TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR @ SINGAPORE 2024

I always tell myself that I should go to at least 2 concerts to check my bucket list. That two are Taylor Swift and Blackpink concerts. And guess what, I got tickets to both concerts! I went to Blackpink concert on March 2023 and Taylor Swift on March 2024 which was very recently.

At first we were hoping for Taylor to come to Malaysia but of course she didn’t. So me and my best friend, Sarah decided to just go for it to Singapore (by hook or by crook haha). Singapore was the only stop for South East Asia meaning that all of us here, be it from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, etc, had to go to Singapore for The Eras Tour. There were 6 shows from 2nd - 9th March 2024 at the National Stadium.

We were not taking things for granted the moment we knew the tickets will be on sales. We searched high and low for the best ticketing service to secure our tickets. And we found @thiccshopMY on X (Twitter) which her success rate was quite high even with the previous Coldplay tickets. So yeah we hired her for only RM50 per ticket. Her name was Miha and she was very friendly and helpful. She even helped us joining the presales by opening an UOB Bank account. But unfortunately the queue was like 1 million people online and we didn’t secure any tickets directly on TicketmasterSG. Sobs. 

However, lucky for us and thanks to the Klook Package (we had to buy the tickets with a 4 or 5 stars hotel booking together). We get to secure our tickets (CAT4) as easy as ABC. The tickets were on sales at 12pm and I secured our tickets at 12.02pm (?) Out of the world! That even we were like, “is that it? are we really going?” haha. I saw so many people were in hard time to secure the tickets and even didn’t get any tickets in the end. Therefore, we’re just so grateful and so happy for this. 

We renewed our passports and bought our flight tickets to Singapore as early as possible. I think it was around like one week after we secured our concert tickets, we already done with our passports and booked our return flights. Haha. We were so excited though we were broke at the same time. Lol.

We went to Singapore for 3 days (3rd - 5th March). Our concert was on the 3rd March (2nd night). Singapore was very expensive due to our currency being quite weak at present. 1 Singapore Dollar was equal to RM3.50. Sobs. But we went there to have fun so yeah. We arrived at Changi Airport around 10am and filled our tummy with delicious biryani rice at Anjappar Restaurant. And then, we went to see the Jewel at Changi Airport with our own eyes, and we straightly go to check in at Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel via MRT. After we settled down at the hotel, we went to the National Stadium Singapore at around 3.30pm and entered the Stadium very early around 4.30pm. Haha. Please excuse us for being so excited and paranoid (the reason why we were so early) at the same time lol. 

So, the concert. 

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. 

How do I start to write about this core memory? 

(Sigh in post-concert excitement). 

The Eras Tour is not your average tour. I have gone to my fair share of concerts (I am very selective tbh, I didn’t just go to random concerts), but I have never had an experience as amazing as this one. The Eras Tour was legit something straight from my wildest dream that became a reality. Taylor’s performance was euphoric, spectacular, jaw-dropping and everything! I mean, I’m not even sure anything in life will ever compare to the feelings I had during the 3+ hours when Taylor Swift performed her heart out for us. The dancers were magnificent, the outfits were pieces of art, the lighting, choreography, the stage, trading friendship bracelets with fellow Swifties, the deep feelings to every line of the lyrics and all the little things I probably missed; all created the performance of a lifetime. 

That’s the beauty of The Eras Tour; there is a Taylor Swift for everyone. There is at least one song specially related to everyone. It was that night, at The Eras Tour, that I finally realized all along, there was an invisible string tying me to Taylor Swift until the end of the time. Damn. It was too good. Really.

To sum it up, The Eras Tour concert was an absolute blast! The energy, the music, the whole vibe, it was all just amazing. As we left the venue, still buzzing from the experience, i swear that Taylor Swift is a true superstar and seeing her live was something we’ll never forget! I really wish to see her again in the future if God didn't forbid. 

Since we were already in Singapore, and what it is that Singapore has but Malaysia doesn’t? It’s the Universal Studios Singapore (USS)! Haha. I never went to USS in my whole life so yeah this was the perfect time to go. We bought the ticket pass also on Klook that cost us RM302 per ticket. I was thinking on purchasing the express pass at first, but the express pass was also cost around RM300 which to me was not worth our money since we were not planning to ride on every single attraction there. So yeah. Let’s spend the money on foods instead haha.

Our initial plan was to go to USS very early in the morning after our breakfast at the hotel. But since we didn’t eat our breakfast because it was served at a non-halal restaurant in the hotel. And we were also spending our sweet time on bed watching all The Eras Tour videos, so we checked out from our hotel at 12pm and arrived at USS around 2pm.

Thank God it was Monday so it was not as crowded as we fear it will be. The queue for the rides were also ok and acceptable to our timing. I loved all the quality time we had together there, and I enjoyed the rides as well especially the Transformers ride which had me a bit spellbound. And we also bought all of our souvenirs for our families here in USS. 

Alhamdulillah everything went very smoothly for both of us since we arrived in Singapore. During our final night, before we went back to the airport to rest and wait for the early morning flight, we even went to the Merlion Park to see the iconic lion-mermaid of Singapore. Haha. We were very tired but we’re happy and that’s everything.  

However, as a wise man once said; you cannot claim you best days without a hint of some worst parts in it. And here comes the worst part (drum rolls): we missed our back-to-Malaysia flight. Sobs.

It was so stupid and funny at the same time because we arrived at Changi Airport so early like around 11pm and our flight was in the next morning at around 7am. We had our dinner, embracing our sweet final moments at Changi Airport and even fell asleep there. At around 5am, we already checked in our luggage and passed the custom security check. It was still very early hence no gate was assigned yet at that time. So Sarah fell asleep again and I was going from shop to shop inside the departure area.

I think it was around 6.30am that we both were already freshen up but I told Sarah that our flight was at 7.35am at Gate 10 so let’s sit and have a chat for a while. So we sit, eating $3.50 croissants, talk about random things and went to the toilet and everything. Because we thought we were early. Damn.

And when we arrived at our gate, the gate was already closed! That’s when we realized we were being dumb all this while. I thought 7.35am was the boarding time but it was actually the departure time! This was the part when we both got panicked and even got into a little fight with each other because of the pressure we created ourselves since we were not trying to be calm at all. Haha.

But alhamdulillah, we got home with the next flight at 12.10pm. Thanks to Sarah’s credit card. Lol. This mistake costs us around RM1k each sobs. Moral of the story; always double check when is your boarding time and when is you departure time!  Because it can cost you loads of money if you read the time wrongly. Sigh.

Overall, thanks to this experience, this trip will definitely be a core memory to us both. And we will remember this every time we travel with airplanes. Haha. Alhamdulillah for everything. I hope we get to do this often. InsyaAllah.