Sentosa

On Saturday, hubs had free tickets to S.E.A. Aquarium on Sentosa and of course we had to go. Unfortunately, he only had 2 tickets so my kids had to miss out. Well, they had classes to attend anyway.

Sentosa is a resort island very close to Vivocity - the shopping mall where I used to sell my bags? In the past few years, I've only been to Sentosa twice and both times to attend a wedding or a birthday. So I never got to look around the island. I did notice there have been many developments going on for a few years.

We took a taxi and it took us to Resorts World Sentosa. The taxi driver said if he dropped us off at this location, we need not pay an extra $6. Resorts World Sentosa is mega huge. In fact, you could spend the whole day in this building and never even step foot on Sentosa soil. It houses Universal Studios, Marine Life Park, S.E.A. Aquarium, Adventure Cove Waterpark, Dolphin Island and Trickeye Museum. I had no idea Sentosa has changed so much. In the old days, it was just the cable cars, beach, cycling and a few boring exhibits. I mean, I considered it a hardship going to Sentosa.

Guess what? Now this building alone has Hard Rock Cafe, McDonalds, Toast Box, Chillis, bank, cash withdrawal machines, pharmacy and lots and lots of other restaurants. It's just like Singapore!

For god's sake, it has Din Tai Fung too with the usual long, long queues.

I forgot to mention that one of the main attractions on Sentosa is the 24 hour CASINO. There is a entry levy of $100 per person for Singapore residents, i.e. the citizens and permanent residents. Remember in my previous post about this doll shop that charges a look-see fee of $5 each? That's peanuts. I doubt if hubs will ever pay $100 just to enter the casino. Plenty of locals go to the casino. So $100 is not really a deterrent. The casino offers a $2000 annual levy for the addicts. I have been to a casino before, I think somewhere on the gold coast, Australia? It was a long time ago so I don't remember the name. I was there with my family and we decided to have a look-see. I tried a few things, won some and lost some. In the end, I was even again and decided to quit. The house always wins! It was frightening how fast you can lose your hard earned money!

I forgot to mention that hubs was given the free tickets for his company's family day. So there was some attempt to entertain us via game booths. You probably don't recognise me because I wore my glasses. This game is very simple. Throw a bean bag at the cans and knock them down.

Know why I was laughing? I completely missed the target. How hard is it to aim? But I got another try and I managed to knock most of the cans off! Won a small useless prize.

This game is really simple but I couldn't hit any of the bandits the first time. So I had to queue up again and the next round I got 3 bandits. One more useless prize!

This game was my favourite. All you have to do is maneuver the ping pong ball to the end of the maze without letting it drop through the holes. I was steady as a rock. One more useless prize.

Even though I had to queue up at each game booth, I really enjoyed myself. Hubs didn't even play a single game.

 These are the four prizes I won. Now that I'm looking at them closely, they aren't so useless after all.

Well, we finally made our way to S.E.A. Aquarium. But we had to "journey" there. Along the way, we saw lots of other exhibits not related to the sea.

There was a very long queue leading to the tunnel where the aquarium is, so we just needed to be patient and look at the other exhibits all around us.

See this family swaggering past us? Because they paid for the Express pass, they get to bypass the queue. But what they didn't know is once they reach the tunnel, they have to queue and squeeze just like every one else. Heeheeheehee. They must have been so pissed.

See? There's no special queue for the express pass holders. I wonder why the designers did not make the tunnel bigger.

Inside the tunnel, my phone camera didn't work so well. Very blue.

I managed to get a shot of the hammerhead shark as it swam above me. This is a separate shark tunnel. As much as I enjoyed viewing the sea creatures, I felt sorry for their lives as exhibits.

Hubs had to go to work so we decided to walk back to Vivocity having lost our way finding the monorail. We just followed the road which was a mistake because soon we hit a railing. (There is a proper covered walkway close by)

No we didn't break any bones.

I was quite cool having climbed many fences in my youth.

Hubs on the other hand was completely drenched with sweat. Can you see Vivocity behind him?

I really want to explore Sentosa again but definitely with the kids and on a weekday.