25 April 2025
Beach day
Sentosa and Vivocity
Today I went to allegedly the southern most point of Continental Asia. There is a sign and it is labelled as such on google maps but this claim makes absolutely no sense to me as Palawan island, off Sentosa island, off Singapore island is North of the southernmost point of Sentosa island. Very confusing, I spent an hour trying to figure this out. I failed.
Sentosa is a theme park island joined onto the south of Singapore by a causeway, monorail and gondola. Universal studios is there as well as a lot of other things.
There are also 3 different beaches the public can access, as well as a lot of private ones and a secretive gated community and golf course.
Today was much much hotter than yesterday, so after I finished walking around Sentosa, I fled into the air conditioning of the giant Vivocity mall, and walked around until the sweat dried before enjoying a frozen lunch.
Before heading to Sentosa I did a lap of Bugis, where the Buddhists are busy preparing for the upcoming Buddha's birthday shopping extravaganza.
Also the South Indian temples were making a lot of noise, with a lot of dodgy looking guys hanging around.
The causeway / boardwalk across to Sentosa has moving walkways, long since abandoned.
Cruise ships, and the gondolas, you will see this view again later with better clouds.
Arriving by foot on Sentosa was underwhelming, a giant construction zone, with diversions everywhere.
It seems to me the goal was to funnel everyone to Universal studios.
The price to get in for the basic ticket starts at $80, but to do anything, you need a PLETHORA of other 'passes' that start from $100, depending on demand, so it is basically at least $180 to get in. And yet despite that, grown adults were jumping up and down on the spot screaming with excitement as the hype guy is introducing a couple of Malaysian slaves brought in this morning in a cage on the back of a truck (look it up) so they can stand all day in the heat in a rubber minion suit.
Eventually I found a way to get bypass the entrance to Universal studios, but everywhere you turn on Sentosa is 'ticket info'.
Madam Tussauds has exactly zero customers. I doubt the Vin Diesel out the front is really made of wax because surely it would melt.
The term 'Mount' is thrown around haphazardly in Singapore.
Look at all the ships!
Adventure world also has, zero customers.
From the top of Mount Imbiah, you can see the old gun battery. I could take out 50 oil tankers, no problem.
There are some decent short trails around Mount Imbiah, with zero other people.
Now it was beach time. No people!
You can go bungy jumping if you enjoy dumb ways to die. They can't even spell bungee correctly, how could I trust them to weigh me, write that down correctly, measure the rubber cable length correctly, strap me in correctly etc etc, get that wrong at any step of the way and your head goes 12 foot into concrete. I saw no one jump.
There are a lot of shops and small malls around, the building on the right is one of those indoor skydiving things where you hope the net over the giant fan does not rip.
OMG I found the missing Malaysian airlines jet. Now I know that everyone takes a photo and says that, and for that reason, I am very surprised this exists as a Malaysian airlines jet and not some made up airline.
The food trucks had zero customers.
The 2nd beach and floaty adventure world had... zero customers.
This is taken from the viewing platform on allegedly the southern most point of continental Asia. You can see a couple of other people on the rope bridge.
Where the hell is everyone? Too hot for the beach?
OK, the third and last beach.
I walked a strange way to get back to the causeway, and was genuinely concerned I was going to hit a dead end as I walked past a freeway onramp and toll booth.
However, there was then a tunnel and a temporary diversion around all the construction work.
The trip back over the causeway was thundery. Nice clouds.
Vivocity is an enormous mall. I spent a lot of time here before a late night flight once, killing time in the air conditioning.
And so to further cool down, acai bowl. It was good, and much cheaper than in Australia.