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animalsAsiaAsia 2008photosSingaporetheme parktravel

Day 3 of Asia - "You have been chosen to go to the island..."

currently: still Singapore
So the main event today as such, was the trip to Sentosa Island, just off the city of Singapore. I actually don't know why they call it an island. Cause I mean it's pretty much connected to Singapore.
Our host, Uncle Phillip, drove us from our hotel to Sentosa. (And I seriously have to thank him for the awesome day. He paid for EVERYTHING at Sentosa. As my aunt put it, "he owns the island" =P)

After a few wrong turns and a few confusing glances, we made our first stop to the Underwater Park. It's pretty much a big interactive aquarium. They talk all about the local sea critters, and they give you the chance to even touch some of these things, such as the stingrays and some of the fish etc.
(Yours truly didn't touch any cause she was too busy photographing stuff. Can't get the camera wet.)
The jellyfish might have been my favourite of the whole underwater park.

And of course...just for the fans of Dory, I attempted to snap a photo. But my camera is really too slow and cruddy. And the fish was too fast. Couldn't stay still like the seahorse.

Sentosa's Underwater Park is pretty much the best aquarium I've been to. I mean this obviously bet the Kelly Tarltons in Auckland (cause if you've been to it, you know it's pretty lousy now.) This was even better than Sydney's aquarium version, even though Sentosa's building was actually smaller than Sydney's.


So anyway, when we came out of the underwater park, guess what? It started raining. Typical tropical rain where it's so freaking heavy and it comes down hard. So Uncle Phillip again came to pick us up (he wasn't actually following round with us. Don't ask me what he was up to). And from there, he had already organised a bunch of tickets for us. So while it was pouring with rain, we decided the best place to go next was the 4D Theatre.

Think of the Motion Master in Rainbows End, Auckland. Those were the glasses we wore and we sat in chairs that moved about while it was showing this mini movie about Pirates. The actual movie was lousy (nothing seriously jumped out at you or anything as it normally does in typical 3D ways), but the cool thing was the air and water they used. They actually blew air at you, and squirted water in your face. Rainbows End doesn't have that.

After that, the rain had luckily let up. So we spent a short time in the gift shop, I bought a souvenir, and we moved on to the Imbiah lookout. It's where all the food and stuff is. In front, they had these cool synchronised fountains that I just had to take a picture of.

I'm serious. They do look like dolphins.

Anyway, we went to the Butterfly and Insect Park. The stuff about the butterflies and what not...sorta boring (sorry). Cool thing was this parrot presentation they had going on. Gorgeous birds. But REALLY LOUD birds. Anyway, the workers there got the parrots to do tricks and stuff, while teaching the little kids infront of me about parrots. (So now we all know how to tell a male bird from a female.) After all that, we were allowed to go into the area outside where we could take photos of the birds and even hold them.

Those birds are heavier than they seem. And they're squarking is much louder when you're holding them. It really hurts your ears.

This was taken inside the butterfly park. I thought it was gorgeous, the position of the turtle and all. And then the turtle moved. I seriously thought it was fake.


So after this came lunch. Pretty uneventful. (I stuck food in my mouth and ate it. Pizza to be specific.)


It was about 2 or 3pm when we finished up and headed on a bus to our last stop, the Merlion.
The Merlion is suppose to be like the mascot of Singapore. Inside the Merlion, they explained this with a little cartoon video. So some princely decendent of Alexander the Great was sailing to the island of Singapore, where he encounted some sea beast. Before the sea beast attacked, he threw his crown into the ocean and was then granted the way through. Then when the boat got to Singapore, they encounted a lion. The lion was gonna attack (*gasp*) but then the prince and the lion looked into each others eyes and found understanding (yes, weird) and then the lion went away. So Singapore is named after the lion which became their mascot. Then sometime later (can't remember when, wiki it) they decided they needed to "rebrand" the mascot. So they stuck a fish tail on the lion as a way to symbolise Singapore's connection with the ocean.

So, history lesson over. We went up to the top of the Merlion. As in the head. Great views of Sentosa.

So green and beautiful looking. I think the island is supposed to be manmade, like most of Singapore (correct me if I'm wrong.)

This is the upcoming construction of a casino off Sentosa island. I mean yes Singapore is beautiful, but they really do put a lot of work into it. "Manicured."

So yup, that was Sentosa Island. Pretty awesome yes. And there were so many places we didn't get to go. Shame we just didn't have the time. But I have to say, after all that walking and stuff...we were all pretty tired.
It was a good day.

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