Day 82, 10/5/2012
The day of rollercoasters, woohoo!
I couldn’t have visited Singapore and miss out on Universal Studios, could I? I visited it on a Thursday, so the park was not crowded and I could enjoy all attractions without much queueing, plus, as I was alone, I often could fill in the odd empty seat in the first row on the cars. Woohoo! Sure, it was fun to see Shrek’s home and Madagacara attractions as well as an imitation of New York, but the park is more suitable for children, I will admit that. The shows were average.
Except for… the Battlestar Galactica dueling rollercoasters, which were just breathtaking (literally). One of them was spinning you around and then plunging into a foggy pit, while the other takes you to the height of a 14 storey building and then almost vertically down. I did each of them at least 5 times, it was that awesome!
I don’t want to speak badly about Indians, but I will ;) The biggest share of the visitors in the park were Indians, and while they could have been Singaporean Indians, a quick pool at the Shrek’s Donkey Show showed the reality: out of the 100+ people that we were in the auditorium, I was the only Latvian (surprise!), there were a few Brazilians and Canadians, but the vast majority, I’d say at least 80% proudly were from India. Which was obvious at the end of the show, when they all left, and left behind all their empty drinks and snack wrappers. Really, when you have numerous rubbish bins everywhere, it is just so hard to throw your stuff out properly. Indian tourism is booming, but that doesn’t apply to their manners.
When I was done with the adrenaline, I went to see the southernmost point of continental Asia that can be reached by land – at the tip of another islet off the coast of Sentosa, which is an island off the coast of main Singapore island. (Well, arguably the most southern point, as it is facing the west, instead of south, and there is another beach which is, in fact, located more south. But marketing in marketing, doesn’t always have to be true). It’s just not fair. They have everything in Singapore, plus a lovely tropical (if artificial) beach as well. Alright, I don’t know about the water quality there as Singapore has one of the biggest ports in the world, but I saw some people swimming there, and a lot had come for tanning or a picknick.
Chapatis, curries, rooftops and holy cows 