Singapore Day 2

Our agenda for this day: Universal Studios! Typically, the way to get to Universal is in a cable car that goes from Singapore to Sentosa Island. But that would've cost around 30 dollahs per person, and we were on a budget. So we took the cheaper alternative, the monorail. I think it was a 6-dollah trip, and that already included the return trip!  

The view from the train. You can see the cable cars, they look like tiny little dots. Hah. Those suckers paid twenty six bucks to see the same view that we did! 

The monorail stops first at Resarth World and then goes on to two more stops. You have to alight here to get to Universal Studios. Anyway! Everything looked sweet and yummy...

...Including me. Nyehehehe. (But that, my dear children, is considered cannibalism, and is frowned upon by most societies.)

When you get to Universal, the first thing you do is take a picture with the famed Universal Studios globe.

 But of course you have to wait until the area is cleared of TSBG - tao sa background - before you can really get a good shot.

I think this was supposed to be a hold-the-world-in-your-arms shot. And a jump shot. At the same time. Obviously a bad combination. *cue: When you try your best but you don't succeed...*

This guy selling minion jugs at the entrance was being so sad, and dad felt compelled to point it out. Hence this picture. Which mom also photobombed.

A lot of the photos we took this day (perhaps all, even) involves one of our family members standing in the foreground and smiling while something pretty is going on in the background. If it were up to me, I'd just be taking pictures of the pretty things in the background (sorry but honestly, seeing the same group of people with the same smiling expression on their faces in each picture can get a little boring). Anyway, I've made do.

Madagascar was our first ride. I loved it! Great for kids (and grown-ups like me who are biding their time until their daredevil sister forces them to ride the big scary roller coaster).

Far Far Away came next. My family loves Shrek (well, the first two movies anyway), so we were really excited for this area. 

 Love the authenticity and attention to detail everywhere. There's one hall filled with posters of Prince Charming!

Like I said, attention to detail! Even the trash cans have the Far Far Away seal on them. (FFAPS - Far Far Away Police Society?)

Next up: Waterworld. I haven't seen the movie yet, but the show was entertaining nonetheless. 

 Rusty metal sheets everywhere. Universal Studios sure went to a lot of trouble to make the place look like the Philippines. 

Back in Far Far Away for lunch. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and hot buns. They didn't serve rice, but they did have giant soda. 

Next: Ancient Egypt! I think this was the most beautiful area of all. 

 

At the intersection of Ancient Egpyt and Sci Fi City. I think the buildings in the back are from Hollywood. 

Fortunately for me, this thing was closed on that day (and it was actually shut down for good some two days later!) so I didn't have to ride it! Woohoo! (Brief background: I am deathly afraid of roller coasters.) Cait was very disappointed though. 

 Finally, a decent photo of you. 

 In the Transformers ride. It looked like a nuclear facility, if I had ever seen one. 

 You got to push a lot of buttons that didn't do anything! And the ride was really really fun but I'm not gonna talk about it because I don't want to spoil it. 

Next: New York!!!

 New York is one of my dream destinations. I desperately want to go visit 30 Rock, ice skate at the Rockefeller Center, eat New York hotdogs, check out the public library... Blargh. I want to go to there. Anyway, the New York area was probably my favorite stop at Universal, just because it's the closest I've ever been to the real New York. 

^ This sign was actually for a restroom. 

A show came on later, featuring a dance troupe called the Rockafellaz. 

 Cookie Monster driving a school bus. OMG. I love New York (but am also terrified by the prospects of getting into a bus being driven by a puppet).

(Baliktad man ang map, mom!)

 My brother's instinctive reaction to when he sees his crush approaching.

 Lovely parents.

 Char lang, dad.

Waffle break. Back at Ancient Egypt.

Since we were back in Egypt, my dad somehow conjured up the bravado to go ride the Revenge of the Mummy, an indoor high-speed roller coaster. And he's terrified of heights! Anyway, since he and my sister were so game, I was peer-pressured into riding it too. And I'm glad that I was, because it was really fun (despite my stomach doing sommersaults the whole time). 

 HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Kills me every time. 

That was the end of our Universal adventure. We took the train back to the hotel and rested up for a bit. Even though we were feeling super tired, we kind of had to force ourselves to head back out for the Night Safari, which we had already paid for when we arrived at Changi Airport.

Man, the commute was so long. And so draining. We took several trains, walked across so many platforms, waited so long for a bus... We even kind of skipped dinner because our schedule was so tight (it was already 10:00 and the safari closed at 12).

It was still fun though! Because we were so tired, we didn't have much pictures to show for the night. I would've wanted to snap pics of the animals we saw, but our camera's light settings wouldn't permit it. Well, anyway.

Man, that was exhausting. Blogging, I mean. Not the actual trip (but that was exhausting too). I started on this thing at around 10 in the morning and here I am typing up this last bit at 10 at night! It's picking out the pictures, editing them, and uploading them that takes up so much time. 

Tomorrow Rap is coming back from Korea! Maybe he'll get around to posting a travel entry on his blog about the trip soon. Or maybe my mentioning it here will pressure him to. Hooray for pressuring other people!

Today was Cait's first day of classes at Ateneo and already she's complaining about the homework and the fact that there's gonna be a quiz on Wednesday. Heh. I love having no more school. Also, she had her first Philosophy class today, and she said it really weirded her out. I remember feeling the same about my first Philo, too. We talked about Wonder and why it's so important to life. Hay, Philo really is weird. But it gets awesome pretty soon. 

Coming up next: Singapore Part 3. Tschüss!