S.E.A Aquarium and Maritime Experiential Museum visit and experience (水族馆及海事博物馆)
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Don't we all love weekends? I do for sure because not only do I get to rejuvenate myself over the weekend, I get to spend time with my loved ones too!
Last Sunday, I brought Grandpa and Mommy to SEA Aquarium over at Resort World Sentosa, Marine Life Park. You have no clue how excited I was to check out those fishes especially after seeing heaps of pretty photos on Instagram, not to mention the fact that I'm very much of a photography enthusiast.
Follow the rest of my post to join me on a virtual tour to SEA Aquarium!
Follow the rest of my post to join me on a virtual tour to SEA Aquarium!
I think we queued close to 45 minutes before we entered the building.
Before we entered SEA Aquarium, there's a long passageway that displays cultures and traditions of different countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Oman and Africa. I later found out that it is actually The Maritime Experiential Museum! The entrance fee to Maritime Experiential Museum is included in the S.E.A. Aquarium One Day Pass. Its certainly a good reminiscence of those history lessons I had back when I was in secondary school!
About The Maritime Experiential Museum
Built to house the Jewel of Muscat and some of the 60,000 artefacts salvaged from the Belitung shipwreck, an Arabian dhow wrecked off the coast of Belitung Island.
Experience Asia’s rich maritime history and discover Singapore’s past as a trading port. This trip back in time begins along the ancient Maritime Silk Route, which recreates the sights, sounds and scents of the bustling bazaars and where you can interact with the exhibits. See a fascinating trove of precious artefacts from the Bakau shipwreck and Temasek archaeological site that can be found at the Maritime Archaeology Gallery. View life-sized ship replicas of Asian sailing vessels from the docks at the Historic Ship Harbour, and learn more about Asia’s maritime and cultural heritage through the museum’s education programmes.
This unforgettable visit ends on a nail-biting note in the 360º multimedia Typhoon Theatre where visitors ‘board’ a sailing ship and encounter a perilous storm.
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We started our visit off by checking out The Souk.
The Souk
Centuries ago, merchants plying the Maritime Silk Route would call at many different bustling ports and souks*. The sights, sounds and even scents have been recreated with interactive activities and panels, to give visitors an inkling of what life was like in those days.
*Souks refer to marketplaces in Arab cities. Other ports and souks outside of these cities are also featured.
Nutmeg, originally found in Banda Island (Molucca Islands) was traded in Malacca.
Distilled nutmeg is used in cooking, medicines and perfumes.
These little ships
If you are already wowed by those little ships, wait till you check out this gigantic one - it is actually Jewel of Muscat. I think its very magificient, no?
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| Jewel of Muscat |
| About Jewel of Muscat Based on the remains of the Belitung wreck salvages in 1998, the reconstructed 9th century Arabian dhow, the “Jewel of Muscat”, features a hull made of timbers from Africa sewn together with coconut fibre ropes and no nails. The ship made its historic voyage from Oman to Singapore. It was presented as an official gift from the Sultanate of Oman to the Singapore government in July 2010. |
After walking further down, I spotted a mini safari amidst the building itself! Check out the life size giraffes and rhinoceros figurines below. This is actually a cross section of the same treasure ship, Jewel of Muscat that you see above.
Can you imagine how they managed to have those animals onboard in the past? The ship has to be really big to have them onboard!
Saw these carpets and I just had to take a picture of them because they remind me so much of my last visit to Lotto Carpets.
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| Traditional rug weaving loom |
Mommy spotted this camel and she was like, "Hey, you ought to take a picture with it." I was quite hesitant initially because I looked god awful - think dark eye rings and huge eye bags that particular morning (slept at 3am the day before, was working on a blog post) but I was surprised by it turned out! At least better that I thought it would be.
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| Another take with Grandpa |
After that, we took the escalator down to join the queue to enter S.E.A. Aquarium. I think we queued for another 45 minutes before we entered S.E.A Aquarium.
S.E.A. Aquarium
8 Sentosa Gateway
Sentosa Island
Singapore 098269
Nearest MRT Station:
Harbourfront MRT Station
Getting to S.E.A. Aquarium via:
Bus:
RWS 8
Outside VivoCity and HarbourFront Station bus stops
$2 for round trip
Sentosa Express:
Go to the 3rd level (Lobby L) of VivoCity shopping mall to transfer to Sentosa Express to enter the resort. Drop off at Waterfront Station.
Opening hours:
10am - 7pm
Entrance fee:
Adult - $33
Child (4-12 years old) - $23
Senior Citizen (60 years old and above) - $23
8 Sentosa Gateway
Sentosa Island
Singapore 098269
Nearest MRT Station:
Harbourfront MRT Station
Getting to S.E.A. Aquarium via:
Bus:
RWS 8
Outside VivoCity and HarbourFront Station bus stops
$2 for round trip
Sentosa Express:
Go to the 3rd level (Lobby L) of VivoCity shopping mall to transfer to Sentosa Express to enter the resort. Drop off at Waterfront Station.
Opening hours:
10am - 7pm
Entrance fee:
Adult - $33
Child (4-12 years old) - $23
Senior Citizen (60 years old and above) - $23
S.E.A Aquarium is divided into different sections as follow.
- Strait of Karimata & Java Sea
- Strait of Malacca & Andaman Sea
- Bay of Bengal & Laccadive Sea
- Ocean Journey
- Open Ocean
- Persian Gulf & Arabian Sea
- Red Sea
- East Africa
- South China Sea
- Shark Seas
Honestly speaking, I was quite disappointed by the modest entry point. I was like, "Don't tell me this is it?" Plus, it looked so similar to that of Underwater World.
These reminds me so much of Nemo!
This cracked me up a little when it says Pipes, Razors, Ghosts, Dragons & Horses.
Here's how the Ghost look like! Its actually Ghost Pipefish.
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| Razorfish |
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| Circular Aquarium |
You probably can't tell from the close-ups above but the Circular Aquarium in S.E.A. Aquarium reminds me of Romeo and Juliet aquarium scene.
Although I didn't meet my Romeo in S.E.A. Aquarium, I was happy to get to know Kenji and Lilian from Malaysia. They were queuing in front of us to get into S.E.A. Aquarium and we started talking. Kenji is a graffiti artist, you can check out his works here, kenjichai.com. Lilian does Marketing too!
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| With Kenji and Lilian |
We moved on to the Bay of Bengal and Laccadive Sea.
Fishing on stilts is common to Sri Lanka but this tradition slowly disappeared after the tsunami in 2004.
Check out the super cute-looking (I think its pufferfish) that I spotted!
Check out the super cute-looking (I think its pufferfish) that I spotted!
Its definitely one of the best shots that I took in S.E.A Aquarium that day. Did I mention how much it was of a challenge taking photos in S.E.A Aquarium due to low lighting? Everything just come out blue. -.-" Plus, I doubt flash will make it any better.
A lot of photography enthusisasts have asked me this question - Is flash photography is allowed in S.E.A Aquarium? Well, the disclaimer says, "For the comfort and safety of our animals we ask that you refrain from the use of flash photography."
One thing I liked about S.E.A Aquarium is that there's photo taking opportunities at every section. Despite not being a huge fan of fishes, I was blown away by how pretty these aquatic creatures looked! They look luminous and they swim together in an army in the same direction which is a very pretty and magnificent sight!
These unique-looking fishes in blue and yellow are a pretty sight too!
More colorful and multi-colored fishes to take your breath away.
Over at Ocean Journey, we spotted these playful Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins that love swimming upside down.
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| Bottlenose dolphins |
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| Giant spider crabs |
Now onto the highlight and the best part of my trip to S.E.A. Aquarium - sea jelly or better known as jelly fish. They have got different species such as the trailing long-tentacled lion’s mane sea jelly, the captivating neon blue sea jelly and the larger-than-life moon sea jelly.
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| Moon sea jelly |
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| Trailing long-tentacled lion’s mane sea jelly |
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| neon blue sea jelly |
After that, we headed to the Open Ocean section.
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| Manta ray (Stingray) |
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| Me with the fishes at Open Ocean |
OMG, I look so ghastly white here! I was actually trying to take a selca (self-shot) and this guy whom is a staff in S.E.A. Aquarium came up to me and asked if I needed his help. Kudos to him, we got a nice family shot below.
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| With Grandpa and Mommy |
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| Ocean Dome in the Open Ocean section of the S.E.A. Aquarium |
Grandpa really like the Ocean Dome, he said that its very relaxing just sitting down and looking at the fishes.
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| Ocean Dome's ceiling |
We were greeted by more colorful fishes as we headed for the exit.
Check out the fins of these fishes below. They are super long yet translucent! Very unique I would say!
I can't remember what is this fish called but it looks like a lobster or crayfish to me, except that its in white and brown instead of orange.
This fellow here sure look not too pleased with the avid photographers trying to get a good picture of it.
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| Life-sized replica of the bow of the Bao Chuan, Admiral Zheng He's legendary treasure ship |
We stopped by Fish & Crab Shack (within the building that house S.E.A Aquarium and Maritime Experiential Museum) for some juice and coffee before heading back.
As the place is quite huge, I think it would be better to set aside more time, probably about 5 hours minimum for both S.E.A Aquarium and Maritime Experiential Museum so that you won't have to rush through it like we did. I think it will be more enjoyable that way. We did both of them in 4 hours but queuing up alone takes 1 h 30 mins already.
I hope you like this post. Thanks for reading.
Love,
Patricia
Love,
Patricia
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