Sentosa

Along the southern portion of Singapore lies Sentosa aka "where Asia comes to play." I had heard it's one of those toursity things you got to do along with some mixed reviews of- it's expensive, it's nothing compared to Disneyland, it's crowded, it's fun!

Most of these found true.

I went with Jon from the SBT. He's very fun, totally friendly and likes messing with people which is always amusing. He's also a master of "that's what she said'....I got zinged quite a few times! We started with lunch at a Thai restaurant across from Sentosa that was delicious. As we strolled across the bridge to the island, we really didn't know what our plan was. We had brought our swimsuits for the beaches and he was doing a recon mission for when his wife visits in December.

It was exactly like people described, parts were expensive, parts crowded but it was fun! It felt to me like a combination of Vegas and Disneyland. It had the amusement park feel along with fancy malls and casinos. We learned that there is like a full day play pass that we might come back for sometime, when we can enjoy the whole day and not just the afternoon. That's why we only went up the observation tower (apparently I like going up high- ferris wheel, Marina Bay Sands, and now this).

Like most touristy things, they take a picture of you before getting on the attraction. Jon is my height and white- not the average tourist to Sentosa. When we were posing for our picture, they kept trying to get us to stand closer and saying look like you love each other. Finally Jon asked "are you going to mail this to my wife?" THE PHOTOGRAPHERS FREAKED OUT and were so embarrassed! I died laughing.

As we spun around the top of the tower, a huge storm broke out! It was so cool to see. Half the sky sunny, half was pouring. As we got to the bottom the storm was now above us. We bagged the rest of the outdoorsy things and hit the casino. However, both of us were in shorts so we violated the dress code and didn't want to risk try getting in. So we hit a bar before our rain soaked stroll back to the mainland. We were under overhangs that had slight gaps thus creating big waterfalls of runoff- total design flaw. There was also crazy lightning and thunder happening. After about three booms of lightning and me jumping startled each time, Jon, the self proclaimed "country boy" would point to where the thunder was going to boom from and would warn me if it was loud. Not sure how he did that, but it was helpful! I was soaked from the stroll, as the rain was coming in from the right side and I was on the right :)

When we got back to the mall my rain soaked clothes plus AC had me feeling cold for my first time in weeks! We headed up to the lounge at my hotel, which was packed from the storm. After awhile, they asked if another couple could join us at our table. I couldn't have asked for a better duo, they were from Missouri and on the tail end of a 5-week trek across Asia. The husband was into financial stuff/human resources and was able to retire at 45 (giving me a bigger incentive to launch my start-up). The wife a teacher. They had crazy stories of travel across China, Tibet, Korea and now Singapore. I guess while they were in Korea, several of people came up and asked them how old they were (53) and if they were American and thanked them for everything that America did during the Korean war. They were very proud to share that with Jon and thanked him for his service! Jon had interesting stories of his years deployed to Greece and I knew enough about each place to enjoy all the great travel tales!

They (and the Kiwis) sold me on wanting to go to New Zealand! I might just have to get there soon!

It was a great fun Sunday indeed!

A storms a comin'

What we walked back in!

Before the storm hit

Popular cruise ship port

It was a great fun Sunday indeed!