The last time we were in Singapore was way back in December 2019. We all know what happened in 2020, and we hadn’t been back to the city-state, until this past November.
It was actually a trip back to my kampung JB, but I decided to squeeze in a day in SG as well. And oh yeah, a couple of weeks prior to that, I finally renewed my passport that had been expired for a good few months, so the thought of getting that first immigration stamp was rather exciting, haha.
The original plan was to drive into Singapore as per the last few trips. But first, we had to go through all the new SOPs post the pandemic. Virtually everything has moved online, and yes, that also means no more filling up the iconic white card!
We applied for the VEP (Vehicle Entry Permit) a few days before the trip, but on the morning of our planned day of entry into SG, we were told at the pick-up point that our VEP would only be ready in the evening. Oh, man. But I had a contingency plan in my head, i.e.: to take the bus instead, something we had never done before as a family.
Of course, this was a normal thing for me decades ago as my late mum and I would usually take the Singapore-JB Express bus every time we went over to visit our relatives there. But with my own family, we usually take a flight or drive in ourselves.
But when I mooted the bus idea, it was enthusiastically received by everyone! So, I drove to Larkin Sentral, parked our car there and walked into the busy terminal looking for the bus station.
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