Friday, July 11, 2008

Sentosa: ThemePark in a ThemePark (&) Last Day

The connection didn't work yesterday so today will be a quick rundown of both days before we pack up. Our flight leaves early tomorrow morning.

Yesterday we spent the entire morning at the clinic. Katherine had a blood draw and the results today said no diabetes (we already knew) and normal thyroid, even with a very very mildly elevated T3 level. All her other levels were smack average. Finally returned to the hotel about 2 p.m. The rain was coming through in waves so we decided to hang about until about 3 before descending on Sentosa Island.
There are almost too many options to get on the island. By car, by foot, by bus, by tram, by cable car. We got a round trip on the cable car and beelined past the giant Merlion to Palawan Beach. A nice little cove, it was fairly empty but for the packs of t-shirted and sandaled military guys apparently doing a beach volleyball tournament. Tough life for the Singapore military. The kids got their salt water and sand fix, even found a pocket of horseshoe crab eggs when they dug a hole. Newly hatched horseshoe crabs are really cute, and green.
We had a fabulous dinner on the beach at Coastes. Nicholas had an entire thin crust prawn pizza and wouldn't share a slice. My burger was soooo good. Jonathon ate his whole 9" hotdog. The girls had pasta and Ian went for some sort of sausage thing.
We were right next to the Song of the Sea stage. Skip the show. Parts scared the little kids sitting in front of us, and the rest was a little boring and a lot silly to the rest of us. It involved "kids" running around the beach singing funky songs until one sings a song so luffaly that he sees a sleeping princess in the water. He learns from Oscar Oscar, a digital fish shown on a water backdrop, that he can awaken her with his song. On the way, he wakens the fire king (lots of fire shoots around when he regains his power), he wakens the light goddess (lots of lasers through sprays of water), and he wakens the water nymph (lots of water shoots around). He sings again and voila, the princess wakes up and smiles. The end. Seriously, save your money.
The Merlion glows in the dark. It's pretty cool.
Last stop for the kids (all 5 of them) was the CineBlast, a "log ride" of sorts. I don't really know, I wasn't there. It was a toss-up between great and vomitable. I'm glad I stayed away. I sat outside and watched the gechos and a frog catch his dinner. The park was closing down. Though the island is open until midnight, most of the shops and rides are done between 8-9 p.m. which basically leaves the restaurants open. It was a fun place to go, but I think the island will be even better once Universal Studios Singapore opens in 2010. Unfortunately, the new building means lots of the natural tree growth has been summarily executed.
Today has been a good day, but a long one. We went shopping for about 90 minutes. By we, I mean the girls and I. The boys went to a video arcade. But the girls bought some new clothes before we met up again for lunch at Tony Roma's. More pork ribs for everyone! Except Rebecca who went for a big beef steak.
I know, I know, I talk about a lot about food. But we were happy to have a very different assortment of food from what's on tap in Chennai. I didn't have a pasta meal the entire 10 days and I tried to stay far away from chicken. Beef (and pork) was what was for dinner (and lunch).
Back to the clinic to wrap up, we didn't get out until 6:30 and decided that after such a big lunch, dinner would be the snacks we had in our room. The bags are getting packed and we're closing up shop. Though I think we're ready to be back in our house and see our (hopefully not dead) cats again, no one is looking forward to India. We've gotten used to balmy weather, clean streets, fresh air and the freedom to walk around. India is the antithesis of all this. We're going to miss it.

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