Tadaima~

Current System Configuration: Vacation Mode
BGM: Beautiful by Round Table feat. NINO. A song from .hack//Dusk. I never really watched it, but I found this song and it's pretty cute. Jazzy, mellow and sweet.
Breakfast: Ham and mozzarella sandwich from Upper Crust at Changi airport
Lunch: Manhattan Meatlovers pizza from Yellow Cab.
Dinner: Nothing, still full of pizza

I'm home!
Dad gave me and my younger brother each a digital camera for Christmas. :D Thus I was able to take lots of pics after Christmas Day. There are too many of them to upload them all, so I'll be posting a few here.
I decided to make today's entry a photo essay instead of my regular sermons. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I'll put in some commentary.

Flamingo Valley
The following are pics of my dad's place in Singapore and the surrounding area at Flamingo Valley Condominiums.
This is the view taken from our balcony. Flamingo Valley is a pretty old place, but well maintained, as you can see.
The view from my room. The area where Flamingo Valley is could be likened to Ayala Alabang in the Philippines---that is, classy suburbs.
Houses across the street.
What Flamingo Valley looks like from outside.

Sentosa, Part I
The day after Christmas, we went to Sentosa. That wasn't a very good idea, as it was a public holiday. Thus, everyone and his mother and grandmother was there. And that's not even counting the tourists. The place was full, and it was hot, but we managed to enjoy it anyway. Here are some pics.
Sentosa is an island off the coast of the main Singapore island. It's part resort and part theme park. One can either take a bus to cross the causeway, or take the more fun and more scenic cable car.
To get to the cable car from the train, one has to get to the Harbor Front station.
This is the Christmas tree at the Harbor Front station.
Me, my brothers and my dad. Look closely at the Christmas balls on the tree.
...they're Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Fight the cravings: This sign defends them.
...people seem to ignore the sign, though, which is uncommon in Singapore. There were a lot of missing pieces, and even torn scraps scattered on the base of the tree. It was a pretty out-of-place sight in Singapore, where people mostly obey the rules. I'm betting this was the doing of ang mo (foreigners), most likely tourists who don't know how to read English.

The view from the cable car to Sentosa.
Speaking of Cable Cars, here's the world's only Lego cable car.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/AslanCross/Singapore%20Pics/SentosaPt1_005.jpg
The cable car to Sentosa actually moves away from Sentosa on its leg, toward the Jewel Box, a resort on the peak of Mt Faber. It then turns back toward the Harbor Front, then on to Sentosa.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/AslanCross/Singapore%20Pics/SentosaPt1_006.jpg
The view (2) from the Jewel Box. The Keppel Building can be seen in the background. Its 15th floor is the central cable car station. It's located between the Jewel Box and the Sentosa station.

First stop on Sentosa: Underwater World.
The resemblance is uncanny. This fish actually hangs out a lot in that spot, as my cousin has a similar pic to this one. I don't know if it's the same fish, but there's always a fish of that type that floats around that spot. I think this type of fish is called a sweetlips.
A jellyfish. Underwater world is pretty small, but there's a lot of interesting stuff. More pics on it later (from my second trip)

This peahen was begging for food. We paused for a snack at the Roti Mama outside Underwater World. Roti Mama (and its son/competitor Roti Boy) sell a bun that's roughly the shape and size of a large hamburger bun, except it's a lot softer. The buns are just plain bread with butter baked inside (so it melts deliciously inside) and a coffee-based paste spread on the top. The paste is spread before baking, so it hardens into a crunchy crust afterward. Delicious. Anyway, back to the bird. She was walking around, pecking at popcorn and other crumbs that the visitors dropped. Other peahens were there too. The male fowl, the peacock, was some distance away gorging itself on popcorn fed to him by Japanese tourists (which is against the rules in pretty much any park involving animals).

Next stop was Cinemania, which is just a virtual coaster ride like the Rialto in the Philippines' Enchanted Kingdom. It's one of the older attractions at the park and is scheduled to be torn down soon. The newer virtual theater, 4D Magix, opened just this year if I'm correct. No pictures from there, of course.

The last leg of our tour was a trip 131 meters up into the air at the Carlsberg (yes, the beer) Sky Tower. "Probably the Best View in Singapore." If you ask me, I'd say it is.

This is one of the many views of Singapore you can see from the tower. In the foreground (the bridge) is the causeway that crosses the strait to Sentosa. The middle of the picture is Tanjong Pagar, the port. In the background you see the Central Business District. The tall, pale-colored cylindrical building on the right is Temasek Tower, where the government corporation Temasek holds office. (The Singapore government owns a lot of businesses, such as the Development Bank of Singapore. My dad works for DBS. All of these corporations are under the umbrella of Temasek.) Temasek, by the way, is the old name of Singapore. It's Malay for "Water Town."

Another view from the tower, this is part of Siloso beach if I'm not mistaken. Siloso is the western point of Sentosa, where Fort Siloso stands. There's also a hotel there.

The view to Sentosa's north. Visible here are the cable cars and the Keppel Building station, and a cruise ship.

The chairlift that brings people who just went down the Sentosa Luge back up. More on the Luge later.

My brother Vinci trying to be an Indian snake charmer. I swear, the snake charmer who owns the albino python must be Dhalsim from Street Fighter, or at least knows his teleportation skills. We've seen him all over Singapore and he seems to appear wherever we go. o_O We've seen him in Merlion Park, near Raffles Place, and twice in Sentosa.

My brother Xavi with a feathered friend.

The Sentosa Luge, or the end thereof. It's a long concrete track down which people coast down on gravity-powered carts. Pretty fun ride, if a bit short. A chairlift takes people back to the upper parts of Sentosa after the Luge. These people are lining up to return their luge carts.

The view of the Luge from the chairlift.

That's it for today. There's too many pics to upload all at once, so I'm saving the rest of the pics for later. Until then.

~Be Just Or Be Dead~
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ー黒獅子アスラン