Sentosa By Night

Today is Jaimie's fourth visit to the little southerly island of Sentosa, but the first (1) that is not a trip made in the early morning, and (2) where she didn't spend most of the time playing at the beach.

Today, we ventured to Sentosa after Jae woke up from her afternoon nap. It was 5:30pm when we reached the place. Weather was ok, with a little hint of impending rain ahead. We hoped it might clear by the time we were to view the "Songs of the Sea" performance, dubbed "Singapore
s multi-sensory extravaganza", which was really just a revamped, ostensibly more upbeat version of the musical fountains show that we used to be able to watch for free (now it costs $8 per head).



This yellow aquatic creature here is Oscar, the mascot of the show, and also one of the talking sea creatures of the story. The wierd thing is that only Oscar is animated in full colour projection - the rest of the funny-looking creatures are really ugly simple animations done with laser projected on the fog screen.



Anyway, when I got to the ticket counter, I was told that tickets for the 7:40pm show had been totally sold out. Huh? 2 hours to go before the show and it's fullhouse already? This had better be GOOD. So I got two tickets for the second performance, scheduled at 8:40pm. That'd give us more time to consume dinner, plus maybe make a visit to the Merlion thingie, I thought.

As we went in search for a eatery, Jae spotted the beach and asked to go to walk on the sand. We obliged. We eventually settled for Sakae restaurant for dinner.



And yes, we did have time to visit the Merlion, even with me having to double-back to the carpark to grab an umbrella when we felt the first drips of drizzle soon after we had dinner. As such things often go, the drizzle stopped completely by the time I rejoined the girls at the Merlion with the umbrella. Oh well....not complaining cos no rain was good - that meant we'd get to watch the "multi-sensory extravaganza" later on.

You see those pointy things on the top and bottom of this pic? These were the teeth of the mythical hybrid creature. They called this location the "Mouth Gallery".



Actually we made it JIT for the visit to the Merlion, having gotten our tickets at precisely 7:30pm, which was the time indicated for the final ticket sales to this particular attraction. While we were at the "Head Gallery", they played the message reminding us that "the Merlion would be closing in 10 minutes time" and suggested we visit other attractions that would still be opened then.



Here we were seated by the beachfront, awaiting for the musical fountain show to commence. The queue to enter the performance area was really really long. The show began with this group of teenagers running onto the beach/stage area and taking turns belting out "Sing Singapore" songs in Malay (Chan Mali Chan), Tamil (Munnaeru Vaalibaa) and Mandarin (凤阳花鼓). Pre-recorded, of course. Then this other teenager chap named Li appeared, who had not been joining the others in songs but instead had been staring forlonly into the sea. The others urged him to sing and when he finally did, his tune caused this image of a beautiful girl to magically appear (yah lah...this is an image projection onto the fog screen, like Oscar).

This was when the problem started for us. Jae started to become really uncomfortable. She began by figetting, then struggling, then crying out, louder and louder. It was obvious that she was frightened by the sights and sounds. Actually I don't blame her. I mean, there was this disembodied head of a woman (a very large one, at that) hovering above the row of kelong houses out in the sea. Plus the boys, girls and laser creatures then starting talking/ shouting/ singing very excitedly - "Who is that girl?!", "Where did she go?!", "Oh Li, sing your magical song! Sing it!" Then explosions ensued, with balls of fire erupting on the beach infront of the audience. It was visually quite spectacular actually, but at the same time could also be quite unsettling for some two-year-olds. I tried to turn her the other way so she won't see the "scary images" but the girl kept forcefully turning her head back, as if compelled to check if they were still there, and then crying out "我要回家! 我要回家!" repeatedly. I tried distracting her with the photos on my PDA but again she kept stealing glances at the performance and then crying out again. I could totally emphatise with what she was going through, cos I remember that I used to be so frightened while watching those Nosferatu (aka Dracula) movies when I was little but yet strangely couldn't avert my gaze when the scary moments appeared.



The people around us started to stare at the screaming child and the failed attempts of the parents at placating her. Just when we were about to give up, to pick the girl up and go home, the fountains came on. Jets of water, beautifully lighted, dancing to upbeat tunes, accompanied by streaks of fireworks bursting into the night sky. Our girl immediately stopped her wailings and stood entranced. And we breathed our sigh of relief. Saved by the bell. She lasted till the end of the show.




As we were exiting, I threw Jae a question - "So, would you like to watch the show again, or do you wish to go home now?"

"Again!", she replied, and I involuntarily rolled my eyes.