Sentosa and the Night Safari

On Thursday, we managed to wake up for breakfast on time at 8.30am! We were actually woken at 6.30am by a loud bang which turned out to be thunder. We hoped that it may clear the mist. For breakfast there was giant hash browns, chicken sausage (that Rich avoided), beans, toast, tomato and scrambled egg. There was also a choice of cereal and fruit. It was a little like being back at school - we had to clear our own plates, cups, etc away, although at least we didn't have to wash them!

The other guests staying at the hostel are quite a mixed bag. We thought it would be mostly young people, probably British, but there is a mix of many ages and nationalities staying here, including families with young children.

After finishing breakfast we asked for directions to Sentosa, a resort-type island located just to the south of Singapore. It was a short walk to the local MRT station in Little India, Singapore's version of the London Underground. There are few other similarities to its London counterpart though, with the MRT being a clean and modern place with flat-screen TV's, with huge colourful adverts covering the walls and a quick and easy ticket system. There seems to be an obsession with English football stars too especailly Liverpool. The MRT is so cheap, working out at 80p to go from our nearest station down to the Harbour Front.

Trains are every couple of minutes or so, and it wasn't long before we arrived at Vivocity, a large, modern shopping mall which also provides access to Sentosa by Monorail or Cable Car. The Cable Cars travel over to the island at an incredible height, so we swerved this option and instead opted for the monorail. Again, the wait was brief and the ticket price - which includes an admission price for the island, was just $3, which is the equivalent of around PDS 1.50.

There are three stations the Monorail stops at on Sentosa that seperate the three parts of the island. Stop 1 is Resorts World Sentosa which serves Universal Studios (which we will talk about later) and a range of hotels, shops, bars, restaurants and a casino.

Stop 2 is very close by, and gives access to some artistic water features, a huge replica of the Merlion scultpure which acts as a viewing lookout over the island, a zip cable ride, 4D cinema experience, museums and a wildlife park, not to mention some very posh-looking restaurants. There were lots of students there making sculptures out of recycled materials.

The third and final stop was the Beach Station, and this is where we would get off. There were three man-made beaches, each with a range of attractions and activities.

Siloso Beach was a really modern environment, marked by the now characteristic sculptured letters that are seen all around Singapore, spelling out the word Siloso (pic will follow!). This beach has a Wave House resort which has a wave machine allowing people to learn to surf. There were also beach volleyball and football pitches, Dolphin World, a Shark Zone and a couple of bars/restaurant spa's offering everything from Pool Bars to different beauty therapies. There is also a "Luge" ride which we decided to go on.

To get to the start of the Luge track, you had to use a Skyride, which is basically a ski lift that takes you to the top of the hill. As we ascended over the trees, the view out behind us was fantastic, with panoramic views of the beaches, lagoons and the hundreds of tanker ships that seem to be moored all around the waters off Singapore.

The Luge ride itself was a cross between a go-kart and a mechanics trolley that slides under a car! After being equipped with a helmet and a two minute "demonstration", we were left to roll down the course ourselves at our own speed. We just hoped we wern't going to be overtaken by the children who came after us. The course was a concrete track that twisted and turned around trees as it returned to the entrance at the bottom of the hill.

To get from beach-to-beach you could either use the free tram service, hire a Segway (a two-wheeled, American, stand-up electric scooter) or do what we did...walk! You could either walk on the beach side, or behind the bars and restaurants on the road, a small immaculately kept private road used only by delivery vechicles and the tram service, lined with tropical plants and palm trees. There was also a selection of exotic-looking wildlife along the way, including colourful birds and butterflies which we tried to capture (on camera!)

Between Siloso Beach and Palawan Beach - our next stop - was a small island that is the most southern point of continental Asia.

We decided to have lunch at Palawan Beach, and were able to choose from a range of food types from different restaurants within a food court. We opted to go for the local (cultural) option and ate an Asian dish for which we were given both cutlery and chopsticks. Trying to be adventurous, we attempted to eat the entire meal with chopsticks...and succeeded. At first, we couldn't quite grasp how to hold them, let alone move them, but after watching a local man at another table, we soon developed our own unique way of handling them.

We headed back to the hostel in mid afternoon as we had booked to go on the Night Safari, the World's first night zoo, and were due to be picked up at 6.30pm. We were the only ones on the minibus for the trip to the safari, which took around 30 minutes to get to. We were told that we would be picked up at 9.45pm, which gave us around three hours to explore.

After going entering the Safari complex, we were greeted by a range of shops and a restuarant, all themed like an African Safari, and a fire show, in which tribal dancers basically played with fire. The heat from the show was incredible, as was the smell of Parafin, but it was spectacular.

We hopped on board a tram to start the safari trip, and were immediately besieged by a huge, red, lethal-looking insect that had decided to sit on our seat on the tram, rather than any of the other 50 seats! As there were two photographers trying to take our photo, we thought they had maybe put it there for the photo, but they soon walked off after what was probably the most pathetic photo ever, leaving us with our new friend! Luckily, it wandered across the back of the seat to the other side of the carriage, at which point another passenger sat back and put his arms across the back of the seat as though settling in to his sofa oblivious to the intruder, so we guess it either got squashed or was later found in clothing!

The ride was pretty cool, although it seemed a little dangerous being in an open air tram with wild animals around us in the dark! The guide doing the commentary commented everytime that one of the animals was near to the train that people should keep their arms inside and remain silent as none of the animals were "tamed or tranied". Given that some of the section we drove in an open air tram through housed lions, bears, hippos and rhinos, it was a bit surreal.

Halfway through the trip, there was the option to get off at a station to walk a Leopard Trail. You were left to your own devices for this, and it was a bizarre experience walking through the middle of a rain forest in complete darkness with no guide. The smells and sounds of the rain forest were incredible but left you uneasy, especially when an animal somewhere started making a loud, distressed screeching sound but you didn't know where it was, or what it was doing!

Some of the animals on the trail were the binturong, the Malayan civet and the strange but amazing flying squirrels which were the size of a house cat. We were lucky enough to see one in flight as well, which was pretty cool. We did try to take some photos, but as no flash or red light is allowed, it was really difficult to get anything. Again, we will post a couple up when we can. Fortunately, the clouded Leopard was behind glass, but it did allow us to get a good photo.

After finding our way back to the station, we boarded the tram again to go through Ecuadorial Africa to see the Giraffes, Spotted Hyena, Bongo and the Nile Hippos which were ace.

The next area was the Malayan Region, featuring hog deer, Malayan Tiger and the bearded pig - the female pigs have beards too!

Some of the final animals on the safari included the Asian Elephant and the Capybara. On the final journey back to the station, our tour guide slowed the vehicle down to reduce the noise and explained that we should experience the sights, sounds and smells of one of the few remaining bits of Rainforest in Asia. It was a really good experience, something that we will never forget.

On a more quirky point, the final few hundred yards of the trip saw grotesque halloween manequins line the road in preparation for the halloween weekend in Singapore, which seems to be really big business here.

Before leaving, we got some less cultural food (chips-the cheapest thing we could find) from the Safari Restaurant, with which our drinks were served in jam jars with handles! We also watched a few people get something called Fish Reflexology which involved them sitting on a ledge and putting their feet in water with lots of small fish in. The fish then proceed to eat away at dead skin on their feet. It's a really big thing out here. We got a pic of this too!!

That's all for now, Universal Studios tomorrow!

Take care

Rich and Rach
xxxx