Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Singapore Trip Part III

Tuesday, 29th November

The only attraction I wanted to visit in Sentosa was The Underwater World. The others, like Fort Siloso, the beach, Carlsberg Sky Tower, Images of Singapore, Volcano Land (pre-historic exhibition with dinosaurs and all) – I think those were pretty ordinary.

At the entrance to the Underwater World, there is a pond with turtles, fishes and some sort of ray.

There were many marine creatures swimming in the aquarium – crabs, sharks, manta rays, starfishes, etc.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Some sort of rays. They are not shadows. This was taken under bright sunlight, hence the slightly overexposed effect.

Turtles. After learning how to take clear pictures in bright light.

Some species of fish.

It is called angel fish, for obvious reasons. It's actually very small; measures less than an inch.

Doesn't it look like an alien or something out of a horror movie? It is actually a Japanese giant spider crab.

Something that looks like a seahorse, but is not.

These are real shark eggs at various ages. Look carefully at "After 9 weeks". The baby shark inside has grown and the yolk has shrunk.

One of the most recognisable fish, after the release of the movie Finding Nemo. Tthe clown fish, swimming in anemone.

After that, P and I went to the Dolphin Lagoon to watch the pink dolphins perform. Unfortunately, the two dolphins were not wholly pink; just the edge of their fins and their bellies are pink.


Before the dolphin show started, the MC had some plastic bottles strewn on the beach. Two tiny furry animals (couldn’t see what they were from my seats) appeared and then picked them up and threw them into a waste basket.

And then surprise, surprise. The MC then went on to expound that even animals hate garbage and that everyone should keep the environment clean.

Yup, the city-state just lived up to its reputation of being staid and sober.

After that we left Sentosa and proceeded to Beach Road to get my ticket home. As it turned out, a lot of Friday tickets were sold out.

Thus, I decided to get a Thursday ticket.

We headed home to get ready. Our plan for the evening was to attend a choir rehearsal, as P couldn’t make it for the actual performance on Friday. Obviously, neither can I.

The rehearsal was at eight. As we had quite a lot of time to spare, P and I visited the National Arts Museum. There was an exhibition by the Chinese Nobel Laureate in Literature, Gao Xingjian. His art work are mostly black and white, as he painted using ink.

Not long after, we proceeded to the rehearsal place. Actually, P was the one who got invited by W. Inadvertently, I got invited too.

W plays the piano and sings too. The singing group that he is in is known as the Singapore Men’s Chorus, which was formed in early 2005. Last Friday’s (2nd December) performance was their very first.

The theme of the performance was “Mad about Musicals”. The rehearsal kicked off with a song from Rent (Seasons of Love) followed by songs from Les Miserables, Chicago, The King and I, etc.

I have no professional training in singing (imagine a very bad William Hung imitation), or in music for that matter, but to me, they sounded excellent. It was pleasant to the ears and I thoroughly enjoy the performance.

It was energetic, fun and well-coordinated. I would love to catch the actual performance if I were still in Singapore.

I could tell that the conductor knows his stuff well. Apparently, he has many years of experience and even sings in an a capella group.

The rehearsal ended about ten but it was raining cats and dogs. Considering the fact that it is currently the wet season, this was the first time that it rained heavily in my three days here.

We proceeded to Kopitiam, which is a food court located nearby. I sat at a table with P and W and three other people – M, K and Y. The last three turned out to be Malaysians who are working in Singapore.

I so hope that they don’t read my blog. From where I was sitting during the rehearsal, I was snapping pictures of M. Not sure whether he noticed me doing that from the stage.

At the table, I didn’t get to talk to him because K was sitting between us. However, Y was sitting in front of me and he is quite cute too.

He didn’t catch my eye earlier, till P pointed out to me. And I have to agree he is charming. Oh, he has a very powerful voice too. In addition, he plays the flute. And very well too. *Ahem*

We talked and joked and laughed. Unfortunately, when it was time to go, I forgot to ask Y for his number. When I remembered later, I immediately asked W, but he didn’t have it.

Which might not be a bad thing after all. Now, I have a reason to go to Singapore again. Soon. ;P

5 comments:

Legolas said...

Nice holiday you have there. I really needed a holiday, not to mention some talented cute guys, heheh. But I need some company, and the work in the office... Arghh!

Kenji said...

*snickers*

Jay said...

Hmm - well, hurry back and see if he's willing to play your meat flute.

savante said...

Meat flute?! :)

Paul

Derek said...

legolas: Oh, I am sure company isn't that hard to find. *hint hint*


chris: What on earth were you snickering at?


jay: I would love to find that out too ...


paul: Yes, Paul. Meat flute. ;P