Sentosa and the Night Safari (25/09)

We were pretty tired from all the drama of last night and only got to sleep quite late. Matt had kindly given up his room to us and set himself up in the guestroom. His room is awesome. Tall and clean, it has an amazing view out to a Nature Reserve. The ensuite has a shower on par with Hotel Puri, which was heavenly in the morning, and he has a really cool aquarium, complete with a clownfish couple!

We had a leisurely breakfast of cereal and yoghurts. The cereal and milk both taste much more familiar than the ones in KL and it was nice to lounge and watch TV. I would say it felt homely but it was a lot cleaner and better decorated than I was used to! Everything about the place oozes style, from the comfortable sofas to the beautiful pieces of art adorning the walls. We were so lucky to be able to crash there for a few nights…

The sky looked a little overcadr but we still decided to leave for Sentosa Beach (‘Asia’s favourite playground’) and so took the taxi to the nearest MRT (mass rapid transport) station. The tube again felt familiar – though that might also be due to all the english signs. It doesn’t go as far underground and it feels less dark and dingy. Bizzarely, the cheesiest song came over the speakerphones telling us ‘the train is coming, train is coming, train is comingggggg. So please queue!’. It was so cheesy, we almost couldn’t believe it. Anyway, the tube was airconditioned and took us all the way to Marina Park, with just one change.

It had started raining, which was unfortunate but we were optimistic it would pass. Feeling a bit pekkish, we stopped off for some dumplings and finally tried some ‘bao’ – not convinced. Still the prawn dumplings were delicious. The rain had stopped so we hopped on the tram over to Sentosa Beach. The tram gave us a great view of the port on the way over. Matt turned out to be full of nuggets of information, churning out facts and figures all day. The port is massive, never seen anything like it except in Grand Theft Auto games…

The island has its own Universal Studios and various other rides. We started with a little stroll by the beach. The weather wasn’t ideal for showing it all off but the golden sand still felt good on the feet. What was really interesting was that you could still see the docks and ships not too far away. Obviously, it was a view completely contrasting those we had enjoyed in KK. Sentosa beach is also littered with bars and really felt american, like any moment Spring Break might set off!

We headed back towards the main part of the beach, past a long queue of teenage girls. They were all incredibly shy but said something about a fan meeting of some pop star… We decided to try the Sentosa Sky Ride and Luge before lunch. The skyride was basically a cable cart carriage, which was cool. We were a bit on edge about our flip flops falling off our feet but enjoyed the views all the same. The weather had picked up and we could see almost all the island, the docks in the background and the city just beyond that. It only took a few minute to get to the top, which is where the luge starts. It wasn’t what I thought a luge was but a go kart, which we raced down to the bottom. Was so much fun winding down the track. We tried both the Jungle and Dragon track and loved it. All the staff had tshirts reading ‘once is not enough’ – we didn’t want to get conned into buying too many tickets but really twice didn’t feel enough either…

All that excitement had worked us up an appetite so we got some lunch at the foodcourt. We had lunch just as it had started to drizzle again, so felt lucky. We waited out the rain, which didn’t last too long, and were back outside.

There was a beach ultimate pick up game down the beach, which Matt and I were eager to play in. We both felt unfit and were afraid to be matched up against uber-fit singaporeans… Sure enough, we found a group of topless men throwing about. Pick up was lively – we played 5 on 5, rolling subs with a group of at least 18 people. Once again, there seemed to be little value placed on the force. Man marking would even break down randomly… So frustrating – was really surprised that this would be the case even here in Singapore. The standard was still much better than Sabah, with more confident disc skills and a couple of really good players. I tried to match up against a FreakShow player, who wasn’t particularly friendly but a good rival. Got a few scores, assists and ds so was happy but, without a doubt, the most fun was playing with Matt Tow. Having been taught the same systems, it was great to have someone so completely on the same wavelength on such basic things as striking. Matt was great too – couple of handblocks and some nice discs, though he was far too modest to admit it. We played for ages but left when some fat american tried to impose himself a bit and it became difficult to tell apart the teams of buff, topless singaporeans in sunglasses…

Back to the mainland for some dinner at the foodcourt and then straight to the Night Safari. It had already turned 7.30 and Matt said we might as well shower afterwards… Got the taxi over and bought our tickets. It was now really dark outside and the bamboo decorations, dimmed lamps and firedancers were setting the most amazing atmosphere! We just missed the first show and had decided against the train ride around the park so walked around on foot, along the various trails. Everything was halloween themed and they had really gone all out – animatronic giant jack-o-lantern at the entrance, ghosts dotted around amongst the trees and even decapitated and bloodied dolls strung up…

Spent the next two hours wandering around. So many animals to see. We saw a tiger eating some meat not 10m away from us (behind a glass screen), which was incredible. It looked so lean and graceful when walking perpendicular to us. Could go on listing all the animals we saw but some of the other highlights were the otters swimming as a couple, the bear tentatively trying to get down from a rock, the beautiful clouded leopard and the bat cave, with massive bats hanging just a few cm away from us and our peripheral vision in constant motion from all the smaller bats flying around us! There were quite a few animals we hadn’t even ever heard of before so that was at least educational. Once again though, Matt Tow proved to be a fountain of knowledge.

Finished the night by watching an animal show in the ampitheatre… The lady told us to turn off the flash on our cameras in at least 5 different languages, which was impressive to say the least. After that, we didn’t see too many animals and the ones we did were a bit mischievous. Some idiots still unashamedly used their flashes but it was nevertheless a decent enough show. Was again impressed by the lady, this time in her ability to react and entertain, even when things were obviously going wrong…

Thoroughly tired, we headed back to Matt’s for a shower and watched the football highlights. Doubt Claire enjoyed this as much as I did – really looking forward to watching Gary Linekar and Alan Hansen on Match of the Day when we get back!