When thinking about what to type for my heading.. just thought of this line from one of Ro Keating's songs. Recently.. life has indeed been like a riding on a carriage going up and down the hills of an amusement park ride.
CNY has come and gone. I had expected it to whizz past though as there were just too many things that were happening on those two days. It's a chance to meet up with relatives and just have fun.
I've learnt one thing that you shouldn't do on CNY, which is try venturing into Sentosa. Don't say I didn't warn you. I was there over the entire CNY period and the island was SWARMING with people. Most of the visitors were foreign workers, and a number of them pitched tents everywhere on the beach. I had originally planned to relax on the beach when I got there, but after seeing how the beach was crowded to the max with all sorts of people doing all sorts of things, I decided not to anymore. Sigh.. somehow my plans to let off some steam always seem to be derailed. Maybe I'm doomed to feel stressed for my entire life.
Anyway, trying to get into Sentosa was another headache on its own. There were queues at all the points of embarkation for transport into Singapore. The queue for the Monorail was most horrendous, creeping all over the top floor of Vivocity. So I headed to the Cable Car queue and found that there was a queue there as well. That's not the end. After reaching Sentosa, I found queues stretching for hundreds of metres for the local buses as well. Frustrated, I decided to just hike back to my beach chalet through the Imbiah jungle. Thankfully, it wasn't as arduous as I'd thought it be. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. All in all, it took nearly an hour and a half for me to get to my chalet on Sentosa from Vivocity. If I had waited for the Monorail, it would have probably taken longer.
Another thing which peeved me was the fact that Sentosa took the beach trams off the paths for the two days we were there. This meant that anyone who had beachside accomodation (i.e. Costa Sands Resort or Siloso Beach Resort) had to walk a hell lot just to get a ride off the island or a bite to eat. Thanks Sentosa, for making us feel like valued customers. The reason that they gave for taking the trams offline were pretty illogical as well - it was something along the line of, we took them off because we want people to enjoy the Sentosa Flowers Display.
Huh?
Tram operation on the beach path = people cannot enjoy the Sentosa Flowers Display?
Honestly, they could have just said: "We foresaw the billion and a half people flooding our quaint little island and so as to prevent our trams from becoming MRT trains at peak hours we decided not to run them."
Inevitably, many people had a lot of things to say about the FTs crowding Sentosa on those two days. I don't have a problem with that really. After all, many of them work hard 7 days a week, for almost all of the year and they deserve their rest. Besides, they're as human as any of us, and so should be accorded the same basic rights that we do.
I think it makes sense for many of them to go to Sentosa, because really, its one of the most cost-effective places to go for a day of fun. Apart from the entrance fee + monorail fee, which adds up to around $3, there's nothing else to pay for aside from food and drinks. I mean, that's if all you're looking for is a place to relax and you don't want to slide down the hill on a plank with wheels, or watch a 3-D fish that's dancing on a screen, or touch some dolphins.
But some (read: SOME, not ALL) of the workers were quite unruly and were displaying quite ungracious behavior. Like there was this one guy who just came out of the sea and walked straight to the Luge attraction. I was standing there trying to get a shot of someone and he stood next to me and I could feel all the seawater dripping off him and splashing on me! I admit that I wanted to touch seawater that day, but that wasn't the way I planned to do it.
Probably the most irksome thing that I saw was rampant littering. Of course, not all the foreign workers could be blamed for this. Singaporeans have also been pretty notorious for littering when there is a large crowd around. This is something we really need to be conscious of.
CNY has come and gone. I had expected it to whizz past though as there were just too many things that were happening on those two days. It's a chance to meet up with relatives and just have fun.
I've learnt one thing that you shouldn't do on CNY, which is try venturing into Sentosa. Don't say I didn't warn you. I was there over the entire CNY period and the island was SWARMING with people. Most of the visitors were foreign workers, and a number of them pitched tents everywhere on the beach. I had originally planned to relax on the beach when I got there, but after seeing how the beach was crowded to the max with all sorts of people doing all sorts of things, I decided not to anymore. Sigh.. somehow my plans to let off some steam always seem to be derailed. Maybe I'm doomed to feel stressed for my entire life.
Anyway, trying to get into Sentosa was another headache on its own. There were queues at all the points of embarkation for transport into Singapore. The queue for the Monorail was most horrendous, creeping all over the top floor of Vivocity. So I headed to the Cable Car queue and found that there was a queue there as well. That's not the end. After reaching Sentosa, I found queues stretching for hundreds of metres for the local buses as well. Frustrated, I decided to just hike back to my beach chalet through the Imbiah jungle. Thankfully, it wasn't as arduous as I'd thought it be. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. All in all, it took nearly an hour and a half for me to get to my chalet on Sentosa from Vivocity. If I had waited for the Monorail, it would have probably taken longer.
Another thing which peeved me was the fact that Sentosa took the beach trams off the paths for the two days we were there. This meant that anyone who had beachside accomodation (i.e. Costa Sands Resort or Siloso Beach Resort) had to walk a hell lot just to get a ride off the island or a bite to eat. Thanks Sentosa, for making us feel like valued customers. The reason that they gave for taking the trams offline were pretty illogical as well - it was something along the line of, we took them off because we want people to enjoy the Sentosa Flowers Display.
Huh?
Tram operation on the beach path = people cannot enjoy the Sentosa Flowers Display?
Honestly, they could have just said: "We foresaw the billion and a half people flooding our quaint little island and so as to prevent our trams from becoming MRT trains at peak hours we decided not to run them."
Inevitably, many people had a lot of things to say about the FTs crowding Sentosa on those two days. I don't have a problem with that really. After all, many of them work hard 7 days a week, for almost all of the year and they deserve their rest. Besides, they're as human as any of us, and so should be accorded the same basic rights that we do.
I think it makes sense for many of them to go to Sentosa, because really, its one of the most cost-effective places to go for a day of fun. Apart from the entrance fee + monorail fee, which adds up to around $3, there's nothing else to pay for aside from food and drinks. I mean, that's if all you're looking for is a place to relax and you don't want to slide down the hill on a plank with wheels, or watch a 3-D fish that's dancing on a screen, or touch some dolphins.
But some (read: SOME, not ALL) of the workers were quite unruly and were displaying quite ungracious behavior. Like there was this one guy who just came out of the sea and walked straight to the Luge attraction. I was standing there trying to get a shot of someone and he stood next to me and I could feel all the seawater dripping off him and splashing on me! I admit that I wanted to touch seawater that day, but that wasn't the way I planned to do it.
Probably the most irksome thing that I saw was rampant littering. Of course, not all the foreign workers could be blamed for this. Singaporeans have also been pretty notorious for littering when there is a large crowd around. This is something we really need to be conscious of.
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