I could see how people can get sucked in; I felt a little bit like a fly to a light in the shopping centres, thinking, “Ooo, that’s so pretty, I want it...!” Thankfully knowing that the price was going to shock me back to reality especially in the many designer shops, I didn’t join the hoards of people flashing plastic for the newest must have “Christmas present”. I couldn’t actually believe there were people shopping in these places; not merely wandering around and window shopping, but in the shops, buying things. And although I know how tempting it is to look good, have the latest fashion, the newest gadget that is going to make life not simply easier, but impossible to live without, I can’t help remembering that line from a song: “Not all that glitters is gold”.
Another side of Singapore that I loved, apart from the amazing public toilets and the clean streets, was the beautifully kept botanical gardens. Thoughtfully laid out, with an amazing variety of plants, walking around the (free) gardens is a lovely way to spend a morning. And although plants don’t tend to glitter like city lights, aren’t they the real ‘gold’? It seems to me that not enough people stop and take time to think about true beauty or take note of the amazing Creator who can create such beauty.
Sentosa island is one of the places to see in Singapore, and only having a short stay, I spent my second morning here. (The first day I had spent wandering around the different areas of town; Orchard Street – the shopping area, Chinatown, Botanical Gardens, the Marina, the Central Business District, the Art area with the galleries and museums and colonial buildings together with Raffles hotel, Arab street complete with Baghdad Street.)
Sentosa is a kind of pleasure island which people rave about. It has Universal Studios, various rides including a luge, skyride, zip wire, high wire adventure course, skytower, wave machines, as well as what looked like quite a good Aquarium and various other activities. There is a monorail or a cable car to take you there. There are clearly marked paths to follow, escalators, buses, bikes for rental to take you around with the minimum of effort... It is a fantastic place, but very surreal. The beaches are clean and the sea is clear, but forget about a quiet rest of the beach; there is music and entertainment calls from various loudspeakers from the bars and hotels that line the beachfront. Inland does have some nature walks, but geared more for those people who don’t really like to hike, but want to get a taste of ‘back to nature’. It reminded me of the park from Jurassic Park that I was half expecting to see a dinosaur!
Being on a budget, and because it is generally an activity that I enjoy, I have been walking a lot. I love the way that walking around a place helps you get a sense of the place and the people there (people watching is another great activity!). I was thinking about going on a lot of the rides as they had been recommended to me (and they sounded fun). But every activity costs money, and I was saved in a way by the hazy weather the day I went to Sentosa, meaning that the view was not going to be good. So even though I wanted to be able to see over into Indonesia and reminisce about living there, I didn’t go up the sky tower or take the cable car back. I did however take a ride on the luge (which was over far too quickly), and have a wander around the beachfront and the outside of the Aquarium (where you can see turtles and stingrays) and the fort before getting the skyride (chairlift) up again. Thankfully, without skis on, I managed to navigate the chairlift without embarrassing myself in front of lots of strangers!
I took a walk around the inland area on the nature walks and took a look at the adventure activities and thought briefly about going to the 4D cinema, but there were A LOT of people everywhere and I couldn’t be bothered to have to queue for ages and pay a lot for something that wasn’t going to last for very long (the luge was enough!)
But Sentosa made me think about the fact that when we spend a lot of money to have a clean and efficient life with transport networks and good services and maps and all the other great things about modern life, we end up having to spend more money to give ourselves an adrenaline rush and fill our time. We have lost the adventure of day to day life. In Thailand, for example, I could easily fill half a day with the excitement of working out how to get from A to B, but that adventure is taken away when everything is so easy. And we forget to think about how easy we have it (like getting agitated when you have to wait for 3 whole minutes for the next train) or we are compelled to fill our life with other stresses. So we work too hard and go to the gym to have that body we thought we should have (according to whatever magazine) and have too little time with our family or spend the day running from one errand to the next. We have washing machines and internet shopping and supermarkets that are open 24 hours and even deliver our food to us and microwaves, clean drinking water to our homes, infrastructure, phones...we can always do more. But should we do more? What is really important? Do we need to let ourselves off the hook a bit and have time to rest and reflect and think? Are we running so fast that we don’t have to think about who we are or how happy we are or what life is really about?
Is it time to enjoy the simpler pleasures in life? The blossom on the trees, the snow, the sound of birdsong, the smell of fresh coffee or freshly baked bread, the laughter of children, to laugh with a dear friend so hard that you cry?
You know God made each of us unique. That means that no one else can be me and no one else can be you. He made us with purpose and for his pleasure, so isn’t it important to know who we are, love who we are because He loves us more than we can understand, and really live our unique lives? That is the biggest adventure I can think of!
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