studio (USS) is. Ticket for the monorail is SGD 3 per person for 2 ways. Can ride the same train to the other 2 stops in the resort complex using the same ticket.

Entrance fee is SGD 68 and cover all rides. Bought a mastercard promotion ticket which comes with SGD6 restaurant and SGD6 retail voucher. The queue was not long since it was Monday and is low season. School holidays in Malaysia is 2 weeks away.

We went for the following rides which are fully recommended ie Shrek 4D, Transformer 4D, Lights Action Camera, the Roller Coaster, Lost World & Waterworld. I am afraid of height, so there was no roller coaster ride for me. We had fish & chips for lunch. The complex also provide prayer rooms. Bought Universal Studio T shirt and cap(hat) with the SGD6 voucher. Spend some 5 hours and reached the hotel by 4pm.

Note: Hotel charges can be greatly reduced if one were to stay on the Johore Baru (JB) side in Malaysia. In such cases, those visiting USS can take lodging at the many hotels in JB at half the price than in Singapore. Go to google and search for 'hotels in johor bahru'. There are many shuttle bus from JB to USS which are included in the USS tickets. USS open from 10am to 10pm. During non-peak season (ie outside school holidays), there are plenty of time to enjoy all the rides. 5 hours are sufficient to cover the rides with short break in between. During weekend or school holidays, the queue for each ride may take 30-45 minutes. Ensure passport validity are 6 months prior to expiry.

We checked out from the hotel, had some refreshment downstairs and was at the Malaysian border by 6pm. Performed zohor & asar prayers and later proceed to Johor Premium Outlet. Left the outlet at 8pm after maghrib & isya prayers. Reached home some 350 km away by 12 midnite.