[Explore] City Tours - Captain Explorer DUKW Tour + Dinner at Palapa

City Tours offers unique experiences and value-packed tours, such as the FunVee open-top sightseeing bus and Captain Explorer DUKW Tour (船长探索鸭子游). My daughter and I had the opportunity to be tourists in our own country, alongside Pink and her daughter, as we embarked on a fun ride aboard the DUKW Amphibious Vehicle. 

We met up at 5pm outside City Tourist Hub at Marina Square Shopping Mall, which is the designated departing point. Before boarding the DUKW Amphibious Vehicle, an authentic revamped Vietnam War-era vehicle, we took many group photos and here's one showing our excited faces! It was our first time on the DUKW tour.

Throughout the 1 hour tour, the friendly and knowledgeable guide shared with us a lot of insightful commentary on Singapore's iconic landmarks. The main highlight was 'Splashdown', where our vehicle made a thrilling splash into Marina Bay's waters. There were some screams but nobody get wet though.

We cruised past iconic landmarks like the Singapore Flyer, Esplanade Theatre, and Gardens by the Bay. The tour also offered an unobstructed panorama views of the Marina Bay Sands, the CBD area (I can see my workplace!) and the uniquely-designed Helix Bridge, which resembles DNA. The up-close encounter with the majestic Merlion was truly unforgettable, as being on the water provided the rare opportunity to view it from the front. 

The ride on the water was pretty smooth and took about 45 minutes. Here are some fun facts I picked up from the tour guide during the ride: Singapore has 17 reservoirs that serve as water catchment areas for rainfall. The three biggest Ferries wheels in the World are located in Dubai, Las Vegas and Singapore. The Singapore Flyer is the third-largest Ferris Wheel in the world, with each rotation taking approximately 30 minutes.   

The last 15 minutes was a land tour, and it was quite a bumpy ride. We drove past some 5-star hotels, such as Swissôtel, the tallest hotel in Singapore, and Raffles Hotel, where a one night stay can cost around $2,000 - $3,000. Overall, it was a one-of-a-kind experience that brings us to see Singapore's skyline and landmarks.

More information

Operating Hours: Daily, except for Monday

09:00 am - 11:00 am & 13:00 pm - 18:00 pm 

(Hourly departure)

 Meeting Point: #01-207, City Tourist Hub @ Marina Square Shopping Mall 

(Next to 7-Eleven)

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Together, we had dinner at Palapa, which serves Indonesian food at City Gate. We ordered a few different sets to try, and I really love their spicy and tangy sambal. My girl still can't handle chili yet and the little bit of spice in the indomie made her cry a bit, while little Enya commented on how she loves spicy food. Hopefully, my girl will learn to love spicy food soon! After dinner, the girls enjoyed the CHOCO ALBAB Unicorn Strawberry cereal, coated with real strawberry chocolate sauce. What a nice sweet treat to end the day! Thanks Pink for organizing the day's itinerary and sharing the tip that we can claim 2 hours of free parking with a $20 receipt!   

Palapa Indonesian Fast Food 

Address: 371 Beach Road 
#02-28 City Gate 
Singapore 199577

Operating Hours: 11am - 8pm 
(Last order at 7.30pm) 

XOXO

[Explore] From Singapore to Singaporean : The Bicentennial Experience

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Raffles' landing in Singapore, The Bicentennial Experience was set up as an opportunity for us to look deeper into our history and our country's evolution. My Mom had expressed her interest to check out this experience and I'm glad she did as this prompted me to quickly fix a date and book the tickets online. Quite a few dates were almost sold out when I was booking the tickets.

In this post, I will share some of the highlights of The Bicentennial Experience - The Time Traveller Section. 

Atrium - Reverse Rain

Before we were ushered to the different experiences, a staff would verbally briefed us on what to expect. The Bicentennial Experience started at the Atrium. Here, we see how the weather played a significant role in the rise and fall of civilization and cities. We witness the 'Reverse Rain' where rain magically moves upwards instead of down. This was created by a Japanese special effects company. 

Act 1 - Beginnings (1299 - 1613)

This segment combines live performers on a moving travelator with multimedia projections and lots of actions to project the swift passing of time in a dynamic way. It took us on an adrenaline rush through 300 years, starting with Sang Nila utama's arrival in the 13th century. The customised travelator was made and designed in the United Kingdom before it was shipped to Singapore.

Act 2 - Arrival (1819)

This was a cinematic experience as we were seated in a small room designed to be like a ship. The show was projected on a 360 degree floor-to-ceiling circular surround screen and our seats can actually rotate. In this act, we were taken to that fateful turning point in Singapore's history where Sir Stamford Raffles landed in Singapore and how he turned this small island into a key British trading port. The narration of this act was told through the eyes of local wildlifes - an eagle, a rat, a monkey, a cat and a dragonfly.

Act 3 - Connectivity (1867 - 1941)

We stayed on our seats in the small room and the screen changed to show a colourful early 20th Century of how Singapore looked. Beneath the fun and glamour also lurked a series of illness and diseases and social problems like the coolies relying on the opium.

Act 4 - Occupation (1942 - 1945) 

  A sombre mood took over as we entered a series of dimly lit spaces showing the difficult days of Singapore during the Japanese Occupation. This act begins with an audio recording in a dark room that recounts how local resistance fighters bravely stood up to the Japanese invasion. We then entered a series of dark, fractured tunnels that recreates the destruction and despair the Japanese Occupation brought to Singapore at that time. The scenes were played on the cracks of the wall that provide a peek into the wartime life. One tunnel shows the defeat of the British while the other re-enacts a survivor's harrowing escape from a massacre.

Act 5 - Destiny (1950s - 2019) 

 This act shows how Singapore picked itself up after the war. In this special 'rain enclosure', we were given a transparent umbrella each before entering to prevent us from getting drenched. Some of the nation's achievements were projected on the screen. A surprising finale as we weather the storm as a nation.

The Time Traveller Experience concluded by reflecting on the 200 years that have defined and made us different. We were also given a ball each to cast our votes on the factors we felt is the more to define us.

For those who have not visited this experience, I strongly encourage you all to do so before the show sold out or ended. This multimedia sensory experience took us back in time to witness some of the key historical moments in Singapore's transformation through the different means and equipment. Definitely worth experiencing it yourself. 

From Singapore to Singaporean : The Bicentennial Experience 

Period: From 1 June to 15 September 2019
Duration: About 1 hour

Venue: Fort Canning Centre

Book your complimentary tickets online at the website below

https://www.bicentennial.sg/the-bicentennial-experience/ 

XOXO

[Explore] Goodman Open House - The Play-Full Edition

Goodman Arts Centre Open House Day

Goodman Arts Centre is an arts hive nestled along Mountbatten Road. It is the home of the National Arts Council as well as several artists and arts groups. Together with Rena, we had an arty day out as I had registered for some free performances online.

Being the first time there, I was initially lost as the place was really huge. I've registered for 3 Black Box Performance but was late for the first one and too early for the second one. So we went to The Artground and spent our free time having fun there.

Happy Homebodies at The Artground till 15 September 2019

Happy Homebodies is an interactive play space featuring common objects that can be found at home and how they are creatively transformed into a fun experience for the kids. Crawl through a washing machine, slide down a bed and jump into a laundry basket.

The magic of this exploration is to allow the children to make new discoveries of the ordinary objects around us. It's really quite fun for the little curious minds. The simple black and white colour scheme is easy to the eyes and after exploring all corners of the play space, my girl's favourite is still the slide.

There's also an enclosed area with safety gates suitable for babies till 36 months. It's a place for sensory fun as the babies can get to touch and feel different materials and a mini slide too.

Free Outdoor Activities at the Open Field

There were several outdoor activities and we happened to catch the Dicapella Dizi Ensemble performing to some familiar Chinese and English pop tunes. After that, it started to rain very heavily and I'm not so sure if the rest of the performances did carry on as per schedule.

Free admission to the Black Box Performances

I was really looking forward to the time for us to enter the Black Box Performances like I've mentioned I've already registered for the tickets online.

The first one we attended was "Hug The Tree" by Paper Monkey Theatre. It was a Puppet Theatre Performance. The performance is about a girl named Amrita who loved the trees in the forest and protected the trees from being cut down just like how the trees had protected her home from the desert sandstorm. This story was inspired by an old Indian folktale. Rena had fun playing peek-ka-boo with one of the older girl there after that she got restless so we left without finish watching the whole performance.

The next performance was "Sita's Magical Forest" by Apsaras Arts. Readapted from the celebrated Ramayana epic, Sita's Magical Forest is a dance-drama which tells the trails and triumphs of Rama and Sita. This is a more interactive performance and kids were allowed to go up and mingled with the performers and also helped out in some segments. As such, I think Rena enjoyed this better as she is one who couldn't sit still.

All day activities for the whole families

Meanwhile, there's also Giant Games by Mural Lingo and Caricature Drawing by Kamal Arts and Upbeat! by Musical Playhouse happening throughout from 11am to 5pm.

Dinner at Cafe Melba

We stayed at The Artground till it was about closing time before hubby came to meet us. We settled our dinner at Cafe Melba which is just located inside Goodman Arts Centre. Only the Mac & Cheese was nice. Rena dozed off in her chair as it was so windy and cooling. She also missed her usual afternoon nap.


@GoodmanArtsCenter
#GoodmanOpenHouse



XOXO