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Published: January 30th 2006
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Merlion by night
At night, you can catch the musical fountain and the magical sentosa show. The whole places glimmers at night with exotic lighting. With a 4 holiday lined up for the Chinese New year, i packed up my backpack, for a fun trip to Sentosa - the fun island, to the south of Singapore. The word Sentosa in malay language means, peace and tranquility. To the contrary, its an island of gr8 fun, merry and enjoyment. I was traveling with two of my friends, studying in my same programme (MS) in Singapore.
Sentosa is a small island roughly 500 hectares in area, one quarter of the area bathed in a green canopy of tropical rainforests. It has 3.2 miles of coastline, studded with beaches. Easily accessible through bus (~15 min ride) or cable car (~15 min) from Harbourfront. We chose to take the cable car ride owing to the adventure involved. The journey started in Harbourfront tower 2 from where we took the cable car ride to Sentosa, with ample views of the stretch of sea connecting mainland Singapore with Sentosa. The island serves as a getaway for the worn-out Singaporeans, to take time off their monotonous lifestyle and catch some adventure and fun. From atop the cable car I could see cruise ships lined down below and the beautiful face of the
The journey started here!
I am preparing to get into the cable car, at Harborfront tower 2 to go to Sentosa island. We landed at the tower where we chose to take the packaged tour that included a trip to underwater world, dolphin lagoon, sky tower and cinemania. The other attractions in sentosa include, the flying trapeze where you get to be on the trapeze like an acrobat, the butterfly park and insect kingdom, home to a variety of tropical insect families, the Merlion, the mythical creature with half-lion half-fish body (the mascot of Singapore), volcanoland, Sentosa luge, Mount Imbiah, Images of Singapore and Fort Siloso. Beaches to chill-out in the hot sun include the Siloso beach, Palawan beach and Tanjong beach.
Our first destination in the tour is underwater world. UW world is the first place in the world to have a chamber for viewing fishes in a subterranean chamber. Its an irony that we are trapped in cylindrical tubes with travellators with fishes outside enclosed in enclosures. At the entrance, is a small pond filled with fishes, small sharks and eels, which you get to touch. I almost squeezed the poor shark in my enthusiasm to touch one atnd it almost snapped at me...but the poor thing was harmless. Then we proceeded to wade in to see the
Dangling above the sea
The cable car is enroute Sentosa with breathtaking views of Sentosa and the sea...with its cruise liners and smaller ships. different exhibits showing varieties of fishes, crabs and other marine creepy crawlies in their natural habitat. I tried communicating to a spider crab and showed my friendly intentions, but the silly thing mistook me and showed faces at me (Well if you could call it a face :-). The we saw the most beautiful organism, dubbed as the 'angel'... It was encased in a fluorescent chamber and was exuding orange light and beautiful. And not to forget the jellyfish with their jelly like sides fluttering like flags. Traveling in the travellator, you can see fishes looming above you doing watever they are doing! be it sharks feeding, fishes bobbing their mouths and schools of smaller fish swimming. I got the chance to see a scuba diver at work feeding the fishes. Enchanted by the fishes, we lost track of time and lost the rest of the tour group...And from then on, we were alone...We then took the free shuttle bus service from the west corner to the east corner of the island to the dolphin lagoon, home to the pink dolphins han and yang and another one, whose name I forgot. This being my first encounter with dolphins, it was
Underwater world
1st spot: Underwater world. First place in the world to have an underwater viewing area to watch sea animals in their natural habitat. an amazing sight to see the doplhins perform hoop jumping, crawing on the platform (short while), and crying with a (kee kee) sound when the guide asks them and one even did a hula hoop dance and at the end of the show waved its tail. Practice or not dolphins are really interesting and smart creatures. After the show, I went up close with the dolphin and took a pic with me touching and patting it.
Our next destination was the walk on the Palawan beach looking at the people sunbathing or chatting with friends and families - sights of Singaporeans lazing happily for the New year vacations. We then took the walk back to the Merlion and the Merlion walk, which took us around the Merlion and to the centre, the Carlsberg Sky tower. The tower stands 131 metres tall and has a swiveling tower lookout chamber about 6 metres in diameter and can hold roughly 70 people. It can lift to maximum height in a minute and can swivel, to show a 360 degree view of the island, Singapore and to those with gifted eyesight (like me!) even Indonesia. The viewing lasted for 10 minutes after which
Sharky beware - Here I come!
The pond where I almost squeezed a shark and made it mad - in my enthusiasm. we came down and started walking on the dragon trail. The dragon trail is a nature walking trail dotted with artificial dragon statues and remains, that gives the thrill of walking in an adventure movie (imagine Sinbad and most recently Jurassic park and the like!). The trail ended at a point from where we took the shuttle back to the Visitor departure centre from where we went to the cinemania complex - the IMAX experience with rocking chairs to bring the ultimate virtual reality experience. Enroute we looked at the Sentosa flower rchid show - an exotic display of flowers. The after a long wait in the Cinemania queue, we moved in for a thrilling VR ride. The ride started as a simulation of a roller coaster through a futuristic mine, filled with volcane lava etc. Filled with sudden plunges and lifts, I was amazed as to how the brain is so powerful as to create an impression of something (like a free fall) without experiencing it (I mean gravity). After cinemania, worn out and tired we chose to go back home to recuperate for the Singapore zoo, bird park and night safari trip 2 days later. I shall be
Fishes
Fishes swimming in this viewing chamber posting them soon. dont miss it!
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