Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands: Where you can take a sampan ride and experience gushing water inside a mall

Don’t think I’ll ever ride the sampan. Just seems to contrived and unreal, when I could take a nice bumboat ride out to one of the little islands from Changi instead. But I think kids would enjoy this and I’d probably only do this if I was with a kid. Kids who are shorter than 1.2m will be made to wear a vest and babies under 2, are not allowed, just so you know.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

The most interesting part of the ride I think would be getting close to the Rain Oculus water feature by artist Ned Kahn. I was pretty impressed by it. When I first past the area, I was wondering why the glass dome structure was leaking. It was only later that I discovered this was an actually feature as a huge gush of water poured down as it swooshed around the glass dome.

The whole effect is nice though. Having water features throughout the mall.

photo by bookjunkie

I wonder if the riders got soaked. Probably just sprayed by the water.

photo by bookjunkie

Wanted to capture the volume of water gushing down.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

It’s no wonder that the Coffee Bean Bistro was packed. But I was surprised that they still left a whole section closed. Isn’t that bad for business? Well I guess they wanted people to sit inside, where there were still a few seats, but obviously the main attraction was to sit by the fountain and watch the sampans go by. In a way if you take the sampan you become part of the show and everyone will gawk. If I was a tourist in Vegas I’d probably do the same. Somehow when you’re on holiday you’re game for anything.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

A YouTuber put up a video of the ride and it definitely looks like you get wet.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyMDB-iGVNQ]

The ride cost S$10 per person and there’s more information at the Marina Bay Sands site. The rides start at 11 am with the last one at 7.30 pm and they last 30 minutes.

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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2 Responses to Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands: Where you can take a sampan ride and experience gushing water inside a mall

  1. 365days2play says:

    That looks scary actually… I’ve got a thing against large bodies of water cascading down like that. Where is the water coming from anyway? The last time I was at MBS some months ago, there was no water at all.

    • bookjunkie says:

      It’s coming from a dish like thing at the top. There is some kind of mechanism that makes the water swirl around vigorously before it falls. It is part of the vertigo that you experience?

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