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I won the Raffles
After the disappointment of not being able to wet myself on some rides and get away with it in Saigon I was pleased to find out that I would get a second chance in Singapore.
There is a island south of Singapore called Sentosa that you can get to by public transport or cable car. It's a resort that also includes a universal studios, a maritime museum. a sky deck and a heap of other things that will help you spend your money. We took the short cable car ride (less than 5 minutes, but very smooth) and then a bus to the water park.
Thankfully there was more to do, but as you would expect there were queues to contend with. After a 25 minute wait I was able to take on Tash at the 'Dual Racer'. You lay head first at the foot of a 100 metre track that takes you down over a few waves bits before finishing. I was in the lead for the first half but was thoroughly beaten at the end. Water Tash 1 - Andy 0.
The park contains some reef and over 10,000 tropical fish to swim around. After at least a hour we were in the water. I've snorkelled before and really enjoyed it, for some reason this time I had the slight problem of not being able to breathe for most the way around.
The queues seemed to disperse as the day went on and I didn't even have to keep coughing to clear other people away (no one in Singapore wears a face mask like in Vietnam).
For the last half of the day we walked a few hundred meters to the aquarium. It may be the largest aquarium in the world. Some of the tanks were huge, at one stage we were sat staring at one tank full of fish and manta rays for about 25 minutes, constantly seeing something new.
Feeling a little dismayed at the earlier water park defeat I challenged Tash to a race on the luge. For those who don't know, a luge is a cross between a go kart/sled and a Segway. You get into a small rectangular piece of plastic with a steering column. It was invented in New Zealand, I was first introduced to it in Queenstown. You pull back slightly to move off and pull all the way back to brake. There is a downhill track that you race down.
I had to stop/slow down a few times to look back and check on Tash, even then she was still miles behind. Water Tash 1 - Land Andy 1.
On completing race, you get back into a open ski style cable car to take you back to the start of the race. I've learned that I can contain my fear of heights as long as I am boxed in something so a airplane or regular cable car is ok. I had similar feelings to previous times on this lift, the constant feeling that I am going to fall out or that tash is going to drop my phone that is being waved around to take pictures is all a little bit too much for me!
My book said the one of the things to do is to go into the Raffles hotel and order a expensive Singapore Sling. The hotel has been opened since 1887 and was named after Thomas Stanford Raffles who arrived in 1819 and setup a UK trade port. My first thought of arriving at this swanky posh bar was that it was a mess and someone needed to clean the floor! There are monkey nuts in bowls at the bar so customers throw the empties onto the floor. The drinks were great, Tash stuck to the traditional SS whilst I had a variation of it called a tropical sling that had passion fruit and champagne in it.
There was a band playing all sorts (rock & roll, and Motown to name a few styles). Occasionally a Japanese man (CrazyDancingJapanMan) would get out his seat and gallop/dance around a bit, to the applause of the rest of the bar. We managed to get in another round, sampling some other variations. At £15 a drink you can't really justify going through the whole menu, and as Tash was a bit sloshed we got in a cab and went home. Surprisingly taxis seem to be one thing that isn't that expensive in comparison to everything else.
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