A roarin’ good time with the Merlion (Part II)

After breakfast on our third day, we had fun. It was the morning when we could shop. My mom was very happy. She saw the Takashimaya department store and this new shop called Belle, so she disappeared after we found the Toys-R-Us on Orchard Road. We bought stuff, met Momma who had her own stuff and took the van to Suntec City. There we had lunch in a restaurant called Marche. This is another place you have to go to. You get a ticket and go to all the different stalls where they are ready to cook what you order. I had raclette, steak, salad; and you can tell them to cook it just how you want it. I got really full.

There’s also a mall for shopping at Suntec, but we had to rush to get to Sentosa.

So, on to Sentosa Island and to get there we took the cable car. As Momma, Titos Maurice and Alex were scared, we’d rock the cable car, they all rode in one car away from us kids and Poppa. On Sentosa, there was a wax museum that showed the history of Singapore; it’s called Images of Singapore. There was an aquarium and Luca loved the part where you just stand on the track and the aquarium is all around you. You see hammerhead sharks and stingrays swimming over your head. There are ugly piranhas to look at, really weird dragon fish, and giant-sized garoupas.

On Sentosa there are also beaches, hotels, golf courses. There’s a really slow train that takes you around the island. You can take an elevator from inside the big Merlion statue, and either enjoy the view from its mouth or from the top of it’s head. The real treat for dinner at the Imperial Herbal Restaurant was the waiter explaining how the special herbs and ingredients in all the Chinese dishes had medicinal value.

They explained how one thing was good for your skin and complexion, another was "brain food" for memory – don’t remember which one (kidding!). Another was for your liver, and so on. This restaurant is behind the Raffles Hotel, which they said is part of the history of Singapore, too.

I would like to go back to Singapore soon. We spent three nights there and even for us kids they weren’t enough. There are still other places I did not get to see. There’s an Escape Theme Park with rides that sound cool.

Along the Singapore River I saw the bunboats which we were supposed to take one night, but we were tired. If we had more time, Matteo wanted to go to the Zoological Gardens in the daytime and watch the primates show (watch or join?); I think my mom was happy we did not have time for that one. There is much to do in Singapore. And I saw only one piece of paper littered on the street all the time I was there. Now that’s pretty impressive.