Travelling around Singapore by taxi and public transport is disarmingly easy, especially when compared to a similar exercise undertaken in a city like Sydney.
Arriving at Changi Airport you are through customs and out onto the concourse where taxis are plentiful and the traffic congestion is light. Totally unlike (again) Sydney Airport.
Taxis are cheap and plentiful. SGD$15 from the airport to the city, including the airport surcharge. Fifteen dollars in a taxi in Oz gets you about three kilometres on a quiet night, WITHOUT the addition of a surcharge.
What you don't find so easily at Changi are the MRT (train) and SBS (bus) services which are also available. The MRT system is magic. A train at every station on the island every three to five minutes. No ifs. No buts.
Wait, there is a "but". The "but" with taking the MRT, and this does not apply so much to the Green Line which services Changi Airport and which is above-ground almost its whole length across the island, is that the majority of MRT services travel below ground. All very well for speed but, as you find once you use it a bit, gives no feel for what the city is really like geographically or culturally.
Travel by MRT, whilst reassuring, leaves you with the confusion generally experienced when blind-folded, spun around a number of times and finally, with eye-sight restored, released to stagger off in search of one's goal.
Emerging from an MRT station has you popping up out of the air-conditioned cool invariably into either the stifling humidity outside, or most often the continued cool within, a huge and confusingly laid-out shopping centre or mall, with no firm idea of where you are in the larger, island picture or how to get elsewhere other than by once again taking to the MRT. This was not a problem initially because, as a newcomer, all I wanted to know was which shop or service I needed to access and the station at which I needed to alight in order to access it. Easy.
Another thing about using the MRT is that there is more than one entrance/exit to each station and, in most cases, they are not in close proximity to each other. There can be anything up to half a kilometre between entry/exit points. Which, to Singaporeans, is a taxi or bus ride away.
Once you have your head around the reliable and fast MRT it does become a little boring. Nothing to look at except hundreds of Singaporeans with their heads buried in their Samsung Galaxy Note 2's playing Candy Crush or watching the current-fad Chinese soapy or heaven forbid, and according to an expat (not me) who witnessed it, porn!!
So what's it like on the outside? Taxis are OK to get a feel for the place but you are low down and part of the problem.
The only place to be is up high. Preferably on the top level of a double-decker, SBS bus. From there you get the full Singapore picture.
Those we spoke to on our arrival advised that buses were OK as long as you were not in a hurry and this is certainly the case. Whilst they are supposed to turn up at regular intervals of say 7-10 or 12-15 minutes, depending on the time of day, the reality is that traffic and people impact on that schedule. A LOT.
Reality can be no bus for 30 minutes-plus and then two will appear one behind the other. Invariably they will be the same service number.
This situation has arisen because at some point the first bus's progress has been slowed due to the number of waiting passengers. This first bus, now full to overflowing and late, has the second, not having had to pick up any passengers for most of its journey, empty and on its rear bumper. This situation continues at subsequent stops thus continuing to slow the journey-time.
There appears to be some SBS rule that the second bus must never overtake the first because this situation can persist until both buses arrive at their destination. Hence, for speed and reliability, the MRT is the way to travel but buses are from where the real Singapore can be observed at a slower and less time-dependent pace.
By way of example you can make your way to Hougang bus interchange via the MRT and climb aboard a #51 to Jurong East which will take you on a ride from one side of the island to almost the absolute other. You will need to set aside a couple of hours for the whole trip but it is well worth it to observe locals working, playing, eating and shopping.
The final two being stated national (only?) past-times.
Just like the Hop-on/Hop-off tourist buses, you can jump off when you see something interesting, safe in the knowledge there will be another #51 along shortly to continue the journey.
I should mention at this point that the best way to facilitate all public transport travel, even taxis, is by using one of the EZ-Link travel cards.
These can only be purchased down in the MRT stations, next to the entry/exit gates, for a cost of $10. This gives you $7 of credit to use for transport and $3 being a deposit, refundable when you are finished using the card and it is returned to a ticket office. There is also a Tourist EZ-Link card available for an initial charge of SGD$20. This has SGD$10 of travel value and a SGD$10 deposit. The deposit being returned as per the above.
Topping up the card can be achieved at any of the ticket offices or at self-service kiosks located nearby. Be advised, the kiosks do not give change so whatever value note you insert is the amount of top-up you will get.
When it comes to time-tables for transport it is only the buses you need to be concerned with. The MRT trains turn up every 5-6 minutes, 5.30am to midnight.
SBS has an app called "iris nextbus" for your smart-phone which facilitates journey-planning and, from my observation across phone OS platforms, is one of the few apps that works better on Android than Apple. It does however require a bit of learning, together with a good internet connection, but allows you to plan bus journeys quite well.
SG Buses is another app which allows you to input bus numbers to determine their travel routes. This helps identify other bus numbers which use the same stops. This can be handy because other buses may be going past where you want to go and aren't necessarily offered via the iris nextbus app.
Price comparison. Hop on - Hop off bus @ $27 per day or EZ-Link card for less than $10.
