Kite Festival

My absolute favourite festival held in Singapore, the NTUC Income Kite Festival Singapore! Even if you don't have a kite, you should still go down every year because:
1.) It's really amazing just staring up at a sky full of colourful HUGE kites!
2.) It's great fun for people of all ages, regardless of race, language or religion!
3.) They give free kites at the event!!!

It's raining kites!

There were some pretty huge kites too, that needed 14 people to maneuver! Didn't manage to capture a photo of it, was busy gawking rainbows.

I've been going every single year, bringing both my big kite and teeniest kite in the world. They also have mini activities to do and watch during the festival such as a kite fighting competition, giant kite displays, magic shows and street performers!

Pretty big kite. Couldn't make it fly even with 3 people :(

Tiniest kite in the world was easier to fly!

Unfortunately, I missed this year's festival (at least, I missed the big kite display, which is the coolest part). They usually hold it in September, but for some unknown reason they moved it to start June this year and separated the festival into 4 mini events. It's not to late to make it for the other parts of the festival!
(But still, too late for the big kite display, which is the coolest :( )

Kite Giants - Big and Wondrous; 1-3 June 2013
Children's Kite Carnivale; 29-30 June 2013 (West Coast Park)
Indoor Kite Flying Show; 21-22 Jul 2013 (Somewhere in the North)
Grand Flying Days; 31 July - 1 Sept 2013 (The Promontory)

Will probably be heading down for Grand Flying Days again this year. Not armed with my tiny kite anymore cause it disintegrated :( But it's alright, because they'll still be handing out free kites :D

Pinnacle@Duxton

Simple post. For a view of the city skyline without needing to fork big bucks to go up to the Supertrees, MBS infinite pool, or Singapore Flyer.

All you need is $5 to go up to the skybridge at Pinnacle@Duxton. Only the 50th floor is accessible to the public. If you have a friend staying in the estate, you can ask them to give you access to the garden at the 26th floor too.

This photo does not do the view justice.

There are sofas around the skybridge, and the whole place is nicely furnished like a posh garden. Perfect little chill out area after dinner, when you don't have your own garden to stroll in.

Reverse Bungy

The Reverse Bungy is for those of us who love the feeling of adrenaline, thrill and excitement, but are too cowardly to step off a 50m tall building for an actual bungee jump (Hands up if you're a confused coward like me!)

For this ride, you get safely strapped into a comfortable seat, and a machine takes that scary step for you! No escape even if you desperately wanna chicken out at the last moment! 

Can't compare the feeling to an actual bungee jump since, well, I've never done an actual bungee jump. But the adrenaline rush from this ride is definitely shiok! THIS should be added into that STB commercial instead of Night Safari, that place does not do shiok justice.

Blissfully unaware of the impending doom.

So what happens is you sit in this metal ball thing, the suspension-catapult-rubber-band things wind up and tighten, and the guy operating the ride will go "Ready? 5...4...3..." THWPPINNNNNGGGG!!!

Before he reaches one, he'll purposely release the switch and catapult you 60m into the air! I almost shat my pants. My heart wasn't ready for this! Everything's just moving too fast, can't we take this one step at a time?

Goodbye cruel world!

The first unexpected launch was craaaazy. It literally felt like my body was moving too fast upwards for my heart to keep up. Once you reach the peak, you fall back down, 60m vertically downwards. Now my stomach can't keep up with my body. 

But after the rebound, when exhilarating sensation and screaming subsides, you'll start becoming aware of the pretty view of the Singapore River from way up in the sky. Excitement and beautiful scenery in one, who needs the Singapore Flyer! 

Everything's over in less than 5minutes, even though it felt like forever during the initial drop. 

You get an option to buy a dvd to replay those moments when you brushed with death forever. My dvd was basically 5minutes of my screaming face, too embarrassing to ever be screened again, and no footage of the great view. I recommend not getting the dvd. But yes yes yes to the ride if I ever grow the balls to ride it again!

Cost: $30 for students, $45 for adults (I went for $10 during a special event)

Fun: :)))))

Friends: 1-2, one ride can seat 3 people max.

Location: Clarke Quay 3E River Valley Road

Wave House Flowrider

As we all know, Singapore isn't the most wave-prone island (which is a good thing! Most of the time). So where can you go if you want to at least imagine to be a hunky Hawaiian with wavy blond hair blowing in the wind and a sun-kissed tan riding 10m high waves? 

No need to take a ferry all the way to Bintan, all you need is a 10min monorail journey down to Sentosa island :) 

I know, I know. "Waves" isn't exactly the first term that comes to mind when you think of Sentosa beach either. But technology is amazing, and the Wave House beside the beach is an awesome place to experience surfing without the salt and deep waters. 

Being a noob at the start and needing to hold on to the rope.

The Wave House Sentosa offers a wave simulator that can go up to 10ft high called the Flowrider, as well as a a Flowbarrel that simulates the really huge curving gonna-swallow-you-whole waves. Didn't take a photo of that ride, but it's kinda like the photo below. 

Nom nom sufer

I, being a noob with zero balance sense, went straight for the flowrider. The guys manning the ride also doubled up as instructors, they taught us how to balance and move up and down the wave. You can start out holding onto the rope, until you're confident enough to balance solo. Do expect to fall. Over. And. Over. Again. (And remember to get out of the way of the board before it slams into you!)

One of my finer moments in life.

CAUTION: GIRLS. DO NOT WEAR A BIKINI. IT WILL FALL OFF.

You can imagine the wardrobe malfunction that happened right after this shot. Ok scratch that, please don't imagine anything. But yes, girls, please wear a shirt over your swimwear. Bikinis will fall off no matter how tightly you tie them. 

All in all, flowriding was awesome fun! And you'll feel exceptionally Baywatch-ish cool just for the moment, ignoring the fact that you look really lame beside the pros at the flowbarrel everytime you fall. But hey, everyone else at the flowrider falls off after a few minutes too! 

Another thing to try at the Wave House is the duck pizza! Absolutely delicious, comparable to Timbre's, but at a lower price! 

I went on a Wednesday when everything is one-for-one, including the food & drinks! So you get TWO amazing duck pizzas for the price of one hoho.

But even if you can't make it down on one-for-one Wednesday, the price for this whole experience is still really worth it :)

P.S: Do expect your neck to ache like crazy the next day! Either from the strain of keeping your balance, or from the impact of sudden jerks when you fall off the board.

Cost: $35/h, $60/2h. Except One-for-one Wednesdays, $35/2h!
Fun: :)))))
Friends: 1-2. Max 10 people per hourly slot, it'll be hard to get fitted into a slot if you come with a large group
Location: Sentosa Wavehouse (Siloso Beach)

Children Little Museum

The lesser known cousin of the Mint Toy Museum, the Children Little Museum offers just as interesting an array of toys, nostalgia, and quirky gizmos collected since the 1950s. It pretty easy to recognize the museum sitting conspicuously between the shophouses of Kampong Glam. Just look for the giant robot at the museum entrance.

Giant Robot just bust your cover.

The whole museum is pretty small, only the size of the whole 2nd floor of the shophouse. But at $2 per entry, the experience you get is a steal! Plus, you actually get to play with and touch all the displays, unlike other museums that hide them behind glass cabinets (looking at you Mint Toy Museum). Toys need to be played with, didn't the owners ever watch Toy Story!

Syrup for sale! Mixed with real dust and dead flies! (the syrup container had an open top)

Calling all camwhores! Tired of duck facing with your eggs benedict brunch? Looking for new props to pose with? You've found the right place! 

The displays range from roadside drink stalls, to old school barbershop chairs, to those old primary school wooden desks with "i h8 skl" scratched into it's surface. I spent more than 2h just frolicking from one display to the next and reminiscing my primary school days. They even had the whole country eraser set!! Every primary schooler's ultimate goal in life back then.

Even Queensway Mcdonalds doesn''t have this jukebox anymore :(

Way too many photos and artifacts to upload in one blogpost. Pretty impressive for a tiny 2nd floor shophouse.
So if you're bored, lazy to move too much, and broke, visit the Children Little Museum at Kampong Glam. Perfect for kids, adults, and the young at heart, everyone will love this place :)

Cost: $2 
Fun: :))))
Friends: Bring a friend, or your family. Someone needs to help you take photos.
Location: 42 Bussorah St 199460

Ear Candling

Apart from extreme sports and adventure, it's nice to wind down and just get pampered once in a while. Other than going to dingy massage parlors and painful facials, what other parts of the body is there to pamper?

Here's one, your ear canal.

Ear Candling is the process of sucking wax out from your ears using a vacuum suction created from burning a candle over your ear. Read in a magazine that a guy sucked out a dead cockroach from his ear!!! Went for an ear candling session immediately after reading that.

It was tough searching for a cheap ear candling service in Singapore. I just wanted the experience, not so much pay $30 to actually clean my ears. Cotton buds work just fine.

After walking round the whole of far east, my friend and I settled on the cheapest shop we could find. On hindsight, maybe we should've invested a teeny bit more for a better experience... This was our opening conversation:
"Excuse me, could you explain the process of ear candling?"
"Yes yes. Ear. Fire."

So, we set our ears on fire, and it came with a complimentary ear massage, to soothe the burn I guess.

No, she didn't really set our ears on fire.

While the whole ear candling process was going on, I could really feel junk dislodging from the sides of my ear canal and flying out. So, I guess it worked? At the end of it, they cut open the candle to show the junk that got sucked out. Here's the result:

No cockroaches! Hurrah!

I'm not too sure about the science behind this process or whether it really does work. There are some reports of wax melting and falling into people's ear drums, making them go deaf, etc. So do choose your shop wisely and not go for the cheapest like we did. Choose a place with a good reputation.

Pretty interesting sensation to feel stuff getting sucked out! Plus it's always good to check for dead cockroaches, you never know.

Cost: Anything but the $10 ones
Fun: :) (not fun, more of interesting)
Friends: Go yourself, or with a friend. Shops can only tend to so many people at once.
Location: Far East Plaza. A few of the wellness shops there provide this service.

Stand Up Paddleboarding

Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) was a sport that my friend & I thought could only be found in Hawaii. Lo & behold, tucked in the corner of this tiny island at Mana Mana Beach Club in East Coast was an SUP rental facility!

(I know SUP may be pretty common nowadays, what with Sentosa organizing that SUP competition and all. But this was way back in 2010 when this activity was more remote! Or maybe we were just really oblivious.)

Surfing the waves~ Or ripples...in this case.

While you may imagine a hunky Hawaiian with wavy blond hair blowing in the wind and a sun-kissed tan riding 10m high waves, this picture just smashed your dreams didn't it.

Singapore waves are far, far from being called a wave. Just as our hills are more lumps than mountains (sorry Bukit Timah. I'll still look for you if there's ever a tsunami.) Maybe the sea was just unusually calm on the day my friend and I went SUPing. I've tried SUPing at Sentosa after this experience, it was much more intense and challenging as the waves were actually existent.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves with a nice row row row your boat session of paddling in the open sea. It was relaxing. Not many other people or boats out where the paddleboards could row to. So if you're looking for water therapy with some exercise thrown in, do consider paddleboarding.

If you're looking to rock the waves, an exciting balancing challenge, and a good work-out, consider paddleboarding at Sentosa. You'll have a great time simply trying to stay on the board and not fall off every 5 seconds!

Yes, it is possible to fall off, even from the ripples!

Cost: $$$$$ (we paid something like $50 for 2.5h and a meal)
Fun: :)))
Friends: 2 would be ideal (hard to shout to more than 2 people paddling metres apart)
Location: East Coast or Sentosa

Zorbing

One of my very first taste of extreme sports that can be found in Singapore, to my delightful surprise. I went Zorbing with 3 friends on a rainy Sunday afternoon during one of the open sessions held by Zovb Singapore.

Zorbing is very basically 2 people in a hamster ball. With the rain, it became 2 people in a washing machine. My friend and I were strapped into this giant inflated bouncy ball and rolled down the muddy hill behind the old MGS by the pretty muscular Zovb staff.

Muscular men in the background. Faces blurred for privacy.

How did it feel?
Dizzy. Dizzy. Dizzy.
Puke.

But after enduring that washing machine ride, here's where the fun starts. No muscular staff to roll you back up the hill, so you and your buddy will need to coordinate to roll yourself back up that hill, just like a hamster. Imagine crawling on all fours, tumbling over each other in a little bouncy ball, rolling 10cm forward and 1m back. Only hilarity and sweat can ensue.

It was great fun overall, and I definitely burnt enough calories to avoid exercising for the next month. Mainly from all the laughing.

Evidently, it is raining.

So if you're too bored in Singapore, try giving zorbing a go. Understand why your hamsters can spend hours on that stationary wheel. It's a great experience!

Cost: $$$ (student price was $35 for 2 rolls. Adult price: $50)
Fun: :))))
Friends: As many as you want, but you'll have to wait a while before it's your turn again. 2 people per ball or up to 3 adults and 2 children for the big balls.
Location: Open sessions at Old Holland Rd once a month. You can make your own booking if you have a party of at least 10 people. Extra $180 for your own chosen location.