After submitting my Favourite Family Routine post to Nuffnang in hopes of winning the Singapore Flyer tickets that were to be given out in conjunction with the National Family Celebrations day, I received an email shortly after announcing my win!
YAYYYYY! 7 tickets to the Singapore Flyer!
There was a stipulated time and date for our tickets. I didnt understand it at first, but then realised that May 24th was National Family Celebrations day! ALLLLL the families were coming out to play. Haha.
When I told Mum and Dad about winning the tickets, they were pretty excited about it! My parents are adventurous that way. So cute! The problem was having to find 3 other relatives who’d be willing to scale great heights with us. We first approached my maternal grandparents (as in Favourite Family Routine post), but they were rather apprehensive about the whole thing. And it didnt help that grandma wasnt in the greatest of shapes. Eventually, we managed to get my aunts, mum’s jie meis, who were rather interested in the whole affair. They readily agreed and we met at 3.30pm on the 24th of May.
I didnt expect there was a bus that would be charted for the Family Celebrations! How cooool and thoughtful of the organisers.
It was a quick bus ride from Coleman Street to the Singapore Flyer. And it was obvious when we’d arrived.
A large spaceship-like thing looms overhead.
I made a beeline to collect our tickets. And soon, we were on our exciting journey to Flying with the Singapore Flyer.
The boarding areas reminded me a little of our distinguished airport. And we even had to pass through metal detectors! But everyone cleared it without hassel and soon, we were that much closer to Flying.
But not before they try and pull some tourist-y stunts on us. We were all ushered into this large room covered with green walls. No photography was allowed in this room, but I didnt know that and happened to snap a shot of the room before the person stopped me. In your individual groups, we were all made to huddle close before a bright flashbulb went off capturing our priceless expressions.
Finally, we were walking among giants. And I mean giant capsules at that. As we ventured through the many walkways and bridges, we eventually made it to the one that would lead us to our capsule. As we stood waiting for an empty capsule to arrive, you’d see people empty out of the futuristic looking structure and walk along the bridge across from where you were.
The capsule never stops. And that’s the cool part about it. You’d expect the thing to halt for a couple of minutes to allow passengers to board and alight, but it doesnt. It just keeps moving and is completely seamless. And it’s really easy to step into the capsule. You dont have to worry about not being able to catch up with its speed or missing your step. Very quickly, we’re all on board. And our ascent in the futuristic capsule begins.
It being our first time in the Singapore Flyer, I couldnt help but admire it’s beautiful architectural design. Honestly, it’s clean lines both on the inside AND outside of the capsule amazed me.
When I wasnt gawking at this architectural splendour, I took some time to admire our city skyline.
From the top, we had a bird’s eye view of the Esplanade, the make-shift Marina Promenade “stadium”, and the expressway that runs an incredible length. The cars all seemed so tiny, like miniatures in a scaled model.
When we were at the peak of the circle, we also had some fun with the capsules “trailing” us.
The Flyer’s ascent is smooth, seamless and steady. You cant even compare it to an elevator since most elevators as we know it, usually growl with the sounds of its underlying engines. The Flyer, on the other hand, at times feels like it’s not moving! The only indicator of its constant climb, is the emerging horizon on your window. The journey downwards is equally deceiving. And soon enough, it’s time for you to disembark, but not before you take a family picture together inside.
I love the roundness inside! So perfect.
Before we say goodbye to the Singapore Flyer, here are some last few shots of it’s spectacular architectural glory.
Last but not least, a few picturesque post-card-ish ones. They look so fake (like superimposed or computer generated), but we took them ourselves! Olympus E410 DSLR.
And my favourite among them all.
