Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine April 2019 | Page 74

Travel / Family Travel
Asia could be the world’s best-kept
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secret when it comes to family entertainment.
From my own personal childhood memories,
nothing quite beats the plethora of Singapore’s fun-tastic
attractions, so that’s where we will begin our adventure.  
E/ I remember being eight years old and
beaming with awe while tugging on my
mother’s dress as I pointed overhead to a giant
manta ray gracefully gliding through the water
above us at S.E.A. Aquarium, home to more
than 100,000 marine animals. And shouting,
“Look, Daddy!” when I caught a glimpse
of a rare fishing cat from on board a tram
at Night Safari, the world’s first nocturnal
zoo and still one of Singapore’s most popular
tourist attractions.
Families taking a holiday in the Lion State
today are even more spoilt for choice,
with an array of attractions to choose from.
Not one to miss out on reliving my childhood,
I took a trip to Sentosa Island, ‘The State
of Fun’, to let my inner kid come alive.
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1. Gardens by the Bay
Supertrees, Singapore,
lit at night.
2. Universal Studios,
Sentosa Island, Singapore.
3. Skyline Luge, Sentosa
Island, Singapore.
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Sentosa Island is accessible by taxi, but
there’s no better way to get here than by
cable car. On a sunny weekday morning,
I hopped on at Singapore’s highest point of
Mount Faber (105m) for a relaxing
20-minute cruise through the air, which
allowed me to soak up the sights of the
city skyline.
Hopping off at Sentosa Station, I instantly
felt as though I were on holiday.
A group of tourists dressed in shorts,
caps and sunglasses were walking around,
smiling and taking photographs, while a local
couple with two children were excitedly
inspecting their island map to decide
which attraction to visit first.
“Do you want your photo taken by the tiger
statues?” a woman asked me, promptly
apologising once she realised I wasn’t who
she thought I was. We had a laugh and
started chatting. Her husband joined us,
and I learnt they were on vacation from
New Zealand and were visiting Sentosa
to experience Universal Studios.
Opened in 2011 and set within Resorts World
Sentosa, Universal Studios Singapore
has 28 rides, shows and attractions, set
on an impressive 20 hectares divided into
seven themed zones: Far Far Away, Hollywood,
The Lost World, Madagascar, New York,
Ancient Egypt and Sci-Fi City. The zones are all
positioned around a manmade lake, and you
can experience the multitude of attractions in
each one on foot, starting from Hollywood.
Not only do park-goers queue to experience
the rides, but they also queue for a chance
to take photos with their favourite Hollywood
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