Singapore

The beginning part of this story is a homework assignment I turned in for my anthropology class. The parts about the second day in Singapore I added later.

My friend convinced me that visiting Universal Studios Singapore would be a lot of fun. He didn’t object when I asked if I could go with him. We agreed to meet the first morning in Singapore just after customs. So off I went down the gangway, back up the stairs, down the long hallway, through the customs line, and into that shopping mall lobby or whatever it was. It was pretty chaotic with all the groups meeting there. But soon I found my friend and off we went to find the tickets for the park. We got lost in the first building but eventually found our way to the ticket counter. I was starting to get pretty excited, rides sounded like a lot of fun. I had several reasons for agreeing to go there instead of visiting typical Singapore tourist places. Vietnam had been a very, very different country. I enjoyed my visit a lot, but I was really ready for something more familiar. I knew that Burma again would be different, so I thought I would see some more western themed things in Singapore as a nice break. I am very happy with the decision I made.

We needed to take a monorail train to get to the park on Sentosa island. There was a huge crowd of people waiting, I think we were the only westerners in that line. We made it on the second train that came. It was pretty crowded, but no one was super pushy or rude. We got of the monorail at the first stop with no problem and found the entrance to Universal. It was almost exactly the same as the Universal I had gone to in Florida a couple years back. The whole place did feel like the United States. The park had different rides than I had been on before, but the processes were very similar. The crowds, the lines, the effects, the characters. We went on the Revenge of the Mummy ride and enjoyed it so much we came back to do it again. The second time these local kids were behind us in the ride’s car. They were pretty annoying, actually. They weren’t freaked, but would scream as loud as they could anyway, and not in a nice way. At first we didn’t care, but they did it the whole time. Later we decided to go again, and they same boys were there but this time they were in front of us. One of them hid behind a corner and jumped out to scare me. It wasn’t a big deal, but I still really don’t like people doing that. They cut in the line soon after that and I was glad that we wouldn’t be near them anymore. The best part was that even though they cut, we still got to go in front of them on the ride. It was so much fun. I got a great picture out of the ride. My friend and I were sitting next to two young people from Britain in the front row. Behind us the entire car had local people in it.

We spent the whole day at Universal, going on various rides and seeing the different shows. Around the time the park was supposed to close, we went to a restaurant for dinner. I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to give tips to waiters but I found out before it was time to pay. My friend said he felt bad asking for extra stuff because of that, they couldn’t get anything extra themselves. But I didn’t really mind, I never asked for anything unreasonable at all and I knew that the staff still had to do their job. I showed my appreciation with smiles and verbal thanks.

The weirdest thing that happened that day was the ice cream parlor we decided to visit. It had a science lab theme. The glass counter showed large beakers full of various colored liquids. We guessed this would be what the ice cream was made out of. The workers all wore lab coats and would pour the ingredients into normal kitchen mixers, but something they put in it made lots of smoke, like dry ice. The toppings were all in test tubes and the steam was all over the counter. My friend ordered the weird flavor of red bull. I chose rum raisin. I was glad that there were no actual raisins when I was served. The ice cream was pretty different. My friend really liked his. Mine was okay. The lady who made ours was very nice. The parlor was busy though so she didn’t have time to talk. She smiled at us a lot and asked us if everything was okay. Of course, we said it was.

That day in Singapore really did not feel like an extremely different place. I think the people there like it that way, to be so modern and westernized. We all have different cultures and experiences, that is definitely true. We are not all the same. But we are all very similar. We are the same species, after all. Sentosa island has many different amusement areas, not just Universal. That evening after Universal we walked around the island some. We passed a large indoor skydiving building. We saw the large lion fish statue that is a landmark for Singapore (I can’t remember what it was called, maybe just Merlion). We passed a beach bar that seemed to have quite a few westerners playing pool. There were neon signs for different kinds of beer, and an American country rock song playing. Just a couple blocks away was a celebration on the beach involving people from India. They had the proper dress and hairstyles and the music sounded very Indian. I really wanted to join them, they looked like they were having so much fun.

We had to get back to the ship though and I really wasn’t that comfortable party crashing a bunch of strangers. But my day in Universal Singapore was a lot of fun. It was definitely an important part of the city of Singapore and I am so glad I went. I took my camera with me to the park and I got some good videos. We saw the parade the park put on in the afternoon. The participants saw that I was filming them and made a point of doing some fun action so I got a lot of good footage. It was nice to go over those and remember how I spent the day.

The next day I joined another friend of mine for breakfast on the ship. We were meeting to go together to Jurong Bird Park. We needed to take the public transportation system to get to that area of the city. The system and the machines were even nicer than those in Japan. The ride seemed very short. One thing that really stood out to me was the different names of the station. Redhill and Clemente stood out. It seemed to have international influences. Once we got to the last station, we needed to find a cab. There was no queue and we had to wait for a while for one to show up, but one did and we took it to the bird park entrance.

It was an absolutely fantastic establishment and led to an equally fantastic day. First we visited the owls. They had many different species, most from the area around Singapore but some from far off places. I learned something about snowy owls: the males are often pure white in their plumage, the females are heavily speckled with brown. It made me wonder if they didn’t use a male owl for Hedwig in the Harry Potter movies. I also didn’t realize just how good owl’s ears work. They can hear mice stepping on twigs from yards away. All the visitors to that exhibit were probably very loud to them. They are probably used to it. Next we visited the penguins. We got to see their feeding time. One stood out as she was all brown. The handler said she was younger and not fully molted yet. Her name was Chocolate.

After visiting the rest of the penguins (I got very excited when I saw one species was named after Alexander von Humboldt) we went to the park’s fancy fliers show. We saw pelicans, parrots, flamingoes, and hornbills. They had the parrots flying while they talked about deforestation. It made me tear up a bit…which I do feel was perhaps their intention, to try to make audiences care more. I heard the best advice I have ever heard with regards to the environment. One of the men said that to make a difference, everyone needs to buy less of everything. I’ve had that concept in mind for a while, but it was the first time I had ever heard that announced so publicly. Then we walked around the rest of the park. We ate an interesting lunch of food that really reminded me of Indian food.

Both of us decided to pass up the predatory birds, we have many falcons and eagles in the states. The prehistoric bird exhibits were really interesting but the best part was the tropical bird area. The enclosure was very green and vibrant with trees and the fences were just mesh. They built platforms and walkways at the level of the canopy and the birds were so, so striking. We got some absolutely fantastic photos. One bird flew down and passed me right in my face to land on the railing. People had the option to buy food for the birds and many did, so the birds had no fear of us visitors.

I was feeling very warm in the sun at that time so I got an ice cream bar. I think they have the same brand in the states cause it looked familiar. This makes me happy because that was the best ice cream bar I have ever had. It was probably just because of the heat but it did much to revitalize me. Anyway, the heat was pretty intense and we had seen most of what the park had to offer, so we decided to head back to the ship, after a brief stop for souvenirs. The park entrance had a queue for taxis. There were so many people in line, I thought it would take forever. Thankfully the area was shaded and there were fans and the line went faster than I expected. Our driver was a bit abrupt for some reason. Traffic in Singapore was way better than in China and Vietnam. He got us to a train station but it wasn’t the same one we had arrived at. I was falling asleep on the train back.

Getting back through customs was no problem. We got turned around trying to find our way back to the port terminal section. We stumbled upon a grocery store in the middle of the mall and picked up some snacks for the voyage. It’s been a couple days since as I write this and most of what I got is gone now. My friend got candy and finished all of it before I finished mine. Once I got back on the ship I felt too tired to do anything. I got a tropical smoothie and found a deck chair in the shade to rest on. On ship time was at that point just a couple hours away. I enjoyed watching the water in the harbor and seeing the lights of Singapore as we sailed away. It would have been nice to have had more time there, but I definitely had a fantastic visit with the time I had.

Written for 24 February 2014