More Details Kuala Lumpur to Singapore by Bus

This odd looking building is a museum in Singapore. It is shaped like a lotus flower or a human hand to collect light and water. My horrible photo was taken out a window of my bus while I was leaving town from my short trip to leave and re-enter Malaysia.

I have to do these trips each 90 days. Most of the countries in SE Asia have this requirement unless you have a "better" visa.

If I had a reliable income, there are various business visas. If I had a retirement check coming, there are visas for retirees. If I had a real job with a local or international company, there are visas for that. You do not need to leave the country so often on those visas.

But I have none of those, so I am on the 90 day tourist entry in most places.

This Singapore trip was about the easiest, smoothest, and hassle free immigration entry I have had in three years. I wish I had photos, but you cannot take photos in immigration, so let me see if I can describe it for you.

The checkpoints are incredibly busy. Not only tourists like me are crossing. Many people live in Malaysia and work in Singapore and vise versa. So these people are crossing daily in huge fleets of buses.

Additionally I saw hundreds, if not thousands of kids in school uniforms crossing. They were in huge packs of kids; all in the same clothes and together with chaperones. There was no funny business with these kids, and they knew the routine. At least one of the places I went through had special lines especially just for STUDENTS.

When you leave the country, you only need your passport and can leave everything else on the bus. The bus drops you at the front door. You go in and "stamp out" of the country. Then you leave by another door, and there's the bus!

Just hope you recognize your bus and can find it among all the other buses. This is why you take a photo of your bus when you get on it.

The bus is not guaranteed to have the same name as that on your ticket, so the photo is critical. The buses are known to leave people who are late, but I had no close encounters like that on this trip. Once when I was last coming back, the driver got out and ran over to help me with my luggage.

After leaving the first country, now you will enter the next. Singapore is across a strait of water where people seem to be living. I do not know which country this is in, but I like the setting. If they had WIFI, I would live there.

So then you get to the entry point of Singapore, and need to take all your possessions for customs screening. You can find all kinds of warnings about Singapore screening, (Death for Drug Import, says the sign) but it was just the standard x-ray machine for your luggage and one to walk through with no one even watching you.

On my entry to Singapore, I was leaving the main bus for a Singapore City bus. This was very convenient and got me to within five minutes walking distance to my hostel. The city bus left from the same terminal as the main bus dropped me off.

In all of my four entries and exits, I was asked zero questions! This was completely shocking to me. In the last three years, I have been asked to describe my life, plans, funds, work, living situation, home country information, and much more. Not one of the officials on either side of this trip cared about anything but stamping my passport.

For this reason, I will plan to do this same trip again in 90 days. Everything about it was smooth sailing and it was also one of the cheapest trips I have done.

Costs in usd

$17 round trip bus
$ 4 transport to and from main buses
$30 hostel 2 nights breakfast and unlimited filtered drinking water included
$10 Food

$61 Total

Whole wheat toast with orange marmalade, oatmeal, very strong coffee.

This entire trip cost is about the cost of flying only, if I had done the trip that way. I would also not have been able to take liquids, and there is a tiny limit to your carry on luggage.

I had drinks and a lot of food with me with me since I know where to get them cheap here. There is a weight limitation on the bus, but it is more than I can carry.

Including the time to get to and from the main transport, the bus and flight are almost the same duration. You only have to get to the bus 30 minutes in advance. The flight needs you there two hours ahead of departure.

I think a Kuala Lumpur to Singapore bus trip wins the prize for the best immigration trip ever.