Day two in Singapore chronicles my visits around the Jurong Bird Park (claimed to be the largest in Asia Pacific and the best in the world) and the much publicized Sentosa Island. Well, the bird park wasn’t even in my list of places that I wanted to visit, but Amit continuously reassured me that I would still have plenty of time to play in Sentosa later in the afternoon. Boy, am I glad to have visited that park! I’ve never seen so many different types of birds before!
Similarly, we took a map of the bird park (it was after all, a 20.2 hectare open-concept park!) so that we don’t get lost and go in circles. It was drizzling at that time, so we went to the indoor Penguin Expedition first. Ah yes, these creatures reminds me of the animated movie Happy Feet.
The interior of the exhibition resembles a ship, with several rows of wooden benches strategically placed in front of the viewing gallery (see-through glass). Can you believe how stupid I was when I thought some of the penguins were fake??? LOL! Well, can’t blame me though. Those King Penguins were not moving at all for a very long time. I’ve been watching them intensely to look for signs of ‘life’ but they stayed so still! Yeah, after a couple more minutes of deep concentration on their movements, finally, some of them moved their heads and beaks!
I thought I was smart enough to bring a bigger bottle of water this time but it still wasn’t enough! I was so tired and thirsty from walking under the sun that I kept thinking about drinking and diving into a massive pool with subzero water temperature! LOL! So we walked and walked and walked. I was so darn tempted to hop on the air-conditioned panorail that circles around the entire park. But then again, it wouldn’t be as enjoyable (and exhausting) as walking. And I took pictures with caution too because I wasn’t sure how much space my camera’s memory card can take. Afterall, I was saving it for my Kodak moments in Sentosa!
Oooohh…I love waterfalls! Though this Waterfall Aviary was a man-made one, but who cares as long as I see water gushing down from the top! As we walked into this aviary, I noticed there were mists that seems to exhale from the lush greenery wall along the shaded paths. My, my, my. Guess what? Those mists…were indeed man-made! LOL! How clever of them to make the aviary a truly enriching forest experience!
Oh my freakin’ lembu, can you also believe that there are 110 species of parrots?!!! I’ve always thought that parrots are…well, parrots! Didn’t know there are so many kinds of them till I visited the Parrot Paradise. Phew! And some of the parrots in the cage were trained to speak simple words like ‘Hello’ and ‘Good morning’ (there was a notice board that tells you what kind words they can speak). Just imagine how excited and childish I was when I repeatedly said “Hello” and expect them to reply, well, only one did! LOL! I guess the others were too busy eating or simply not in the mood to ‘speak’.
Here’s how one of the mini notice boards look like when you stop at each different parrot’s cage.
Oh, do remember to check out the World Of Darkness. It houses different types of owls. Too bad we were not allowed to take pictures. I’ve never seen such a huge owl in my life! Due to time constraints and depleting energy, I’ve decided to skip Lory Loft, which is the world’s largest walk-in lory flight aviary…sigh…
Finally, the highlight of the birdie visit was…the Birds & Buddies show at the Pools Amphitheatre. I enjoyed this show tremendously, particularly where the parrot sing Rasa Sayang, one Chinese song, and happy birthday! I cannot stop laughing because the way the parrot sings was truly high-pitched! Abso-freakin-lutely unbelievable!!! Oh, we’re also warned not to touch the birds that will fly so low over our heads while performing some tricks. Thank God none of the birdies left some unwanted ‘souvenir’ over our heads. LOL!
Alrighty!!! It was time to have loads of fun at Sentosa! We had a quick lunch at Im Seah foodcourt before going to the counter in Harbour Front Tower Two to purchase two tickets for a cable car ride to Sentosa. I could barely contain my excitement as we took the lift to Level 15 and waited for our turn. There were so many other tourists queuing ahead of us. When the wait was finally over, we hopped into the cable car along with three other Australian tourists.
It took less than 10 minutes to arrive (I was hoping that it’ll be longer!). Again, like in the Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park, we took a map of Sentosa Island so that we won’t get lost.
I was so thrilled and didn’t know where to begin! Although we don’t have to pay the ticket entrance into Sentosa Island, but beware though, coz’ you still gotta pay for gaining entry into several places of interests around Sentosa, like this one – Images Of Singapore.
Since I was on a pretty tight budget, I’ve skipped a few places that I wanted to see and play, such as the Flying Trapeze, Sentosa 4D Magix and Sentosa Cineblast. We head on to The Merlion Walk, and there was a huge replica of the Merlion (and no, this one doesn’t spit water out of its mouth!). In fact, you can even go inside the Merlion and climb all the way up to its head and view the Sentosa Island from above!
Yes, you would have to pay to gain entry into the Merlion. After we bought the tickets, we were given one coin each for a lucky surprise after we made our exit later on (it was a just a plastic fan). So, we went into the dimly lit mini ‘exhibition’ (thank God it’s air-conditioned!), where we get to see some craftings of the mythical creatures on the wall. Before we could go up, we had to watch a short animated show on how Singapore was founded and how the Merlion creature came about. I think it was a 5-minute show. As soon as the show ended, the doors were opened for us to continue our journey way up. But first, we had to drop the coins that were given earlier into the any of the Merlion’s mouth.
Then we took a small elevator up to the Merlion’s mouth! Yeap, we can see some nice views from here. There was a staff there on duty with a camera who took a picture of us (I’ll tell you why later on). After that, we climbed a flight of narrow stairs until we reached at the top of the Merlion’s head!
In order to exit the Merlion, we had to pass through the souvenir shop (how clever of them to design it that way!). We stopped halfway through when one of the staff at the counter hollered at us to come over. Now, remember the photo that one of them took for us at the Merlion’s mouth? Well, they’ve converted it into a bigger photo and edited the picture which looks like this:
And yes, you gotta pay a hefty sum for it…which I did! LOL! Next stop was the Sentosa Luge & Skyride! My heart was beating with so much excitement that I almost find it difficult to breathe! I’ve been dying to get onto the Luge! It’s like half go-kart and half toboggan! I should have taken some pictures discreetly (we were not allowed to take photographs but I saw some other tourists doing it! Dammit!)
We bought the tickets, got to the Luge’s area, chose the right helmet size, head on to the racing track, and listen to the instruction on how to use the Luge. Well, it was pretty simple. Release the handle bars and the luge will move forward, pull back the handle bars, and the luge will slow down.
Yes, it was all controlled by the handle bars! I had a helluva time screaming all the way down and I sped past everyone else, fortunately, arriving in one piece at the end of the track! LOL! But I didn’t manage to buy the pictures taken from the hidden cameras along the race track and from a huge camera at the end of the track because I was immediately whisked away by Amit to the Skyride. Anyway, if you’re wondering how the Luge looks like, here’s a few samples from the Sentosa website: http://www.sentosa.com.sg/explore_sentosa/attractions/gallery_luge/gallery.html
The difference between the cable car and skyride is…well, it’s an enclosed cubicle in a cable car whereas the skyride is an open ride where you can see your feet dangling above the ground! I think the ride was about 10 minutes. There was also a notice informing us to smile at the camera at Tower 2. And yes we did!
Remember the camera at Tower 2? Well, if you want that photo, you gotta pay for it when you get off the ride and choose from the counter. Since I’ve missed the Luge, I wouldn’t want to miss this one!
Next stop was the Fort Siloso. My feet was aching so bad that we had to take a shuttle bus (it’s free) to Siloso. Yes, there were the yellow line bus, blue line bus, and red line bus that carries visitors from one point to another within the island. It used to be a free entrance to Fort Siloso…but now we gotta pay before we could get in. This Fort Siloso is pretty much similar to our very own A Famosa fort in Malacca.
Coz’ I was extremely tired from intense walking since day one in Singapore, I suffered a mild cramp near my kidney at that time and couldn’t continue climbing my way up the hill. I think only God knows how many litres of water I had consumed since day one! LOL!
Our next target was the Underwater World. Unfortunately, the Dolphin Lagoon was closed when we bought our ticket entry (both the Underwater World and Dolphin Lagoon was under one ticket). Nevermind. I’ll be coming to Singapore for a second trip in the near future, and yes I’ll definitely hit Sentosa again! I was really amazed at the number of fishes inside the transparent water tunnel, and saw some really huge and weird fishies too!
And check out this Saw Shark! He landed right above my head at the tunnel (by the way, you could step onto the moving travellator that takes you around the tunnel and get off it once you spotted something fishy…LOL! Everything’s fishy!).
How about some crappy crab experience?
Next destination: The Siloso Beach! Oooooohhhh yessss!! I’ma bitch beach bum! There are actually two other beaches in Sentosa which I did not have the time nor the energy to go – the Palawan beach and the Tanjong beach. Anyway, I was very much satisfied to have at least stepped onto one of Sentosa’s famous beaches!
Though it was more than 3 months since my mini surgery at the bottom of my right foot, but I still fear of contracting infection if I took off my shoes and step onto the sandy beach. Well, you’ll never know whether there are any microscopic holes at my foot! Better be safe than sorry, so, I ended up walking around with my Nike shoes. LOL!
Our final destination and a MUST-WATCH event while you’re at Sentosa was…the Songs of The Sea show!!! I could not have forgiven myself had I miss this mind-blowing show! I think my jaw was dropped open during the entire display of spell binding laser beams, water jets and other dramatic effects that made you wanna watch the show over and over again! We queued for almost 20 minutes before we were allowed to enter the podium, capable of seating 2,500 people! Yes, you guess it right, we gotta pay for the tickets but it was worth every blardee cent of it!!!
Unfortunately, I do not have a very high-tech camera to take wonderful pictures at night, hence, no photos for this but you could always check it out at this site: http://www.sentosa.com.sg/explore_sentosa/attractions/songs_of_the_sea.html
Oh, I have some videos courtesy of Amit’s video camera, but I’ve yet to get a copy of it. Will upload it once I have it, and you’ll know why I was completely blown away with the fantastic show! ;D Alright, time to wrap things up for now! Day three in Singapore will continue next week! So stay tuned!
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