Sentosa – Part 2

We went to the Universal Studios on Monday. The queue stretched a long way, expected yet dreaded. The good thing was that it moved unexpectedly fast.

Upon entering the gates of Universal Studios, we were greeted by the great Hollywood boulevard lined with shops in Hollywood style. Just reminds me of Hong Kong Disneyland, with the exception that the weather is a ton hotter here in Singapore. Not very relaxing.

   

We moved on to the land of Madagascar, where a gigantic ship awaited. It turns out that other than the safari merry-go-round, no other attractions were available.

We proceeded to the land of Far-far-away, where we queued for the ‘4-D’ show. It was not a very long wait, due to the theatrical nature of the attraction being able to host many visitors at a time.

When the doors opened, we were forced into a hall, where we listened to a squire’s ranting about the rules and regulations of the show, in fairy-tale language, which was pretty lame.

I was sitting at the corner, thus some of the 3-D images were not very well projected into my vision. Simply, it was short 3-D Shrek movie with lots of chair-rocking, air streams shooting out from headrests and water squirting. I would have preferred Disneyland’s idea of a 4-D movie more, which cleverly utilized its surround sound system to make the characters sound like they were really moving around the theatre. To me this was just a rather irritating 3-D movie.

Attraction Rating: 5/10

After the show, my two youngest brothers, my Dad and I went onto the tiny indoor ferris well just by the exit of the theatre. The thing about this ferris wheel which sets it apart from any other that I have ridden, is that this wheel has such a small radius that I could feel the forces of acceleration acting upon me, which made it, shall we say, a tiny-bit roller coaster like.

Attraction Rating: 6.5/10

Next, my youngest brother, dad and I went for a ride on the Enchanted Airways. This is a mini roller coaster, with more twist and turns than Escape Theme Park’s family coaster. Just the right thing to ride on if you are looking for a bit of adrenaline, but not yet ready for the full course yet. Especially interesting was the way Pinnochio’s nose grew longer as the coaster passes his hut, accompanied by a sliding-up sound. It is funny, I don’t know why. It just is.

Attraction Rating: 7.5/10

 

We went to have lunch. I find it excellent that the management have labelled the outlets which serve vegetarian food on their park map. What I find funny at the same time, is that all of the outlets have the vegetarian label. But the stalls does not explicitly label on their menus, what vegetarian food they serve, which makes it quite a pain to queue up and do all the waiting, only to find out what the vegetarian food is when you ask the service man, because I might not like it at all. Finally we settled at Friars, where they served wraps. Wrapped in green dough, filled with huge chunks of vegetables, served with a side of tapioca fries.

The tapioca fries were good, and the wrap was too initially. Only when I ate deeper into the wrap did I realise that most of the composition of the wrap was capsicum and peppers, giving me a rather sore and bitter throat after I finished the wrap. Nice glass panes on the interior though.

We split up quite a bit after that. My brother took me to the Revenge of the Mummy roller coaster. The land of Ancient Egypt was carved out with huge rocks and statues, which I fear might topple anytime. The roller coaster was built in a gigantic, approximately eight-storey tall pyramid, with a shockingly long queuing area. It was quite a great safety concern for me. How will the visitors be able to evacuate this big tomb fast in the case of an emergency?

Upon going pass the entrance of the Revenge of the Mummy, we had to walk back and forth, following the guidance of the fences which took us spiralling a few rounds. Then the path led us into an open corridor. In total I suspect that the ride entrance was not less than 150 metres from the building entrance. The building was dark, only lit by a few lamps. The queue progressed slowly but surely. The queue led up to the second storey. After a long wait of around an hour, it was our turn.

The cart had passenger seats arranged in a 4 by 4 matrix. I was rather nervous when I stepped into the cart. It was going to be a dark. dark. dark ride. I felt my pulse racing.

The cart navigated a slow turn into darkness, with bloody messages imprinted into the walls of the ride.

The robots were rather realistic, although I wouldn’t say the same thing for their actions. Passing by the masked man which sucked out the dummy’s ‘sou’l, the cart moved into a spacious chamber, seemingly comfortable. But I felt that such comfort isn’t induced without a reason, the next moment balls of fire illuminated and the room with heat searing across my skin, and four fierce warriors jumped out screaming. That is the worst scare I had in the ride. The cart coasted back into darkness and crashed into a wall. The cart rolled downwards, backwards and actually I would have preferred this part of the ride to last longer, because it was the most relaxing part, feeling the wind behind you. It was supposed to be frightening though, I assume. It fell onto a turntable, afterwhich it shot upwards into a blast off, unlike many other coasters I have ridden which are dragged up slowly by chains. Just before an instantaneous feeling of weightlessness at the top of this track, it zoomed through a projection of a black-hole like thing which was pretty shocking considering the speed. Then it fell into darkness, with ghostly projections and G-forces adding to the thrill.

Going in and out of another fiery room, smoke shrouded the path ahead. The cart just crashed through that wall of eerie and cooling smoke which sent a chill across my body and fell into a series of twist and turns once again, and the ride came to an abrupt end.

The atmosphere of the ride was very well created, though the speed was not at all scary. But together, it synthesized a heart-racing experience. One which I will fear, no matter how many times I take it. In contrast to space mountain from Disneyland, the psychological aspect of the Revenge of the Mummy was much greater than the physical.

Attraction Rating: 9/10 (No perfect score due to the possibility of nightmares seeping into the unconscious mind after too many rides)

Following that, my brother, maid and I went to visit ‘the land of the future’ which only had two rides, the Accelerator and Battlestar Galactica. The latter is as we all know in malfunction, leaving only one ride. This is rather ironic, as I associate ‘the future’ with ‘many high-tech rides’

‘Artist’s’ Impression of the Battlestar Galactica – A tangling of blue and red cotton threads

The closure is rather disappointing, with it being one of the biggest attractions in Universal Studios Singapore.

The Accelerator is very well named. It is simply the spinning tea cup ride, decorated with blinding, oscillating coloured lights, painted in the ‘radioactive’ colours – black and yellow. It threw us back and forth like a rollercoaster, only that the accelerative forces only acted horizontally. Quite dizzy, but the ride was very futuristic like.

Attraction Rating: 7.5/10

My whole family then visited the Lost World. Some of them went to ride the Pterosaurs, but not me. Queue is far too long for a more extreme version of a merry-go-round.

That above, is the Canopy Flyer

 

 

We went  to take the Rapid Raft Adventure, which was a tour around the Jurassic Park, a must-go. We could tell, by the 80 minute long queue.

We stepped onto a conveyor belt, which carried the circular yellow rafts. The ride was initially calm, with herbivorous dinosaurs occasionally growling and wagging their tails. The surrounding environment, composed of trees and big rocks, isolated us quite a lot from the park, which made it feel like we were in a river.

Then, the raft is ‘diverted’ through a broken fencing into ‘restricted area’ where carnivores roamed. First it was fierce robots staring at you with contorted faces, next were a few dinosaurs jumping out behind rocks and screeching at you. The raft got washed down the rapids, bumping into rocks, jerking back and forth. The motion was more nauseating than the thrill.

The raft proceeds into a large hydro-electric dam, with roaring noises of dinosaurs all around. Soon, we were shrouded in total darkness. The only sound was the lonely sound of flowing water. A lamp then illuminated a side of the wall like a lightning strike all out of a sudden, revealing a realistic T-rex trapped behind bars. It shook about violently in its cage and made horrible noises. It was as if it was ready to break out of its cage anytime and chase us. It was nerve-wrecking despite the knowledge that it was fake.

The raft drifted pass ominous looking danger sirens and sophisticated flashing controls. It drifted onto an elevator. It lifted us up. Directly above was a huge T-rex head whose size was astounding up close, I didn’t feel much like staring at it right in the face. The raft was washed down a slide, out of the dam, back into daylight. What a relief.

Attraction Rating: 9/10

My Mum, maid and younger brothers left the park. My Dad, brother and I went onto the Canopy Flyer, which is a seat hanging from a track – a very slow flying fox. The queue was not worth waiting for 1 minute of such a ride.

Attraction Rating: 6/10

We went quite a few more times on the Revenge of the Mummy, as the queue was now drastically shortened. We also rode the Treasure Hunters Ride, a track around archaelogical landscape which they claim you can drive your own car, but in reality the driving is heavily constrained by a central guiding bar. Very jerky motion. This is exactly the same as the electric cars in Hong Kong Disneyland. If only Singapore could combine the smoothness and cleanliness of such electric cars, and the freedom of driving, such as in the Daytona Go Kart, it will be wonderful. True, the Luge employs such ‘technology’, but the Skyride is irritating.

It was quite a mundane archaelogical landscape

Attraction Rating: 6/10

Then we left. In summary, the attractions in Universal Studios are quite lacking, compared to other theme parks. Revenge of the Mummy and Rapids Adventure are the best attractions though.

To cut a short story shorter, we went to the foodcourt at Palawan beach for dinner, went back to our room to watch television. The next day we went to Imbiah and took the new desperadoes show and the extreme log ride, both being a waste of money.

The end. I’m so glad to have my own bed, pillows and blankets back.

Sentosa - Part 1

I just returned from Sentosa on Tuesday.

I like the old sentosa much better; the Sentosa during the time when I was a little kid. It felt much more adventurous, more spacious, more clean, and fun was much of its emphasis.

First there was the monorail system, a good and systematic way to get around. It is easy for one to get off station by station to explore the island. Now, it is destroyed and replaced with head spinning bus and tram rides.

I also remember that there used to be nature always by my side in Sentosa. Now Sentosa is just a gigantic construction yard.

Most importantly, there used to be a sense of cohesiveness among the attractions of Sentosa last time. There was ambience on the island. Now, it feels like every attraction is just 'plopped' here and there. like placing dots on a computer game map. For example, walking along the road of the beach, there is now a coffee house with water attractions every now and then. It feels as if everyone manages their own business in the business compounds, and everything outside their doors has absolutely nothing to do with them.

I'm not sure how to describe this, but I think this will do. Imagine trying to create a jigsaw puzzle. The right way would be, get a big picture, and slice out the different pieces. However, what the current Sentosa now is like this:

Beaches carve their own jigsaw pieces, Resorts and Accomodation try to carve theirs, Shops try to carve theirs, same for Transportation and other attractions, while Resort Worlds Sentosa come up with their own puzzle frame and squeeze all their pieces into the frame.

To be direct I will compare the new Sentosa with Escape 'Theme' Park.

The main attraction of the island seems to have turned into shopping and dining, a place for tourists to burn their cash, rather than a place for family fun. Especially with the advent of Resort World Sentosa, money spending has turned into a theme.

The shattered remnants of old Sentosa reside in my memory. I used to have a wish to go down every monorail stop and visit their attractions, especially volcano land (which my parents told me that I visited it when I was even younger but I was too scared to open my eyes) , but I never had the time to. No more monorail.

I also recall wanting to fly by tying myself to helium balloons. When I realised I could not fly with one balloon, my dad somehow got the whole bunch of balloons from the balloon man and we brought them home.

Where has Fantasy Island gone too???

Everything that I mentioned happened when I was quite young, so I only had one impression of fantasy island before it was gone. It goes something like this:


Just imagine the brown stuff are cliffs and the river is filled with lots of families and children in floats.

***

Seeing how construction roamed the island and how money-centered Sentosa has become on Sunday, my mood was off to quite a bad start. My family and I took a tram down to Costa Sands Resort in front of Siloso beach. We booked a small room with one bed, and a kampong hut. From the moment I stepped into the hut, stale and wooden air wafted into my lungs. This was not very good.

I can't bear to put too much effort into this picture. It is too dull in reality. Those two things at the sides are double-decked beds.

We then moved on the other room, whose main composition was concrete, rather than wood. Other than being more spacious, and having a little more furniture, it was not much more comfortable. The floor was tiled (This statement might have more meaning if I added that the floor was not carpetted).

Tiled = Dirty Resort

Carpet = Hotel

One thing I like about a carpetted floor is that it shields your sight from dirt and dust on the ground, and your feet, because the floor feels furry no matter what. So it feels less disgusting living with it, unless it gets wet of course.

After settling our bags down for a while, my dad, my brother and I went to visit the Luge and Skyride.

The sentosa luge requires not fuel to run at all. It simply zooms down an inclined track, which I like because unlike the Daytona Go Kart at Escape Theme Park, it does not vibrate up and down and it is free of nausea inducing exhaust. Although it is rather expensive, 12 dollars per ride should one buy a single ride, I like driving (in games at least, not that I can drive a real car anyway).

The dreadful part of it is the Skyride. One can purchase a Skyride ticket without going for the Luge, but not the other way round. If one wants to take the Luge, one has to take the Skyride back up. One can, however, take the liberty to walk back up the slope on foot, but then he will still have to pay the fee for a skyride ticket.

Dangling above the treetops, exposed to the scorching sun, we could not wait to get off the Skyride each time we took it. The scenery didn't alleviate the tormenting wait, because it refused to change so we eventually got bored of looking at the same things.

At night, we immersed ourselves in the comforting chill of the evening water of the swimming pool at the resort. I immersed my head in the water, saw nothing but patches of blurred balls of lights at the walls. The water was ridiculously murky, and it was only when I rose I felt the sting in my eyes. The floor was scattered with dirt, and thus we eventually moved to the 2 metre end of the pool to avoid our feet from touching the floor.

After bathing, my family and I settled to watch some television, and my mum, my brothey, my maid and I moved to the kampong hut to sleep.

Horrible. The bed was horrible. The pillow was horrible. The air was horrible. I lay on the bed wrapped up in the furry blanket, occasionally adjusting its coverage over my body for maximal mosquito blocking to ventilation efficiency. But the hard bed and lousy pillow remained a problem; my neck ached severely from sleeping on them. In cruel collaboration with the poor ventilation of the hut, I had headaches, and could not sleep for 2 hours. I got one more pillow stacked on the first pillow for more neck support, afterwhich I managed to drift off to sleep.

I dreamt that it was once again a school day, and I was going to school on the bus with the usual person.

I woke up the next day, and my family and I prepared to set off for the Universal Studios.

Recollections of my Vacation

This is about my trip to hong kong earlier this december.

On the second day, it was up to go sightseeing about kowloon and hong kong island. We mainly went to the following locations.

1) Repulse Bay

It was a beach. Being winter, it was really cold. In front of the beach were some temples. After taking a few shots, I couldn't wait to get back to the tour bus already.

2) Some mountain

We went up, over the tallest skyscraper on Hong Kong Island. Although I wanted to take a few pictures of the scenery, the trees were just blocking the view, not to say the many twist and turns and bumpy mountain road which shook my about, giving me some motion uncomfort.

When we reached the top, there was an airconditioned building. In it, there was a wax museum. That was where we were going.

In it, there were many wax statues of famous people. Some looked very real indeed, but a few others were totally ridiculous. Also, there was a haunted house in there, but it looked really scary.

A small, yet neat little wax museum.

The trip down the mountain was no better than that going up.

3) Floating village

This was quite a waste of time to me, considering the many boat rides (two the day before) I have already taken. Basically, it was just a part of the channel where people lived and traded on boats.

4) Jewellry shop

This, I have nothing to say about. It was boring advertisment.

5) Medcine store

Here, we got a free check up on my brother and we bought around 200 singapore dollars worth of herbs.

Here, there was this sales lady which let my siblings and I try some preserved strawberries. Its taste was wonderful, and they claimed that they added some herbs to it. A can of it cost 50 singapore dollars. Real expensive stuff...

That was about all for the second day.

The next day, we went to the ocean park.


There are two areas of ocean park; before the mountains is lowland, over them is the headland, coasting the ocean. Lowland are where all the kiddy stuff are, while Headland was where the better parts came in.

At Lowland, my siblings and I did some quite childish stuff, but still, it was fun. We found a 'castle' with 'dungeons' and 'towers' and we played tag and hide-and-seek. That entertained us for quite sometime until we saw the frog-hopper, which was quite scary for a kid's ride. It goes up and down, up and down and hangs all your internal organs and releases them and periodic intervals. After going up there for 5 times or more, I could no longer take it.

After 'lunch', which was a few pieces of bread and packeted milk, we took the cable car to headland. I say, the cable car ride was spectacular. Just ride it back and forth 10 times and you would have earned more than you have paid for the ticket.

We rode the mine train, which was a real thriller. I did not dare open my eyes, but now, come to think of it, it was a waste. Afterall, it did not make much a differenc, as it was not the sights, but the many forces from below and sides which made my heart race. As seen in the map, there was also this part where we went round in circles at a really steep angle. I had to grab the handle and pull myself upwards to prevent my body from flying out.

Also, there was raging river, which was rather like escape theme parks 'wet and wild'. Although the final drop was not that high or thrilling, the rest of the ride was considerably scenic, with many twists and turns along the 'river', unlike 'wet and wild' which totally ignored eliminating the feeling that we were in a motorised machine which pushes waves out to propel an artificial boat between two old metal guards.

There was the eagle too - a ride which spinned me dizzy. I think it was even worse than the mine train. Lastly, the ferris wheel ended our day at the ocean park with a relaxing ride with views of the crimson sunset over the ocean.

After we got off, we rushed back in order not to miss the tour bus back to the hotel.

Second last day - it was disneyland.

The place, upon stepping in, gave the atmosphere of another world, unlike my local theme park which had no theme and was nothing but a permanant, gigantic carnival.

The simplests of rides, like the flying elephant ride, had striking colours and well furnished mechanism (although some were just for show) which covered up all traces of the internal metallic engine which turned the ride. The music was loud yet non-disturbing enough to keep the queue (at least me) entertained.

There was also the big tea cup which had many layers of rotating bases. I liked that quite a lot.

As for the 'its a small world' cruise, that was just for resting after we were over playing in fantasyland.

We moved on to adventureland. It was boring, but not as bad as main street.

At last, tomorrowland. The ride I enjoyed the most was Space mountain. This was not like the mine train. All I could say for this was that it was a lot less thrilling, yet it was so much more exciting. The music built up the suspense to the top of the coaster, and when it rolled down the twisting tracks, the lighting of props and the 'stars' made it not just a ride, but an adventure. I must say that although this is only hong kong, and there are better ones in US, this is really good for a small coaster.

Autopia was a waste of time. The electric cars were chained to a metal guide along the road such that we could not drive it freely. I rather go karts were replaced by these clean vehicles, than being stuck to those tracks.

Buzz lightyear astro blasters was not at all like the other rides, having the speed, or the thrill, or even the feeling of being in another world, but it was fun. My family went for that shooting game repeatedly for the night, even on the last day, just before we left.

Night-time, the theme park was about to close. There were fireworks. And we watched them. As we walked back to the exit when the show was over, artificial snow rained down on us accompanied by some disney classic songs. It was beautiful.

I might not have been to Tokyo, Paris, Florida or California, but all I can say for the world's smallest disneyland, is that it is great for its size.

Last day, kind of obvious what we all did isn't it? We finished playing with the astro blasters, then we went back to the hotel, then to the airport, plane and home.

THE END

Back from Hong Kong

I'm back.

Reached home at 9 yesterday night.

My lips hurt.

Weather in Hong Kong was sunny and dry, yet cold. It was really uncomfortable when my lips were very dry, yet were unable to absorb the water molecules when I drank water.

My family and I followed a tour group, and for the next four days were sightseeing, ocean park and disneyland.

As the plane started landing, my ears were unable to relief the pressure due to the change in altitude. It was a lot worse than the last time and it was just 15 minutes of torture to my ears...

Sometime after we landed we embarked on a long journey to the hotel. After some rest, we took a boat ride across half of hong kong to Llama island at the extreme south of hong kong for dinner. The boat trips lasted around an hour and it just caused me nothing but sea-sickness.

The next day, we went sightseeing in kowloon (九龙）and hong kong island. Though interesting, it was not very nice to walk in a chilling, yet sunny environment. Each time we alighted the bus, I was in mixed feelings - interested to explore and see things yet so excited to get back onto the bus.

Following was a day at the ocean park and the last two days were disneyland, check out and departure.

I tell a more detailed recollection in my next posts, but this is all for now.

Its weird. Before I left, I was so enthusiastic about going overseas. Yet on the 3rd or 4th day, I started missing stuff back home. Well, to list some are chatting with my friends, a nice weather, my blanket...

And so now, I'm back, but I still feel that something isn't very right. Something has changed. Are people being cold, or has it always been this way for me? Or is it just because of my exceedingly high hopes I had of everything back there?

Its back to that plain life I always had.

But its a good thing that my wound finally sealed after a week. :)

第一次出国-第四级

年终考试终于结束了, 现在我终于有多点儿时间写记录了.

上次不是记叙到第三天了吗? 现在就谈谈第四天的吧!

今天, 咱们早一些起床, 因为要去搭猫空缆车. 怎么去呢? 就是搭捷运, 从淡水线换到板南线, 在换木栅线.


看看台北的交通工具使用者，我觉得他们比新家坡人有规矩多了。搭电动扶梯时，一定靠右。上捷运时，一定以两排慢慢走进去。新加坡呢，大家争先孔已经习惯了； 大家都这样，我们也不得不这么做，不然就无法上车了。

还有，这里等待一趟捷运只需一两分钟。可惜，台北捷运站的一个短处就是换线是需要走很长的路，我看至少200米吧。

在动物园站，我们下车。买了缆车票后，我们排了半个钟头的对。上了缆车，已望出窗口，就是树，又是山，又是树。偶尔，也看到鸟瞰的台北市。

后来，我们在其中一站下缆车，走到湖畔去。但是，不管怎么走，好像都到不了。虽然后来有听到水声，但山路难走，而且虫子有多，因此我们倒回去了。

接着，我们去看了几个庙就走了。

再回去路途中，拍到了这些。这就是台北101。在绿洲中的斑点就是不幸而拍到的坟墓。

回到了饭店，我们已经精疲力尽了。 第五天与最后一天我就略写了。第五天， 就是平凡的一天。爸爸带我到诚品书局看看。在那儿花了几个小时，最后我只买了一本小叮当的漫画书。后来姑姑带我们到一间餐厅吃自助餐的下午茶当作晚餐，因为晚餐的收费比较贵。

最后一天终于来了。早上到了科学馆后，我们和姑姑到桃园里的一间道馆办些时。最后去了飞机场。

这不是山，而是飞机翼。

天边的彩霞

抵达新加坡！

台湾旅游记就这样结束了。这是一个非常不错的经验。 即将到来的假期里，我全家打算到香港去，希望能和这次的出国一样美好。

第一次出国-第三级

已经很久没提到我上次去台湾旅游的经历。 虽然我没什么动机述叙完这个，但我非常不想半途而废，有一个有头无尾的故事。 事情就是这样。

第三天早上，我和爸爸到台北的街上逛一逛。这些就是我们所拍到的照片。

这就是一所大学的校场

台北的街上都是车子，公司，工厂等。四处好像没什么公园，娱乐中心等，我看台北的孩子就是整天呆在家里。我不住在这儿，应该算是幸福了。下午，我们去参观天文馆。展览都相当有趣，只不过科学术语是用繁体得国语表达的。好多东西不仅是我，连爸爸都看不懂。在那我们也看了三部短片，两部立体的，一部补通的。这三部短片合成一张票，大概只算150台币。值得性和我国比的有2-4倍。

在离开天文馆之前，我们搭了个骗小孩的“宇宙旅游"。

这就是第三天的行程。余言后续吧！