Singapore - Day 1

Still tired from our flight, so were a little slow to start. After a nice buffet breakfast (a curious combination of eastern and western foods), we decided to spend our first day at the Sentosa Island Resort. This is a self-contained tourist spot with lots of activities, and was a good way to ease ourselves back into sightseeing mode.

We started by figuring out how to get around on the Singapore underground (MRT), which has its own peculiarities. For example, every ticket is a plastic card which can be returned for a dollar. There was also a video playing on our carriage warning against possible terrorism, and graphically depicting the carnage from other regional attacks! Lovely.

Anyway, got out at HarbourFront and had our first look through one of Singapore’s famous malls. Was nice to see decorations everywhere for Chinese New Years (Year of the Pig). Headed up to the 15th floor of the building for the cable-car ride to Sentosa (via another nearby hilltop, called the “Jewel Box”).


Wow. That thing is really high up, and not for the faint-hearted.

However, wonderful views of the Port of Singapore and the massive ships at the Cruise Center below. After climbing even higher to a tower we began our descent to the jungle of Sentosa.

Started our touristy outing with a visit to the insect and butterfly house…

…followed by Underwater World, a giant Kelly Tarlton’s. We got to touch a boa constrictor (outside), and stingrays and baby sharks (inside). We were fascinated by the Japanese giant crabs, and the playful dugong.

Decided to try some exotic food, which was a terrible, terrible mistake. After hearing all about the magnificent durian, “king of fruits”, at Emma and Frank’s wedding, I decided to buy some. Look at the photo - it’s the yellow stuff next to the frogspawn, and it tastes like death. Seriously. I tried a tiny little bit, and couldn’t get the evil taste out of my mouth for the rest of the day. It also stinks. Be warned – do not ever try this stuff! (But by all means slip it into someone else’s fruit-salad and watch for laughs.)

Fact: it is illegal to carry durians on public transport.

Next stop, the waxwork “Images of Singapore”, a kind of potted history of the island...

...followed by a walk around a flower show, and a trip to Dolphin Lagoon. This is basically a sub-par version of SeaWorld’s dolphin exhibition, but the novelty here is the native pink dolphin!

Afterwards dipped our toes in the sea, before it started raining for a while.

That was about all we could take, and we returned to the mainland (via a fitfully stopping and restarting cablecar – lots of fun, you can be sure) for a swim at the hotel.

Later in the evening we went on the night safari at the Singapore Zoo. This was actually quite rewarding, and we had a good time walking around and spying on lots of odd nocturnal beasties, including porcupines, flying squirrels (!), the fishing cat, the leopard cat, fruit bats, wolves, lions and tigers, oh my!