Pirates of the East at Sentosa

Massive Ship in Sentosa

Massive Ship in Sentosa

I don’t normally visit Sentosa Island in Singapore as I would need an event to get me in there, but if you think I would go there to spend the weekend, then you are mistaken. For one thing, I always thought that Sentosa was an expensive place to visit, this was my experience almost ten years back. Sentosa even earned itself an acronym – So Expensive And Nothing To See Anyway. This was only told to me by the locals can I guess it can’t be any truer. Which is probably why the government has pursued a program to renovate or upgrade Sentosa to be a more fun place to be. So it is working? Well, one thing is for sure, it has become even more expensive to be here. Just getting here will need a monorail ride. I don’t know if it is already possible to walk across, because the last I saw, there was construction going on in the main bridge connecting Sentosa with mainland Singapore.

What Would Have Admiral Zheng He Done to Get a Ship with a Moving Lion's Head and Large LCD Screen on His Ship

What Would Have Admiral Zheng He Done to Get a Ship with a Moving Lion’s Head and Large LCD Screen on His Ship

One of the places which was built for Sentosa was the Maritime Experiential Museum. It sounds a bit fishy and I didn’t want to spend anything there as Sentosa has already disappointed me in the past. Perhaps I would wait until someone has entered the place before I go in. Anyway, beside it, was part of a galleon going with the theme of maritime experience. A massive ship was built in one of the domes which you can see from mainland Singapore. Interestingly, there is a regular show which is shown on the back of the ship. There was a large lion’s head in front of the ship and an almost invisible LCD screen. At that time, the show was about the voyages of Zheng He the famed Chinese admiral whose fleet explored large parts of Asia and also reached parts of Africa. Some also say that they might have been the ones to reach the Americas first. Anyway, the show was okay, perhaps the most interesting part for me was the time when the lion’s head would come to life and roar. The LCD also fades away to blend with the wood of the ship, probably the only part which I found fascinating.

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