David's Short Stories: August 2010

At around 6pm the seniors had gathered at the canteen of St. Mary’s of the Angels at Bukit Batok. Those who had not been to the Flyer including myself were anxious and looking forward to the trip. As we assembled Theresa and her assistants were busy sorting out and dividing the group into two parties for bus ‘A’ and bus ‘B’. It included distributing of sticker-type labels to indicate grouping and table number for dinner. Janet and I from Teban Gardens belong to Group No.4 with Joan as our leader and assigned to bus ‘B’. Upon boarding Priscilla apoligised for some hiccups encountered earlier and briefed our group to stick together and help each other. Swee Fong a local introduce herself as our guide for this trip and commented that we are fortunate to experience this memorable trip as it would coincide with the ‘Closing Ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games 2010’ held at the Marina Bay.

The floating platform is the first largest in the world and used to hold our annual National Day Parades. The open-air viewing gallery has a seating capacity of 27,000 but to-day the young Olympians from all over the world are gathered for this great event. And Singapore is proud and honoured to be it’s host for this First Youth Olympic Games. Our guide has much praise for Singapore which has come a long way to immerge into spotlight; after all we are only one tiny ‘red dot’ on the map of the world. We must first of all thank God for good governance provided by our able leaders.

In 1970’s or 80’s I remember receiving some foreigners who had never heard of Singapore and must have thought that we lived on tree-tops and swinging down every morning to forage for food. But they were in for a big surprise after landing at world renowned Changi Airport and driven into the city. They had noticed the tree-lined “ECP” expressway, potted flower plants, beautiful landscape with golf courses, sailing clubs, chalets, eateries, multi-storied condos and Public Housing; it was “Wow! wow! wow!” all the way.

We headed for Mount Faber for a Chinese dinner at a place design of a sailing ship and named “Marina Deck”. The dishes comprise honey-chicken, deep-fried fish, black-peppered crabs, yam-ring and vegetables.

Seniors having dinner at Marina Deck, Mt.Faber

After we had our fill, we headed for the Singapore Flyer along the expressway but caught in a traffic jammed; because of the Youth Olympic. Swee Fong told us that the bus will have to stop short of the Flyer and we had to walk a short distance; including one wheel-chair bound.

Presently our Singapore Flyer is the World’s Largest Giant Observation Wheel towering 165 metres (equivalent to 42-storey building) above the Marina Bay. Meantime we had to pass through ‘security-checks’ where our bag-packs went through electronic screening. After 911/ New York Twin-Tower terrorists attack, you can expect such scrutiny at all main functions or events where involved large crowd. Then there was ‘toilet break’ and the queue to board the capsule had consumed precious

Queue to board the capsule

time. It was during this moment I guess about 9.30pm that the ‘fireworks’ burst into the sky overhead. At our position we could only get glimpses of multi-coloured spray of balls, twinkles or stardust that light-up the night. Finally our batch got into the large capsule that can hold 28 people. It had a bench in the centre and we are seated back-to-back facing either side of the glass capsule. However, when we got to the top we were rewarded by a view spectacular, fantastic, breathtaking; overlooking the Marina Bay with the skyline surrounded by skyscrapers. And right below us we saw the floating-platform, all lighted up with the celebration going on and a full crowd watching from the gallery.

The latest landmark is the 3-towers Marina Bay Sands integrated resort, topped-up by a Sky Park stands majestically guarding the bay and is the world’s second most expensive casino built at the cost around S$8 billion.

I enjoyed a memorable panoramic or a birds-eye view of the surrounding for that complete so called 30-minute flight. I would like to return for a daylight viewing where I can see the Rhio Islands of Indonesia that would be interesting.