Beach Scene Investigation - Sentosa Island, Singapore

You must have noticed that my blog is in some kind of delayed time zone. Yes, only now am I recapping my life last month..

Rather unplanned for, but somehow landed myself at Sentosa Island, Singapore for a little short trip. It was fully paid for and organized by Sony Pictures Entertainment Networks, Asia. But nothing really comes free as we worked hard on the 2nd Day for the bus fare and the 5-star hotel stay.


Rasa Sentosa Resort

I never re-visited Sentosa since I was a kid and I must say it was quite fun. The well-planned, well-organized structure of everything Singapore is apparent here in this little island. We started with some sight-seeing on the first day we arrived after checking into the Rasa Sentosa Resort. Cellie became our unofficial tour guide yet again with her prepared research and advance trip planning. For that I am grateful as I was completely zoned out when arrived, haven’t comprehended what I was doing there and how I managed to pack for the trip due to some really hectic work schedule recently.

We started off at the Underwater World right outside the hotel entrance at Siloso Point. Managed to catch the turtles feeding time outside the oceanarium.




Turtles feeding

The Underwater World is home to more than 2,500 fishes from 250 different species. The S$19.90 ticket started with the Touch Pool for some touchy feely experience with starfish and stingrays.



The highlight attraction is the ocean depths view via a moving travellator that moves through a tunnel. Sharks, stingrays, eels and schools of fish glide past around.


The tunnel


The view through the moving travellator


Er.. what are they doing in the oceanarium..

Included in the ticket admission is a visit to the Dolphin Lagoon at Palawan Beach, all the way at the other end of the island. The pink dolphins, the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins, ‘entertained’ us with their performance and get fed for their hard work.


Dolphin Lagoon at Pahlawan Beach


Pink dolphins doing tricks..


Loved the double-decker bus with open rooftop! Great view along the way..

Next, like some kids, we went for the Luge & Skyride. Claimed to be the first ever in Southeast Asia, the luge is part go-cart, part-toboggan and it’s a gravity ride controls with steering and the braking system. Looked scary at first but it was fun-filled when we got a hang of it. GothNol claimed to finished the race in front of me.. how could that be? Such an unaccountable reporting.


The Luge

After all the downhill excitement from the Luge, we have to take the Skyride back up to where we started. Lovely lovely view!


The Skyride


View from the skyride

I usually would have sat back and enjoyed the view, but this time, I couldn’t. For I was busy taking pictures of this adorably frightened ItcL all the way to the top.


Look at him! Priceless expression :)

And then we realized why both the guys wanted to sit in between us girls. They both have the same syndromes having to endure the ‘adventurous’ ride.


Come on GothNol, just admit it..

We took the Sentosa Express out to VivoCity, Singapore’s largest retail mall, hoping to squeeze in some shopping and to grab some dinner.


VivoCity


Cellie, leading in strategizing where to eat..

The few identified restaurants were all packed! You would have thought all Singaporeans made a pact to eat out at this same hour as the queue to almost every single restaurant was just unbelievable. Our growling stomach couldn’t hold that long. We ended up at Pocket Full Of Posies, this little café cum florist with so-so service, but food was not bad.


Yum.. I'm hungry looking at food now

We shopped till the shops were closed and took our own sweet time walking back to the Sentosa Express train station.


even had time to play in the kids' wading pool

By the end of 1st day, I was so tired that I knock-out immediately upon hitting the bed.. dreading the challenges lined up for us on Day 2.

The next morning after breakfast, we were hanging around the resort taking pictures and trying to relax before the challenge commenced in the afternoon.


Chilling out


Posing for photos outdoor.. this was before


GothNol & Michiyo decided to do a rain dance


thus it started pouring!!


Not deterred, we continued photo posing indoor instead

The Challenge :



Beach Scene Investigation? What?! Me? Do I look like I can figure out clues and find a murderer? Haha..

But that was the challenge. Participants were given clues and a detailed race briefing before the flag-off. The clues lead to checkpoints all around the island and there were a total of 14 to be reached and to complete tasks given at each. Ya, a bit like Amazing Race. We were divided into 4 in a team.


in BSI T-shirts, taken before the briefing - reminds me of activities back in school days


Clues given and one of the task card

Together with my team, we started from the nearest to the hotel checkpoint but seeing how crowded with other teams it was, decided not to wait and headed straight to the furthest checkpoint of all and worked backwards. So glad we did that as most teams didn’t manage to reach the beach bar KM8 at Tanjong Beach. We spent a bit of time here doing a sudoku, colouring a fairy and hitting some cans with marble balls and lastic.

But we gave ourselves a fright by the time we completed the Dragon Trail (a nature walk) of which we ran up and down the whole trail for missing checkpoints, when overheard the marshal over the walkie-talkie saying that there was only one team left who has not entered the Dragon Trail. What?! Meaning we were second last out of the 25 teams?? We found the Dragon Trail not extremely taxing physically, but we were lost when having to name the Animax programmes! :)

Coming out from the Dragon Trail matrix of 8 checkpoints completed, we still had 3 uncompleted task by then, 2 of which were inside the resort that we skipped earlier. We decided to go ahead to the checkpoint at Merlion (this wasn’t because we figured out where the marble was from, but we pestered the Marshal to give us further clue!).


The Merlion

We were lucky to find the foreign coin at Merlion at no time and rushed back to the hotel. Copied that stupidly long AfterWorld essay and then were told we didn’t do it correctly and had to re-write! OMG! We were supposed to ‘duplicate’ exactly line for line, and not just re-writing it.

The last checkpoint was by far the easiest. Having to identify the finger print on the murder weapon as per clue given. We completed all the 14 checkpoints by 6.30pm! The cut off time for the game for all teams to return to starting point. And guess what?! We won! We won!! Er.. only the 4th place. Still!? It was great! Not many teams completed all the tasks within the given time frame. Not that I want to be sexist here, but we were also an all girls team! (the top 3 winning teams have at least 1 guy in their respective teams) :P

We gathered back for a beachside dinner. Dinner theme was Sexy Miami Experience, with the raciest beach wear (no, it was very mild).


Dinner by the beach


Group photo of past and current OMDians

After dinner, we proceeded to continue the party at Café del Mar, alongside Siloso Beach, a short walking distance from the hotel.


Café del Mar

Beautiful ambient, the music coupled with the sound of waves, the place is equipped with beds and cabanas, as well as jacuzzi!



However, the drinks suck big time! All the different drinks that we ordered individually failed everyone's taste bud miserably.

Early the next morning, we bid Rasa Sentosa Resort farewell and headed back to KL.


The resort - day and night view

Though short, it has really been an unexpected fun and enjoyable trip.