a short ride on the ferry to ......

Kusu and St John's Islands, two of the islands that form part of the Southern Islands of Singapore.

It is a lovely days outing if you care to go to one of both of these islands for a day drip, though you can also stay overnight on St John's Island too. I have been over to these islands before, but this was to be John's first visit.

You now depart from Marina South Pier and it takes about 40 mins by ferry. We took the Singapore Island Ferry and their website is located HERE.  On the following map the A is Kusu Island and the B is St John's Island.  During the weekdays they run two ferries per day, on Saturdays there are three and on Sundays and public holidays there are five ferry services.  The cost is only $15.00 per person for the return trip. What a great day out for so little!

 

Anyway, once you have decided when to go you need to get to Marina South Pier and this is not an easy task at the moment due to the high amount of construction work in this area. Mostly for the new Marina Pier MRT station, which of course is going to be of great benefit to us all in the very near future. In the meantime, yes there is a little construction work going on, but you can do it.


You may need to check the GOTHERE website for directions from where you are.

But basically for us it meant a train ride to Tanjong Pagar MRT and then bus 402 right to the ferry terminal. All up a little over an hour's travel time.

Very easy to locate or perhaps you may find it easier to catch a cab from where you are like our friend Euvah did when she went over.  Read her blog posting here. 

 On arrival at Marina South Pier you go straight to the counter to purchase your tickets. There is always someone standing at the security post to guide you as to where the ticket booth is located which is just to my right from this image here:

at the far end of the above image are the toilets ....... best to use these facilities prior to getting on the ferry. There is a toilet on the ferry, but you may feel more comfortable using the ones at the pier area.
I love what they do in Singapore, not everywhere, but places like the Botanical Gardens, some parks and here have the washbasins outside the actual cubical area. Saves on staff, cleaning etc.... can all be done at once:

then we have a coffee while we wait for the ferry to arrive and nice to note there are planty of life jackets on board too:

on board the ferry we do notice the high volume of vessels in the Singapore Straits that need to be manouvered around as seen in the following image - the brown icons are mostly 'at anchor' and the blue ones 'on the move' -  and what I wrote about in the previous blog posting as seen here.

the variety of ships, vessels, barges, tug boats, yachts and ferries is unbelievable. ... but with some skillful piloting we do manage to get around them all and arrive safely at St John's Island!

On board the ferry there were a few people going over 'for the day' and some families staying overnight. A mixture of Singaporeans and Expats. One little boy (he is almost three years old) with his dad just wanted to 'go on a boat" so daddy took him on the ferry to fulfill his wish!

some images from the ferry trip across ...... including someone SMOKING on the ferry!! Of course totally against all the rules and regulations, but hey, the laws don't apply to everyone do they?

 

it is a great little trip over on the ferry, low cost at $15.00 per person for the return ticket and that allows you to be on either or both of the islands all day long. Get together with some friends and take a picnic, a frisbee, a football, a kite, some drinks, a snack, sunscreen, a hat and don't forget the camera!!

My next blog posting will be of St Johns Island.

Stay tuned!!