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Published: February 28th 2019
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4th visit here, still finding lovely new things to do!
After Gill came through off her flight we got a taxi from the rank as we couldn’t work out where the Grabs were allowed to pick up and didn’t want to not be able to find the driver. The taxi we did get went a longer route round to get to the hotel, but it cost 22SGD, so not too much more. A Grab would have been 18. 3rd time at the Holiday Inn Express, Clarke Quay. We are so over the walk from the MRT now, next time we’ll go to the Quay Hotel I stayed in a month ago.
Gill was raring to go straight out so we walked along Boat Quay to the Merlion, took some pics, then went to the smart Fullerton Bay Hotel roof terrace (the bar is called the Lantern) for cocktails. Pricey! People were fairly casually dressed, luckily. A lovely view from there, although it isn’t very high. You can just swan in and ask for the bar. Then we were hungry and I’d seen a road at the back of Boat Quay which looked cheaper and full of lively local restaurants.
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Poor Raffles, taking much longer to do up than originally planned. It’s called Circular Road and on closer inspection it was lively for the wrong reasons. Hooker Central. We crossed South Bridge Road and found a Chinese place which didn’t specialise in pig entrails. It was fine and the guy outside spoke great English.
On Tuesday we factored in some lounging around by the pool as well as exploring. We took the MRT to Promenade and went to Raffles, although we knew it was still being done up. You can go to the Long Bar (opens at 11) but we didn’t bother and found the pop up gift shop. The doorman has been redeployed here temporarily and he looked terminally bored, bless him. Then we walked back via the cathedral which features in Crazy Rich Asians, and did a bit of shopping in the mall at the end of Clarke Quay. The lounging round the pool didn’t really happen as it rained on and off.
In the evening we walked over to the Marina Bay Sands shopping mall, very fancy, but on the bottom level facing the 3rd tower there is an excellent food court, not expensive. So much choice and unusual items. I had a thing called pepper
rice, where all the ingredients come on a hot plate and you mix them all together and cook them yourself. It was called cheesy beef curry and was delicious. 12.60SGD. Then we walked over to the Supertree Grove just as it was sunset, sat on the grass with loads of other people and watched the light and sound show. The music was Naff Hits of the 1950s but it was very pretty and there were bats flying around. They got lower and lower until they were hitting people on the head Gill included. Having a laugh or what? Afterwards we took the MRT, got out in Chinatown and found a bar called Dorothy’s (as in friends of), 22SGD for 2 small beers. You cannot drink cheaply here unless you buy cans from 7-11.
Yesterday was my delayed birthday treat, Universal Studios. I was way beyond excited. We got the MRT to Harbourfront, then you have to go all the way to the top of the mall to find the Sentosa Express. The signs were not super clear. You can use your ez-link card and the return journey is free, or walk across, 800m along a covered walkway. We had
our e-tickets and express passes all printed off. The e-tickets can be used on any day within a stated time period, unfortunately the express passes have to have the correct day on them and ours were for the day before. We had to go to Guest Services and pay an extra 10SGD each, the price of buying them on the day. They are worth it. Even thought the park wasn’t busy we could go straight to the front and there were some 70minute waits.
The park is the smallest Universal of them all and you can walk round it in no time. THe best way is to go left first, starting in Madagascar, one of my favourite films of all time! The next area is Shrek and we went on a junior rollercoaster, which was faster than we were expecting. Gill had taken a pill and had her travel sickness bands on, but it was then end of her rollercoaster experience for the day so I rode alone from then on while she looked after my bag. The Jurassic Park ride was a water one, warning you you will probably get wet. You can buy ponchos for 5SGD but
we didn’t bother. I spent the whole time hiding under my map and waiting for it, but we got off lightly. We’d sat in the seats that looked the least wet when we got on and this turned out to be an excellent plan. We got the least wet. Everybody’s feet got soaked, sandals are best. Later on there was a Chinese lady in the rest rooms with a very, very wet and squished passport. She was trying to revive it by drying it in the hand drier but believe me, that passport was not going to be acceptable for travel ever again. It was almost unrecognisable. Sadness.......
The more lively rides don’t allow bags and there are lockers outside which you activate with a thumb print. The time varies but they have a free period, 45mins yesterday, then you have to pay to get your stuff back, so have to remember to take some money out before you lock it. The best rides were the Egyptian one (in the dark, you don’t know if you are going to go forwards, backwards, up or down) and Battlestar Galactica, which has 2 which intertwine. Cylon is more intense and flips
you upside down and corkscrews. I got the front row twice and took a painkiller for my back after the second go, just as a precaution. We also went to some of the shows, Waterworld (good, but don’t sit in the soak zone at the front unless you want the staff in the preshow to dump a bucket of water on you) Elmo (bad) and Steven Spielberg special effects (short). None of the food courts were busy.
My highlight was the Meet the Minions encounter at 1pm. We were early and I was first in the queue, except for the people with VIP tickets. Hate those people! Gill took pics and I made the Minions hold hands with me. I was waaaaay the oldest for this and for all the intense rollercoasters. Skills! But probably I enjoyed them more when I was 10 years younger. But when I was 20 years younger I had to go to physio for a month after to recover. Go figure! We stayed until 5 and had got there at the opening time, 10am. That was enough time to do everything.
We got the MRT back and in the evening walked over to
Clarke Quay to do the boat trip into the bay, just at the right time as the 8pm laser show was just starting. It’s a 40min ride, better done from the back of the boat, 25SGD. Fabulous views when all the buildings and bridges are lit up. We ate in the Clarke Quay mall. The basement food court is hardly functioning, just a few places open while they do it up, so we went to the really nice and reasonable Japanese place next to Subway, on the ground floor.
Tomorrow we are going back to Sentosa to do a Segway tour, zip line, the cable car and anything else we can find!
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