Sentosa (Singapore)

I am a strong believer that people should not be prosecuted for the thoughts they have. As illustrated, consider the “free” Magical Sentosa at the Musical Fountain show that one can take in on Sentosa Island (Singapore’s island resort). It is free in the sense that it cost no money. However, it is expensive in the sense that it will damage your opinion of Singaporean entertainment indefinitely.

There are aspects of the show that are rather remarkable. The fountain display itself is gorgeous and contains a staggering array of jets that allow a wide range of water effects to be created. This is combined with a literal rainbow of underwater lighting. Most impressive, is the projection system which can render full colour images on a dense mist of water. From a technological viewpoint, the Musical Fountain must be amongst the best fountain shows in the world.

The problems begin with the show’s content. It is my honest opinion that the art director for this production should be sent off to a remote Pacific island where he (or she) will be unable to unleash such absolute crap upon the world again. The premise of the show revolves around our host being greeted by Kiki the Magical Monkey who invites him to visit “Magical Sentosa”. This might be fine except it turns out “Magical Sentosa” consists of a bunch of ordinary fish, a dancing robot (which I believe is Kiki’s brother), and a mute women with bad hair (that Kiki is clearly in lust with). All this is presented to the audience as an original song that is catchy for all the wrong reasons.

Although the problems begin with the content, they end with the host himself. All I could do to endure the host’s overzealous acting was to conceive of novel ways of killing this man. It is rather remarkable how creative a person can be in times of desperation. Gwen, being more rational than myself, simply left the show half way through.

Let me end on a positive note, as I do not want to give people the wrong impression of Sentosa. If one avoids the Musical Fountain, one would be hard pressed not to enjoy themselves. It hosts palm tree lined beaches, volleyball nets, basketball courts, excellent sand for throwing a disc around on, and the southernmost land accessible point of Southeast Asia (yes, this is precisely the type of list this blog is meant to avoid!). Gwen and I spent the better part of two days relaxing on these beaches and enjoyed every non-Musical Fountain moment of it.