Instead of jetting out of town for the Chinese-New Year Holiday, I decided to soak it up in Singapore, and one thing I did with my long weekend, was head to Sentosa (formerly known as Singapore’s “pleasure island”), venturing there for the first time ever, after nearly 2 years of living here.
I will admit I always knocked Sentosa, not having actually been there, but I could see it from a far, and quite frankly, it just sounded silly. Man made beaches, kiddy-rides, tacky-hotels, and who knew what else to expect! But the opening of Singapore’s first casino was a draw, and curiosity got the better of me. Also, a Universal Studios is opening up, and that brings some intrigue with it.
My classmate, Antoinette, and I decided to live it up and go to the new Resort-World Sentosa, which includes the new casino, and several hotels.
We stood in line at the casinos, only to get mauled by a mob (this is not an exaggeration: I had a woman’s elbow in my gut, and a man physically pushing me out of the way; all this in attempts to get to the front, and a woman who said to me, “go home!” which I interpreted as, “go back to where you came from!”)
A trip to the casinos is a perfect way to illustrate what it’s like to live in Singapore. For one, it’s an extremely regulated casino. Singaporeans have to pay $100 to enter the casino, and then are interviewed about how much they’re planning on spending. They have to buy levys. Foreigners enter for free.
The big draw for me in the casinos were all the Chihuly’s that decorate the place. Other than that, it’s a pretty boring casino, with more security than even the White House has. Practically every other person had someone looking over their shoulder.
Moving on. We dined at the Hard Rock Hotel, which incidentally, had no Hard Rock Café. Then we went on to another “world” where we took a go at the Luge track and the Sky Ride.
We made our way to the beach, had fish-foot reflexology, which was both extremely uncomfortable and yet truly delightful all at once. Imagine hundreds of little fish chewing on your feet! It’s highly ticklish, and an over-stimulation of the senses.
We dined on the beach and then went bar-hopping, all the way to the “Southern-most point in Continental Asia.”
As silly as Sentosa is, I must say, I had fun; for the first time it felt like I was living on a tropical island. Even if it is man-made. It’s better than being bored.
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A few photos from the excursion. Happy Year of the Tiger!
The Merlion. The Mascot Of Singapore. Quite scary. (You can climb up to the top, and look out it's mouth to gaze in wonderment at the rest of Sentosa!)
Welcome to Sentosa, The Human Zoo:
(We went to the Hard Rock Hotel, and stepped outside to see the pool blocked off to the public. There was a sign that red, "Only Hotel Guests Beyond This Line" and a crowd of people lined up on our side, watching the people at the pool. It felt like we were watching the humans in their natural habitat.)
View from the Sky-Ride...You can see the Resort...and the famous beaches of Singapore. Supposedly, the sand was stolen from Indonesia in the middle of the night.
The Luge
The Beach:
Love the action shot...You should've seen the one that came before it!
Ahh, yes, Sunset!
If you look closely, you can see the smoke coming out of the Factories in Indonesia in the distance.
This bridge takes you to the Southernmost Point in Continental South East Asia.
A very wobbly bridge...
And finally, days later...the Casino!
(Notice the chandeliers above; they're Chiluhy's)
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