Feb 19

MsE declared that tomorrow was a Mommy - MsE day, and who was I to argue.

MsE's goal was icecream; mine was to see something new. Jewel Mall has a walking path and some play structures at the top. It seemed like it would fit the bill. I forgot how close to the mall is to the Airport. It's literally connected. Driving up straight towards the Air Control Tower, it felt like we were about to leave the country, except for the fact that we past a giant parking lot of grounded jets to on our left that wouldn't been there in normal times. They were lined up in giant rows by the type of airline: the white Singapore Airlines, then the yellow Scoot, etc.

When we dropped off at Terminal 7 by our Grab. There we found ourselves facing a red-eyed, sinister looking, orange robot. It was labeled "Police Force, Parking Enforcement" and was roving back in forth at the drop off zone. MsE feared we were being chased by it, as it turned around and began to come back towards us. We didn't wait to find out what would happen if it got to us and instead ran for it into the Jewel Mall entrance.  

When we went to the bottom floor of the mall we could see the airport terminal where you pick up your luggage. This is probably why the mall was empty. In theory this is probably the most likely place to catch Covid in Singapore. I'm sure it was quite safe. Anyone entering the country would be nowhere near here. I'm sure those were Airport personnel or possibly Airline staff we could see.

The mall has the world's largest waterfall. Each store and activity we did in the mall required us to sign in for contact tracing, except for the waterfall. I was really surprised that this space didn't seem to need any sign in. I guess it's considered public space, like the hallways are. It certainly didn't feel like a hallway it's a large dome like enclosure housing the world's largest indoor waterfall. We also found lanterns of the Zodiac Animals in honour of Lunar New Year.

MsE had to know what was at the bottom of the waterfall so she had us climbing higher and higher up the "Forest Valley Trail." She took us up a lot of stairs to get to higher and higher viewing platforms. She didn't find the bottom and once she was satisfied with her search, I explained that the water is pumped from the bottom back up to the top to fall again. Then we went and looked at it from the bottom. MsE liked standing in the mist at the bottom and looking at the little rainbows being made by the light in the mist.

After our waterfall exploration, we ate french fries and vanilla ice cream at Shake Shake, then we happened to find the Pokemon Store. I was hoping she would choose the Pokemon dressed in Lunar New Year finery, but she choose another with her leftover Christmas Money.

We went up to the 5th floor for our adventure. I'd paid $5 each for admittance. I bought the tickets online, give that the mall was empty, I'm sure I could have purchased it at the mall. The ticket was good for all day, instead of the usual 1 admittance time so I'm sure it's always pretty empty here currently. On the 5th floor, we found the top of the waterfall.

We could see the Air Control Tower in the distance and out the other side we could see the runway and the airport car drop off or pick up. We didn't see any planes take off, but I wondered if the bus we saw out the window was one of the ones that takes people for their government quarantine upon arrival to Singapore.

Upstairs were nice restaurants and lots of palm trees. You could hear the quiet roar of the waterfall and their were even a few birds around who've made their way into the mall and will probably never leave now. We followed the walking path, and noticed the Year of the Ox elements had been added along the trail.

The slides were included in our walk admission. I tried a few times with MsE, but she played for a long time. The yellow slide was concrete and the workers insisted that you cross your arms. It was very steep. I didn't do a good job keeping my arms in and I'm lucky I didn't hurt myself. The bottom hurt a little too. I liked the metal tube slide better, but it took MsE a while to get enough nerve to go down that one.

There was also a climbing nets section up here. It's open over the ground below - like 5 stories below. I'm not a fan of heights so I wasn't sure I'd actually be able to do it, so we skipped it. It was also $15/person, which would have added quite a bit to our little day. Our day had already started out more expensive than I'd thought it would be; I'd forgotten the airport was $30 away from home each way.

After we exited the Walk we stopped and had a snack at the Aloha Poké. MsE drank Pineapple Juice. I had Fresh Iced Tea. They gave me a creamer jug and it took me a few minutes to realize that it held simple syrup to add to my tea. That made a lot more sense than me thinking they had given me cream for iced tea.

MsE and I were gone much of the day. It was a fun little escape, even if we didn't get to step onto a plane.