Public Transport in Singapore

First I'll like to blog about the recent awesome pantomime called Cinderal-Lah! produced by Wild Rice! Productions. A pantomime is a mixture of theatre genres that aims to localised famous moral stories and inject lots of humor and cross-dressers into it. In Cinderellah, my usual favourite theatre actors were there: Sebastian Tan, Emma Yong, Gurmit Singh, Najib, Chua En Lai (*small scream*), Neo Swee Lin and more. Let me be upfront and say that local musical theatre can never be as good as Broadway, at least not as good as what I've heard on Youtube/soundtracks since I've never been to New York. Vocals wise, we have a long way to go. But as I said in one of my earlier post, I rather go to a local musical show than a foreign one. All the usual wisecracks were there, and I loved everyone of them. And the story is ridiculously ridiculous. So, if you're looking for deep plot and awesome Broadway standard vocals, you can go fly to New York. But other than that, it was a great show, lots of laughter, very interactive, and best of all, very Singaporean flavour. And of course, a great thank you to Josh who generously treated me to this show and got us both really good seats.

Next, I wanna talk about transportation in Singapore. As you know, because I managed to obtain season parking at SMU in the past term, I've very hardly taken public transport for 4.5 months. It's drive, drive, drive, drive and drive. And man, driving is expensive!! Season parking, which ended on Dec 1, had cost me about $450 altogether. Throw in about $100 a month for petrol, $20 a month for cashcard top ups (for ERP and non-SMU carparks), $10 a month for parking coupons (for open carparks @ HDB flats), and the occasional $30 fines (thrice this term) for running out of parking coupons or forgetting. MAN!!!

Anyway, I still loved the privilege for being able to drive around. No waiting for buses or trains and no crowding with the massive crowds. But on the other hand, I had traffic jam troubles especially on Tuesday mornings when I have BP class at 8.30am. To reach on time, I always leave at 7.50am, and ERP would cost me $2.50. It's stressful cos you need to strategize; you need to decide to filter lane or stay; In a traffic crawl, try to stick close to the car in front because you don't want people to cut in, not when you're already waiting like forever. Neither do you want to stick too near because you don't want to kiss another car's ass. PLUS (!!!) my freaking Chevrolet Aveo is a manual car!!! But through it all, I still loved the fact that I could drive as and when I wanted to. Overall, a lot of time was saved.

Since I have no longer any season parking, I've pretty much stopped driving. I simply no longer have a place in town to hide my car. Adults, when they meet, usually park their cars for like 1.5 hours over lunch or dinner and then part ways. But people my age, when we meet, we like to sit and chat and shop, watch movie, hop from mall to mall, and all these require mobility and long hours. I simply cannot afford to park my car at Raffles City for 2 hours for lunch, drive down to PS for movie and then to ION to meet someone else for dinner. Let's not forget the million ERP gantries in town. So what then... Ladies and gentlemen, I've successfully eased back into our beloved public transport system.

First was the decision to NOT drive. It takes conscious effort to leave your car at home and take the bus. In the beginning, I had one or two moments of weakness.. meaning I took cab. (I know, I'm so spoiled!) All the flaws of our public transport system were glaringly clear to me: the waiting the times, the fact that my house is 6 bus stops away from the MRT, bus stop which I walk to from the MRT to go home is a 7 min walk, and worst of all, the crowds. But you know what changed my attitude? It was a comment from my best friend Amanda, I can't remember what she said but basically it totally made me realize I'm actually really pampered (I hate to use the word 'spoilt' but u may say that?) and that this fact might actually make me a bad travelling partner when we go to Mexico. All that driving has made me a weakling, one who fears crowds and walking.

So with a positive attitude now, my perspective on travelling has changed. It's amazing what attitude can achieve. These are my following observations:

1. MRTs don't make you wait long, usually 3 minutes. Even the occasional 6 minute wait is actually a piece of cake in the grand scheme of things in life.

2. Buses and trains in Singapore are uber clean. Something I'll really miss in Mexico.

3. Public transport in SG is safe. In other countries, crowds at subways and bus stations make it an attractive place for petty thieves.

4. Public transport is cheap!!! Cityhall to my place is $1.10. I remember paying 6 or 7 Euros in Amsterdam for a single 20 min train ride.

5. With Distance Fares, routes become faster. Just hop on and off, whatever suits you. I know that LTA recently admitted to some wrong calculation of fares up to $300,000, but still, I think I was one of the people who saved money.

6. With GPS in SBS buses, you can always know when your bus is coming. I usually take SBS buses only, so that totally rocks for me. The sucky thing about waiting is not waiting itself. It's the question, "Is it coming yet?" and the expectation to something to come come be frustrating. But when you know when something is come, the subconscious anxiety is cut off. For those with iPhones, I highly recommend the app SG Buses.

I better appreciate Singapore's public transport as much as I can. For a glimpse into what I'll be expecting at Monterrey soon, the following was taken from the FAQ at the handbook they gave. Oh swell.

Is public transportation safe in Monterrey?

Yes, you may feel safe taking a cab for transportation. However, we make the following recommendations to minimize risks:

Avoid using city buses. Use a cab instead.
Try to arrive during the day.
Don’t share your cab with strangers.