Singapore flyer

     Singapore Flyer is situated near to the Singapore`s Marina Bay and it is the best observation point from where we could enjoy the beauty and realize the structure of the  Singapore. Also this is world's largest observation wheel too.  There are two types of cabins within the flyer- the one luxurious with dining facilities and the other one with only bare seats arranged in to rows. We took the entry pass for the second one and entered the cabin. 

A model of the flyer

     Seeing from the distance we thought that the flyer is still, but only when we reached near,we could see that the flyer is always rotating but very slowly. Also we could get the fact that the luxurious cabins are almost empty while the normal ones are fully filled. Its so amazing and interesting to see the construction and movement of the flyer.The 30-minute ride on the 165-metre tall Singapore Flyer is an enjoyable and thrilling experience. It gives an overall panoramic view of Singapore-from the Marina bay to the Malaysian and Indonesian islands. Since it was raining just before we entered the cabin of the flyer, we didn`t get any good snaps from the top.

views form the flyer

          After enjoying the ride and the views we spent a few hours along the beach of the Marina Bay. There were a newly wedded couples accompanied by their photographer taking snaps from there. Thinking of not being a disturbance to their clicks, we walked forward along the bay, and returned home by around 8.30pm.

A day in Sentosa island, Singapore

26th March 2012

          Today we decided to travel all around our way by bus or train. After collecting a vague idea about the bus and trains and the routes, we started our journey after 8am. We got the information that there is bus and train to Sentosa of which train is faster as we commonly knew. We reached the MRT of Woodland`s and asked the details to a Tamilian whom we found there. At last we decided to travel by bus which may take one  hour to reach there. Being our first bus journey here, we enjoyed it. I am really wondered and pleased with the journey. I have had only travelled by bus in India where it is always rush. Here there is no rush within the bus like anywhere else in the city, people entered and left the bus comfortably and with care without disturbing anyone else. Also I could see one thing that everyone is having an ipad or a smartphone always with them looking in to it or listening to something via an earphone attached as a part of their ear itself. I couldn`t accept such a culture, but being common it became unnoticeable to me later.

         The bus made its last stop near Sentosa.  We reached the Harbourfront station at Vivocity shopping Mall via MRT. From there we started our journey to Sentosa island by foot through the Sentosa Boardwalk. It was a nice experience to travel through the way enjoying the eternal beauty of the landscape and the sea. 

           On the way, we took a brochure from those arranged all the way to the Sentosa which has all the details and the map of the entire Sentosa island and the places to watch. After a walk of half an hour, we reached the entrance gate of ResortWorld Sentosa. There are buses and trams to travel within the island. 

        With the help of the map that we had, we turned towards the way to the Underwater world via the yellow line bus.

        The underwater world is one of the most wonderful experience at Sentosa. Besides the usual aquariums that I had visited till now, it seems so different. Here we could see the actual marine world just aside. Just beyond the boundary of a glass wall - the ever poisonous sting rays,eels,octopus, gigantic sharks,giant crabs,colourful small and big fishes and every other marine creatures passed aside. It gave me a feeling like we had entered in to their world. We enjoyed the marine world around us via the moving walkway through the tunnel. Giant fishes passing across just above our head and the beautiful corals just aside us were a wonderful experience I ever had in my life. 

          One thing I found very special and beyond my expectation is about the sea angel. As I turned towards the sea angel, I expected a big creature as I had read in the fairy tales during my childhood. I feel so worried seeing the actual creature which is only a very small creature which lives at 2 degree Celsius temperature. It has a glowing white body which they had kept behind convex mirrors so that we can watch them clearly.

    Very near to the Underwater world is the `Dolphin lagoon`. We came to knew that there is a dolphin show by around 12.30pm. We reached there in time to watch the show.  I love dolphins a lot as I had seen dolphins playing tricks in some shows and films. The seals were so interesting and they played a lot of tricks there. Even though the name is `dolphin show`, the dolphins didn`t seem to play any interesting tricks there other than kicking a ball. The humpbacked Pink dolphins present here are so unusual and are an endangered species of animals.

Pink dolphin

              It was so hot by that time. After having food, we walked forward to the Palawan Beach via tram. It is so quite there along the beach. There is no huge waves present there. After a 15 minutes of calm walk over the blue sea through a suspension bridge, we reached the Southernmost point of the continental Asia. It is a small islet with a board hanging there -`The Southernmost point of Continental Asia`. 

Entrance to the hanging bridge

           After taking some snaps aside that board with the pride as if we had conquered some great places in the world which none could do, we walked there enjoying the gorgeous scenery and the cool sea breeze. There were also two viewing towers there made of timber. We climbed at the top of one of the decks and enjoyed the beauty of the sea around. After getting out of there, we spend some time on the beach.

         Next we reached the Silosa beach and enjoyed the quite evening for a few minutes. Since it is getting late and the ever spectacular `Songs of the sea` performance is there at 7.30, we reached back to the entry point where the show is going to be staged. It is an award winning multi-sensory show. While we were waiting eagerly for the show to get started, it started raining. All get disappointed. But the organizers took some steps to get the rain stopped for some time. It is an grant show with water jets,computer imaging fireballs, lasers etc. along with dramatic music. It was the ever great experience and I think it is the most important thing that one should not miss in the entire Sentosa. 

Song of the sea

            Once the show ended up it started raining and we walked hurriedly towards the station to hire the next train. 

           While we were in the train, we saw the wonderful sight throughout the Sentosa at night - everyhere we could found the bright eyes of colourful lamps getting glowing throughout the island. Thus we said good bye to the Sentosas resort orld where we roamed these to days.

Universal studios Singapore

         

25th March 2012

          Early in the morning after 5.30 we reached Singapore. Getting out of the airport we hired a taxi to our destination- brother-in-law's home. We just shown the taxi driver the address that we had with us and started our journey. In the darkness of that Sunday morning, we could see the trees and bushes orderly planted at the both ends of the road. It feels like the roads are constructed just like drawings in geometry- since every road seems to be straight. Is it drawn using some sort of rulers, don`t know. Throughout the road there were orderly arranged street lights with their eyes glowing which welcomed us throughout the way. I then remembered the sight we could see while the flight reached above the Singapore where we could see straight lines of twinkling yellow lights. It looks entirely different with the sight from above the landscape of our place, where we saw scattered twinklings here and there with out much order, eventhough it seems to be beautiful like the dark sky with stars all around. We reached our destination soon with the speedy driving, which I felt scared about for the first few minutes. After that I could realize the fact that it is safe here and no need to be get scared about the speed.


          After reaching home and taking some 2-3 hours rest, we went out and started our journey to Universal Studios, Singapore by taxi. It feels different when I saw the city in the bright sunlight than that I saw early in the morning. All the streets were adorned with beautiful plants and trees - everything arranged perfectly like in a garden. It is actually a spectacular sight to see the city as if , even if there is nothing else here to watch. There are over bridges here and there for the pedestrians which is also adorned with flowering plants with small rose flowers. The city seems to be clean in all aspects. Every one is taking care of keeping the place clean and tidy. We reached Universal studios in half an hour. Universal studios is a theme park situated in the Resort world Sentosa on Sentosa island. There are 24 attractions within the park. There we got the detailed brochure about the park and we took a full day ticket worth $71 to enter the park.

Universal globe

          After taking some snaps from infront of the Universal globe, we started our walk turning left, where we met with the `Madagascar. Madagascar is inspired by the hit DreamWorks Animation the zoo animals, Alex, Gloria, Marty and Melman escaping from the Central Park Zoo and  reaching the island of Madagascar. There are replicas of jungles and two rides. 

 

Madagascar

           There we had a water boat ride on a river boat which has animetronics, digital projection, evocative sound, and moving show-action effects that gives a great ride experience. It felt to me like a journey through the world of cartoon which has been watched in the childhood, it seems like interesting for the kids since the scary sounds are everything will be more effective for small kids than us who have the state of realization that everything here is done artificially using such and such tricks of science.

          Getting out of there, we entered the `Far far away`. On the way we took some snaps together with the cartoon characters ,Shrek and Princess Fiona. The highlight of the zone is the 40-metre tall Far Far Away Castle which is a world's first. The castle hosts attractions such as Shrek 4-D and Donkey Live. We entered the Shrek-4D Adventure where a 17-minute 3D film took us along for the journey to save Princess Fiona through a totally fairy tale adventure. Traveling with the Shrek, donkey and the dragon, we could see, hear, and feel the action right from our seat by which we will also become a part of them and got the princess saved with our adventure.

Far far away

             After that we walked forward to reach `The Lost World`. It has `Jurrassic park`and `waterworld` within it. There is a Canopy Flyer which is a suspended 4-seater roller coaster that glides over the tree tops and we will get a very nice view and feel of the entire Jurrassic park. There is a ride through a raft through the waterways within the Jurrassic park compound, where the dinosaurs roam around. The ride ends with us plunging down from the Hydroelectric Generator compound which wets all inside the raft with a forceful flow of water overhead.By luck, we didn`t get much wet with the flood.

Jurrassic park area

        In the Waterworld section, we could watch a Live performance based on the film `Waterworld`. There we could witness the actors with their live performances involving stunts and pyrotechnics. The water world arena that is setup as if in the movie will bring us to the world within the film.

waterworld

 　      By noon, after having our food, we sit in between the streets of Universal studios.
   　　We then went to the `Ancient Egypt` which is featured with the obelisks, pyramids, Pharaoh`s tombs of the ancient Egypt. Here it also depicts the atmosphere of the film `The Mummy`. By the time we reached there, it begun rain. I have heard that the weather of Singapore is like, glowy forenoons and rainy afternoons. It is heavily raining that we can`t walk even with an umbrella, eventhough we don`t have one with us. Anyway we decided to enter the ride `The revenge of the Mummy`. 

       

Ancient Egypt entrance

          After walking through the scary darkish tombs, skeletons and mummies, we reached the ride. From the path from which the ride begins itself, it seems to be great darkness. Even before entering in to the ride, I got afraid of the ride. We got seated in the first row itself, which will be more effective to be get scared of. The ride took us through the scary darkish world of mummies, fireballs, giant spiders, ghosts and the adventurous escapes from the huge monsters all around the way. It carried us through the darkness with high- speed, sharp turns and fast reverse actions .I just kept my eyes closed in fear and I felt so glad once we are back into light after the ride. It was really a scary trip in the ride all around the way.


             Getting out of there, we waiting for along time for the rain to stop, but we enjoyed the `slanting silver threads` which fall slowly from the sky. Once the rain reduced a little we started walking to our next ride, but unfortunately the ride at the `Sci-Fi City` was closed due to rain. It seems to be a giant ride which remain in rest without anyone after its restless journey over all the day around from the morning with it`s guests.

             Then we walked along `New York` which  is based on the original New York City, during the post-modernization era. It was actually very thrilling experience to watch the features including the city skyline, neon lights, facades, and sidewalks commonly portrayed in movies. There is also a replica of the famous New York Public Library with two lion statues at its entrance. 

Replica of the New York city

           After clicking some  snaps infront of the library ad some ancient cars that are parked nearby, which also adorns the roads of ancient New York, we walked ahead to end up our journey within the studios at `Hollywood`.

           `Hollywood ` is at the main entrance area of the park. It has a broadway-style theatre, famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, along with several restaurants and shops. It is a replica of the Hollywood Boulevard and is adorned with the dynamic architecture and palm trees. On every Friday and Saturday night, there is some show named` Lake Hollywood Spectacular`,which we missed being this is a Sunday that we chosen for the visit here.


             Getting out of the park, we moved in and around Sentosa. We saw a replica of the Sinapore Merlion there, a huge one. But it doesn`t have a sprout of water jet  in its mouth. There are steps to reach at the top of the statue and e saw people standing there within the open mouth of the lion. Eventhough it seems like we are very close to the lion, only after having a look in to the way to reach the lion`s mouth that we came to knew that it is at some distance from us. 

Replica of Merlion in sentosa

           After taking some snaps infront of it, we walked forward. Once we reached up the first escalator there, there came a Chinese girl with a small beautiful parrot. She is trying to make me hold the parrot. It seems pretty and we thought we may just touch it and go ahead. They asked me to keep my bag down and hold the parrot and I did so. Only after that we came to knew the fact that they are a group of photographers and they are taking our photos with the parrot. We had already seen so many such photographers in and around the Universal studios. They will call us and take our photos and will give us a coupon so that if  needed we can get the print of those. We gave our camera with them to take photos in that too. They gave us more parrots and we took photos with them. Only after that we came to knew that they had already took the print of those photos and they gave us the prints in some cute frames for 30 dollars for all the three snaps. We bought the pictures and walked forward. But we were unable to reach the Merlion there. We have a plan to came to Sentosa tomorrow and see everything there. So we just ended our Sentosa visit for today. From there we hired a taxi to the Singapore flyer.
           On the way, there seems a lot of skyscrappers of unique architecture. Enjoying the beauty of the calm evening in Singapore, we reached near the flyer. We saw the flyer from very far itself . Once we reached nearer and nearer, we came to knew about the fact that it is so gigantic than what we expected.