Sentosa Island- Singapore

Cable cars to Sentosa Island

The sensation of being in a Disney park continued when we arrived at Sentosa Island. An unabashed tourist destination accessible by cable car from the mainland, this place is like Epcot without the big white ball. In its place you’ll find their gargantuan statue of the Merlion, the top half being a lion and the bottom half being a fish (yeah I wondered what the hell that’s about too). Our cab took us to a hilltop where we purchased a pass that included a ride on the cable cars and some of the attractions on the island. After stopping at the best koi pond I’ve ever seen we boarded the cars to the island. It was the first cable car system I had seen that didn’t exist to whisk White Trash across Six Flags Amusement Park, and in the true multi-national sprit of Singapore it included a box with buttons for several major languages. As the voice-coached lady spoke on the history of Sentosa Island, we soon became restless and fought over pushing the buttons next to the letters and symbols of the other languages.

The main tourist attraction was Underwater World- an underground aquarium with the main attraction being a circular underwater tunnel with a moving walkway, where you can stand or walk amidst the camera-happy tourists pointing their lenses straight up overhead. If it wasn’t for digital cameras, Kodak would be making a lot of money here.

Also on our trip was a 4D movie where we sat in big chairs and wore special glasses. We sat in the front row and watched a 15 minute pirate movie and as large sand crabs ran out of the screen towards us and down towards our legs, clicking their claws, something under our chairs whacked at the back of our legs, prompting everyone in the audience to jump and yank their knees up to their chins. Also in store for us was a swarm of bees that triggered the chairs to blow sharp puffs at the back of our necks, making us laugh and wince together. By the time the big spider was hanging down from the screen pinching its fangs at us, the two young Japanese children in the row behind us were completely terrified, while their parents tried to tell them it was only a movie. I have to admit screaming children in public get on my nerves, but before I could even give their parents a “take them AWAY from me!” kind of look, I was struck by how funny the situation was, and couldn’t stop laughing at what a perfect machine for horrifying children that the good folks at Sentosa Island had unwittingly designed. The parents grabbed them from their chairs and took them out, probably never to enter a movie theater again for another 5 years.

After returning to Delhi after our weekend trip to Singapore, and the cleanliness and organization and beauty, Soraya and I rode in our cab through a croweded dusty market street on the way home- one we recognized from our daily trips home from the office. We looked at each other, and we realized at the same time that we were both feeling something quite unexpected- a sense of relief at being home in Delhi again! As the boxy springy cab swerved around potholes and people and half-sleeping bulls, the Oz-like city of Singapore a 5 hour flight behind us, I felt like I was back in the real world again.