{"id":86,"date":"2011-03-16T04:37:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T04:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=86"},"modified":"2013-06-17T19:47:21","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T19:47:21","slug":"under-the-gaze-of-the-mer-lion-singapore-03132011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"Under the Gaze of the Mer-lion – Singapore 03\/13\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m sure that everyone is expecting me to have some sort of wonderful cultural insight into Singapore, something in my traditional vein of poetic analysis that\u2019s somewhat come to be my trademark in write-ups about ports of call. I\u2019m sorry to disappoint you, but I didn\u2019t do anything remotely cultural in Singapore. I didn\u2019t go to any markets,\u00a0 I didn\u2019t take any river cruises, I didn\u2019t visit any historical landmarks. Instead,\u00a0 well\u2026 I suppose I should start at the beginning.<\/p>\n

Singapore Day 1, was one of my few actual days off.\u00a0 Due to the IPM schedule, I\u2019ve been charged with closing the office every single overnight so far, and so I welcomed the chance to open this time instead \u2013 therefore freeing me from having to run back to the ship at 6pm just to close a few grates. Sherra was leaving the ship that evening, and we were looking for something to do that could occupy a few hours without requiring too<\/em> much commitment. Since it transpired that neither one of us felt like shopping (which was the original plan), I convinced her to take the cable car over to the resort island (\u201clow chance of success, almost certain risk of death ? I\u2019m in\u201d ). The view from the cable car is fantastic, you actually do fly right overtop of the ship, which was oddly surreal as you rarely see your floating home from above.<\/p>\n

Setting foot on the island is like setting foot on a different world. There are fountains everywhere, giant paper cranes and huge statues of flowers that make you realize how Alice felt when she was shrunk and lost in the garden of wonderland.\u00a0 Butterflies of colours I\u2019ve never seen before almost land on you! And the whole thing is dominated by the stare of the Mer-lion, which is apparently a symbol of Singapore, something I had no idea of. At night his eyes light up and it seems almost as if they follow you as you make your way around. After you make your way down about 6 escalators (and it does continue getting warmer with each one, despite the fact that logically you know heat rises) \u2013 you arrive at the main forum level and the huge Lake Of Dreams which serves as an extremely good landmark for finding your way around, because this is where things start getting a bit difficult to navigate (Sherra and I turned the map sideways eventually).<\/p>\n

In the sheer default of trying to find your away around, you will find everything you can think of on the island, from restaurants and coffee bars, to Candyland (no, I\u2019m not kidding) \u2013 there\u2019s even a Hershy\u2019s chocolate world store for those of you who have chocoholic tendencies , where they offer to take your picture so you can have your face on a chocolate bar wrapper. Supposedly they make great Christmas gifts, but the personalization was a bit too pricey for my tastes.<\/p>\n

Across the way from Candylicious (which has one of the best outside displays I\u2019ve ever seen, honestly, it would put Willy Wonka to shame). Is the Hard Rock Caf\u00e9, where I finally managed to have lunch (it\u2019s been on my list for a while now), and, while the food is only so-so, the drinks were amazing. \u201cCrushed Velvet\u201d is basically pomegranate lemonade, I warn that it\u2019s not for people without a sweet tooth, but me \u2013 being a complete sucker for anything sweet and girly that comes in a pretty glass, (a glass I got to keep no less), was quite fond of it.<\/p>\n

And then I\u00a0 let my inner 8-year-old lose, and, dragging poor Sherra with me, threw myself into the world of Universal Studios Singapore.<\/p>\n

It has been years since I set foot in a theme park. The last time I went anywhere similar \"\"<\/a>was when I ventured over (or rather under) the channel to Disneyland Paris during my long-haul audition trip to the UK\u00a0 in 2007 \u2013 I had almost, almost<\/em> forgotten how much I love stepping into another world. Theme parks are either your thing or they\u2019re not, but for me, Universal represents something, not as much as Disneyland does, but something none the less. Whenever we managed to get to California when I was a child, we followed the same routine, 3 days in Disneyland, 1 day for Universal. It\u2019s always been the slightly shadowed younger cousin to the Magic Kingdom, but it was a massive<\/em> part of my childhood. Part of my own personal Oz \u201cA place where there isn\u2019t any trouble<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

From the moment we walked through the gates and my ears were assaulted with Can You Read My Mind<\/em>, I was hard pressed to wipe the grin off my face. I honestly think it was only because I was in the presence of someone I respected, who I wasn\u2019t quite sure\u00a0 would understand, that I didn\u2019t burst into tears. Though Sherra did look at me at one point and grinned, and said, in her lovely welsh accent \u201cWill you look at you, you\u2019re like a bloody child!\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, and your point is?<\/p>\n

Universal here is smaller than the one in LA, but that\u2019s to be expected. LA Universal is a working studio, that\u2019s why they have the backlot tram tour (\u201cit\u2019s the only bridge in the world that can reconstruct itself\u201d) \u2013 the Studios over the rest of the world are a little less functioning and a little more built for the publicity, but it\u2019s the same general layout, and the same general feel.<\/p>\n

With Sherra having to get back to the ship to catch her cab to the airport at 6, we weren\u2019t left with a lot of time, and the line ups are insanely long at the height of the day. Mostly we took a lot of photographs (including several which feature an actual live python). We only went on one ride together, (The Far Far Away experience, which was a slice of fun in 4-D, and no that isn\u2019t a typo), before having to jet her back to the ship, which gave me just enough time to say goodbye, drop off my Hard Rock Caf\u00e9 glass, my souvenirs and put my leftovers in the fridge, and head back out.<\/p>\n

Singapore is a notoriously safe city, so I never once had any qualms about heading over to the island alone. No one harasses you, no one even looks at you twice, and the people are extremely friendly. The only thing I found myself remotely nervous about was getting back to the cable car in time to catch the last flight back home.<\/p>\n

There is a special kind of magic to theme parks at night, when all the lights come on and the whole place just glows. The people gradually disappear and eventually there comes a time when it\u2019s just you walking in this whole other world, all by yourself.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always thought that night falls differently inside the walls of a park, it seems to happen more gradually , at sunset everything is suffused with a shimmer of gold and pink and red, and all the buildings and attractions become gradually silhouetted in black.<\/p>\n

As is almost always the case, the line-ups die after the sun goes down. With the park nearly empty, attractions that had a wait time of 80+ minutes during the day become walk ons, with a 20 minute wait at the very latest, usually less than 10. For some one like me, who makes it her pride and joy to go on every single attraction at least once, nighttime, is primetime.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Of course, with Universal, this presents one small problem: I am in possession of a very vivid imagination, and Universal is a park that makes its bread and butter by providing rides that are based on movies with high special effects levels. Attractions that are designed to put you in the film<\/em>. One, in particular being the most famous for the worst \u201cyou will scream\u201d moment in the park, but it was boiling hot,\u00a0 even at night, and said ride is the only water ride in the park and therefore the best possible way to cool down for a bit, and I wasn\u2019t a child anymore, I could handle it. I was sure I could handle it.<\/p>\n

None-the-less, I stood for several long minutes outside the line up looking up at the gates. They put a lot of effort into making the entrance way into the \u201cJurassic\u201d section of the park rather intimidating, and as life-like as they can manage. There are a lot of rides in there, the Dino-flyer being my personal favourite as it really does feel like you\u2019re flying. But only one that takes guts, only one that made me wish that Sherra hadn\u2019t had to go back to the ship quite so early, because the utter coward in me would have very much liked to have someone to hold on to.<\/p>\n

But, I was determined to be brave, so I swallowed my sheer unreasonable terror, and slid into the lineup. It was only a 10 minute wait, which is nearly unheard of for what must be one of the most popular rides in the park. There are warning signs all over the walls of the entry way reading: \u201cWarning, any articles you wish to keep dry should be secured in a locker or left with a non-rider. YOU WILL GET WET, YOU MAY GET SOAKED.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pre-ride is extremely detailed; you walk through a switchback line that\u2019s set up inside an entry way made to look exactly as if you really are going into a theme park within the theme park. About three quarters of the way through, you\u2019re presented with the chance to purchase \u201cSurvival Gear\u201d, in the form of a Universal Studio\u2019s throw-away rain poncho, and trust me, you don\u2019t want to go on this ride without one, even if \"\"<\/a>they do overcharge for them.<\/p>\n

Oh, and don\u2019t be unnerved by the warning signs on the bottom of the poncho-stall, I didn\u2019t see a single Dilophosaurus along the way. When you get to the boarding area, there\u2019s all this swat-team gear hanging up in cages on the far side of the boarding conveyor \u201cDinosaur Control Unit\u201d etc etc.<\/p>\n

When you first board the raft, it starts out extremely calm \u2013 apparently just like the movie, which I have never seen, nor will I ever see \u2013 the water is smooth, and there\u2019s a nice lulling voice, speaking in RP, telling you to observe the new baby Stegosaurus as she grazes with her mother along side the shore. If you\u2019re foolish, or you know nothing about what you\u2019ve gotten into, it\u2019s very easy to be lulled into a false sense of security by this. \u201cThis isn\u2019t so bad\u201d, but in the back of your mind, you know what\u2019s coming, and you\u2019re not really all that startled when your raft crashes into the rapids, the narrative voice shorts out and is replaced with \u201cwarning, we have a flood breach in the area of Outpost B, avoid area at all costs, repeat, warning \u2013 all guests remain in your boats, do not make contact with the electric fences, help is on the way. Warning. Warning.<\/p>\n

And you go whipping around the corner into the ruined science station, there are sparks everywhere, the raft is spinning nearly out of control (and no, the rafts aren\u2019t on tracks, you really are at the mercy of the water), and despite the logical voice in the back of your mind going \u201cit\u2019s all audio-animatronics, it can\u2019t hurt you, it can\u2019t hurt you.\u201d Your heart starts racing.<\/p>\n

Then, you see it looming in front of you, a HUGE gaping black hole, leading into the darkened Hydraulics center. And I do mean pitch dark<\/em>, I clamped my eyes shut immediately upon entering, but even for the few brief sections that I did open them it was still<\/em> pitch dark.<\/p>\n

You know<\/em> what is coming at the end of the Jurassic Park Water Rapids, you know it the moment you step on the boat, in fact, you know it well before that if you have any sense. I mean, what else could it be? But I was conditioned for the one in California, where the \u201cclass one dangerous animal\u201d leaps out of the foliage at you before the huge drop at the end. At least it happens in daylight \u2013 at least, that\u2019s how I remember it being advertised, I never worked up the guts to go on the ride in LA.\u00a0 Here, they through you into the dark and you are totally <\/em>disoriented. This was something I was not<\/em> prepared for. Not even remotely.<\/p>\n

Even with your eyes closed, you can hear the growling all around you, it echoes off the cement walls and you can\u2019t place where its\u2019 coming from, and all the while there is this overly-polite robotic voice informing you that you are \u201cwarning, you are within range of a class 1 dangerous creature, please turn back\u201d , which of course you have no choice but to listen to but you of course can\u2019t<\/em> turn back, and then over top of that, you start hearing the \u201cpark rangers\u201d talking to each other over the radios:<\/p>\n

\u201cGet the damn SWAT team!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have time<\/strong> for the SWAT team! Get them out of there! Get them out of there NOW!!! \u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And because you\u2019re supposed to be in a hydraulics plant, there\u2019s water (at least, you really hope <\/em>it\u2019s water) dripping from the ceiling, and with all the sound effects going on, when a droplet hits your shoulder, you are convinced<\/em> that it\u2019s saliva, and no matter what the logical voice in the back of your brain is telling you, your fight or flight syndrome is screaming \u201cit\u2019s a big bloody dinosaur and its GOING TO EAT ME!\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there are all these flashing red lights and a huge roar (and yes, I know there was something jumping out to go with the roar, but as I said, I had my eyes closed), and you go over the waterfall and come out the other side completely and utterly drenched, and make your way back out into the slightly more stable present-day reality.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By the time I exited the water rapids, it was nearly full dark, and there were characters wandering around. The most interesting of which were the ones for the Egypt section, they were all stiltwalkers, the ones that were pharohs had footed stilts so that they could stand still and pose, but the guys who were jackals were on spring stilts- running stilts \u2013 and they could run<\/em>. They were so in character, that they managed to make everything slightly sinuous, slightly intimidating, and they never once cracked a smile, I saw them chase one poor girl (who was actually taking great obvious delight in being scared to death), a good 10 feet before she ended up cowering behind a pillar. They were most disappointed that they couldn\u2019t scare me, and every time I passed them they\u2019d growl at me.<\/p>\n

After Jurassic Park I was not nearly brave enough to attempt \u201cReturn Of the Mummy\u201d, so I can\u2019t say I went on every<\/em> ride, maybe next time, I did however go on the battlestar glatitica Roller Coaster, which is probably the first real oh-my-god-we\u2019re-upside-down rollercoaster I\u2019ve been on outside of Space Mountain (which I will insist doesn\u2019t count, because you can\u2019t SEE that you\u2019re upside down in Space Moutain), and I\u2019ve discovered that \u2013aside from the constant fear of losing my glasses \u2013 I actually like<\/em> roller coasters.<\/p>\n

The last thing I saw was the Movie Magic experience, which is the closest they have in this particular version to the backlot tram-ride in LA. It\u2019s a working soundstage, set to a scene involving a hurricane tearing through new york. So there\u2019s fire, and wind and a boat crashing right through the wall, then at the end of course, everything resets itself, which I\u2019ve always thought is the most fascinating part. It reminded me that if I ever make it to LA again, I really do need to brave the Backdraft Experience (if it is in fact still there) and see if I manage to not black out this time around.<\/p>\n

There weren\u2019t any fireworks that night, so when the attractions shut down at 9, I wandered back across the island, and made my way back to the cable car station. I found out after the fact that a lot of my crew mates stayed the night on the island, but I managed to not run into any of them.<\/p>\n

So\u2026that, was my day in Singapore.<\/p>\n

All hail appeasing your inner child once in a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure that everyone is expecting me to have some sort of wonderful cultural insight into Singapore, something in my traditional vein of poetic analysis that\u2019s somewhat come to be my trademark in write-ups about ports of call. I\u2019m sorry … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,16,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-world-voyage-2011","category-ports-of-call","category-theme-parks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2343,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/2343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}