Sentosa

Sentosa is Singapore's other new massive integrated property development besides the Marina Bay Sands, on a largely man-made island just south of the central part of the city.  You can imagine it like a Disney-style resort, family-friendly with multiple hotels, beaches, a theme park (Universal Studios), a water park, an aquarium, and a whole lot more, plus a casino.  I mainly wanted to see the aquarium, since it claims to be the world's largest, and then at least wanted to see what the rest of the place was actually like.

There are three ways to get there, and in the true spirit of Disney, none of them require any exertion.  You can take a cable car from the mall across the water, you can take the monorail from the same mall, or you can walk across the boardwalk that crosses the strait that separates the island, but don't worry, the boardwalk has people-movers so you don't actually have to "walk".  Also almost anywhere on the island that has a hill is accompanied by an outdoor escalator. They've learned so much from us.

The place is impressive for its scale. And it's cool that its self-contained, so once you're on the island, all transit is free, for example.  It's tacky masquerading as classy, full of overpriced chain restaurants and faux-Caribbean music, and yet they wouldn't even let me check out the casino because I was wearing flip-flops.  But they've attracted fine dining as well, among the offerings are both a Joel Robuchon and L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in the weirdest setting imaginable, with L'Atelier offering menus going up to a whopping $455 SGD for the full dinner tasting.

The man-made beaches are weird, they appear nice enough, though perfectly rounded and sloped, but they face south into Singapore's surrounding waters, which have literally thousands of ships anchored due to Singapore's incredibly busy port, which makes for both an odd view and murky waters.

I left via the cable car to get views of Sentosa and the Port of Singapore, and because the cable car has a second station on the mainland at Mt Faber, a tall hill in the southern part of the city with striking views and is a milestone on the multi-mile Southern Ridges Walk.