This week there were 2 school-organized outings. On Tuesday there was the "Me and My Local Friend Day" thing at Sentosa, and on Friday there was the Learning Journey to URA centre in Chinatown.

Nithya and I sat next to each other on the bus. We chatted and got to know each other better. we never knew much about each other before. =)

The trip to Sentosa was so fun! those who didn't go, too bad. Everything was paid for by the school, lunch and all the admission fees. It would work out to be about $48 per person. wow. a lot of money since 100+ people went.

I was the enthusiastic traveller, trudging on ahead of the group. The only other person who would do such a thing would be MP. When we 2 were travelling in Adelaide and while transiting at KLIA, we wouldn't saunter. We stroll or faster, "trailblazing" when compared to others I think, around through nearly all the shops, going here going there. And that's only 1 example of such an occassion. I guess she'll be my perfect travelling companion (i haven't tried travelling around with others yet so I can't say about them. whoever it is, they must be able to walk fast and for long time.)

We first went to Fort Siloso. It's mainly wax exhibits showing the situations and conditions the British at Fort Siloso had to face. The guns were fake. Tunnel A was the nicest thing i guess. EH and YS wanted to see everything. I waited outside for them. I wasn't interested to know what it was about and the place had a bad dusty musty smell.

at fort siloso, the 4 of us JH, EH, YS and I were travelling by ourselves. The rest of the class had taken a bus to the top of the hill while we 4 walked up. We were reunited with them near the tunnel.

Suprisingly, we "finished" the place at 11.30 or 11.45am and made our way to the musical fountains for lunch. again, 06s01 were earlier than us. They travel around quite fast.

We had lunch in the pavillion directly opposite the other twin pavillion that had the food. I chose the Chinese food for a reason: "Western Food" is actually the Asian (or rather Singaporean) intepretation of western food. So, the western food was bad compared to the chinese food. har har har!

After that, we went to the Merlion. We had a near-complete class photo taken there. $2 for that photo. It wasn't very small but the printing was bad. the photo wasn't that badly taken.

Then the Images of Singapore. There were real humans planted amongst the wax figures. On the second floor, we met our first "real human". Gladys and I were meeting up with the rest of the group who went first while we were in the washroom. I found them and was walking towards them when somebody on my right said 'how are you?' or something like that. I turned and saw that malay man in the malay costume who was seated at the seating place greeting me. SY asked "you're not scared ah?" "No," i replied. apparently, SY jumped when he was greeted. That man was sitting stone still on the bench that people might not notice him.

going down the stairs, we met another "real human" but she was moving around. she was wearing a nonya kebaya. I pitied those people, working in dark indoor areas by themselves.

on the ground floor, I saw one young malay woman in costume sitting on the staircase of a fake attap house. I knew she was real but she was sitting so still. she could "attack" anytime. "I don't want to go there," I said. We had to pass by her to continue through the museum. So 3 of us girls were huddled in one part of the room, afraid to go past her.

"Hello."

"AAAAAHHHH!!!!"

"HAHAHAHAHA." we all laughed. yay. we now can go past her. I talked with her. she explained to me why they were planted here.

The next, and final, room was one about Singapore's 41st birthday. there was a moving real man in the white army costume. the malay man was there too. "How did he get down here so fast?" I don't know. after a short browse through the everpresent souvenir shop, we left IoS.

IoS has improved in that there is a quite nice and well done introductory show, and that the interior has been cleaned up and decorated a bit, and people have been planted. however, there's still a bit of that musty smell. and the figurines are all old and need replacing.

We headed straight for the luge. Earlier from the merlion we saw the chairlift. It looked so scary. I booked myself to ride the chairlift with Shean who wasn't so scared of heights, I thought. Later, it turned out that the 4 of us were all scared of heights.

The luge was fun to go down on, pity that it was a bit too short. I sped down the track ahead of the other 3,
YS, Shean and HR. At the chairlift (the SkyRide), there was a man who would lower the bar before the chairlift moved off. When it was our turn, he didn't and we began to ascend without the bar down. I was so scared that I slammed it down, making the triangle thing jam into YS's thigh. it was so painful she cried. i'm sorry! she has a slight bruise only so thank goodness.

HR noticed that on the ride, she was the only one not holding on to the bar. in fact, she was videoing us and the surroundings to occupy herself from her fear. I was so glad I wore shoes. Though i wasn't gripping, I wouldn't let go of the bar or my shoebag to take photos. too scary. I was laughing-whimpering.

In the end, we didn't have time to go down to the beach since we finished at 2.45pm, close to 3pm. there was a chemistry lecture test to study for. (I never prepared for it fully.) We all took the MRT back. I found out the painful way that the adult fair to my stop was $1.50. expensive.

I find that travelling with a shoebag is convenient in that everything I need can be carried in one hand. the difficulty lies in digging for those things. I would have to put it on some flat surface or support it horizontally or just through a small opening dig for the handphone or camera.

then on friday, we had our learning journey to URA. During the bus ride, YS and the others were reminded of damping. Mr. Mannan used the suspension system on buses as an example of heavy damping. Obviously, the bus didn't have enough of heavy damping because we were bouncing around. It wasn't a glass room as I thought it would be. we had 2 and a half floors to explore. I liked the skylight and the plants indoors. Lynn and I argued, she saying it was weird, I saying it was nice. oh well. haha.

the models downstairs were big and i guess that they were handmade. it was nice and didn't have that musty smell, unfortunately, most of the buildings were just wooden blocks.

the game with gurmit singh was quite interesting. It showed the choices of the audience for the 3 answers with the coloured bars. the facts were interesting.

I like the sticker thing for visitors to show where they have travelled for the past 6 months and the grandparents origin thing. I also liked the maps where there were clear discs and squares to put over the map printed on the counter surface to see different things like the MRT network around the URA building. However, the voting booths and the video of different cities need to be improved, possibly changed. the globe turned but didn't stop at the city chosen. also the videos and the voting booth images were old, possibly outdated. there was nothing much to see and we were done by 3pm, 2 hours ahead of 5pm. HK, YS, SY, JY, XL and I proceeded to Maxwell hawker centre opposite for some food since we were hungry. I picked the wrong stall for fishball noodles. though the fishballs were handmade, it was not bouncy. everything in the bowl was a bit too soft. I like the fishball noodles at Newton Circus. I spotted another tourist looking around the food court to choose what she wanted. on the bus ride, I saw 2 "lost" tourists looking at a map to decide where to go or something. Maxwell is a good place to find tourists.

all in all, I conclude many attractions have improved by a significant amount to better enrich the experience of tourists, including school students. Sentosa has improved by a great deal, and the URA wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. nevertheless, it can continue to improve, and i'm quite sure they are doing so.