Evening with Marianne

I met up with Marianne in the evening - first, we went for dinner with another friend of mine here called Ching (who's looking for a job in the financial sector and is therefore a fellow 'professional' with me in residence at the hostel!) and then Marianne and I went to watch the first light show at the Merlion:

(which is unfortunate in the fact that it has no arms or flippers and is just a lion's head atop a fish's tail!) and then we went over to the Marina Bay Sands hotel iteslf to watch the second light show from the proper vantage point. And I was amazed.

Having seen the show 4 times already from various different vantage points, I didn't think it could be much improved by watching it from the 'correct' location. But I was quite mistaken! It was an amazing show telling 'the story of life, using water and light', used lasers and projectors and strobes and fire and so much more. Quite a show, no idea what the story was supposed to be though! But the most impressive parts for me were the very clever interactions between the spray and the light, sometimes using a fan of water as a project screen and sometimes projecting lasers through the spray to create a very 3-dimensional hologram (I'm not exaggerating). Entertaining stuff - highly recommended!

Then we walked over the Helix Bridge to the Singapore Flyer. I have included this pic too because I just can't get over how beautiful this city is at night...

We also saw a wild gecko on the ceiling of a bus stop, which was of course amusing.

So, to the flyer a second time (though I wanted to see the view at night), we again passed through the random display of facts and figures in the queuing area - which by coincidence we had reached 4 minutes before the last embarkation!

Up the flyer we went. Here are some views!

It was also much better to have someone to share it with this time, and I will agree that it was worth seeing again at night. The view is good, no better than that from Marina Bay Sands, though of course from the Flyer you can actually see the Sands hotel itself in all of its weirdness.

Talking of which, that was our next destination. I had been in Singapore nearly 2 weeks and had still not sampled a Singapore Sling! Marianne gamely joined in and here are our two beauties (only $30 each!). Once again, we avoided the $20 'observation deck' charge so really they were no worse value than the cocktails I'd had in Shanghai or Hong Kong.

Marianne also enjoyed the experience and the view!

And before we left, we were able to sneak towards the Sky Park and admire the much-advertised Infinity Pool. This swimming pool, overlooking Marina Bay, does not appear to have an edge (though in reality there is an overflow and a walkway on the other side, to catch those boisterous or stupid enough to go over the edge!

Much better photos (plus a nice explanation of MBS) can be seen at http://www.businessinsider.com/take-a-look-at-singapores-swankiest-infinity-pool-2010-7.

And finally, we were kicked out since they were closing down for the evening and, with the MRT shut down for the evening, continued the Royal life and taxied back to our Hostel. Certainly a very good evening out!