Sentosa Island

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After a lengthy conversation yesterday, with Mum and Dad, we were convinced to take a trip to the island they stayed at during their trip to Singapore. Sentosa Island lies 500mtres off the south coast of Singapore. The entire island is a resort, composed of imported sand, casinos, Universal Studios, spas; the list goes on! I was 100% sure we weren’t going to discover the “real” Singapore here, as we glided across the monorail tracks in a bright green train. “This place is weird” we both muttered as we stepped as we disembarked and passed a seafront theatre and then a luge. It was like steeping into Disney Land! We kicked off our shoes and made our way onto the imported sand beach which was dotted with palm trees. We read a sign about the presence of Stonefish (the world’s most toxic fish) and decided not to tempt fate by taking a paddle in the murky water. But we did take a stroll along the seafront to a lookout where we could see the huge cargo ships gathered like a battalion-like fashion offshore. It was the most tranquil or scenic of spots; but it was certainly interesting! The humidity was rising and the clouds were looming and eventually the rain forced us to retreat to the free shuttle.





Next stop, the Merlion, the symbol of Singapore; this 37metre high statue is pretty impressive, especially as you can go up and look out of its jagged jaws for 8 pounds. We however weren’t prepared to be handing out such a ridiculous amount just to go up a statue, so instead we stroll to see the mosaic water feature behind the statue which was actually rather beautiful.
We then took an escalator to the highest point o f the island, where the Tiger tower is based. Wreaking of Tiger balm after playing with the testers, we took refuge from the heat on the bright pink monorail train back to the mainland.





As the day was drawing to a close, we to the MRT to the CBD. The buildings towered above us, coming to life with sparkling lights as dusk fell. We thought a coffee would nice until we saw the prices! This area was a far cry from The Singapore I had experienced the past two days. Everything here had been polished to perfection and I wondered if the tourists staying in this area and the businessmen on their trips had seen the other side of Singapore…the exciting side! It was all very lovely here in the CBD, but you could have been in any city in the world. It could have been London! I could now see why some people had repeatedly told me how metropolitan and modern the city was – and expensive was a word the kept cropping up. They obviously hadn’t ventured far enough to find the real gems in the sweaty backstreets.
Nevertheless the CBD at night was a wonderful sight, with all the bridges lit up in bright colours and we were just savouring the beauty and snapping a photo when we were interrupted by a police man, sweating and looking anxious..
“How long you been here” he he shouted
“here,” pointing at my feet
“Yes just here”
“ermm…two minutes” – were we not supposed to photograph this bridge!! Are we in trouble? Will we get the death penalty for leaning on this fence? Or fined 500 dollars for using flash photography?! After all this is the so called 'fine City'
“You see man run past here” he said
“no, no. Not at all” we replied, then sprinted off “Thank you””
“Phew” I said “On that note, let’s go back!”

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Photos

Siloso
just in case you didnt know

Ste Chilling on the Waterfeature
after discovering hesnot allowed to walk in it!

View to Singapore
from the lookout

Colossal shopping Mall
You need a map and compass in here