Passenger Tales

If you ask me what I like most about Singapore, my answer would be their public transportation system. I already rhapsodized in my previous post about their train system. Now let’s talk a little about their buses. Bus stations are near MRT Stations. Their buses look a like but not mirror images of each other. There are double decker buses (my one regret was that I was not able to ride at the second floor), the usual bus we see here in the country (single decker? hehehe), small buses, long buses, old buses, sparkling new buses, etc. I saw them all while waiting for our bus to Jurong Bird Park. I’m not quite sure but I think their buses were color coded. Every bus route corresponds to a number. So if you don’t want to get lost, make sure to check out their bus route information so that you’ll be able to ride the right bus.

The first time I rode the bus was when we were going to the Night Safari. We got off at the Ang Mo Kio station and walked to the Bus Terminal. At the bus terminal you can see directions to the bus you want to take. Very organized, surprise! We fell in line at the SBS Transit Bus #138. While still in the MRT, we were worried that the Zoo would be very far since it said in the brochure that it was going to be one hour bus ride from Ang Mo Kio. We were thinking like we were still in Manila. The reason why it took an hour to get to the Zoo was because the bus travels slowly and carefully. No need to compare it with the buses found in Edsa There were also a lot of bus stops along the way. My friend taught me how to use my Eazy link to pay for the bus fare, same way it’s used for the MRT. Very convenient. There is no bus conducter heckling you for your fare and conveniently forgetting to give you your change.

We also rode buses around Sentosa. The kind we Filipinos love, free rides. Hahaha. We could have had our chance to ride at the top, which was even better because there was no roof, but we were afraid that there would be no available seats, so we just stayed below In hindsight, we should have taken the chance. Everything is so clear in hindsight. Hay.

My last ride was from Boon Lay station to the Jurong Bird Park. As I mentioned earlier, we waited for a long time at the station before our bus came. Other buses came and went, still we waited and waited and waited. We were very sweaty and our legs were already aching when it finally arrived.

The inside of the buses were very different from our buses. The seats were spacious and some facing each other. The seats were few and the arrangements were different. Seats of the buses here in the Philipines are all facing front, arranged like the economy class of airplanes, and quite cramped. Unfortunately, I can’t describe it all very well and I don’t have a picture of it, except this one, inside a Sentosa bus. And the biggest difference is that the buses in Singapore, like everything else there are disciplined, efficient and organized.