Sentosa, Singapore Sling, and More...

Sentosa is a master-planned island resort in Singapore, featuring lots of hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues – including a Universal Studios theme park. It is a place that most people I talk to either love or hate. To some it’s a great getaway; to others, it’s a fake, Disney-esque place that is a creation of developers. In any case, it was in the “Singapore Top 10” in our guide book, so we went!

Time at the beach was our only objective of visiting Sentosa. As with everywhere else in Singapore, the beaches were very clean and everything was well maintained. However, as far as beaches go, it was really average.

It could have been the cloudy skies…or that the oil refineries in the water (at a distance, but highly visible) took away from the natural beauty that we seek out in a good beach. Still, we played in the sand and explored the island. This is where we made it to the “most southern point in continental Asia” – at least that’s what the sign said.

We also met Mickey-the-Baboon in Sentosa.

It was really by accident that we walked by a trainer who was out with Mickey; as we passed, the trainer asked if we’d like to shake Mickey’s hand or do high-fives. We all got our moment with the monkey. Then, when we took Lydia’s picture with Mickey, he decided to climb on her head!

After that, we called it a day in Sentosa - glad we visited; glad we were staying in the center of the city instead.

To move things along, rather than continuing the Singapore trip into multiple posts, I’ll share just a couple of other fun things we did.

We visited the Raffles Hotel, a place named after Singapore’s “founder” Sir Stamford Raffles. The hotel was built in 1887 by some Armenian brothers. The purpose of our visit to the hotel was two-fold.

1) To see the magnificent building:

2) To go to the “Long Bar” at the hotel where the Singapore Sling cocktail was born:

You might question the wisdom of taking a six year old to a bar…but given its genteel surroundings (and that it was mid-day) we weren’t too worried about it. It turned out to be a really fun place for a kid - Long Bar is the only place in Singapore where you are encouraged to litter (though only with peanut shells). Lydia thought it was fun to mound up the peanut shells on the table, then toss them on the floor. As for the cocktail (and I’m no cocktail drinker), it was delicious.

Finally, I should mention the Formula 1 races. Lydia and I didn’t go – they were held at night and the cost of getting an extra ticket wasn’t worth it. So, Dave went with a friend who traveled with us and had a good time. The race was routed through the city rather at a race track. With the beautiful skyline at night, it was a really pretty setting (I did see it on TV!). Most of the pictures that Dave took came out as a blur, but here are a couple of cars:

And, a huge Ferris wheel (the Singapore Flyer) that was near the race route.

That's it for Singapore!