After Singapore

I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more

Category: singapore

  • Somerset Food Night

    Few days back, my friend Handy told me that there is a nice padang* restaurant near Somerset MRT, namely The Warung M Nasir (WMN). Well, it’s Saturday night and I don’t want to spend my weekend at home, so I asked him to have our dinner there.

    We were supposed to meet at 7PM, but I arrived slightly earlier. While waiting for him, I saw an advertisement of a cafe called “J-Town”, which at first I thought have something to do with Japanese culture. Turned out the J stands for Jakarta, and they sell Indonesian light meals like siomay or sweet martabak. Sticking to the plan, we still went to the WMN, and planned to get some dessert at J-Town afterwards.

    WMN occupies a small building in Kiliney Road, and they serve several types of food to choose, just like in a Malay economic rice stall. I ordered a chicken rendang with daun singkong (cassava leaves) and boiled egg, with a carbonated soft drink. It costed $6.80, pretty affordable though more expensive than normal nasi padang.The place itself is quite cozy, with the theme of 80’s. Probably that’s why we saw several expatriates dining there, too.

    Afterwards, as planned we headed to J-Town, which is located at the basement of Midpoint Orchard building. It is a small shop with only few tables, but the martabak was very nice.They serve basic flavors like chocolate and cheese, as well as a special one which is durian flavor. For hardcore fans of martabak, also available is the plain one, without any additional flavorings. Other than martabak, they also sell basic meals like fried rice and fried noodle, but we haven’t tried them yet.

    One tip if you, like us, tried to save money by buying drinks in 7-11 instead of at the stall, forget it. The bottled water there may be a bit expensive for about $1.40, but turned out the 7-11 in Orchard Road sells them even more expensive, $2.15 for Indonesian brand Aqua. However since it was Saturday night, we don’t really mind about the extra dollars though.

    Warung M. Nasir is located at N° 69 Killiney Road, Singapore 239526, while J-Town is at Midpoint Orchard Building B1-04, N° 220 Orchard Road, Singapore 238852. Both are a stone throw away from Sommerset MRT.

    * Refers to either a city in West Sumatra or a Bahasa term for “field”, usually used to refer certain style of food with specific spices.

  • Pulau Ubin Cycle Trip

    Happy Deepavali for all my Indian friends! Often called as festival of light, Deepavali is celebrated every year in Singapore as a public holiday. It fell on Friday this year, and it supposed to be a very good time for me to go home to Indonesia. Unfortunately, I had a group meeting for school project the day after, so I could not afford to do it.

    Instead, we planned an outing to Pulau Ubin! Pulau Ubin is an island North East of Singapore where often said as the last “kampong” (village) in Singapore. Its nature is relatively untouched by urbanization compared to the main island. This island is best visited for cycling, and that was exactly what we did during this Deepavali holiday.

    I, Evan, Joseph, Nicolas and Richson met around 9.30 in the morning at a cafe near Simei MRT station. After having a quick breakfast we boarded a bus to Changi Point Ferry terminal, which located about 10km from the station.

    Upon arrival at the ferry terminal, there were already many people queuing to take the boat there. Fortunately the queue quickly reduced, thanks to the short interval between one boat departure and another. Pulau Ubin is only 15 minutes boat trip from the ferry terminal, and we arrived there at 11 AM sharp.

    We then rented several bicycles, one for each person for $12. A slightly better bicycle cost $15. There is also another bicycle rental that is specialized for off-road track that costs up to $20. After pumped the tires, we were ready to go!

    Our first destination was all the way north to the Noordin Campsite, which is also located next to a police training camp. There was not much to see here other except the small beach, one of the few beach which you can see the sea without tankers in Singapore.

    The next stop was to the east side of the island; the Chek Jawa. I will tell you more later about this it. Meanwhile, we tried to take a shortcut through the northern area of the island to go there. After cycling for few minutes, we were leaving the forest area and started to enter open space. At about half to noon, the heat from the sun was killing us. So I took out my sunblock and we started to cover our skin with it to prevent sunburn. We guys love skincare, too. Nicolas had even better idea to paperfold the newspaper I have bought earlier into a hat, to keep our head cool.

    We then continued our journey, but only for a few minutes before another cyclists came by us and told that the road leads to a dead end. I didn’t really buy it, but we decided not to risk it and turned back to take the longer road.

    Around quarter to noon, we arrived at the Ceck Jawa. I’m not sure if there is something to do with the Java island or the coffee, but this place is a small wetland in southeast of Pulau Ubin. To attract people, the government also built several facilities such as the boardwalk, viewing tower and a visitor center. Unfortunately bicycles are not allowed to enter. A sign told us to leave and lock our bicycles outside, but we couldn’t find any lock rental or anything. We finally just left it there and hoping nobody would take our humble bicycles.

    After few meters walking at the boardwalk, we arrived at the viewing tower. The tower is about 7 stories high and the view from above was very amazing! We could see the both sea and the forest from there. Not for the weak heart though, as the platform is shaky as people walk around.

    We then walked again to the viewing platform that shows us the view of a strait, and the island behind it. We argued for a while to decide whether the island we saw was Malaysia or Singapore. Thanks to my good ol’ compass, we knew it’s Singapore. It’s a traditional compass, and yes, I know there is an app for that in iPhone.

    The last stop at Chek Jawa is the visitor house. From the distance it looked like a cottage, but when you go inside, you would see nothing but some displays about Chek Jawa. However, it was a very good place to take pictures, especially when not so many people around. There was also a viewing jetty but we didn’t go there as it was going to rain and lightnings started to scatter.

    We then decided to end our journey and get back to the ferry terminal. We had to cycle our way back to the terminal, and it had started to rain already. Fortunately we brought disposable raincoats to keep us dry. At about 3 PM we finally back at the main island. We had a quick Sundanese lunch at a nearby hawker center, then went back to our each own home. I was tired and sleepy, but very happy about for the outing we had!

    Find pictures of our trip to Pulau Ubin (including the beautiful panoramic view from the viewing tower) at http://picasaweb.google.com/pascalalfadian/PulauUbinCycleTrip

  • Lunch with Indonesia’s Greatest Minds and Goodbye

    This may be my last (very short) post before the dormant period. The break is over, and the new semester is coming next week. During my semester term I will not have the luxury of having the time to write posts.

    At the weekend just before the semester starts, I had the honor to be invited to the Maureen and Ardian’s wedding ceremony. Maureen was my friend in Sunday school, long time back in Jakarta. She is also a world class freelance graphic designer. Meanwhile Ardian is a world class computer scientist, and has became my friend since we met at the 2005 Google Code Jam competition.

    It was very interesting to realize that Singapore is indeed such a small place. At the wedding reception, I met various friends: colleague from office, my parents’ friends from church, high school friends, and the most interestingly: TOKI alumni. TOKI stands for Tim Olimpiade Komputer Indonesia, i.e. the Indonesian Informatics Olympiad Team who were the selected students to represent Indonesia in the International Olympiads in Informatics. Ardian has kindly reserved one table for us to sit altogether, about 10 of us. And as you may guess, having geeks all sitting in the same table makes it interesting in a certain way.

    Some of us ordered soft drinks. Interestingly, they poured the soft drink into a plain glass, and after we drank part of it, sometimes the waiter came to take the glass and replace it with a new one, fully filled with the same soft drink. Started from the idea that the soft drink in the used glass will be wasted, we wanted to know what is the minimum amount of the soft drink consumed, before the waiter would come and replace the glass. The first idea came into our mind was, of course, binary search. The strategy is as follow: first we would try to leave the glass half full, and see whether the waiter would take it or not. Had he taken it, it means the limit may be equal or greater than the half of the glass, and we would try leaving three quarter full at the next attempt. Had the waiter not take it, the limit must be lower than half, hence we should try a quarter at next attempt. Repeat the process until we could precisely determine the exact minimum percentage of soft drink left for a waiter to take it.

    In the end, the conclusion was too simple: the waiter would take it at half full.

    I told you it is interesting in a certain way. However if you are an Indonesian high school student and think the strategy is interesting in any way, you could try to join the TOKI.

  • Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

    Who would expect that there is still a wetland in the modern city of Singapore? Well the truth is, there is one: Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR). Located at north west of Singapore, this place is well preserved by the government, despite scarcity of land in Singapore.

    We (me, Richson and Evan) agreed to meet at Kranji MRT Station around 8 in the morning, to take a bus to SBWR. On my journey to the MRT, the sky was very dark and once in a while light rain poured. I was afraid that rain would start falling heavily hence canceling our trip, especially because our trip to SBWR has postponed twice before. When we met at the MRT, there was only light rain, but there came another problem: it took very long time before bus 925 that could take us there came. And when it came, the bus was so full we couldn’t enter it.

    We then decided to take a cab there. The place was surprisingly quite remote, with few buildings around. Luckily when we got there the rain stopped, and the weather was just nice for a walk. The ticket is $1 / person, which entitles you to walk around the wetland as well as hourly short movie screening. As our time was limited, we skipped the screening and started walking.

    Compared to Bukit Timah or MacRitchie Reservoir, there were less trees and more water in SBWR. There were also some viewing platform where you can stand there to see Johor Bahru of Malaysia across the sea. Other interesting place is a lookout tower where we can see the jungle in the surrounding. It was very peaceful and a calming experience, especially after a week in the concrete jungle.

    Unfortunately, as Richson pointed out, there were not so many people coming to SBWR. They are more comfortable to go to shopping malls or watching movie. However, we were there not for the people. We were in fact looking for crocodiles, as promised by my friend Handy. During his visit there, he could spot crocodiles, some crossing the pathway we use to walk. However after few hours exploring the wetland, we couldn’t find one. Even at the area marked with “Watch out for crocodiles” sign. Anyway it was not so bad after all, since we found also many other interesting small animals (that I don’t know the names of them) around the area.

    After two hours walking, we came back to the entrance. Just when we about to leave the place, we found lizards swimming at a small pond near the entrance. Well, at least we found an animal that is similar to crocodiles.

    Going back to the city was another problem. It was around 11 AM, and I had appointment to play badminton at 12 PM. I thought it would be just in time if I take a cab. Unfortunately, there were no cabs wandering around the area, and when we called the cab hotline, we were replied with “The cabs around the area you are going to take taxi from are fully booked”. I am somehow sure they are not fully booked, the drivers must’ve been just too lazy to travel to this remote area. Finally we walked about 500m to the nearest bus stop and take a public bus from there to the Choa Chu Kang MRT station (if only it was Sunday, I did not need to walk that far, since the bus would stop at a nearer stop). Only from Choa Chu Kang MRT, I could get a cab to the badminton court.

    Take bus 925 or 925# (Sunday only) from Kranji MRT to go to SBWR. More pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/pascalalfadian/SungeiBulohJuly2010.

  • Singapore MRT Tips: Get a Seat from Airport to City

    It’s been a very long time since my last post. During my semester term at NUS, it’s practically impossible for me to write a story.

    Anyway, just a short post on a tip to get a seat in the MRT (Singapore’s train system) when you land at Changi Airport and want to go towards the city. As you may know, from Changi Airport, the only train available is the “green” line. You will surely be able to get a seat here, since the train in fact departs from Changi Airport.

    However, after two stops you will have to switch train in Tanah Merah Interchange. And if you do the same thing as every other people here, most likely you won’t get a seat in the new train, since many people from airport (and possibly from Expo station) will transfer to this train, too. That’s pretty bad especially when you need to bring those heavy bags with you.

    The trick very is simple, that to just wait for the 2nd train to come. Most passengers from airport would take the 1st train available for them, therefore occupying the train to city. Since the frequency of the latter is higher, you may get the 2nd connecting train before another train from airport comes; of course with much fewer people.

  • SCC Rugby 7s, Part 2 (2009)

    After a year has passed, the SCC Rugby 7s is held again (see last year). Similar to last year event, it was held in Padang, few minutes walk from City Hall MRT. But unlike the previous one, sadly this year even has not been as entertaining as before. Why? Please bear with me.

    The price of this year event has increased to $25 from previously $20. A reason for this could be of that they have extended the event by one day into a 3-day event, with the first day being a tournament for schools and colleges. However, since it was held on Friday, it’s practically useless for me. The bad news? I couldn’t just pay $20 for the 2-day event. The other part of the monies might also have gone to rent a big screen projector to show the score and replays (oh, and there’s also a big tower to record the game from the top of it). One thumb up (only) for the technologies.

    However, it still did not satisfy my hunger for a good atmosphere of the games, though. On this year event, the supporters could have only less interaction with the players. In last year arrangement, it was easy for us from the benches to get into the field. Therefore during the victory (or goodbye-losing) lap, we could go down and greet the players. In this year tournament, fences separating the benches and the grass field. If one wants to go past the fence, he has to turn around from the back stairs and walk quite a distance.

    Okay, enough about the rantings and let’s go to the real business. Remember that last year, Indonesia Barbarians managed to win the Bowl cup. It was a very good and unexpected achievement for a newcomer. Unfortunately, the teams that they’ve beaten last year didn’t come again this year, so it’s far more difficult to compete this year.

    On the first day games, bad luck has gone into them, since they didn’t manage to score even a single try (in football term: goal). In the second day games, they managed to score few trues, but the enemies were still too tough, and they have to suffer bitter defeats, failing to come home with a trophy this year. However, it is to be noted that they have fought their best, and no one is to blame.

    All in all, with all the drawbacks, the event was still good to watch. Congratulations too, for the organizer to hold such a big event in this tiny country!

    Photos and videos are available in http://picasaweb.google.com/pascalalfadian/SCCRugby7s2009 (do check out the war dances!)

  • Lau Pa Sat

    Sorry for not posting lately, I’ve been busy with school. I did try to write some reports, but most of the time interrupted with my assignments. In the end, I was already bored or forgot the details of the event so I just discard them. Here’s an article on culinary spot. I’ll try to keep it short.

    It was Saturday afternoon, and I’ve been in my campus’ lab for few hours, and expected to spend few more hours there. Not wanting to stay with the computer to spend the weekend night, I contacted some friends from Indonesia, asking them to give Lau Pa Sat a try for its infamous satay for dinner (some, including me, have had dinner there before, anyway). For those who don’t know, Lau Pa Sat is a Victorian style medium-class hawker center in the Singapore CBD area. What makes it interesting, other than live bands on weekends, is the Boon Tat street next to it . After sunset, this road is closed for vehicles and turned into a satay food stalls area. There are about ten satay stalls, in which I personally don’t really know the different other than they are identified with different integer numbers.

    I’ve managed to invite 4 friends, and we were to meet at 7 PM.

    When the clock showed 5 PM, I saved my work and quickly took bus to the MRT (train) station. Since I have plenty of time, I decided to go to City Hall first, to find some supplements my dad asked me to look for. Even after that, I still have almost one hour before 7. So I decided to buy an ice green tea at nearby JCo outlet to let me sit there for few minutes.

    About 15 minutes to 7, Handy called and said he’s already in Raffles Place MRT station (the nearest station to Lau Pa Sat) so I went there and met him. It was his first time to Lau Pa Sat, so he asked me “is the satay good?”. I’ve gone here and eat the satay for several times, but as far as I remember the taste is more or less standard. Even not much different than the satay I ate the day before at a small hawker near my place. So I explained to him that it might be the ambient that makes this place famous.

    While waiting the others to come, we ordered a “fried fritter” from a nearby seafood stall. It was the name that tickled us to order. As far as I know, neither “fried” nor “fritter” is a seafood. Only when we ask to the seller, we knew it was squid covered with fritters then deep fried.

    After the others came, we started to order the satays and eat. Yet after eating them, I felt a bit disappointed. The satays were smaller and too sweet compared to the ones I bought in Commonwealth. And it’s also $0.10/stick more expensive, too. So that supports my theory that it’s only the ambient that makes this place popular. Moreover, when we finished eating, the live band started to play with some good music. So that where the $0.10 goes to.

    Take Exit I from Raffles Place MRT station to go to Lau Pa Sat.

  • Asian Civilizations Museum

    I’ve just received an email from NUS recently, saying that as a student I am entitled to enter 5 NHB museums for free. Asian Civilizations Museum is one of them.

    Finding a friend to go along was not very easy, since the entry fee of $5 could be too expensive for such a not-so-cool venue. Luckily, Richson has keen interest on this kind of stuff and we both decided to go there around 2PM, just when the free guided tour should start.

    We arrived there few minutes after two, and the receptionist asked us to wait down the lobby for the guide to come. But after waiting for +/- 10 minutes, we didn’t find any guide. Instead, we saw the receptionist approached other tourists and said something I didn’t know but made the tourists just went upstairs to start their tour immediately without a guide. We thought that the guide was not available or we were late, so we went upstairs too, anyway.

    The first exhibition was Singapore River, which tells us about the history of Singapore since centuries ago, and how the Singapore River played role in it. It was the major hub for market and Singapore. When it was widely used, the river was full of thrashes. Until one day the prime minister decided to start a $200 million project to clean the river in 10 years. The cleaning was successful, resulting as what we see today. Yet in one article, the writer complained about the unique characteristic of the river has lost due to the cleaning.

    Next part of the exhibition showed us how curators analyze antiques. For example, a painting would be seen under UV light, showing the pencil sketches the painter had drawn to understand the background and intention of the painter.

    The other exhibitions were divided into 4 groups: Southeast Asia, China, West Asia and South Asia. I’m not sure why they exclude other West Asian countries like Japan and Korea. There were also a special exhibition “Hunters and Collectors” where it shows works of explorers from western countries in Asia. It took about 2 hours for us to cover everything except South Asia part. We started at level 2 and continued to level 3, but were to tired to see the last exhibition South Asia at level 1.

    One interesting part when we visit the Southeast Asia, there were a small room with sitting mats. There were also books about stories for children from various countries. We sat there and I took a look on one storybook from Bali. It tells a story about a big, ugly frog named Gobrag. He is nasty and likes to sing (reminds me of the character Giant from Doraemon movie). He sings so badly the other smaller frogs were disturbed. But even they told Gobrag to silence, Gobrag never listen. So one day the small frogs sent three of them to find out another place good enough to live, without disturbance of Gobrag. After walking for some distance, those three frog came to an island. Suddenly the island was moving, and it turned to be a big monster. The three frog went back to their home and told the story to everyone, including Gobrag. But Gobrag didn’t believe.

    “Is it nastier than me?” ask Gobrag

    “Of course!” they answer.

    “Not possible, I am the nastiest! Is it uglier than me?”

    “Yes!”

    “Impossible! Bigger than me?”

    “Absolutely!”

    (At this point I thought Gobrag would come by himself to the island and got killed by the monster. But this story has a very good twist…)

    What Gobrag did was, he blew himself up and ask them again, “Is it bigger than this?”

    “Yes, it is still bigger than you!”

    Then he tried to blow himself again. But still they thought the monster is bigger than Gobrag. Gobrag blew up again, but up to the point it was too much for him. He exploded and died. And the rest of the frogs lived happily ever after.

    —

    Sorry I told the story more than the museum itself, but I found it more interesting than the artifacts and other history lessons. You can read more stories there at the museum, anyway.

    Asian Civilizations Museum is located at N° 1 Empress Place, Singapore 179555.

  • Free Dinner cum Dialogue with Mr. Boediono

    According to his source, more than 80% Indonesian voters in Singapore voted SBY-Boediono in the presidential election. That what makes Vice President-elect Boediono chose Indonesia Embassy in Singapore as the first embassy to visit and make a dialogue session, in addition to his visit to Rajaratnam School as a guest lecture.

    I arrived at the embassy with Handy around 7.15 PM. There were no sign of Mr. Boediono, but we saw a long queue to another room instead. In my mind, there were only two possibilities: either these people queued to greet and have their picture taken with Mr. Boediono, or, dinner. Hoping that the latter would be the case, we joined the queue.

    And it turned to be correct, the dinner session preceded the dialogue session. Unlike other events held in KBRI, the menu for the day was quite lavish: chicken soup, roasted chicken, beef rendang, fried gurame fish, gado-gado, plus some cakes and fruit juices. Yummy. Too bad I need to stick to my diet, so I had to forgo some food.

    Around 8.00 PM, Mr. Boediono came with the Indonesia ambassador for Singapore Mr. Wardana, and all visitor voluntarily stood up to pay respect. After that, Mr. Wardana gave a short opening speech for about 15 minutes. Followed by the speech by Mr. Boediono itself. In the 30-minute speech, he explained about the focus in the economic side of their (SBY-Boediono) plan. It consists of three main points: [1] developing “hard” infrastructure (transportation, electricity, etc…), [2] “soft” infrastructure (cut red tapes, single identity, etc…) and helping the people who are behind to catch up (i.e. helping on the poor). It was ended with Q&A session, which is the longest session among others (+/- 1 hour).

    Notable question was from a PLRT, who was asking about possibility to consider PLRT as PNS (thanks to bear with me with all these acronyms 🙂). It was not about the question, but her introduction. She started with “Hello, my name is ***. Recently I received a message in facebook…” and she was interrupted with big laughs from the audience. Even Mr. Boediono jumped from his chair. This PLRT surely know how to use technology!

    There was also another question from a woman who works as informal education coordinator for PLRTs working in Singapore. She described how she works, how she travel from Batam island and back, how her hard work is, etc, etc. I almost dead of boredom after 10 minutes she spoke nothing but bragging herself, when Mr. Wardana interrupted her to speak to the point. Thank God.

    But that when he started his own bragging of KBRI involvement in building up school for Indonesians in Singapore for another 10 minutes, without anyone could interrupt.

    Even with so many people eager to ask, the Q&A must be ended at 10PM, as “Mr. Boediono will have another event tomorrow morning”. While everyone headed to the front to take pictures with Mr. Boediono, I and Handy slipped outside, leaving out opportunity to get easy money by taking people pictures with Mr. Boediono and sell them for $10 each.

    Glossary:

    • KBRI: Kedutaan Besar Republik Indonesia, Embassy of Republic of Indonesia
    • PLRT: Penata Laksana Rumah Tangga, formal name for domestic worker
    • PNS: Pegawai Negri Sipil, civil servant
    • SBY: Soesilo Bambang Yoedhoyono, president and president-elect of Republic of Indonesia

    Bonus Story: Alert reader may notice that this post lack picture of Mr. Handsome on ground zero. It is because my camera-powered mobile has some problem recently. The sensor for “OK” button has stopped responding, making it practically unusable. I can still make and receive calls with the green “call” button, but it stupidly disable this button to replace “OK” for reading and sending SMS, or even merely enter the menu. I even had to call my colleague just to ask what message she just sent to me 5 minutes earlier.
    Therefore now I’m stick with this low-end phone, which in turn has smarter design because I can send SMSes with both OK and green button.

  • Escape Theme Park

    Summer is the time for fun! After the team building few weeks before, the Gemalto rec-club is now taking the turn to put back fun to function! The club organized a fun day for all Singapore employee in Escape Theme Park. Since the event was held inside the theme park, we had the option to participate in the games or merely trying out the attractions there.

    However, the team games were too much for us after the last team building event. Therefore, I and my friends decided to ride on attractions instead.

    The first attraction we tried was the haunted house. The LCD screen installed at the entrance –which shows the do’s and don’ts on the attraction– makes me a bit de-scared, though. And yes, when we went inside, there were no spooky smells or disgusting liquids. There were only robots, trying to surprise us with sudden movements. I was surprised yes, but not that scary. Amudi was laughing to the tricks already and trying to mock Rika, who was in front of him and behind me. The result, she grabbed my backpack very tightly for few times. Hmm, at least my backpack got haunted.

    The next one was Pirate Ship, or more commonly known as “Kora-Kora” in Indonesian. We sat on a big ship-like platform, and swung back and forth in half-circle rotation. The most thrilling moment is when you’re at the maximum height, your body facing downwards; then it comes down at a very high speed, giving you tickling sensation in some parts of your body.

    Next attraction was called Flipper, where you are spun horizontally only in a bowl-like platform. Well, sometimes you are rotated 45° vertically. It’s not that fun, though. The spin was only about 5 minutes. But we had to wait 15 minutes inside the bowl before it’s running because the operator wanted to check all safety belts are properly tightened one by one before he started the machine.

    Just before lunch, we tried the roller coaster. The name of the attraction is family coaster, in which I should realized before. It’s a family ride. There were no 360° loops nor steep and that-quick descents. Or, should I say, it’s Singapore-style family ride, fully certified by the national heart foundation as safe for even the weakest person to suffer from heart attack by riding this coaster.

    Then we went back to Gemalto booth to take our lunch.

    After lunch, we tried the best attraction in this tiny theme park: the Go-Kart. We had to queue for about an hour before we could ride this attraction. But it was quite worth the wait to ride a mini-F1 with the Bajaj engine. My turn was next to Amudi and he recommended me to choose the car he just used, as it was most powerful compared to others. And yes, as I started pushing the gas, the car roared and ran pretty fast. For the three laps, I wasn’t even got passed by and secured the first place. The track was quite thrilling, where the first part of the track is a spiral-like shape to climb up to about 3 levels high. Just after the climb, there’s the steep descent. It has a lot of “slow” signs to warn drivers to stop pushing the gas. At first I ignored then sign. But after my car start descending, it was shaking very hard; only then I started to brake. And only after the descent, I started to push the gas again. Well, it’s quite a good 10-minute ride.

    After the Go-Kart, we headed to Wet and Wild. It’s an attraction where you ride a small boat of two people, lifted to few stories high, then descend very fast into the water and get splashed all over the body. Most of us joined the queue, but when we realized it will be veeery wet, some people canceled, including me. So it left only Richson and Rika continuing the queue and ride on the attraction. Meanwhile, the others were just playing with Imam’s little baby.

    The Go-Kart summed up our trip to Escape Theme Park. Some of us were to tired and decided to go home. I with some friends preferred to continue to Changi Beach since we are already in the east side of Singapore. The story is not included here, but you can see some pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/pascalalfadian/GemaltoFunDayAndChangiBeach

    Escape Theme Park is located at N° 1 Pasir Ris Close, Singapore 519599
    Nearest MRT is Pasir Ris MRT, and there is hourly shuttle bus service for free.