Dear All
During the last day of the March school hols, we visited the South East Asia (S.E.A) Aquarium @ RWS. We went there as it's discounted tickets through my hubby's Family Day office function. If you ever want to go to the Aquarium, avoid the school hols, plus, avoid relatively new attractions! It was SO crowded, we saw more people than sea creatures!!
Upon entering the place, we had to walk through some static displays of products imported or exported by sea of various countries, e.g. Malaysia & India (I suppose S.E.A countries). These displays are great photo-taking opportunities. There's also a torrential wind experience, but there's an extra charge and tixs to this which we didn't know about, and wasn't in our tixs. So we missed it, but the girls would have loved this and were a bit disappointed we couldn't try it.
Below: Some of the static display in foyer before queuing to enter Aquarium itself.
The entrance to the Aquarium itself was pretty long and slow moving. The staff were great to provide some seats however, they were away from the queue. I guess it was meant for old folks to rest while the younger ones keep the place in the queue. There were some displays around to kill time, but they were not enough to wait out for our turn to enter the Aquarium.
Below: More static displays along queue to enter Aquarium itself.
For safety reasons, the travellator in the Underwater tunnel was turned off. It was just so crowded! It so happened a staff was in scuba diving suit cleaning the tank, so everyone was mermerised by him and taking photos of him, instead of the fish! So funny!
Below: See the scuba diver in top pix and close up of him in second pix?
There was a stretch of the corridor that hosted a variety of jelly fishes. It was jammed pack with people from tour groups though, but I can imagine how fanscinating it would be to scrutinise the very tiny, on one end of the jelly fish spectrum to the very long and large ones at the other extreme end of it.
Below: The beautiful, graceful but deadly jelly fishes.
There's also a underwater wreckage portion that was under our feet as we walk over it. A small sting ray was clinging onto the glass panel beneath our feet, so we could see the under belly of the ray.
Below: Glass panel beneath our feet. See the underbelly of the the stingray in second pix.
Below: There are several of these huge fish tanks for us to google at :)
The DEFINITE highlight of this place is the oceanarium. It was so gorgeous to just watch the majestic manta rays! There was a particular manta ray that just loves to swim close to the glass panel where the people are, and seems to be showing off. It was a real crowd puller, with mums shouting for their kids to quickly pose while they try to snap shots of them with the ray swimming behind them.
Below: This is one giant Spider crab. This guy was just staring at us, ready for a fight!
The great part of the oceanarium was that it has about 3 levels of viewing, so that as many people as possible could get to see the fish. Of course the best part is to be right at the front row, in front of the tank itself. You can see the nurse sharks mostly dwelling at the bottom of the "seabed" together with the sting ray. You could also view the oceanarium from the sides by going through a passage to another corridor. From the front panel of the oceanarium, the side panels look like windows under water! I personally think it's a great design to maximise the viewing capacity.
Below : The huge oceanarium consisting of a few levels. Second pix are the nurse sharks.
Below: Manta ray
On the way out, I noticed the underwater tunnel had sharks this time. It could have been removed when the scuba diver was cleaning the tank. Anyway, the swimming sharks and sting rays overhead were crowd stoppers. The tunnel was jammed pack again with people trying to take shots of themselves or love ones with the shark or sting ray in the background, thus blocking others from moving forward.
Below: Group of nurse sharks gathering together.
Below: Colourful corals and fish
Below: Sharks in the underwater tunnel where people walk under.
Below: Scary looking gigantic moray eels.
Below: Interesting pink fish. Never seen neon pink ones before :)
Outside the Aquarium but within the building still, before taking the escalator up again, there are some static display, including a very interesting one of a fictitious guy hanging from the ceiling of a hut! It was life-size and I definitely would be scared to be there alone with the hanging mannequin!
Below:Fictitious character, hanging from the hut.
When we were outside, there is a wonderful candy shop called Candylicious. It's a shop very much like what you can find in Disneyland. It's beautifully decorated from the outside to the inside of the shop, and the staff do not stop you from taking photos of their displays and posing inside their shops. The candies were so many with unusual jelly bean flavours. There's this quaint jelly bean box that has the real deal and the fake one, i.e. the pinkish jelly bean is either peach flavour or
Below: Candylicious shop outside Aquarium and its colourful deco.
Below: Which is the real deal? We dare you to try!! Haha!
Below: Attractive display of candy wares! The variety is astonishing!
baff (vomit). It's a dare to try with your friends! Be warned though, the candies are not cheap, but they are real good quality stuff if you have some spare cash to indulge yourself once in a while :)
Love
Theresa
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