Checkin
We landed just after midnight, got to the hotel at 1am, and got to bed by 2pm. We're staying at Naumi Liora, a tiny but new and neat hotel in China Town, with Chinese pole dancing sculptures and a cute little snack bar in the lobby. We got around 4h of sleep before we got up to meet Ben downstairs this morning.
Authentic Breakfast
Ben took Andrew, Michael and I for an authentic breakfast of soft boiled eggs and kaya toast. I didn't have the toast, but the eggs were a perfect proteiny start to a 15h day.
Cable Car to Sentosa
We managed to convince Ben to overcome his fear of the cable car (apparently the cable snapped 20 years ago) and enjoyed the dizzying views over to Sentosa.
Segway Tour
Andrew and I had pre booked a segway tour, and we made it just in time to beach station for our 10:15am session. We got the 2.5h tour which took us to the old aquarium, the Merlion, and up and down the coast to see the 3 beaches.
After a tentative start, I managed to get the hang of the segway and got quite confident, although I still freaked out when hoards of school children on school carnival would walk in front of us every now and then. And I never did quite get the hang of going up hill. Andrew on the other hand shined to it instantly and absolutely owned that segway. He even managed to get some air on a jump (on the slope down from the Merlion, the tour guide didn't see).
At the end of the tour, the guide let us try her segway which wasn't speed limited (ours kicked out out at 12km/hr). Andrew had a great time, but it was way too fast for me! It's such a strange feeling, really different to what I expected. It takes a long time to get used to just using pressure in your feet to control the thing, and by the end of it my toes had pins and needles from all the concentration.
This tour was awesome, really worth the money, and we highly recommend it as a way to see Sentosa, especially if you've never gone on a segway.
Lunch at Din Tai Fung
We met up for lunch in the resort area at Din Tai Fung where had amazing Shanghai dumplings (along with a demonstration from Ben about how to eat them the authentic way) and pork fried rice, all while watching the dumplings being made right next to us.
S.E.A Aquarium
This place blew my mind. I've never been to a great aquarium before, and this was really fantastic. There were so many giant aquariums, and there were a lot of things that we hadn't seen before, like hammerhead sharks, moray eels, and a manta ray feeding frenzy.
The whole place was just so beautiful, with really great large and colourful arrangements (I know they're not flowers, but you know what I mean) of sea creatures.
Here's the guy being swamped by starving manta rays as he tries to feed them in the big aquarium. He was literally covered by manta rays, sometimes disappearing below a manta ray carpet.
We even touched a sea cucumber!
Some Time Wasting
Originally we had planned to do the zip line, but after watching a few runs we decided the people on it looked a bit bored to justify the price, time, and long walk up a steep hill to get there. We instead explored Sentosa some more, and went and saw the wave pool (where some pros were practicing), some orchards, and then hung out at the Macdonald's to get out of the humidity and plan our day tomorrow while waiting for iFly.
iFly
Andrew and I each did 2 x 60seconds in the iFly air chamber.
The training experience was also something straight out of portal. Andrew and I were the only two in our 8pm session, so it really felt like we were 2 candidates about to enter the portal testing facility. The first room had a big screen where we watched 20mins of promotional material about iFly, after which a door magically opened and we went to the second screening room. The second training video was a more informative but also heavy on promo material, and told us how to position ourselves during the flight. Then another door magically opened and our trainer came in to chat to us about the experience and get us suited up and ready to fly.
The flights were really fun! It's so much harder than it looks to keep balanced, and small movements make giant changes to your position. I managed to get some great height at one point, and kept trying to replicate that, but I couldn't quite manage.
I have to say it was over really quick and while it was a good experience, I probably wouldn't rave about it or suggest it as a must do based on the time required and the value for money. It's really quite hard, and by the time you just start getting the hang of it, your minute was up and you had to jump out. You can always pay an extra $40 per flight to get some more practice in (we didn't), but it can easily become very expensive. t will say though it definitely feels like skydiving!
No comments:
Post a Comment