Alright, here goes the last installment to finish up this tr.....
SINGAPORE-DAY 2I pulled out this tr and dusted off the cobwebs after not having touched it in so long-but I could not let this go unfinished-so here is the final leg. Tuesday morning was an early one as we had a full day ahead of us planned. We were out of the hotel by about 10:00 am (that’s early with a 2 year old having a tantrum, pouring his breakfast out on the carpet and himself and having to be changed
…..) and headed over to the subway station right near the hotel. We bought tickets for the subway from the station near the Hyatt to the stop for Sentosa Island. Now, Sentosa Island is basically a huge island right off the coast of Singapore and the entire island is divided up into different sections which are themed-it is basically a GIANT theme park-it is so big that it even has a full scale universal studios in one of the sections!! Each section has a different color scheme and all the workers in that section dress accordingly. We got off the subway and walked through a big indoor mall following signs to the cable car that takes you over to the island.
When you get off at that subway stop there are a few options to get over to the island-so we chose the cable car for the way there and the tram/monorail for the way back (which is free on the way back btw). The cable car ride was fun-we got our own private cabin so we could fit our stroller comfortably without blocking anyone else’s view. The views are really fantastic-but after the glass bottom cable car in HKG this was really child’s play.
View from the cable car over Sentosa Island
The cable car ends at the section called Imbiah lookout-there is not a lot of activities to do in this area (especially not with a 2 year old) so we chose to do the sky tower ride-but that was a bust because it did not offer any better or different views than the cable car we had just done. All the attractions there are REALLY expensive so that was a waste…At this point we decided to break for lunch-which was sandwiches that we brought with from Awafi (they packaged it up really nicely-picked up the night before). We sat down by a café to eat and just as we did the sky darkened and a serious deluge began-the café was covered so that was ok and just as quickly as it started the sky cleared up again and the sun was back out nice and strong (the rain does NOTHING to help cool down the scorching temperatures).
After the rain stopped we headed over to the bus stop to take us to the next section. Sentosa offers a free bus shuttle service to take you from section to section. After a few minutes of waiting the bus came and promptly drove us over to Siloso point. Here there were a few things that I found might be interesting. There was a fort that is very well preserved with a large collection of WWII memorabilia there. We got in line to buy tickets for the fort and noticed the following sign on the window.
After waiting about 20 minutes though we were getting restless and I went around searching for someone who could help me. I found a worker wandering around and she informed us that the fort was closed early for the day as there was an event there that evening!! So much so for the accurate sign (it’s still Asia….)!
We then decided to head over to the aquarium which also had a dolphin/sea lion show which the lady at the booth told us was amazing (this was at the heat of the day so the a/c for the indoor aquarium part came as a nice respite from the heat). We got our tickets at the entrance to the aquarium (for most attractions there is an individual booth where you pay access to that specific exhibit) and were promptly inside enjoying the blasting a/c. The aquarium was nothing to write home about-a oversized fish tank, a couple of small pools with various fish/sea creatures, and a “underwater” tunnel with a moving walkway to go through it.
"Underwater" walkway
After about 45 minutes we went out to go watch the dolphin show-DON’T waste your money here!! If you have been to sea world this is a total joke-if you have not, then go to sea world and don’t bother coming here!!. They play some rock music and the dolphins/sea lions do some lame tricks-even seaquarium in Miami was better than this!! You catch my drift…
Pathetic dolphin/sea lion show
Anyway after that we walked from Siloso point down to the beaches and walked along the boardwalk until we came to the skyline luge.
Some funny signs we found along the boardwalk on the beach
Our kid was just tall enough to ride along with me on the luge. So we paid for the ride up to the top with the chairlift (which fits up to 4 people at a time) and for one ride down on the luge. There was no wait to go up on the chairlift and we were off in no time (we held on to our kid for dear life as there is a silly little bar in front of you and other than that it is completely opened). At the top we picked up helmets for all of us and waited in line for about 15 min. until we got on to the luge. The ride down was really a lot of fun and very worth the money-if we had more time we would have done it again ( especially because our kid loved every second of it).
The chairlift that takes you up
View from the chairlift
Going down on the luge
After we came down we took the monorail straight from there back to the subway station and the subway back into the city back to the hotel. I know that the review of Sentosa does not sound amazing-it really was a fun day and we had a blast. If we did not have a kid with us there is sooo much more you can day-you can probably spend 2-3 days there!
After getting back to the hotel and putting our kid to bed (and changing out of my shorts!!!) we got ready to go out for the evening. The same babysitter as the night before came knocking promptly at 7:30pm and we were off! We took the subway to the JCC for supper. Awafi was fantastic once again-we ordered some appetizers and for the mains we had the sizzling beef-again (which was fantastic) and one of the local Singaporean dishes which again was not great (I guess we have not acquired taste buds for the local flavors yet).
Sizzling beef (yum!)
We finished supper and took the subway over to the stop which is under the Marina Bay Sands hotel/casino. Before making our way to the elevators to the bar we detoured outside to the waterfront promenade to watch the nightly water/lights/music show. The show lasted about 15 minutes and was quite lame-but then again it’s on the list of things to do.
Water Show
Outside view of the Marina Bay Sands
When the show finished we headed inside to the express elevator to the rooftop bar. Once again the bouncer was standing at the entrance to the elevator and looked us up and down-luckily, though, I was armed with my pants instead of my shorts this time-and with only the slightest nod of his head (as if the president was waiting at the top of that elevator
) he allowed us into the elevator. We got out on the top floor (53) and were treated to a fantastic view of Singapore. We hung out up there for about an hour and got some drinks from the bar which were really good. We took the elevator back down and walked around the mall underneath the hotel complex and then took the subway back to our hotel, let the babysitter go, and crashed for the night.
View from the rooftop bar
The next, and final morning was a bright and early one!! We were up a 6am so we could make our 9:30am flight from Singapore to Hong Kong with Cathay pacific where we would be connecting onto El Al from Hong Kong back to Tel Aviv. I posted earlier that in Singapore Taxis are hard to come by at certain times of day-so make sure to order from the hotel the day before-especially if you are going to the airport!! We came downstairs with our luggage and asked the guy in charge of the taxi queue to get us a cab to the airport-he asked us if we had a res. Code from the hotel and when I said we did not he told me the wait would be about 45 minutes for a taxi. Well, a $20 bill did the trick and 2 minutes later we were in a cab on the way to the airport.
Now, as I also mentioned earlier, cab drivers in Singapore LOVE to talk-usually they are very entertaining and a pleasure to speak to-not at 630 am though!! This guy chewed our ear off the whole way!!!!!!! He did tell us a couple interesting things though, for example that every cab in Singapore has a tiny camera mounted on the windshield facing the rear of the car and is monitored by a govt. agency that ensures taxi safety. If you leave anything in the car the driver cannot steal it because he will be caught on camera-the driver cannot cheat on the price as he will be caught on camera-and they can also hear where the person requests to go when getting into the cab and watch on a gps transmitter to see if he goes out of the way to take the passenger to where they requested to go!!!! (If only they did something like this in Israel-it would save a lot of heartache!!!)
Anyway, we arrived in the airport and checked in for our flight and checked our bags all the way through to Tel Aviv. We got an empty seat for our kid in Business on Cathay from Singapore to Hong Kong which was very convenient. The seats on this flight were even a bit less than angle lie flat and were not very comfortable but the entertainment service was fantastic! The service was great but the meal was not-except that they served haggen dazs cups for dessert.
Cathay business
We got into Hong Kong uneventfully and headed to the “King David” lounge, which is a generic lounge where El Al leases some space there-nothing special… We finally boarded the El Al flight at 430 pm. After a slight delay we were up in the air. For the way home we gave our kid some children’s Tylenol to help him sleep (and us of course!!) instead of Benadryl and about an hour after takeoff he was ready for bed! Now be it that we were in biz there was plenty of room on the floor by our feet to put him to sleep, so we set him up really comfortably on the floor with blankets, pillows, his teddy bear, etc... and requested dinner to be served to us. The stewardess came with a table cloth to put down on our trays and immediately noticed the baby sleeping comfortably on the floor. She told us she would have to ask the inflight manager if that was ok. In the meantime, she served us our dinner and for the time being we were relaxed and enjoying. Before dessert, though, the manager himself comes over and tells us that according to “FAA” regulations it was illegal for the baby to be on the floor because if the oxygen masks had to come out they would not reach the baby on the floor. I assured him that if G-D forbid such a thing should occur I would IMMEDIATLEY pick up the baby. He told me that if any of the passengers noticed it and decided to report it then El Al could lose its license and never be able to fly again. (maybe I should have left him on the floor and done everyone a favor
) We tried a few more things but he was really adamantly stubborn. He asked us to please hurry and finish our dessert and then we needed to pick him up. And there went the rest of our flight out the window
. To say the least we took our time finishing our dessert until he came back and basically grabbed our food trays away from us and folded down the tray tables by force!! We laid our seat back and took turns laying him on our stomach trying to keep him sleeping comfortably but it was really not the best and he kept waking up every few minutes
. After 12 hours we landed and were on our way home in no time eagerly awaiting our next adventure!!
Thanks for reading this –I hope this helps out anyone looking to go out to these places. Feel free to post any questions here and I will be happy to answer!! While this trip may be amazing without a kid-it is not just doable with one-it was incredible with our kid!! Enjoy your travels and so long till next time!!!
