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Tuesday 28th September
Lin picked us up early in the afternoon for a trip out to Sentosa, an island just off Singapore dedicated to theme parks and plush homes. Again the weather was humid and hot but this time the sun shone brightly and it was a relief to be in Lin's air-conditioned car again. It didn't take long before we were driving over the bridge towards the island and before long we were surrounded by million dollar houses that looked like they had been lifted straight from Hollywood. Expensive sports cars filled the drives and the occasional perfect middle aged body ran passed us, trainer in tow, completing the picture.
After our brief insight into the lives of Singapore's millionaires we headed across the island, passing it's five star golf course towards the theme parks. Here we wandered down the man made beach watching the oily water lap at the white sand. In the distance the cause of the dirty water was clear to see as hundreds of huge ships dotted the horizon, Lin confirmed that she didn't recommend swimming, although people did. Further up the beach we stopped to watch kids tackle the surfing machine, some simply body boarding while others expertly rode the artificial waves. After a while we found a bar, aptly named Beach Bar Sentosa, and sat enjoying the afternoon sun with some drinks and a pizza.
Lin eventually left us for her lectures where we decided to explore the many different theme parks that the island had to offer, opting for the Aquarium. While not big the Aquarium had a huge selection of exotic fish to look at, with a great deal of information to go with each species. We wandered through the typical tunnel with rays, sharks, eels and plenty of other fish swimming above us. We also managed to catch a seal and dolphin show while not spectacular was fairly entertaining. Although we both left feeling a sense of regret, it was a little strange to see creatures in captivity after the enriching experience in Africa.
We carried on wandering through the different sections of the island ending up at Universal Studios. From the outside this looked great, loads of restaurants and bars surrounded a huge spinning Universal globe, complete with steam, taken straight from the movie screen. We were disappointed to discover though that half the rides had been shut, infact the park was not complete at all and with the tickets still being full price we both decided against paying the extortional costs. A quick bite in a nearby Mexican and we were heading home on the monorail, we had enjoyed the day but left with the feeling that Sentosa was very much there to take your money rather than really thrill you.
Once home we headed out for a walk around our hotel, fascinated by the change of scene and the change in people to the city centre. We found an Internet cafe full of gaming teenagers, slurping on noodles with one hand while battling away on Warcraft with the other. Some had even passed out and snoozed away in their chairs while I struggled with uploading pictures and TJ sent her emails.
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