🇸🇬 Singapore Part 3 - Mangalore to Singapore: The Journey Finally Begins

In Part 1 - How I Planned a Solo Singapore Trip Under ₹60,000, Singapore went from an idea to an actual booking.

In Singapore Part 2 - Visa, Money, Packing & the Final Countdown, the bookings turned into preparation.

Visa.

Money.

Documents.

Forex.

Packing.

And a lot of checking things I had already checked multiple times.

But eventually, there was nothing left to plan.

It was time to leave.

After months of looking at Singapore through Google Maps, YouTube videos, screenshots and itineraries, I was finally going to see it myself.

And strangely enough, my journey to Singapore didn't begin at an airport.

It began at a railway station in Mangalore.

September 8, 2026

My flight to Singapore was on September 10.

But getting there required another journey first.

Mangalore → Chennai.

Instead of taking a domestic flight to Chennai, I had booked a sleeper-class train for ₹510.

Departure:

11:45 PM

That night, I left home carrying everything I had spent the last few months preparing.

My suitcase.

My backpack.

My passport.

My document file.

My cards.

My Singapore dollars.

Chargers.

Travel adapter.

And probably far more excitement than necessary for someone who was about to spend a very long time on a train.

😂

This was it.

The Singapore trip had officially started.

One Last Passport Check

There was one thing I kept checking.

My passport.

I knew exactly where it was.

I had checked it before leaving.

I checked it again anyway.

Passport?

Yes.

Visa?

Yes.

Wallet?

Yes.

Phone?

Yes.

Tickets?

Yes.

Everything else could probably be solved somehow.

The passport couldn't.

After spending months planning an international trip, I was absolutely not going to become the person who reached Chennai and realised his passport was still sitting at home in Mangalore.

The Long Way to Singapore

Taking the train to Chennai made the beginning of this trip feel different.

Flying from Mangalore to Chennai would obviously have been faster.

But this trip was built around a budget.

And ₹510 for the train made far more sense to me than adding another flight.

More importantly, I wasn't in a hurry.

I had deliberately left enough time before the Singapore flight.

So I settled in.

Mangalore was behind me.

Chennai was ahead.

And somewhere beyond Chennai was Singapore.

September 9 — Somewhere Between Home and Singapore

September 9 became one of those strange travel days where you're not really at the destination, but you're no longer at home either.

Most of the day was simply about moving.

The train kept going.

And Singapore kept getting closer.

There wasn't an attraction to visit.

There wasn't an itinerary to follow.

There was just time.

And honestly, after months of planning, that felt nice.

For the first time, there wasn't much left for me to organize.

The visa had already been approved.

The accommodation was booked.

The flight existed.

The money was sorted.

The itinerary was sitting on my phone.

All I had to do now was get there.

Chennai

Eventually, I reached Chennai.

And suddenly the next stage of the journey began.

The railway part was over.

Now everything was about the airport.

This was the point where Singapore stopped feeling far away.

There is something about heading towards an international airport with a passport in your bag that makes a trip feel completely different.

The destination wasn't another Indian city anymore.

The next flight would take me out of the country.

Chennai → Singapore 🇸🇬

Chennai Airport

Airports have always had a particular kind of energy before an international trip.

People going everywhere.

Suitcases moving in every direction.

Families saying goodbye.

Departure boards full of cities.

And somewhere among all of them was mine:

Singapore.

I had spent months seeing the word Singapore on bookings.

Now it was on the airport departure board.

That felt different.

The Document File Finally Had a Purpose

Remember that file from Part 2?

The one containing practically every travel document I thought someone might ask for?

This was its moment.

Passport.

Visa.

Flight booking.

Accommodation confirmation.

Supporting documents.

Everything was together.

I'd rather look slightly overprepared than stand at an immigration counter searching through ten different folders on my phone.

This was also where all those boring preparation days suddenly became worth it.

There wasn't much left to figure out.

I had the documents.

I knew where I was staying.

I knew my return date.

I had my money.

I had a plan.

Through Immigration

This was one of the moments I had thought about before the trip.

Immigration.

There's something slightly intimidating about it when you're travelling internationally.

Even when every document is perfectly fine, your brain still likes creating completely unnecessary scenarios.

What will they ask?

Will they ask about the hostel?

Will they ask how much money I'm carrying?

Will they want to see the return flight?

That was exactly why I had prepared everything beforehand.

Whatever I might need was either in my document file or on my phone.

And eventually, that part was done too.

One more checkpoint crossed.

Singapore was now just a flight away.

Waiting to Board

Once immigration and security were behind me, the mood changed.

There wasn't really anything left to worry about.

No visa application.

No bank statement.

No suitcase dimensions.

No power socket research.

No more:

"Did I forget something?"

Well...

Maybe still a little of that.

But mostly, I could finally enjoy what was happening.

I was at Chennai airport.

My Singapore flight was coming.

And for the first time since I started planning this trip, there was nothing left between me and Singapore except boarding the aircraft.

Scoot — And a Newly Commissioned Dreamliner ✈️

Then came the flight I had booked months earlier.

Scoot.

The same booking that had cost me ₹20,968 round trip and made the entire Singapore plan financially possible.

But there was another detail that made this flight even more special for me.

The aircraft operating my flight was a newly commissioned Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

I already knew I would be flying on a Boeing 787, but getting to fly on an aircraft that had only recently entered service made the experience even more interesting.

After months of seeing my Scoot booking as nothing more than an email confirmation, the actual Dreamliner was sitting there in front of me.

This was my ride to Singapore.

Boarding began.

I walked onto the aircraft, found my seat and put my things away.

Then I sat down.

Train from Mangalore.

Long journey to Chennai.

Airport.

Immigration.

Months of planning.

And now I was sitting inside a Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for Singapore.

I'm actually doing this.

Goodbye, India 🇮🇳

Eventually, the Dreamliner started moving.

We pushed back.

Taxied.

And then came the moment I'd been waiting for.

Takeoff.

Chennai airport disappeared behind us.

Then the city.

Then the coastline.

And India slowly disappeared below.

For the first time in this entire Singapore journey, there was genuinely nothing left to plan.

I couldn't change the itinerary.

I couldn't research another hotel.

I couldn't prepare another visa document.

I couldn't optimize another expense.

I was already on the plane.

Destination:

Singapore Changi Airport.

Somewhere Over the Bay of Bengal

I thought the flight itself would mostly be the quiet part of the journey.

Sit back.

Look outside occasionally.

Wait a few hours.

Land in Singapore.

The weather had other ideas.

The Dreamliner climbed all the way to around:

45,000 feet.

From up there, the world below looked completely different.

At one point during the journey, I could see the lights of Malaysian cities below us.

That was a strange feeling.

For months, Malaysia had simply been another country on the map between where I was coming from and where I was going.

Now I was looking down at its city lights from a Boeing 787 at cruising altitude.

Singapore was getting close.

But before we got there, the sky decided to give me another experience.

A Thunderstorm at 45,000 Feet ⛈️

Somewhere along the journey, I could see a thunderstorm.

And seeing a thunderstorm from an aircraft at around 45,000 feet is completely different from watching one from the ground.

Flashes of lightning were illuminating the clouds.

From that altitude, I wasn't simply looking up at a storm anymore.

I was looking across at it.

Lightning would flash somewhere in the darkness and, for a moment, entire sections of cloud would become visible.

Then darkness again.

Another flash.

More clouds.

It was beautiful.

And slightly terrifying.

I remember looking through the window and thinking about just how enormous those clouds must have been.

For a while, it was one of the most incredible sights of the journey.

Then things got considerably less peaceful.

And Then Things Got Bumpy

The turbulence started.

And this wasn't one of those tiny shakes where you barely notice the aircraft moving.

This was strong turbulence.

The aircraft started moving enough that everyone could definitely feel it.

One moment I had been happily watching lightning through the window.

The next, the Dreamliner was getting thrown around by the weather.

Suddenly, the thunderstorm outside looked slightly less entertaining.

😂

Sitting thousands of feet above the ground while an aircraft moves through strong turbulence gives you a very different appreciation for what is happening outside.

Here I was inside one of the most advanced passenger aircraft in the world.

And outside was the atmosphere reminding everyone just how powerful nature is.

It was uncomfortable.

It was intense.

And it immediately became one of those moments from the trip I knew I wouldn't forget.

Eventually, things started settling down.

The ride became smoother.

And the Dreamliner continued towards Singapore.

Malaysia Below, Singapore Ahead 🇲🇾 → 🇸🇬

After the thunderstorm and turbulence, seeing the lights below again felt strangely peaceful.

Malaysia was underneath us.

Singapore was somewhere ahead.

We were close.

Really close.

The destination that had seemed so far away when I boarded a train in Mangalore was now probably less than an hour away.

I kept looking through the window.

The lights below became denser.

The aircraft continued southeast.

And eventually, we began our descent.

Then the Lights Appeared

This is one of those moments that photographs never completely capture.

Looking through an aircraft window at night and seeing a city slowly appear underneath you.

More lights.

Roads.

Buildings.

Ships.

Civilisation everywhere.

Somewhere down there was Singapore.

The country I had spent months planning to visit was no longer an itinerary.

It wasn't a Google Maps pin.

It wasn't a YouTube video.

It wasn't a flight confirmation.

It was underneath the aircraft.

We descended.

Closer.

And then—

Touchdown.

September 10, 2026 — Singapore 🇸🇬

At around:

06:30 AM

the Boeing 787 Dreamliner touched down at Singapore Changi Airport.

After the train from Mangalore.

Chennai.

Immigration.

The Dreamliner.

Crossing the Bay of Bengal.

Seeing Malaysian cities from the air.

Watching lightning illuminate a thunderstorm at around 45,000 feet.

And getting through some seriously strong turbulence...

I had made it.

Singapore.

Finally.

For months, I'd been saying:

"I'm going to Singapore."

Now I could finally say:

"I'm in Singapore."

Changi at Night

Of course, landing wasn't the end of the journey.

I still had to enter the country.

Get through the airport.

Get connected.

Figure out transport.

And reach Chinatown.

It was already late.

I was tired.

And I was in a country I had never visited before.

But strangely, that was part of the fun.

For months, I had been solving Singapore problems from my room.

Now I had to solve them in Singapore.

The First Few Minutes in a New Country

Everything suddenly became interesting.

Signs.

Announcements.

The airport.

The people.

Even things that would probably feel completely normal after a few days felt new.

I had read so much about Changi before travelling that being physically inside the airport felt slightly surreal.

This wasn't a YouTube video anymore.

I was standing there with my suitcase.

And despite arriving close to 6:30 AM, my day my day just started.

I still had to get to Chinatown.

Destination: Chinatown

My home for the next six nights was:

Royal Lodge @ Pagoda Street

A 10-bed mixed dorm in Chinatown.

Cost for six nights:

₹8,520.76.

Back in India, choosing Chinatown had been a budgeting and logistics decision.

Now I actually had to find it.

Phone out.

Internet working.

Google Maps ready.

Singapore transport system...

Here we go.

My First Singapore Commute

This was the first real test of all the research I'd done.

At home, Singapore's transport system looked beautifully simple on a map.

Different coloured lines.

Stations.

Interchanges.

Easy.

Standing there late at night with luggage was slightly different.

Now those lines actually mattered.

I wasn't looking at Singapore as a tourist planning a trip anymore.

I needed the system to get me to where I was sleeping.

And somehow, step by step, Singapore started making sense.

Chinatown at Night

Eventually, I reached Chinatown.

This was another moment I'd been waiting for.

I had seen photographs of Chinatown.

Looked at it on Street View.

Checked the MRT stations.

Looked up Pagoda Street.

Compared hostel locations.

And now I was standing there.

At night.

With my suitcase.

On the other side of the Bay of Bengal.

The strange thing about finally reaching a place you've researched extensively is that it feels both unfamiliar and weirdly familiar at the same time.

I didn't know the streets.

But I recognized the names.

I didn't know exactly where I was going.

But I'd seen the map dozens of times.

The Hostel

Eventually:

Royal Lodge @ Pagoda Street.

Found it.

After travelling from Mangalore to Chennai and then Chennai to Singapore, I finally had somewhere to put the suitcase down.

The 10-bed mixed dorm I'd booked months earlier was no longer a listing on a website.

This was home for the next six nights.

Nothing luxurious.

Nothing fancy.

Exactly what I needed.

A bed.

A place for my luggage.

A base in the middle of Chinatown.

The First Night

By this point, I had been travelling for what felt like forever.

Mangalore.

Train.

Chennai.

Airport.

Dreamliner.

Thunderstorm.

Turbulence.

Malaysia below.

Changi.

Singapore transport.

Chinatown.

Hostel.

Done.

There was no grand sightseeing plan for the night.

No Marina Bay.

No Sentosa.

No rushing somewhere just because I had finally arrived.

Those could wait.

Because when I woke up, I would have an entire country outside the hostel waiting to be explored.

I Was Finally Here

Before sleeping, there was one thought that kept coming back.

This entire thing had started with a question:

Can I actually do Singapore under ₹60,000?

Then came the research.

The Scoot booking.

The ₹510 train ticket.

The hostel.

The visa.

The bank statements.

The forex.

The adapter.

The suitcase.

The countdown.

The train to Chennai.

And finally, a newly commissioned Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying me across the Bay of Bengal.

Somewhere along the way, I had looked down at Malaysian cities from the sky, watched lightning illuminate massive clouds at around 45,000 feet and experienced turbulence strong enough to make the flight itself part of the adventure.

And now...

I was lying in a hostel in Chinatown.

In Singapore.

The planning phase was officially over.

Tomorrow there would be no spreadsheets.

No visa paperwork.

No countdown.

I would walk outside and start experiencing the Singapore I'd spent months planning for.

And as I would quickly discover...

Singapore had plenty of plans of its own.

← Previous: Singapore Part 2 - Visa, Money, Packing & the Final Countdown

Next → Singapore Part 4: Six Days in Singapore — The Places, Food & Moments I'll Remember 🇸🇬