Taking bus from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore

I was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, despite budget airlines offer competitive air fare, travelling by bus still the cheapest option. After doing some survey, I decided to travel with First Coach.  Here is my experience with First Coach luxury bus service.

Three seats per row, every seat has personal movie screen. Do remember to bring your own earphone, otherwise you would be watching a movie without sound like I did.

(From top, Clockwise) roomy leg space, the bus fare included one bottle drinking water and a small packet biscuit. You can choose video or music for entertainment. The movie selection is fairly wide and has many popular movies, screen is certainly clear but the brightness cannot be adjusted, thus your eyes get tired quickly if you watch movie at night since the bus will turn its main lighting off. The remote control is on you right arm seat.

As I sat at second row, I have good scene view from the bus. On the return trip, I sat at 14th row, both front row and back row were bumpy actually. There were two bus drivers on the bus, they took shift about every two to three hours, frankly, I would feel more secure because driver can get sleepy in long distance drive. One was taking nap while the other driver was driving.

After two hours drove from Bangsar Kuala Lumpur, we got 20 minutes rest time at a rest station. Grab some snack or drink, perhaps most crucial is to visit washroom. We reached Johor custom after four hours via Tuas causeway. Depending on queue, 45 minutes to an hour from Malaysia custom and cleared from Singapore custom. Bring your travel document (commonly passport and immigration form) only when exit from Malaysia but you need to bring all your luggage down for immigration clearance when entering Singapore, and vice versa. The bus will be waiting your at the bus stop that you will easily spot once you have cleared from custom.



Passing the Malaysia-Singapore bridge

  



Novena Square2



For Bangsar - Novena route, the drop off point is actually at Novena Square2 (as shown on ablove picture), however, the pick up point is at Novena Square as shown as below. The Novena MRT is in the Novena Square2, very convenience if you want to travel with MRT in Singapore.



Novena Square



Overall I think First Coach is providing good service, I paid total RM128 for round trip during weekend (go on Saturday and return on Monday). You may get their prices and maps from their website. The staff and driver are friendly, the pick up point (Bangsar) and drop off point (Novena) are just next to LRT/MRT, the price is reasonable (ringgit price is cheaper than Singapore dollar if considering the exchange rate), bus is clean and equipments are functioning from my experience.

My journey took nearly 6 and a half hours (from Bangsar to Novena) because we got a traffic jam in Singapore due to heavy rain, else it took about 5 to 5 and a half hours.

Well, honestly speaking, I would rather consider travel by flight if I have no budget concern. I had travelled with private car and air flight to Singapore beforehand, this is my second time travel with bus (luxury bus service) from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, I felt very fatigue and experienced slightly car sick this time. Air travel took 55 minutes air time, I can still save few hours (counted check in and baggage clearance in) and much energy compared to bus travelling, only thing is that you have to pay more, of course.