23.04 - Day 26 - Singapore

Thursday 23rd April

Singapore

Temperature Min 25, Max 34

10,588 steps

I had some plans or ideas for everywhere we’ve been on this trip without having much specifically locked in. Other plans just kind of appear. So it is when I’m looking out of our window at Wink Hostel and see a bus drive past with an advert on its side for the Singapore Golf Open starting today. I look it up and it’s on Sentosa Island, not far away and its free entry. Free entry is good, not just because it doesn’t cost anything - and this is true for any attraction - but you never know the kids level of interest once you get there, so when its free, you never feel compelled to stay and make the most of the museum / zoo / gallery or in this case, gold tournament.

I also find on the map a nice looking beach 10 minutes walk away if the golf is a blowout. So with swimming costumes, suncream and bottles of water packed we Grab to the Serapong Golf Club about 15 minutes away. 

Whilst this isn’t the Masters, this is a golf/ club where the green fees for visitors are S$550 ($600), so my other concern, apart from child boredom, is child attire. Seb doesn’t just not have any collared shirts, his only tops are (highly flammable) football shirts, so I warn the kids we may end up on the beach pretty quickly if we get turned away.

But without a second glance, the security guard scans our ticket and lets us past and we find ourselves by the green of the 9th and 18th holes. We stand in the shade of the large portable scoreboard and watch balls land on the green with a soft thud, hit by players I’ve never heard of, stood alongside 5 other spectators. 

The kids are interested in the mechanics of the scoring system, Seb declaring he’d just whack it every time. So to see some actual “whacking” we walk to the 1st tee just behind us, only being told once to stand still…

We wait for the next trio of players to arrive, the kids collecting broken tees in the intervening minutes. We are the only people there. The next trio arrive, along with their caddies and one player immediately reaches into his bag, walks over and gives Seb a ball. 

Then the caddies walk over to the players’ ice-box and grab drinks for themselves and also give each of us one too, plus some fruit meant for the players. Suddenly the kids really like golf.

We watch a few more trios tee off, although no more swag, until an official appears and tells us, almost apologetically, that we’re not allowed to be standing where we are. As we shuffle the other side of the rope, two trophies are brought out from chunky protective cases - one must be for winning this tournament (and $360,000), the other even I recognise as the Claret Jug from the Open in Scotland - the top 2 finishers here gaining automatic qualification for that tournament later in the year.

I ask the official if he can take a close up photo for me of the Claret Jug, instead he glances around, sees no one else and bids us to come under the ropes to stand behind the pair of trophies as he takes a photo of the 3 of us. He then asks me not to post the photo on any social channels. As if I’m on any social channels. 

We decide we’ve got a decent flavour of the gold but now really want a swim in the heat, making to leave but getting sucked in by the Fan Zone Tent. There are at least other people in here, all polo shirts and chino trousers, but none are attempting the putting challenge outside or the velcro ball chipping challenge, as we do.

Suddenly a man appears and says we’ve done two of the three challenges and points us to a final Spin the Wheel challenge inside in order to win a prize. It’s Spin-The-Wheel trivia and to say our chances are slim when the first question is to name any of the Singaporean amateur golf players playing in this tournament. Thankfully the friendly staff point us to a tv that has the scoreboard on it to get an answer. Soon, Seb has some new sunglasses and Sienna and I have a ball marker. 

Two icy poles then buys us entry to a Hole-In-One virtual challenge to try and win $10,000. Seb has a few wild swings in our allotted 60 seconds whilst I barely land the ball on the green.

Now we do really leave, walking 10 minutes up and over to Palawan Beach. I’m pretty sure the sand has been shipped in, but it doesn’t make the water any less refreshing. A small island just off the beach keeping the sand in place. Not the cleanest water mind - perhaps due to the hundreds of boats and tankers anchored off shore. 

 

After the classiness of the gold club, we offset that by having for lunch a pot noodle from a 7-Eleven sat just further along the beach. As we’re slurping on those, our eyes are drawn to an inflatable obstacle course 20m off the beach in a sectioned off area of the bay’s water.

From 3:00pm - 4:00pm then we clamber, fall, jump, slip, splash on the large course - every time I fall off eliciting squeals of laughter from Sienna and Seb. When we’re finally ushered off the inflatables by the barely-present lifeguards, it's only a 5 minute walk to the yellow monorail to get off Sentosa Island from where we Grab back to Wink.

After showers, we seek out dinner at the slightly Communist sounding Peoples’ Park Food Centre - its the largest amount of hawker stalls we’ve come across, Sienna ordering from one place, me another. On top of my bowl of noodles we somehow end up with 40 dumplings which, even after our day of exertions, are too much for one sitting - so about 10 come back home with us. As well as the largest, it's also the busiest and is seemingly predominantly local, in sharp contrast to the other part of Chinatown just across the road.

A double flavour ice-cream (choc vanilla swirl) from a Mixue-esque joint finishes us off before a final hour of reading in the library until it closes at 9:00pm. With a late late flight tomorrow night I’ve gently been encouraging later nights and longer lie-ins. Let's see if it pays off.