| | "Clearly you haven't been to Singapore." - Captain Jack Sparrow.
Being the pretentious people that we are, we pretended to like big budget theatre musical. And what better form than Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom Of The Opera ? So we throw in a Singapore package with it all and journey down south. But even before the journey begin, we were already reenacting Amazing Race moments by nearly missing the train just because we were too stupid to the read the stated departure platform on the tickets.
Still, we did end up in Singapore and checked into our Hotel 81 at Gey Lang. Would you believe that we booked the place because it was located conveniently to take the MRT ? So for the rest of the afternoon, we decided with the noblest of intentions to visit Sentosa Island. Yet, we all know how noble intentions always turn out. Which leads us to basking in Singaporean commercialism by wasting time at a Singaporean mall, of name which have no meaning to me due to the fact there are too numerous malls for me to remember. Still, we could see Sentosa from the mall though. And we had pictures to prove 'so near yet so far'.
At the mall (okay, it was Vivo City) has something for everyone. The one who enjoys food goes crazy at the sight and taste of Carl's Jr. The one who is an Adidas fanboy goes crazy in the Adidas store and condemns our local Adidas stores. The one who loves original DVDs goes crazy at the enourmous selection of Region 3 (yes, Region 3!) DVD titles he never saw in his life. The one who wants to buy a camera just keeps checking out camera prices. And the one who has not been to Singapore in ages just enjoys everything. It was not long before evening arrived and our Amazing Race couple goes off to collect our tickets only to return with more Amazing Race moments to share.
We decided to screw the MRT and walking, decided to go with the taxi instead. Which only took 10 minutes to the Esplande. If this were a sitcom, the audience would be laughing. And so there we were, all set for the fully imported Singapore dollar-priced The Phantom Of The Opera. And inside the theatre, it looks just like (surprise!) an opera house. As if I knew what opera houses looked like. The waiting moments allow us some time to survey the surroundings. By surroundings we mean good looking people. Then I noticed the chandeliers, hanging very imposingly at the top of the ceiling. With strange wires running down to the stage, like some path to follow. Wait. A. Minute. I get it. Poor audience, I hope they know what is coming.
 Look! Up at the ceiling!
Lights out and the epilogue begins. Some spoken lines. And then comes the blarring organ theme of The Phantom Of The Opera. Through it all there was excellent singing voices, though half the time I could not make out any of their singing dialogues. But the moment the stage turned after Christine is taken by the Phantom to his chambers, there was a loud sound of something hitting the floor. It was my jaw. The set for journey though the catacombs is unbelievable. Candles, smoke, water and lights. I have no idea how they do it, but I knew I had my money's worth at that very moment.
The pretentious night would then follow up with drinking session over at the owl's place, where conversations did not differ from the weekly ones, despite the presence of alcohol. Being the responsible people that we are, we did not drink and drive after the session. Not that we had cars to begin with.
Due to a fortunate hang-over-less night, we are up and heading to the zoo. Yes. The zoo. But somehow when you have movie freaks in the zoo, every animal seems to relate to some form of movie reference. Like how the white tigers gets us playing Eye of the Tiger from Rocky in our heads. The lions just screams The Lion King. With Pumba warthhogs and Timon meerkats not far behind. Although Rafiki baboons introduces us to a wonderful new scent. Someone keeps uttering 'I'm too old for this shit' from Lethal Weapon along the way too. Rain makes life all the more interesting halfway through the visit.
We found the black sheep of the family
 But no Seigfried & Roy
Seeing how the zoo kept us too occupied, we managed a last minute rush ( like we always do ) over to the Low Yat of Singapore ( Malaysian reference are always necessary ), Sim Lim Square. This would be to allow the pivotal moment in our friend's live which is the purchase of his first ever digital camera. Hard to believe, I know. This follows another pivotal moment in our lives where we are introduced to a famous dish at Cafe Cartel which is unavailable in Malaysia - pork ribs! It think somebody had tears in his eyes even as he ate.
 The mafia does not own this place
 Porky Pig
Day 3 is final day and Miri guy has to leave off, leaving us 4 Easter-skipping guys to ourselves on Sunday morning onwards. So, as a last attempt at guilt relief, we make a stop to attend St Andrew's Cathedral at City Hall. Yes, the faithfuls remain faithful. Communion at a Methodist is a first for me, a much more revered and solemn act which more traditions that I am used to, a refreshing experience all the same.
With only hours to go to the train departure, Carl's Jr fanboys insist on a last attempt at the local delicacy. Fine. A packed lunch and its to the Tanjong Pagar train station. Oddly enough, just stepping into the train station just makes one feel as if they are back in Malaysia. Truly Malaysian. An then the highlight of the entire would be topped up only by this - the fact that our return tickets were wrongly purchased dates. If this were a sitcom, the audience would be laughing. Being the great friends that we were for years, we gave each other words of comfort and encouragement, which were 'it was your fault !'. So head honcho owns up, sulks and heads for a round of business negotiation with the station master. Halfway through I expected him to fall on his knees and beg, and if that did not work I was already expecting a last minute bus ticket from Johor back. But the wonders of playing stupid pays off. The station master comes to the conclusion that only college students can be this stupid and deserving of sympathy enough to be issued new tickets. I still love Malaysia.
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| | Posted 4/9/2007 12:15 AM - 34 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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