Singapore Sling Shot - Andrew Grant [12]
We had coffee and pastries on the balcony of a café at VivoCity. The view was of the busy harbour basin towards Sentosa. The amount of building work going on across that short stretch of water completely astounded me. Simone told me that a casino and God only knows what else was being built over there.
“How things have changed.”
“How so?” Simone wanted to know.
“Not so long ago gambling was an absolute no-no here. Changing times, I suppose. The powers that be have decided to capitalise on the gambling revenue. Easy money for the coffers.”
“I guess,” she agreed as we stood and prepared to go to the fantasy land across the water.
Now I’d been to Sentosa once a few years before when I’d been based in Bangkok. It hadn’t been a fun trip. I’d had to give one of her Majesty’s flunkies a severe spanking for an indiscretion involving some missing embassy funds. He had fled Bangkok and holed up in a hotel on Sentosa island. He wasn’t particularly bright and we’d tracked him down within days. I’d managed to retrieve the bulk of the funds and, following orders, I engineered a slight accident that put him in hospital for several months. I didn’t enjoy what I had been instructed to do, so my one and only visit to Singapore’s fun island hadn’t been pleasurable in the slightest. The things we do, huh? Or rather the things I did for Queen and country in my other life. That life was now over.
The monorail to Sentosa took about thirty seconds. Well, it seemed that quick. In reality it was probably a three-minute ride from land to land and another three minutes to the first stop as we rumbled over the massive construction work going on below us.
Simone led the way as we left the unit and made our way downstairs at the first station. There had been only a few passengers on the train with us. Most of them were young people who looked as if they had dragged themselves out of their beds and were heading to their jobs on the island.
We swiped our tickets and went sightseeing. Above us was the peculiar Merlion symbol Singapore has adopted as its mascot: lion’s head, mermaid or merman’s body! I knew from my time here all those years ago that the tower served as the base for the spectacular light and fountain show that used to run nightly on the island. That was before they tore everything up to build the casino and waterworld. I guessed the lightshow or something like it would be reactivated as part of the new-look Sentosa in time. I just hoped they wouldn’t go and build another fucking Disneyland on the island.
There was a flower show being held on Sentosa this day. Huge, elaborate displays were set up all around the terraces beside the Merlion. The people looking after the dozens of displays were watering them and tweaking them, no doubt in preparation for being swamped later in the day by hoards of visitors. Simone and I played the tourist card to the hilt. We posed for photographs and found that at every display we stopped at, someone would insist on taking photographs of us as a couple, and on both of our cameras.
It took an age before we finished winding our way up the pathways, through the gardens to the escalator that then carried us to the wide lookout plateau where the cable car from the mainland was anchored. The revolving Sky Tower and various other attractions were scattered about the large terrace. Some Indian guy with a yellow python was busy trying to drape his friend over a group of squealing female Japanese tourists. There were several of those king-size pay-as-you-go binoculars mounted by the edge of the plateau. I decided to commandeer one of those later.
“Refreshments,” I said as we reached the bar near the base of the Sky Tower. I waved to the barman that we were interested and guided Simone down the few steps to the large wooden deck below. This was the perfect place to sit and check out both the earthworks below and the city across the harbour. I went to the railing and leaned