Blog 8: 21st April 2014. A day with the stars

A day with the stars

We slept surprisingly well that night, considering the proximity to the noise of Lorong 18 nearby, and the air conditioning box sitting within the little jutting out bit of the room! We'd found some duvet covers folded in the brown cupboard just in front of the bathroom, heavens knows how long they'd been there or if they even got used by the hotel's normal clientelle!! Ben came to pick us up at half nine. Our hotel didn't have breakfast facilities, so he flagged down a cab to take us to FoodRepublic at a large, sparkly clean shopping mall called VivoCity. After we'd gone around the block due to finding a phone charger and box from a previous fare in the back seat, the driver took us out through the streets of Chinatown and back into the progressively cleaner and urbanised districts of Singapore, out past a huge corrugated metallic dome structure sticking out of the landscape to the right of the car as we passed down a dual carriageway; apparently this was to be a new stadium venue for Singapore, opening soon, complete with what seemed to be a massive sliding roof.

After the skyscrapers of the central business district passed us by, buildings like MayBank, SingTel, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, I think even Prudential scraping the underside of passing clouds of this overcast day, we entered the dockyard area of the island. Ben could have had a job here, he said, but eventually landed a job in the customer service and baggage handling side of Singapore Airport, for a company called dNata, I assumed a play on the Spanish "de nada", no problem. The dockyards rolled by for miles out of the left window, cranes and cargo containers stretching as far as you could see, from companies like Maersk and P&O dotted everywhere beyond the barriers. Above our dual carriageway was a four-lane expressway, supported by multiple concrete pillars, the occasional blue sign visible above as we turned corners.

We arrived at VivoCity's cab drop-off area, the driver producing a chipcard which let us through the entry barriers; Ben paid, despite my protesting otherwise, and we entered the white marble, brightly lit centre. It boasted many names that I recognised and made Emma want to spend the day there. We headed through the central atrium, complete with a light green domed roof, and pairs of escalators coming down from floors above. At this time of the morning there were only a few people milling around the place, even though all the shops were already open. Mostly Chinese, like the rest of Singapore, but a few darker skinned races and the odd white person still seen with their bright strapless tops/t-shirts and shorts!! Emma and I didn't look too different from them. Heading upstairs via the escalators we rounded a corner and saw a darker area of the mall, styled out of wood to have a classical appearance, and the sign FoodRepublic shone down at us in big white letters. The whole place was dedicated to foodstalls, and resembled a very neat version of an Asian food market; fresh vegetables and some meats were for sale along its edges; behind the stalls and via entryways placed strategically amongst them. Wooden seating areas greeted us, bamboo screens separating their sections; we could see numerous food stall fronts greeting us, with dozens of countries of origin advertising their selections of food; Malay stalls with Nasi Goreng, Japanese, Korean, Thai... The list goes on, the selections were endless!! Emma and I chose a healthy looking Japanese stall and had soup noodles each (I forget the name of the type of noodle); Ben chose a Korean place to buy more tasty-looking fried food, and we all sat down at a wooden bench with Pepsi, Ice Lemon Tea and Milo to drink, discussing the geography of France and the Channel Tunnel, of all things! It was a revelation to Ben that you could travel between London and Paris within 3 hours, with a 21 mile tunnel under the sea connecting the UK and continental Europe!

The plan for the day, now we had breakfasted, was to head to the resort island of Sentosa, just south of Singapore's main island, and head to Universal Studios which we had purchased tickets for the day before at the airport. Sentosa island, entirely designed for fun, is accessible by boat, car, bus, train, or cable car. It is a couple of miles long, and contains typical tourist attractions such as the aforementioned theme park, an underwater world aquarium, water park, casino, hotels and even a giant version of Singapore's iconic Merlion fountain; a cross between a mermaid and a lion, hence its name, bright white and standing fiercely and proudly, guarding the entrance to the main port of Singapore just in front of its city hall atop a stone plinth resembling waves of the sea.

We chose to travel to Sentosa by cablecar - how often do you get to do that? Not often, is the answer. Walking through the rest of VivoCity mall we stopped to get our photo taken with a manikin made entirely out of old Nokia mobile phones, at the Nokia shop - very novel! The walk to the cablecar took us out of VivoCity, along some commuter paths taking us past fountains, along covered walkways and across a covered road bridge, down some grey granite stairs and past an architecture firm showing off their next plans for London's Battersea Power Station area! As soon as we'd emerged outside, I looked up - you could see the cablecars soaring far overhead on their threadlike cables, moving smoothly through the overcast sky in the direction of Sentosa island to the south. We entered the ticket office, with its sliding glass doors held permanently open by quite a large queue formed orderly by Tensabarriers. The office made up part of the ground floor of a 50-storey office building whose top served as the cablecar station itself. For the more engineering types, the cables themselves ran on beyond the skyscraper to a further location on a hill to the North, also with cars running to and fro; the station on the skyscraper, whilst a terminus, was merely to elevate the cables - the hill station served as the anchor point for the massive strain required to keep the five-inch thick interwoven cables suspended high above the ground.

Mr Nokia man, a good use of old handsets!

The ride in the stealthy black, tinted-window cablecars cost S$26 return for an adult, and took about 10 minutes to complete. The views of the port and the islands of Singapore and Indonesia further away were stunning! You could see for miles in all directions, in the silence of the cablecar; We shared a car with a family of three, but there was plenty of room for us to get up and take photos from all the windows. Ben chose the moment to reveal his trepidation regarding heights! Oops. Suntec city was visible to the northeast; civilian planes taking off and landing at Changi and a military C130J doing circuits around Payar Lebar airbase also were visible. The road and rail link to Sentosa were visible below to the east, as were the blue-green waters of the port below us. Ships looked like models below, the only sign of them moving against the water being their wakes stretching out behind them, and the V-shaped ripples from their bow waves stretching out either side of them. As the car neared the green yet built-up island, we could see dolphins swimming in the aquarium pools below us, the pools of the water park partly filled with swimmers, and the numerous buildings of the casino, hotel and other complexes. A massive grey concrete Merlion stood proudly from the side of the hill the cablecar station ahead was anchored to, and to its right, directly ahead of us and beyond the station, a metal tower stood with a circular observation booth slowly spinning on its top. We "landed" with a shudder and a bump at the cablecar station, and the doors opened automatically as the car transferred from the main fast-moving cable onto the slow sprocket-driven mechanism of the station itself. We disembarked, and headed for the exit, past a giant cardboard digital SLR camera advertising Canon's product range. Typically, the way out was through the sparkling gift shop. We made a beeline for the Merlion statue, pausing to take shots on the way, and to help a pair of young Danish blonde damsels in distress take a photograph of themselves in front of the concrete Lion/Mermaid. Well, Ben and me couldn't exactly leave them in such a selfie-less state now could we! The Merlion was huge! You could pay to get in, take a lift to the top and stand within its mouth to look out across the bay. We opted not to do so, but instead walked around its north base, an elevated patio with metal handrails and glass barriers above water flowing around the base of the creature from various fountains around it, emulating the rough seas.

Our self-timer selfie in front of the Sentosa Merlion, guarding the bay beyond.

It started raining as we headed from the Merlion and into the main square of Sentosa. Luckily it was covered by a high glass/metal roof; two escalators led down into the bowels of the rectangular area, alongside which flowed two waterfalls, their source being a circular fountain at the top of the moving stairs. Two stone staircases led parallel to the bottom as well, though nobody was on these. The rain cascaded from the edges of the roof onto the floor below as we descended into the dry covered space, opening at the far end into huge water feature with shiny metallic spheres and fountains; shops, restaurants with "outside" seating, a hotel entrance and adverts for the aquarium stood to the left and right of us as we made our way down the escalators and walked through the piazza, turning right toward Universal Studios. Dashing across open ground and back under the awnings of shops lining the right side of the main entrance to Universal, we were stopped briefly by a Chinese marketing man asking how we'd gotten to Singapore, where we'd been, etc., and then made our way to the entrance. It was odd being in Singapore, everyone spoke perfect English; back in Malaysia I would say "come-see-ah" or "xie xie" to Chinese serving me, or "terima kasih" to Malays; in Singapore, you just said "thank you" - it felt odd to do otherwise.

The giant Universal globe slowly rotated on a cloud of ultrasonically generated atomized water, and despite the rain we just had to get several shots of us in front of it. Behind the globe were the metal ticket gates to the studios; above them, the tracks of the monorail connecting Sentosa to Singapore ran overhead, disappearing into a faux-rock tunnel. To the left side of the barriers stood a beige tower, with an open arch forming its middle and a terracotta roof, the tower bearing a "welcome to Universal Studios Singapore" sign. Staff in cartoon-style red coats with extravagant blazer tails and hats stood behind the gates, ready to deal with faulty tickets, and to greet the guests as they entered. At this time of the morning, it was still quiet, there were about 20 people in sight at the barriers as we approached, and crucially, there were no queues!

You just can't help but get the theme tune stuck in your head when you see the globe. Multi-billion dollar, global franchise, and we still braved the rain to get a pic with it!

Our three barcoded tickets afforded us access straight through the barriers, past the fairytale redcoats and into the covered main street of Universal. It was like a fairytale land in itself, a road down the middle of two rows of shopfronts, American double yellow lines down the middle of the black tarmac, a couple of brightly coloured carts selling sweets and drinks. A fairytale princess stood half-way down the road to the left, with a hoard of children lined up near her waiting to have their photograph taken by a man with "Photographer" written on his black polo shirt. We entered the gift shop first, to our left, because in the window grinning at us were a couple of huge minions! Our tickets gave us a discount if we spent over S$50 per transaction, and MasterCard transactions also gave us 10% off; we browsed the shop and came out with three bright yellow T-Shirts with the eyes, mouth and hair of the little critters from Despicable Me printed quite realistically across the front, though only later did we realise the discount was possible, so returned to the shop at the end of our visit to redeem it!

We walked from the shop, down the main street; Ben had been here several times before and had loved it every time, so despite the rain still falling, we hoped that this time would be no different than before! I won't go into much detail of the actual visit to Universal as it's as you might foresee a theme park to be, however I will say that the attractions we visited were very good fun, and suitable for all ages (where height limits did not apply!).

It had to happen. We found a giant panda!

The main rollercoaster was closed but the other attractions made up for this; we saw Shrek 4D in a huge cinema with moving chairs and spraying water to accompany the 3D glasses experience, took a ride on a boat through the shipwrecked cargo carrier of Madagascar and had an adventure with Alex the lion and friends, escaping from the dreaded Foosa; we took an adventure logflume ride through Jurassic Park in a circular dinghy, and got very wet when the dinosaurs escaped their containment area! We barely needed to queue at all for The Mummy's indoor rollercoaster, complete with backwards sheer drops and a huge real-flame grill roasting us alive :/ ! Transformers was an incredible ride, in a high-sided vehicle which doubled as a motion simulator as well as a small rollercoaster - albeit barely moving 20 yards throughout the whole 10 minute ride, we fought off the Decepticons with valour in our total-immersion full movement 4D experience. So realistic in fact that I braced for impact when we were simulated to be dropping vertically, face-first, from the top of a skyscraper! Steven Spielberg's "Sound and Lighting Set" was incredible, we witnessed first-hand the full force of a Category 5 hurricane from inside a New York boathouse, complete with crashing waves, disintegrating building and burning boats flung from the ceiling by the wind. We figured out how to spin our teacups ridiculously quickly when others were sitting being spun in theirs by the passive motion of the ride. We finished the experience with a ride in flying golf carts to outer space, to fight the spaghetti monster with the cast of Sesame Street. Thankfully we won! That was Emma's favourite ride I think.

Nearly all the Singapore family in one place

We left Universal Studios and Sentosa at about 6pm, the same way we'd come in, this time with a stealthy black cablecar pod all to ourselves to move around in freely and take photos of the 360° panorama around us through a hatch in the roof! We found our way back to VivoCity mall and, obeying the no eating or drinking rules, bought a disposable chip-ticket (no magnetic stripes, but still cardboard) and took the impeccably clean and modern purple North-East line train then the green East-West line train from NE1 Harbourfront station to NE3/EW16 Outram Park station, and from there to EW2 Tampines station, passing our Lorong 18 accommodation at EW9 Aljunied station and funnily, a station called EW4 Tanah Merah - a town not far from Kota Bharu in West Malaysia! Also on the EW line was a Dover and a Redhill - it's like they knew we were coming! Singapore's MRT system also boasted NS23 Somerset, CC24 Kent Ridge and EW20 Commonwealth stations, as a reminder of the British influence and quite recent involvement in this small island state's history.

Singapore (the bahasa word singapura means Lion City), according to Wikipedia, was founded in 1819 by the British man Sir Stamford Raffles, as an outpost for the East India Company, and gained British sovereignty in 1824; it was occupied by the Japanese during WWII, and in 1963 declared independence from the British Empire, uniting with other British Territories in the area to form the country of Malaysia but subsequently splitting off on its own as a result of the Malaysian refusal to recognise Chinese nationals as full citizens of the country. It is an island, separated from Peninsula (West) Malaysia by the Straits of Johor, and lies only 85 miles north of the equator. It is one of the smallest countries in the world, at only 30 miles wide by about 15 tall, yet has a population of nearly 6 milllion (England has about 55 million, but with over 180 times the area). Compare that to the Isle of Wight, 22 miles wide and 17 high yet with a population of 140,000! Singapore quickly grew into a very successful industrial and quaternary trading hub. Incidentally the Chinese in Malaysia - even those born there- due to the historical divide, do not receive the same rights as indigenous Malay people (the "bumiputra"), and as such though actively "discriminated" against even today, have gained from this split, as they have to work a damned sight harder and earn lots more money to get places in universities, schools and even get jobs and buy properties in Malaysia. The Chinese chose this fate however, during the formation of Malaysia as a sovereign state, opting to not integrate fully with the indigenous Malays. Arguably quite an oversight!

Map of the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit system (source)

The driverless and spotless Singapore MRT train, tells you which line you're on, where you are (flashing light), and the next stop, as well as which stations you've already been to.

Along with most of the passengers onboard we disembarked from the crowded train at Tampines station, and descending down its exit ramps found cousin Teong Seng waiting for us with mum's cousin, who being a generation above me I should have called Uncle (though I always call him by his name, Thien Sie (pronounced 10-C, as Emma pointed out), by force of habit, me being English and he not actually being my mother's brother, i.e., an uncle!). The Chinese traditionally don't call family members by their actual names, rather confusingly, instead referring to them by their positions within the family, and what side of the family they are on. Positions can be as simple as uncle and aunty, but can even include the birth-order, leading to complicated titles translating as 1st uncle on mother's side, or 4th aunty on dad's side; cousins also are referred to as older or younger, and I think this name also depends on the side of the family.

With a-Seng and Thien Sie the three of us headed toward the huge Tampines shopping mall, complete with bright purple neon logo looking down at us from across the road from the train station. The crossing from the station to the mall was covered by a roof supported on pillars specifically for the role of protecting commuters from the elements. To the right of the mall, across the road from the station, a temporary (we found out later) market had been set up within a white PTFE marquee, and had scores of people buzzing around it. The shopping centre, 4 storeys tall, had a ground-floor glass-fronted entrance, or could be accessed by a set of escalators conveniently positioned at this corner of the building opposite the station. We ascended them, and entered the building, which could have been any other shopping mall in the world, save for the melée of entirely black-haired shoppers bobbing along, doing their evening shopping and finding places to eat. Thien Sie had been advised by his daughter who would meet us later to go to a place on the 4th floor serving Penang food, called Penang Culture. It was a monochromatic themed restaurant, complete with chequered black and white floor tiles and greyscale photos of the streets of Penang Island (Pulau Pinang, off the north-west coast of Peninsula/West Malaysia). Emma and I let the experts do the ordering, and ate our very nice meals; Teong Seng accidentally ordered a kids meal - it arrived, complete with brightly coloured alphabet-themed plate!!! My second-cousin once-removed (i.e. my mum's cousin [Thien Sie]'s daughter) May Ling arrived from her work in the genetics laboratory at Singapore Hospital to greet us and have dinner; I hadn't seen her (or indeed her father) since the 1990's when we'd last visited Singapore! After dinner she took Emma around a food market set up on the green outside of Tampines mall opposite the station, while I waited with the boys and talked about planes! She and Em returned with some freshly squeezed sugar cane drink, green and unbelievably sweet, and some local deep-fried sweet delicacies, all of which were lovely even on top of our full stomachs from dinner!

May Ling, me and Emma in the "Penang Culture" restaurant at Tampines Mall.

We were thankful to uncle Thien Sie who paid for our lovely food, and even came back to our hotel with us to make sure we got there safely in the train and in the cab. I was grateful for a chat about aeroplanes and failure investigations, Sie was an engineer in the Royal Air Force (Singapore) and then Federal Express for many years, so had many stories of death-defying experiences with aeroplanes and thoughts on recent crash investigations. I wished I had more time to chat!