Breakfast again at the hawker’s down the street. Bhakdi (rice balls with curry sauce) and prahda (curry crepes) with tetarek. Well-fed and ready to go.
Okay, enough shopping. Let’s go have some fun.
On to Sentosa Island!
Here’s a cute sign listing items prohibited on the metros. If you know anything about durian fruit, you’ll know why it’s unwelcome on crowded carriages.
Several ways over to the island, but we took the cable cars with a package ticket on the aquarium and butterfly-arium and dolphin-phelia-arium. I have to say, that cable car was aLOT higher than I had bargained for. Of course Mami and Eiji were enjoying the view. I was counting the millimeters to the other side. At least is was fairly stable. Minor heights give me a thrill...this was a clincher. Here's the face of SHEER TERROR:
Once on the island, off to the beach. It was like Hawaii, but MUCH hotter. The sun just beat down so hard, it felt like our bones were roasting under our skins. But the beach was pleasant. Clean sand and good water.
After some noodles and stuff, Mami found a shady spot while Eiji and I went for a swim. The water was wonderful. I could’ve stayed there all afternoon but even with the sun block I was roasting up nicely after less than an hour. Just look at how white I am, and poor Eiji seems to have inherited my pigmentation dispositions over Mami's.
From there we went over to the lagoon for our turn to fondle dolphins. If you’re wondering, their skin feels thick and skin-like. Nothing particularly magic. I don’t feel sorry for the dolphins; I like getting my back rubbed--what a great job.
The aquarium was good-enough. They had a petting-tank like the great Okinawa aquarium and we could hand-feed the rays. That was pretty cool.
We skipped the butterfly thing and finished off with the luge. That was a downhill track for little rolling sleds. Tons of fun. But the first time down Eiji had some trouble. He just barely topped the height minimum and not quite the age minimum. The sleds were a little tricky; pull back half-way to roll, all the way to break, twist to turn. They’d be tricky for anyone, but by the end of the trial stretch he hadn’t figured it out and was feeling very defeatist about it all. They made him get off and ride the rest of the way with me. He was not at ALL happy about that. After much consideration, we decided to let him try it once more. The guys working the trial track were very understanding and took pity on him, and took the time to see that he figured it out. He did fine after that and really felt like something special by the bottom.
Getting back to the top of the hill required a chair lift (or a long walk), and after two trips on the chair lift, one of which stalled, I just didn’t have it in me to take another trip back across that cable car route. But we’d bought our tickets and Mami wouldn’t let me wuss-out so I was pretty shaky by the time we were back on the other side.
Lonely Planet had mentioned that you shouldn’t leave Singapore without trying their pizza. We found a ritzy pizza place in the mall adjoining the cable car tower. We made that our one splurge dinner, and it was a good one. The crust was thinner and crispy, and the ingredients were fresh and well-balanced.
That night we slept well as is evidenced by this photo.
Oh, and I found out what the lights were. Bright lights from the hall outside were shining through the peephole, and whenever people walked down the hall, they’d affect the beam on the far wall. Cancel the call to Mulder & Sculley.
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