My First Asia Conference Trip - Part 2 (Sentosa Island & China town)

Good morning!

It's second day of the week and second day of my holiday in Singapore. I stayed in a family room with my other two friends..and it's connected with the twin bed room next door. Last night the club in front of our hotel was quite noisy, but all three of us could sleep well. However, it was the opposite for my pastor who stayed one floor above us. The noise was quite a nuisance for him, so he woke up at 5 am to exercise down to the beach with his room mate. Both of them enjoyed breakfast at Kopi Tiam...hmm yummy.

As for the girls, we had a lot of food supplies in the room...thanks to my beautiful and well-prepared neighbour!

Today our schedule was Sentosa Island. After that we had dinner appointment with our long-time friend who had  worked in Singapore since 5 years ago. We wore our holiday outfit, brought some snacks, water, and we set to go. We will use MRT and we had to change the train in between.

I learned many lessons on the our trip today. Everything was in order. When you use the elevator, you are supposed to stand on the left, so people who rush could use the right lane. No eating while you are waiting at the station or in the MRT. Indonesians who stay in Singapore are more obedient to the rules compared to when they stay in Indonesia. Why was it so hard to ask people not to litter or smoke at public area in Jakarta, when they did the same things in Singapore? Maybe because here the penalties and consequences are strictly applied no matter who break the rules.

We used MRT go to Harbor Vivo to catch the train to Sentosa Island. Ooh how we love the MRT. We knew exactly when and where the next train will show up, the route information is clear, no long queue, traffic jam and push till you drop style to enter. We badly need you in Jakarta!!

We had our lunch first before we hop on the train. We already chose four destinations to enjoy at Sentosa Island : The Merlion and Merlion walk, Segway ride, Fort Silvoso, Sky Train.

Here were the photos we took during our half day activities.

The lion & us

We're glowing in the dark

The view from the mouth of the lion

The next stop was Segway Ride. We were thankful for the clear sky and a bit too warm weather. The paper fan we got at the Merlion in change of our good luck coin was very very helpful. From Merlion we had to walk down a paved road with small garden at the middle of it.

They called our next attraction Segway Ride. I saw this two-wheel machine before on television, it was the new buzz attraction in Jakarta. It was a bit scarry because you had to control this machine using your body. To stop you have to stand up straight, to move forward you should lean your body forward, to turn right or left you need to move up your body to the right or left accordingly.

I had difficulties to master it, especially when I wanted to stop. You can not stop it by hopping down and stop the machine from the front..it was not allowed and dangerous! But finally I got it..and I can go through the whole track quite smoothly. There were times I felt I was not in control. which gave me quite a chill, especially when we had to turn left or right climbing the rocky track. Anyway I just kept moving on and I reach the finish line safe and in one piece..:)

The third destination was Fort Siloso. It was already 2 pm. We were trying to enjoy the hot weather. We rode trem to reach Fort Siloso. The guide explained the historic value of Fort Siloso, which only less than half of it I could put inside my brain. Maybe because of her Singlish accent or because my brain almost melt under the bright sunshine. We chose to do the shortest trip, which finally we did not do, as we had no more energy to walk in any place without air conditioner. We only saw a short movie showing Japanese occupation in Singapore, because that's the only place we could rest our weary legs in a fully air-conditioned room.

Our last stop was Sky Ride! It's flying bench for four person on the cable. Lovely view from the top and it was my most favourite attraction today. It always feels great being at the high place, under the clear sky, feeling the wind breeze, looking at the sea surrounding the island. I am very careful with my thongs. If it slipped away from my foot, I would spent the rest of the day bare footed.

Back to the main island by train to our next destination - China Town. After spending about two hours at Harbor Vivo mall, browsing from one shop to other shop, we boarded train to China Town. It's the place to buy souvenirs for our friends, families, colleagues.  We spent around 2 hours in China Town. I tried Singaporean type of "ronde" ..no appetite for big dinner tonight. My friend accompanied me to buy tiger balms for my mom. My mom asked me to buy 10 pieces...piling a stock for 2 years :)

It was almost 09.00 pm when we left China Town. We had to get rest soon, because tomorrow we had to leave early in the morning for Asia Conference. We heard that the conference drew around 20 thousand participants (the rumour is 20 percent of them are Indonesians!)...I'm so excited for tomorrow!