One week in Singapore: Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

One week in Singapore

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

To spend a month's time with my son Aditya, daughter-in-law Parul and Grand-daughter Kanak, I along with my wife Vijayalaxmi have gone to Singapore. We reached by Silk Air of the Singapore Airlines, in the early hours of 16th August 2012, the Changi Airport, the main airport in Singapore. A major aviation hub in Southeast Asia, it is about 17 kilometers north-east from the commercial centre in Changi, on a 13 square kilometer site. Changi Airport serves more than 100 airlines operating 6,100 weekly flights connecting Singapore to over 220 cities in about 60 countries and territories worldwide. Changi Airport has four passenger terminals with a total annual handling capacity of more than 70 million passengers. The airport has won over 390 awards since 1981, including 23 'Best' awards in 2011. My son who was waiting outside the Airport drove us to his Sentosa Cove residence in his car. Normally in Singapore every one prefers hiring a taxi rather than owning a vehicle.

 Airport Terminal

While driving he briefed about automatic toll tax collection for which a permanent card needs to be inserted in the car and every time the car passes through a toll gate certain amount meant for toll tax would be deducted. All over Singapore and at every parking area this is being observed. The card has to be recharged once the balance is over. Many roads in Singapore are named after various items, cities or simply one reason or another. There is a "Sunset Way" at Clement. There is also a "Sunrise Way" elsewhere. There are Roads of Fruits, of Bananas, of Nuts, of Royalties, of Poets, of Places, of Emotions and Roads of Numbers. There are some roads without any names too. There is a perfect traffic regulations and speed control. There are four categories of roads in Singapore namely: Expressways, Orchard Road, Pedestrian malls and proposed roads. Expressway Monitoring Advisory System (EMAS) is an intelligent incident management tool that manages traffic along Singapore expressways. It detects accidents, vehicle breakdown and other incidents promptly, ensuring fast response to restore normal traffic flow. It also provides real-time information of traveling time from the entry point of expressway to selected exits. Greenery is seen all over the roadway.

Singapore Road view

Aditya stays in a three bed room flat at the posh “The Coast at Sentosa Cove” locality in the Ocean Drive. Wearing a seat belt by those who sit in the front seats in the car is a must in Singapore. Aditya parked the car and took both of us into his flat on the fifth floor. From the door leading to the elevator to operating the elevator is all digitally controlled. Even the entry to Sentosa Cove Residential Area is digitally controlled. Without one of the owners accompanying none can enter the area. The elevator's door straight away opens into Adity's flat and it is an experience to us. The flat's eastern side wide balcony faces the South China Sea which is just about 150 yards away from the house. Sentosa Cove is a posh residential enclave in the East of Sentosa Island in Singapore, eventually housing about 2,500 units when fully developed.

Largely made-up of reclaimed land, Sentosa Cove is being marketed as an "exclusive oceanfront residential community" and the "only true seafront residential property" in Singapore. The master developer of the site is Sentosa Cove Private Limited, a subsidiary of Sentosa Development Corporation. The latter purchased the site from the Singapore Land Authority for a sum of about 800 million Singapore Dolores. Sentosa Cove is divided into two main areas, the North Cove, and the South Cove. Each cove comprises both bungalow and condominium residential plots, with most units configured to either face the artificially-created sheltered waterways, or the open sea. The North Cove has three artificial islands called Coral Island, Paradise Island and Treasure Island, all of which are surrounded by an artificial marina enclosed by an outer ring of reclaimed land. Bungalow plots in the South Cove were launched only in the second half of 2006 after the successful sale of most plots in the North Cove. Aditya stays in the South Cove. We have been spending most of our time sitting in the balcony and watching the sea, the ships, the boats, the sunrise and the moon on the sky. During nights we can see the Lights over Batam town of Indonesia which is about 20 kilometers through sea waters. 

Sentosa Cove View

One evening we had been to one of the casinos in Singapore. Casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions. The precise origin of gambling is unknown. The Chinese recorded the first official account of the practice in 2300 BC, but it is generally believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in almost every society in history. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Napoleon's France and Elizabethan England, much of history is filled with stories of entertainment based on games of chance. In most jurisdictions worldwide, gambling is limited to persons over the age of license (16 to 21 years of age in most countries where casinos are permitted). Customers gamble by playing games of chance, in some cases with an element of skill, such as craps, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, and video poker. Most games played have mathematically-determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an advantage over the players. This can be expressed more precisely by the notion of expected value, which is uniformly negative (from the player's perspective). This advantage is called the house edge. In games such as poker where players play against each other, the house takes a commission called the rake. Casinos sometimes give out complimentary items to gamblers. Given the large amounts of currency handled within a casino, both patrons and staff may be tempted to cheat and steal, in collusion or independently; most casinos have security measures to prevent this. Security cameras located throughout the casino are the most basic measure. We had been to the “Marina Bay Sands" Casino. Another casino in Singapore is known as "Resorts World Sentosa".

 “Marina Bay Sands" Casino

Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents of Singapore must purchase and hold a valid Casino Entry Levy to enter the casino. For foreigners with a valid passport the entry is free. The daily entry levy is $100, and is valid for 24 consecutive hours starting from the time of first entry into the casino. The annual entry levy is $2,000, and is valid for 12 months starting from either (a) the time of first entry into the casino, or (b) 90 days after the date of payment, whichever is earlier. In other words Singaporeans are discouraged from gambling while visitors coming from other countries by permitting without entry fee and on showing Passport are encouraged to play and lose money which goes indirectly to the Singapore exchequer. We entered free of cost. With three levels of gaming floor-space and over 2500 slot machines to choose from, the casino at Marina Bay Sands offers a vast selection of the newest and most popular electronic gaming machines worldwide. Their collection of machines features more than 250 themes and game titles to choose from. Players can enjoy a wide range of betting levels for video, reel, and multi-station games offering Roulette and Sic-Bo. The slots offer a variety of jackpots, including linked Progressive Jackpots – in which amounts may increase as a game is played. The Casino's friendly and courteous staff members are always present to assist all player needs, offering signature service, while helping ensure the best gaming experience possible.

The Marina Bay Sands casino offers a choice of table games to suit all players, from the simplicity and excitement of Money Wheel, to the exhilarating and fast paced action of Roulette. All table games are played using casino gaming chips, which may be purchased either at the tables, or at the cage. With more than 6 varieties of games on four levels of gaming, one of which is a non smoking level, guests will find what they are looking for in the type of environment they desire. Games on offer include Baccarat, Roulette, Sic-Bo, Singapore Stud Poker, Non Commission Baccarat and Money Wheel. With almost 500 tables available, each game is offered at a variety of betting limits designed to suit all players. In addition combination of a dealer and live game with an electronic betting interface, Rapid Table Games offer an exciting gaming experience. With the use of individual touch screens, players make their wagers on the computerized table game layout and all wagers and cash balances are instantly resolved after each round is completed. Marina Bay Sands is an integrated resort fronting Marina Bay in Singapore. Developed by Las Vegas Sands, it is billed as the world's most expensive standalone casino property at 8 billion Singapore Dollars, including cost of the prime land. We played couple of games and initially we were gaining. At the end with no loss and no profit we left the casino around 2 am after being there for over three hours. Earlier before we entered the casino we had been to an Indian Restaurant where we had a complete Indian Cuisine. 

A still from “Ek Tha Tiger”

Two-three days later we saw a movie titled “Ek Tha Tiger” in a theater named after Bombay. Ek Tha Tiger is a 2012 Bollywood romantic action thriller film starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles. The film is Produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Kabir Khan. The film begins with Tiger (Salman Khan), conducting a mission in northern Iraq. The mission is accompanied by a barrage of gunshots and chase sequence. Tiger kills a bunch of agents after bumping off one of his own men, who defected to Pakistan’s ISI.Tiger, lived in a government employee neighborhood about whom his neighbors know nothing. It is because he is India's top spy, an officer with research and analysis wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency and called Tiger in his codename. Tiger reports to Shenoy (Girish Karnad) in New Delhi after every field mission for the last 12 years. Then Tiger is sent on a mission to Dublin, Ireland to observe a scientist of Indian origin, Professor Kidwai (Roshan Seth), who teaches at the Trinity College and suspect of sharing his finding with Pakistan defense establishment. Fellow RAW agent, Gopi (Ranvir Shorey) accompanies Tiger on this mission. Tiger attempts to meet the scientist but is not successful although he meets with scientist's caretaker Zoya (Katrina Kaif) who is studying at a fictional dance academy. He tries to befriend Zoya and as he begins to get closer to Zoya, He begins to discover his human side. Despite repeated warnings from Tiger’s associate Gopi not to fall in love, for the first time in his life, Tiger falls in love. Then begins a journey that Tiger and Zoya embark upon battling the dark world of intelligence and espionage that forbids them from falling in love.

            The first week ended with a grand dinner at Aditya’s TISS college-mate Monica residence.