Following my post on Southeast Asia trip, I will also post reviews on all the backpacker hostels that we stayed in. Finding a good backpacker hostel is like finding a piece of gold in a fresh water river in area where people don’t usually find gold. Well okay, it’s not that bad. But it does take a lot of luck to find a decent one. If I could help my fellow backpackers in sharing my experiences, I would, so hopefully less people would fall into a series of unfortunate events. On the other hand, if you always long for a little extra adventure, you can always random pick those hostels and cross fingers you wouldn’t get bitten by bed bugs ;).
Anyway, I love backpacker hostels. I had more stories there than I could ever had staying at big hotels. I met other fellow travelers who share their amazing stories, people who hang on the Lonely Planet book like a bible just like I did, carrying maps, big backpacks, and look like they’ve been on the road for a long time. It smells freedom.
The more interesting stories I had were the ones where I stayed for more than a few days because by then I had met more people and recognized faces. But I also had a lot of one-nights. I would say the experience that you get heavily depends on how long you stay at one place, like everything else in life, country, city, workplace, someone’s heart, and so on.
Enough chit-chatting!
So on my trip to Singapore, I stayed at Bugis Backpackers for 3 nights, located just ever so conveniently close to Bugis MRT station. No hostel can be any closer to MRT station. Moreover, it’s Bugis, which is quite central in Singapore island. The hostel is just opposite of Bugis Junction, a few shops beside KFC to the right.
To ease your entry, I provide you with a picture of the main gate:
So yea you mark it by the SHARED name board just along the shops area. See the door? Go through that door to the upper floors. Like other backpacker hostels, you usually have to arrange the time beforehand if you arrive at late hours. I did. So far I met one chubby woman and one old man at the front desk and they’re all nice.
Rooms have no windows. According to my research, backpacker hostels in Singapore are generally windowless and have only shared bathrooms. For $20-35 range of price anyway. But both room and bathrooms were reasonably clean. Oh and there was air-con too. I purposely chose air-con rooms for my entire trips in Asia where possible, because I couldn’t imagine the heat I had to endure without air-con (Note that that time I’ve stayed in 4 seasons country for many years without ever touching tropical countries once during. These days I’m (more) okay with the tropical heat. It’s just a matter of getting used to.) They also have hot shower. Same reason with why I chose air-con room. I was from ang-moh country where hot shower is NECESSITY and NOT luxury.
I stayed in a double bedroom which cost about 32 SGD per person. I saw their dorm room and the store room was inside the dorm room, so every time someone needed something from the storage, they needed to go in and out. O well, what do you expect from a dorm room.
They have shared (obviously) kitchen and fridge where you can put your food IF you want to ;)
The living room was pretty dark, although colorful, dark colors. But maybe because I always saw it at night =9. In daytime they could open the windows so there’d be more sunlight. There was one computer for Internet in the corner which you can use for a cost. Travel brochures were everywhere.
I took this picture from the hostel:
This view was the one they used on photo they put on some websites to attract people (it definitely attracted me). Note that this is NOT the actual hostel. It’s the VIEW FROM the hostel. Although they also have some circular staircases and colors on the wall, so I guess they don’t exactly trick people.
Bugis Backpackers
162B Rochor Road, Bugis Village
Singapore 188437
www.bugisbackpackers.comMy duration of stay: 3 nights
Plus: Location is totally convenient. Room and bathrooms were moderately clean.
Minus: No breakfast. Room had no windows. It did have a big air hole at the ceiling so you can hear people from upstairs if that’s of your interest.
