On this particular weekend, I got the privilege to borrow a company membership card which enable me to go to various attractions in Singapore for free, for a limited number of people. My colleague happened to borrow two cards, entitled to six people, and I got to use it on Friday and Sunday.
Friday night, I thought I had to skip the outing as I was helping my other colleagues preparing props for Halloween. My original plan was to stay late that night, but since almost everybody went home already, I thought I should too. (you should see my work place at night! Can’t beat my university though..) The idea of staying late without company in the workshop inside ‘jungle doing scary things with many scary stories around, well…uhm….not so appealing compared to meeting my husband, my brother and my our friends to have chili crab dinner (How could I chose the other over this one on the first place?).
That Friday night, we went to Night Safari. Brother and family split up, since my group is more into taking pictures. It’s extremely difficult to take good pictures at night without using flash. So I hung up my camera and just enjoyed seeing the animals. Hubby and friend trying t get good pictures. With the energy we got from the very complete dinner; chilly crab, barbeque sting ray, satay, briyani rice, honey chicken wings, and gigantic cup of fruit juices, staff discount can do wonder and increase buying power of course, we stayed until pass midnight, until we were kicked out from the park because they were closing.
Sunday, we met up again around 10.30 in the morning and begun our ‘tourist day’, starting from Sentosa. It was easier to go around with car, we could maximize our time to visit various destinations.
Sentosa, first stop was Butterfly and Insect kingdom. We used to think that the insects are s all dead, apparently, the butterflies are alive. There are inside a small aviary, except the usual ones we always see in the zoo, there were few other types, although it was not easy to take their pictures. For the insect it was all dead, although it’s not fascinating to see them being pinned to the wall, the variety and types are amazing, we could never see them all in the wild. At the end of the exhibit, we met one friendly keeper who let us touch and hold the gigantic stick insect and let the scorpion run through our hands and faces while he shared his knowledge about the insect conservation program we have in Singapore.
Nearby, we decide to catch 4D Magix the pirate movie., it cost sixteen bucks on usual day so we wouldn’t want to miss it. The movie was quite fun about a group of pirates, we could experience water, sounds and winds but it was definitely not worth it if we had to pay the ticket.
Third stop, we went to the luge and skyride. It was the first time I rodea luge, a small ‘vehicle where you just sit inside and pull the handle if you want to break. The vehicle is very simple, a flat surface for sitting and a handle, I think that’s about it. We got to wear helmet. The track is a sloping down with twist sand turns, like racing track. If we never break, it would go very fast because of the slope. One person in front of us was very slow. Hubby and friend overtook her, but I was stuck because of the narrow passageway cause by barrier with word “SLOW’.. Cheeee’’’ When finally clear from the passageway, I couldn’t see them already.
To be honest, I didn’t go full speed. Somehow, it was a bit scary because of other people around. It was fun though with the sliding left and right, but it was too short.
Going back we had to take the skyride, up above the tree with our feet dangling on the mid air. That was why friend’s wife skipped; she was not comfortable with the height. The only thing to watch out is when they lower down the safety bar, if not careful, it could squeeze your thigh or worse, groin,, maha… We had to run a bit when boarding and alighting, because the sky chair doesn’t stop.
Afternoon already. we proceeded to the underwater world, but dang, the dolphin show was only an hour and the place is half an hour away, it was not located next to the underwater world as we thought. So we only had limited time there. Anyway, the underwater world here is not fantastic, quite disappointing instead. The exhibit that we looked forward to, the sea dragon, was under renovation Grmbl…although nevertheless, the eagle ray, clown fish, harlequin shrimp and rhinopias made me soooo miss them in the wild.
After making a round, we proceed to the Dolphin Lagoon or Dolphin Discovery, I can’t remember which. That was the first time I see pink dolphin in person, eh, in fish. It’s the same with bottlenose dolphin, just that they have pinky patches color, it’s unique, but don’t imagine pink solid color, not like that.
Basically, for dolphin show, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen all. Maybe. Jumping, reversing, playing with ball and human interaction. But it’s nice to see the smily mammals. That’s the substitute of not being able to see them in the wild.
We took a scenic ride with cable car to Mount Faber and back. From top, we could see the development of of Sentosa Integrated Resort.
There will be greater grief because in the plan, they are going to display whale shark, like aquarium in Osaka, so I heard. But whale shark is such a big fish that need spacious space, plankton diet and.. the wild! We can’t just confine them in the aquarium. From what I heard, they have to keep replacing the whale shark in Osaka because it dies. And to fit to the tank, the put juvenile. So they keep harvesting ‘kiddy’ whale shark, who will never grow up and replenish their species in the wild. Huh..
After Sentosa, we went to have dinner in our friend’s favorite food court. It was cheap and good. Since we were so hungry, we ate a lot and couldn’t move for a while. We then proceed to Singapore Flyer passing through the F1 track, it was a week to F1. The streets were so bright it was brighter than day time.
After going around for a while to search for ticketing counter, it was frankly not easy, we went up for the ride at the flyer. It was gigantic; the capsule itself is almost the size of the bus. The structure was quite impressive. I heard it was going to be a boring ride for half an hour. But four of us were busy taking picture of the city line and the F1 track that we didn’t feel the length of the time. The skyline was nice from the top, we could see all the city light glimmering below, it was the advantage of taking the ride at night. We could see the grandstand for F1 and some activity were going on inside to prepare for the race.
Overall, it was a fruitful day. We would have to pay more than 100 bucks per person of not for the membership card my colleague lent me. It’s expensive to go around Siangpore, to enjoy its attraction. Worth it? Depends on who and whom. I would think that tourist will spend more willingly on attraction. For us, perhaps we will go to some, but not in one day or in a rush. I can think of other things better to do with over a hundred bucks, many many things ;p….
