The Island

Waking up for another early Sunday morning coaching session, I could already tell that the weather was going to be extremely warm today.

Once again I'd slept with the A/C on and paid for the luxury when walking into a red hot kitchen. The windows tend to get left open over night to let some "fresh" air in, but usually this means that as soon as you walk in there in the morning, the temperature is already overwhelming.

I'm doubt very much that the number of people staying in James' appartement helps matters, but with Singaporean accomodation falling in line with other Asian-style housing, there's barely enough space to swing a cat anyway.

Thankfully the heat was useful for one thing as it allowed me to have dry clothes to wake up to this morning. Washing machines here only work on cold cycles, so they probably don't clean tremendously well anyway, but the stuff I hung out late last night was bone dry by the time I was done in the shower this morning.

Today for the first time since coming here I ran my first solo coaching session as everyone else was otherwise engaged. I was heading to the same location as last Sunday, West Coast Park, and with a bag full of equipment I headed out to catch the MRT at about 7.00am.

There was a sense that something wasn't quite right today as I headed off in the first light of day, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I had to ride the North-South line to its termination point before swapping to the East-West line and heading to a stop called Clementi.

I got a few strange looks on the train, as you usually would carrying a bag full of footballs and plastic piping (makeshift goalposts) but I arrived at Clementi and headed for a taxi to take me to the correct location.

Once I was at the park it was very empty, deserted almost, and there seemed to be a strange mist all over the field. After setting up at about 8:20 I sat and waited until 8:40 when I was told the session would start.

It got to about 8:45am and still nobody had showed. Picked up my phone to ring James to find out what was going on and he told me that he had mis-spoken when he said 8:40 and actually meant 9:30 so I was left to sit waiting for 45 minutes until anyone showed up!

At least I had realised what didn't seem quite right about things, and it made sense later when the baseball players who were on either side of us last weekend showed up at about 9:15 to start setting up.

Today's session had a couple more kids in than last week with one trialist joining us, and two other kids who I hadn't seen the previous week returning from their holiday's.

I managed to get finished and tidied up by about 11am and saught out a taxi to return me to the MRT. Luckily there are usually people getting dropped off at West Coast Park so it means I don't have to go through the issues of flagging one down.

Unfortunately the driver's navigational sense was about as good as mine, and he drove me the wrong way, before realising his mistake and then correcting it by only charging me $5 which is about how much it should have cost.

The process of catching and communicating a taxi is relatively easy here due to the standard of English. Doesn't mean they won't get confuused and go the wrong way though.

I got back to Sembawang at about 12, and headed into the shower before going to get some dinner.

I had decided to experience another busy afternoon today, by heading in the sane direction as I had done yesterday.

Thie meant re-boarding the MRT and heading in the direction of Harbour Front.

I wasn't going in seach of angry monkeys today though and was instead heading towards Sentosa which is a small island south of Singapore.

Sentosa is a weird hybrid of Aisa, Europe and North America.

It is home to most of the attractions in Singapore including, several impressive resorts, sandy beaches and plenty to do.

The way to get into Sentosa is varied. One option is to travel by cable car which I saw many peiple doing yesterday. The simpest option is to travel via monorail from the Vivo Shopping centre inside the MRT station.

The third, and option choicen by me however, was a tiring one with the heat beating down at full effect.

I selected to cross a structure called the Sentosa Walkway which runs between the island and the mainland.

Much of the walkway is undercover, but considering was doing my best to get out and take photos I was sufferinf rather badly from the prolonged exposure to the sun's rays.

Eventually I arrived at Sentosa, and had to pay $1 to enter through a turnstyle. I imagine this was still cheaper than paying for a cable car or the monorail though.

I was immediately impressed by the island's layout. Sentosa is often known as the Resort Island, and it lived up to its name with plenty to walk round, see and do in almsot every square inch.

I started off by picking up a map and deciding to head around the map's highlights by doing in a circle going to my left.

Most of the experiences that Sentosa has to offer are unsurprisingly expensive, but if you had a pocketful of cash burning a hole in your pocket then I would definitely suggest some of the activities I discovered were available.

There are a number of impressive hotels on the island, all of which I'd imagine cost a pretty penny, and whether this was deliberate or not, you get a Las Vegas-type feel from them with expensive shops, museums and even casinos on offer.

The island is split up into six different sections, each one named after some of the attractions that are posessed within.

The first notable thing you come to is Universal Studios Singapore. Having visited the 'original' version, I would have been interested to see what the 'remix' had to offer, but the best I got was a couple of photos and a walk around the shop.

From a distance you can see some of the rollercoasters that appear to be containing within, but I would also be fascinated to see how much space the park actually covers considering to large size of its bigger brother.

Once you walk past Universal you come to an impressive looking hotel which guides you to the 'Lake of Dreams', a rather swanky fountain which is situated in front of it.

Walking up there, the path splits in two. I decided to take the route to the left before going straight on and I was rewarded with the view of a spectacular expanded version of the Merlion - perhaps Singapore's most famous landmark. Once again you could pay to go inside the structure to a look out point, but I just viewed from a distance and headed up a hill which directed you towards an observation tower, a ski lift and a luge racing track.

I descended back down the hill after taking a few photos, and soon I came across a rather large run of mosaic structures which were working together to form a rather impressive waterfall.

Once you got to the bottom of there, you had reached the first of Sentosa's two beach locations. Siloso Beach is the more commonly visited of the two on the island (the other, Palawan, requiring an extra journey around to the left of Siloso).

Although I didn't venture into the beach, it seemed like it was a hip and happening place with plenty to attract the attention of a visitor. I walked along the beachfront where there were plenty of people enjoy themselves in the sea, whilst the more sensible people were shading under a tree sunbathing. Siloso stretched on almost the entire width of Sentosa so it took me a while to walk along it before I reached the end. 

At this point I decided to head back to the boardwalk rather than venture up into Siloso Point which is also the location of the Underwater World Aquarium. Perhaps I will go back there another day.

Walking back along the boardwalk and reflecting on my day, I enjoyed Sentosa immensely. Even though it is a part of Singapore it has the feeling of an entirely different location. It still contains the intrigue that the rest of the country offered me, but it this island really did have the feeling of a giant theme park.

There's plenty to see and do there, and I can see why it is so frequently visited by people who come over to Singapore. I headed back to my apartment sadly leaving the island paradise behind, and hoping that one day I would be able to enjoy Sentosa to it's fullest. 

Just cause people wanna eat the burger doesn't mean they wanna meet the cow.