We are now in Sentosa. After 8 days living as a temporary Singaporeans (meaning living in an apartment, eating at Kopi Tiam, riding the MRTs and SMRT and Tibs busses), we are now experiencing a life as a tourist in Singapore.
Sentosa is a miniscule island to the south of Singapore. On a clear day, you can see a glimpse of our motherland, Indonesia’s Batam island. If you’re going home on a ferry, the Harbourfront pier is your immigration check out point. Sentosa is only a stone’s throw away from Harbourfront and the grandiose Vivocity shopping mall (in Singapore, you will bump into shopping malls whenever you turn left or right or go straight).
In some ways, Sentosa is quite similar with Ancol, only cleaner and more organized that is. Mind you, Ancol or Jakarta Baycity is I think they call Ancol, now is now much much much better nowadays. It resembles Sentosa in quite some ways. Or is it the other way around. Dunnolah.
To go to Sentosa, you can ride a bus, take a taxi, ride the MRT to Harborfront and then rid the skytrain SEntosa Express from Vivocity to Sentosa’s Beach Station (everywhere in Singapore MUST have a train) or easiest is by taxi. Entry ticket is SGD 2, but you can go for free if you’re checking in at one of the five hotels. Hehehehe…
Sentosa has around 5 hotels and resorts, with several fun-filled entertainment. One Skyride (where you are sitting on a swing chair and going up up up on a the hill), one luge ride (this one is awsoooommmmeee), a huge aquarium called the Underwater World (big sister to Ancol’s SeaWorld), a huge Merlion statue where they put a café inside, one big giant wheel of lift claiming to be the highest point in Singapore (its 150 m high), a 4D cinema, Cinemagiz and CineBlast, one Butterfly Park, a pyrotechnic and water fountain show called Songs of The Sea, a trekking route called the Dragon trail, a museum, and the last point of the oldest cable car ride in Singapore (from Mount Faber to Sentosa and one attraction that we saw today: Pink Dolphin at the Dolphin lagoon.
Sentosa also has 3 beaches: Siloso, Palawan and Tanjong beaches. Siloso is the most populated and crowded beach. It offers a flying trapeze play where you can learn to swing like a trapeze at circus, beach volley ball fields, canoing facilities, bike trekking, three hotels, three bars (one is the Café Del Mar – hailing from Spain they said). Palawan is the number two beach that offers Palawan Amphitheater (sorta like the Gelanggang Samudra in Ancol), a food court (it’s not Singapore if you couldn’t find a food court nearby) and the famous Dolphin Lagoon where the Pink Dolphin show is staged. The Tanjong beach is basically empty. Everything is still under development.
You might be thinking of why am I blabbering on something that you can read in Sentosa’s website? Well, its because I do not have anything to say about Sentosa except what has been included in the website. But I will try to tell you how I see Sentosa from an Indonesian point of view.
Well, if you’re looking for fascinating beaches: Bali, Lombok and Phuket are waaaaaayyyy better. .
The beaches have no waves. There is no wind, let alone a tunnel wave or wave-hitting the shore kind of sound. It is very calm; you might mistaken the beach that faces the real sea as the border of a giant pond. There are small waves, but only when a big ship or ferry was passing by around 500 meter from the beach. In fact the beach is so wave-less, I am wondering of why they would need lifeguards and warning flags waving at the beaches.
In all Sentosa beaches, your eyes will feast on an array of: container, oil tankers and cargo ships. Where at night, you will be entertained by the lights from the nearby Bukom Island where there is a Shell refinery facility.
Sentosa wins with its facilities. Access is within easy reach (well, the island is miniscule in size) and public transport in this island is a dream come true. Public facilities are something that Ancol can learn about. Sentosa have two public halls, where companies, schools or just a group of tai tai doing arisan can rent and do their own thing. This being a well equipped pavilion, not tent and tikar type of public area.
The Pink Dolphin show is a class of its own. First of all, I didn’t know that there are dolphins that are pink. I thought all dolphins are grey. Apparently Indo-Pacific (hehehehe..sound like someone I know) dolphins are pink. They are born grey then turned pink at the age of 10 above. Anyhow, the show is staged in a lagoon, so the surrounding resembles a beach where you sit on a plastic chair under a white tent with sands on your feet and only around 3 meters away from the lagoon’s beach. A different set than the dolphin show in Gelanggang Samudra right?
While we are waiting for the show, we were entertained by two banci tampil dolphins which we later found out are named Hans and Yang. These two dolphins swam near the beach and pose, yep, they posed in front of the audience, begging for photographs to be taken. First I wasn’t tempted to take pictures, but after 15 minutes, these two cute and banci tampil dolphins have my heart and I took their pictures. They roll on their backs, wave with their fins and wiggle their rear tail for the photographers. Aren’t they cuuutteeee???
The show lasted around 30 minutes, which followed by a photo session (for SGD 15) where you can get wet and pet and be kissed by either Jumbo, Hans or Yang. The photographer for this session uses a Nikon camera with wi-fi, so after he took the picture, it is directly zoomed to the printer and in just minutes, the picture will be ready. No need to rush to a photo developing kiosks, or change the memory card or plug in the cable. It goes wirelessly.
Hubby said that the Gelanggang Samudra dolphins can do more tricks than Jumbo, Hans and Yang. But I think the show in Sentosa is better, because the Sentosa dolphins are cuter, friendlier and closer. Hehehehe.. And not to mention that here, there are information that educates us about the dolphins. Not only where they are originating from, but also their body parts, the use of their fins etc. Maybe it’s just me that think the information is a great addition to the show.
Oh..yeah…if you go see the pink dolphins you will also be entitled to go to Underwater World. Remember, I thought this place is just same same with SeaWorld. Well it is similar. But here, the fishes are more fascinating. They showed a great giant and ancient fish, the Arapaima fish found in deep waters and thought to be extinct already. They have the sea angle fishes – cell type fishes that is blind and lived in the poles. Oh. I need to tell you that the fish tank uses RFID technology where when a certain fish passed through the RFID sensor, information about the fish appeared in the screen next to the aquarium. Cool.
Me and the kids tried the sky ride and going downhill by the luge. Hubby dowan to go. He’s afraid of heights. So, me and my two younglings rode on the swing chair and lifted high above the trees with our feet hanging. I have lots of butterflies in my tummy at that time. But the kids seems to enjoy it. So I pretend not to show that I’m scared shitless. Hehehe.
During our ride up, a tower took our picture which is ready to be purchased once we are off the skyride. And off we go on the luge. Again, our picture when we are crossing the finish line is taken. Once we’re off the luge, we can purchase the picture, hot and ready. I wonder when will party organizers or conference photographers in Indonesia will be able to use this technology ya? Or have they use it already? Last time I have an event (which is six month ago) they are still using the old technology of printing them at the kiosk. Maybe the infrastructure has not arrived in Indonesia yet…..
Well, I’m now at the pool near the beach, writing this to you and uploading my story to my blog via the wireless hotspots available almost everywhere in this island.
Bye now.
In My Humble Opinion 