Singapore Pg 13

It was an excellent show using so many different mediums. The story was kind of basic which was good as it was levelled for the children there to understand. The effects were quite something! The basis of the major part was huge quantities of water, which were sprayed up to quite a height and then laser lights were projected onto the spray. It was very effective with the blackness of the ocean and sky beyond and the feeling of the tropical night around us.

Here’s a few photos, which really don’t do it justice. David’s videos are a lot better but I can’t paste those into a webpage.  I don’t think breaking it up into YouTube would do it justice either so if the photos whet your appetite you’ll just have to go there yourself.

Below is one of the laser light creatures.  You can just make out the wide arc of water spray around it shimmering blue.  And the row of yellow lights are from the ships moored out there, presumably waiting for their turn at the harbour.

The most striking part of the show to me, were the fire balls. We could feel the heat from them and it was unexpected so was quite a stunning effect.

This is lights onto water spray (I believe) but it looked so much like a volcanic eruption!

You can see the size of the water spray in this compared to the actors on the beach just 2 or 3 metres away from it. There’s a face in the middle of it – yellow/green eyes and a small pink mouth but I’ll forgive you if you can’t spot it.

Laser lights

Water jets

More water jets

And fireworks. I guess you could say the show had it all.

Once it was over, everyone had to leave in time for the next audience to come in. They do 2 shows a night. I would say to anyone going to this show not to panic about getting in first or anything. You would clearly be able to see and hear everything from any seat in the house.

We came out of the enclosure and deliberately dawdled to the monorail knowing it would be busy but not wanting to hang around long enough to get caught in the crush of the next show finishing. We suspected that the whole island would close down at that time so it would be even worse. We went and found a seat out of the way but where we could keep an eye on the queue. We timed it perfectly as we joined the corral in time to get sent upstairs almost immediately and when we got to the front of the queue at the top the attendant put the chain across in front of us. He looked at me, I think waiting to be complained at, and I said “Yes!!!! That’s exactly what we’d hoped for!” and he looked very happy to have obliged. In other words, we were first onto the carriage of the next train for the return journey so got a seat.

When we got back to the MRT we were somehow in the front of that queue as well. Woo hoo! Unlike the other day, which I didn’t mention, we managed to find the correct exit at Clarke Quay which meant the 90 step climb. Last time we’d had escalators and only ended up in the back of the same building, so were not far mislaid. Ninety steps was quite a climb after a busy day but we lived to tell the tale and decided to go for a swim when we got back to the hotel. It was 9.30pm and a beautiful temperature for sitting in the spa section and chatting about our day.

Back in the room we had some incredibly salty potato chips (crisps) along with the Singaporean version of cheezels (also very strongly flavoured) for dinner. I know – disgusting, but we didn’t want a real meal and that was the only ‘food’ we had in the room. Both products were made in the USA so I guess they put more flavour and salt on than we’re used to.

TUESDAY 20th July
Walked. The end. Well, it felt like that anyway.

Breakfast was quieter than ever, but that’s very OK with us. Still no chocolate rolls though 🙁 Mrs Personality, the waitress from my birthday dinner, was positively bouncing with joy – well, I’m sure she almost cracked a smile once anyway and that was good going for her.

We decided to walk along Orchard Rd and keep going to the Botanical Gardens. Some people have no brains! We walked up Clemenceau and then left along Orchard Road without problems until… ‘The Underpass’. I was determined to keep track of our direction to assist in coming up in the right spot but the first problem was that after the first escalator down we had to turn onto a diagonal left alleyway, not the sharp right we’d hoped for. Then came a diagonal right – OK, hopefully the right direction – up an escalator, and be buggered if we weren’t on the diagonal left of the intersection instead of having gone straight across.

We looked at our map with our heads together, back down, and ended up this time in a shopping centre and by the time we found our way back down and then up again David said we were back where we’d started. Again!!! Considering we’d done this trick last time I believed him, though it didn’t feel it to me. So we looked up the road and saw a ground-level road crossing about 100 metres away. With great relief we crossed over here and were dancing with joy, ecstatically pleased with ourselves at having beaten that intersection in our own preferred manner.

We walked. It was pretty warm and we were very dewy – is that a polite term? I’d worn jeans and I was so dewy that they were stuck to my legs and quite uncomfortable. After about 2 kms we reached some traffic lights and stopped for a map check and found that we’d headed at right angles to the direction we’d hoped for and were on the corner of Grange, Paterson and Irwell Bank Rd. Shazbut – or words to that effect! Whether, back at that fateful underpass, we actually were not back to where we’d started or whether we were so elated with our cleverness at crossing that we forgot to turn the next corner I don’t know but we were in the wrong spot. Measuring it after we got home I find that we walked 2 kms instead of 1.1 on that stretch. It was a bit sweaty for unnecessary walking and we knew we would need to walk far around the gardens once we got there. If ever we did.

To make the best of a bad situation we walked along Grange to Tanglin and went into the Tanglin Mall shops to buy more drinking water. One stall had a bracelet made of miniature mah-jong tiles and I bought it for Mum as she loves to play mah-jong so I was happy with that purchase.

We made use of the facilities and looked for a café to sit and have a drink but didn’t see anything that we fancied so just stuck to water from the 7 11 shop. I giggled about the service in there after we’d gone out and said to David “How to serve an invisible customer” as he’d certainly not acknowledged our presence until he absolutely had to ask for the money!

At another stall I saw a beautiful dress that actually looked as if it would fit a non-Asian so asked the price. You could say ouch, but I was so desperate for a cool outfit and I really did like it – full length, sky blue with butterflies across the bust and hem. I tried it on over my jeans and tank top and it did indeed fit so I kept it on and just went to the loo to remove the jeans from underneath. Bliss!

Believe it or not, we found the gardens without further ado but were not far inside the gate when there was a huge clap of thunder and down came the rain! We sheltered under a huge banyan tree and I had my penguin umbrella up as well. I started to video the rain in the hope of recording a thunder clap as they were really loud and rumbled on for ages. I said something on the video about sheltering from the rain and David said “Hmmm some of us are!” which I honestly didn’t ‘hear’ (not on a brain level anyway!) and when I panned around to him he was absolutely dripping wet, with water running down his face from his hair. All I could do was laugh! You’ll see the camera shake towards the end as I start laughing. Poor man!  I think you need to know that I had not asked him to move out of the way and was actually unaware that he had stepped out there.

Back to the subject, we were now both sheltering under the tree, and I was trying not to hit David with my umbrella, when I said “Ow. Ow!” Miniscule ants had started biting me. No doubt they were male and objected that I’d accidentally allowed David to get so wet!  Anyway, now the tree wasn’t a safe place, our only option was to run to a small pergola where others had already sheltered.

My back was aching like crazy from all our walking during the week but all the chairs were taken. However, I couldn’t stand there for another minute I was just so uncomfortable so I went to squeeze on a bench alongside a young Asian couple but the spare part of the seat was soaking. My wonderful and amazing hero – the one who had got drenched so I could take my video – sat on the sopping wet seat. I thought it was so I could sit on his lap but that’s not Davids style – no, he swizzled back and forth, drying the seat with his rear end and making the young couple laugh with surprise and then stood for me to sit in his place. Not only that but the young girl got a tissue out of her bag and handed it to me to completely dry it off before I sat on it in my beautiful new dress. How lovely!!! I was so touched by her kindness. And David’s of course!!!

About 15 of us were captive in that pergola for almost half an hour while the heavy rain continued and the thunder rolled, growling on for about 5 minutes for each clap. I love thunder so was in heaven now I was seated comfortably and could enjoy listening to it. Listen to the thunder in the video below… There’s an enormous clap at the 48 second mark which rumbles on long after I’ve stopped recording.  The main thunder clap was just about ear-drum shattering in real life.

When the rain had almost stopped all of us started to disperse and continue our day at last. I was under my trusty penguin umbrella, with him still raising smiles wherever we went. We saw a sundial garden, a large bonsai display, and then made it to the orchid garden where there was a $5 per person entry fee. It was worth it – the gardens were absolutely spectacular!

Everything was immaculately kept and had particularly beautiful settings marked as ‘photo spots’. I suspect there would be blooms all year round in there. Oh, it was just gorgeous!

I’ll just share some photos and tell you that David wanted to move at a faster pace than I did. And he couldn’t understand why I’d want to take sooo many photos, reckoning that once you’ve seen one flower you’ve seen them all. Nooooooo!

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