S.E.A Aquarium

So I made it to the S.E.A aquarium this week. It is basically the big aquarium in Resort World Sentosa. I only found out it's called S.E.A aquarium after seeing the guide map which was given to me. Even then, I was wondering what the S.E.A stands for. Then I looked at my ticket and found out it stands for South East Asia. I went during off peak period and so with S$29, I could gain entry into the aquarium and the Maritime Experiential Museum which inludes the Typhoon Theatre. The Maritime Museum and the Typhoon Theatre aren't actually remarkable. I think the entry to Typhoon Theatre have to be purchased separately during peak period. I think you can just skip it. To borrow the Singapore lingo, what I felt after the presentation was over was, "hhmmm, like that ah?!?". I had a group of primary kids watching it with me and I have to say that though their presence was noisy, their screaming did provide a good sound effect during the storm and when our "ship" was sinking. They kinda set the tone to the emotion that one must feel during that situation.

Talking about these little kids. It happened that there were 2 groups of kids on a field trip. One was from a local school and the other was from an international school. I was thinking what it means when you pay more for sending your kids to an international school. While the teachers or guides for the local kids were kinda screaming at them and threatening them to behave, to sit down, to listen, to move along, etc, the teachers or guides for the international school were telling the kids, "come along lovelies" to ask them to move. Ha! I think it's because I'm Asian, so I didn't feel the approach taken by the local instructors was bad. If anything, tough discipline are things that we know very well. There wouldn't be kind words and all. Of course it makes you feel better when people use kind words to you. Who don't like the Malay aunties who pepper their sentences with the word "sayang" when they're selling things to you, right? I do believe how you are treated when you are young will affect you for life. It's just, I think if you're going to spend your life in Asia where things may get real competitive, then it's better if you are educated the Asian way. I guess at the very least, mentally you are trained to be tougher and not be too satisfied with what you achieve.

Alright, back to the aquarium. The aquarium is pretty impressive. The whole thing was actually pretty big and off the bat, that's a good thing. Often time you get disappointed when things are designed in Singapore style, i.e. small like the Universal Studio. However the aquarium was adequately spacious and you will take some time to explore the whole thing. A thought did come across my head that they must have scooped many things from the ocean to create this and that's not very environmentally friendly. By the way, I didn't see the dolphins. Last week, me and la Gioia were joking that perhaps the dolphins along with the pandas secretly died and noone dare to break the news. It's just we've been hearing they're coming / arriving but so far they haven't really been seen in public yet. Anyway I like the aquarium. It does feel like it's a collection of smaller aquariums until you reach the turning point with the humongous window display. Overall I think they did really well. For some pictures from the aquarium, you can go here. If you don't want to click, you can see a few from the aquarium and the Maritime museum below.

The maritime museum is displaying things about sea voyages taken long ago which took the route of South East Asia and they were displaying some items from countries along the way. For Indonesia, they were focusing on the port of Palembang. Then they had batik clothes being hung from the ceiling. Not quite a match if you ask me. These batik patterns seem Javanese, but I can be so wrong.



Then they also have this cross section of a big ship, like one that Cheng Ho may have travelled in and they show how things are arranged inside it, including this life size model of giraffes.



Inside the aquarium, there are many unique things, like these 2 types of fish.



I didn't actually take many good pictures. I don't think I am skilled enough. What is easy to take pictures of is the jellfish and I love how beautifully they moved, so graceful. The ones with the tentacles were like dancing, with their tentacles floating like clothes. Of course they are also so awfully dangerous. Beautiful but how it can be a real pain :)



These tiny ones were difficult to photograph though, but look at this, real cute right? Just like in Hongkong ocean park, their aquariums are lighted with different colours of light.



This one is manta ray from the big aquarium. It's also another beautiful thing. They are like magical cloaks flying.

So that's the aquarium. I'm officially 31 this week until I turn 32 at the end of the month as my Chinese birthday approaches. I just can't seem to take a break, I suppose. My birthday was alright, definitely better than last year, except for the part where I got a bad flu in the evening. I seem to be having runny nose and I sneeze a lot every evening these days. It's weird and it tires me so. I hate feeling unexplainably sick this way :( I have nothing else to report. Life is just as it has been, which is not rosy. I have been feeling pretty pissed off at someone. I just couldn't get why someone cannot, you know like, care a little bit? Someone once told me she's not that sensitive to how people feel and so may not be as caring as a result. I wondered then why don't you try. I guess some people are just like that and this actually annoys me greatly. Like I think I don't deserve this kinda treatment. I think I deserve more respect. I mean after everything, don't I deserve a little bit of respect and be treated in kind? That's why I can get utterly furious knowing things by stumbling upon it by chance in Facebook rather than being told in person. However perhaps in that case, at the very least I got some news, unlike now where I apparently do not deserve to be informed and be better off left hanging. What the hell? Ah see, I am swinging all the time. Either I am really angry or I am really sad. See what I mean with my life is not being rosy? I really hope you are luckier.

:) eKa @ 8:59:00 PM • 0 comments

C'est Mars ... Mon Dieu!

It's March ladies and gentlemen. Oh God? I didn't like it when this month rolled into town because it's my birthday month. I've never liked getting older even since I was a young girl. This time around, I felt it pretty bad. What's worse than being 30? Being 31. It feels so final. That's it, you are getting older and older. Of course the usual phrase people utter to people who dread their birthday will be something many of you will say to me. Age is but a number. How old you really are is not defined by your age. Yeah whatever! How old you are physically is still defined by your age, no? So is the physical change of being older is what freaks me out? Perhaps. My cousin had her birthday some days ago and I'll have mine next week. I had a few plan about it. Nothing fancy, actually it involves doing errands. I do hope it will go much better than it went last year, which was pretty bad for me :(

Anyways, the kind la Gioia contacted me and told me she wanted to treat me for dinner on my birthday. I asked her for today instead :P It's been a long time since I spent some time with a person where we can have conversation face to face (anything text-based over the internet or phone doesn't count for me). I couldn't even remember when was the last time I spent time with people. All those movies I told you I watched, I pretty much watched all of them on my own. So anyway, today we also went to watch Oz the Great and Powerful in Imax 3D. It's a first time for la Gioia to try an Imax cinema. We didn't have a good experience actually because we got dizzy watching it. I know I will end up in a 3D cinema again sometime in the future, but seriously I feel it's not really that worth it to watch a 3D film. It's more expensive, it does not necessarily enhance your viewing experience, and more often than not it becomes a torturous experience that ruins the movie for you :( That being said, I still love James Franco very much and Oz the Great and Powerful is not a bad movie. The scenery of Oz is slightly reminiscence of the landscape in Avatar. I love the flowers. The munchkin's song was also reminiscence of the Oompa Loompa's songs in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and that can be explained by the fact that the composer was the same guy.

I think the reason why I cannot say I love the movie wholeheartedly is the fact that I didn't really like the story much. It has a happy ending depending on which way you look at it. It's just I sympathize so much to Mila Kunis' character. Yes she's bad but it's somewhat not her fault. Once she ate the apple, all her kindness disappeared. Also she became that way because she was heartbroken and James Franco's character was not exactly that morally upright. Yes he did good in the end, but I didn't see him trying to explain things or say sorry for being quite a jerk. I just feel he didn't exactly atone for his mistakes and yet in the end he got fame, glory, and love. Another thing, when you are dropped in a foreign land and there are 2 parties saying they are the good side and the other side is the bad side, shouldn't you kinda be a bit more skeptical and research things through rather than just follow along? I wonder if I am the only one who think this way. Actually no, I am sure there are other people in this world who would sympathize with Mila Kunis' character and think James Franco's character is quite an ass (a little bit). I wonder if we are wrong to think that way.

What else to share? I've been feeling sickly. Haven't been able to sleep since from back in Indonesia. Got really weak with flu some days ago that I put so many drugs into my body. They helped me fall to sleep but darn, even them cannot help me to sleep through the night into the morning :( I seriously doubt I'm the type of person who can sleep less than 6 hours a day and be all ready to go. In fact, I'm pretty fatigue in most of my days :( Not really sure what I can do about it. I think it's all mental but yeah I don't know what to do about it. I don't want to talk about life because my life ahead still looks gloomy for me. I do have this thought formulating in my head that perhaps God wants me to do things on my own. I wonder why people can't do nice things for me, but today la Gioia did something nice, so my thoughts on things like that are often negated. Still, I don't know. I really feel God wants me to venture out on my own. It's scary but if you put things into context, it'll get easier to see it through. I know it doesn't make sense to any of you. I have so much things inside my head and heart that I don't tell anyone. When I was back at home in Indonesia, my aunt came a few days before I went back to Singapore and she said that she felt I kept a lot things inside and didn't share them out. I didn't argue to the fact that I feel the many people whom I would like to sit down and listen to me say things, don't really give time to sit down and listen to me. I get it that people have their own woes and it's mighty hard to hear people moan and complain and be all sad. I mean it's such a downer right, but somehow I wish they could just. I mean, I've listened to other people that left me feeling exhaustive after the "session". I wonder why the universe didn't give me someone in return. I guess the key is as the Indonesian says it, don't expect anything in return.

Okay peeps, I'm gonna stop now. I'm feeling dizzy. I've taken 3 different types of medicine since I reached my room, but the headache pill doesn't seem to be kicking in :( You guys take care 'aight. Since it's March, it's time for Águas de Março, whatever version you may have. I actually have only listened to it for the first time this month today. This could be my favorite bossa nova song. I am hoping that one day there would be an Indonesian version of it :P My only Italian version is actually the one of Mina. The title was changed to say rain instead of water. There's also the french version, Les Eaux de Mars, of which the one from Stacy Kent is pretty and the one from Sergio Mendes and Zap Mama in the Encanto album is interesting.

:) eKa @ 6:44:00 PM • 0 comments

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