SBS buses with the Silk Air livery are FREE! and other Singapore, Singapore Transportation Tips

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: Starting from September 25, 2006 for about a month, there will be 6 SBS buses with Silk Air painted on it. There may even be refreshments. Best yet, it will be free!

So if you see a Silk Air SBS bus and it is going to where you want to go, run after it and fly on Silk Air free without leaving the ground!

The buses will be on different routes every day. Is it a state secret to which route?

Here's an excerpt from the airlines website. I heard about it then looked up the website as I never look up silkair.com

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The chartered SilkAir buses offer an additional service to SBS Transit's present scheduled services and will run for four hours every weekday morning to cater to peak travel commuters.

The campaign will run for a month from 25 September 2006, with the special SilkAir buses servicing different routes across Singapore each week. The SilkAir buses will offer free rides for a one-month period on Services 33, 70, 54, 80, 100, 143, 518 and 502. They will then continue to hit the roads on Services 70 and 518 for three more months at standard fare charges.

At the end of the campaign, commuters lucky enough to get on the SilkAir bus, as well as participants in the airline's daily radio contest, will qualify for a Grand Draw. The grand prize will be a pair of three-day, two-night packages to Siem Reap, Cambodia, including travel in Business Class on SilkAir and free entrance passes to Angkor Wat.

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'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: The longest flights in the world are the Singapore Airlines non-stop to Los Angeles and Newark. It uses long range A340-500 versions specially fitted with fewer seats to trade capacity for increased range. This results in a more comfortable flight. Singapore Airlines only has a special small fleet of 5 of these 500 series A340. It would not be too much of a surprise if these planes were sold and replaced with the new Boeing 777-200LR version as Singapore Airlines operates other versions of the 777 and has ordered the long range 787-9.

Note the A340's are becoming all business class starting in May and will be completely converted by September, 2008. No more economy (economy plus) class.

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Website: http://www.changi.airport.com.sg

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: If you buy an E-Z Link card, available at MRT stations and probably other places, it will make travelling much easier. You will not miss a train because you are trying to buy a ticket, you won't have to carry so many coins, and you don't have to calculate how many zones you will be travelling (it's possible to travel 10-20 zones, even over 30 so it's not just 2-3 zones that you have to become familiar with).

Using the card will save you 17 cents per trip (34 cents if you take a bus and MRT). $5 of the $15 cost of the card is a non-refundable charge to cover the cost of manufacturing the card so you may not recoup the cost of the card if you stay less than 3-4 days.

Another advantage of the E-Z Link card is when you transfer between a bus/MRT or MRT/bus, the connecting journey is discounted an additional 25 cents. If you pay cash and make a transfer, you do not get a discount and have to pay 2 fares.

To use the card, you just tap the card to the reader upon entering and when exiting the bus or MRT fare gates. Some people keep it in their wallets because the reader is quite a peeping Tom and can see through leather or clothes.

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Website: http://www.ezlink.com.sg/index.html

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: In many countries, I like to rent cars. I like to freedom of going anywhere at anytime. I also like to drive.

However, in Singapore, driving is not necessary and, while not scary, does not seem fun. Parking is not easy (but not that difficult). The MRT or taxi is often just as fast. In Los Angeles, it is much cheaper to rent a car then take a taxi (car rental might cost US$30 and one taxi ride may be almost that much or higher). In Singapore, it may cost SGD $150 to rent a car but taxi fare may be $10-15. There is also road toll (ERP) in the central part of the city, paid for by using a special card. If you evade the toll, a camera takes a picture of the car.

Petrol is roughly the same price as in the UK. They have 98 and 95 octane.

Car owners have to pay quite a bit. There are a lot of abbreviations that only a Singaporean would know, such as OMV (open market value), COE (certificate of entitlement: bid that you have to make in order to buy a car), etc. Car prices are so high that my guess is that a Honda Accord would possibly cost SGD $100 000 and a Volvo S60 $200 000. In the US, one of the cheapest country for cars, the cheapest Honda Accord is probably $18 000 (SGD $30 000).

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'Mode': TO
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: This is HarbourFront Centre, formerly called the World Trade Centre. There are ferries to Batam, an Indonesian island close to Singapore. There are several ferry companies including Penguin (the largest, but not the fastest), Batam Fast, etc. Batam Centre is the closest to the city of Nagoya (Indonesia) and is the newer port. Before Batam Centre port was opened a few years ago, most people took a ferry to Sekupang then took a taxi to Nagoya.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: Taxis are cheaper than most (or all) Western European or North American cities. Still, there are surcharges that you might be able to avoid. For example between 0730 and 0930, and 1700-2000, there is a $1 surcharge (except Sundays). There's also a 50% surcharge after midnight.

Taxis tend to disappear just before midnight but they don't disappear just before 7:30 a.m.

I found that taxi drivers in Singapore are generally nice and don't seem to cheat. Most (or at least many) people don't tip. It's a bit more expensive if you pay by credit card, but not much. Many, but not all, taxis accept credit cards.

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