#poolatthetop

On the 2nd of July we finally had to part ways with Vietnam. We didn’t have much longer left on our visa’s and, well, there was more to see. There is always more to see. Next stop for us was to the cheapest destination we could find a flight to: Singapore, the Island Country. In case you had been asleep recently, we will inform you now that Singapore was named the world’s most expensive city to live in last year. These costs usually translate down to travelers and we can vouch for a room and the price of a beer being way higher than what we had just come from in Vietnam. The prices coupled with the actual size of the place forced us to only stay for two days, and one night; and boy what a day and night it was.

We had one mission to accomplish in our limited time there. We had to, with or without getting caught, swim in the Marina Bay Sands Sky Park. You don’t know it? Look it up! It is a hotel that consists of three towers with a bridge that looks like a boat connecting them together. At the far end of this “boat” you will find the world’s longest elevated swimming pool perched 191-meters above the ground. That is the Sky Park. So we set off that morning with this one goal in mind and not having a CLUE as to how to accomplish it! First step though was getting to the hotel. After wondering there through Little India and China Town we found ourselves at the base of a massive building. We heard that there is a bar up at the top, named Ku De Ta. We also heard that the elevator to this place was located in the tower to the far left and that you needed a key to get to it. We decided that we would take a gamble and just get on the elevator and see what would happen. So that is what we did. We got on. The doors closed. We waited. Luck would have it that some other folks were headed to the top at the same time as us! They opened the doors to find us twiddling our thumbs. When they asked if we were going up, we told them of course! Seconds later we were rocketing to the top! We exited and went to the bar, our mules went to have a swim. Step two accomplished! We were at the Ku De Ta! Right next to the pool! We could see it! All that was separating us was a three foot high glass wall. All that was separating us from the ground was a few hundred feet. We found a seat under the shade, relaxed as we had made it this far and ordered a cocktail to look like we knew what we were doing. About $50 bucks later we were a bit hungry so we ordered some chips and a few beers, as they were cheaper. $100 bucks later a couple of dudes walked into the Ku De Ta. Phase three was about to commence.

The two guys who sat opposite the deck as us were dressed fairly well, but were in board shorts, ball caps and seemed a little too bit excited to be there. There was a chance they were strapped with cash, but they seemed to be about our age and something about them just seemed like they didn’t have millions of dollars. After much speculation and debate whether they were loaded, their parents were or they were just like us we decided to send Emma over to investigate further. She was there for 15 minutes before she came back with two keys. It turns out, they were cool dudes who just happened to have found a good deal online and decided to spring $400 bucks for a one night stay to have access to the pool. Little did we know that at that moment they suspected us of being some swindling international scamming couple who convinces people to give them rooms to their keys only to rob them; we didn’t learn that until later that evening over beers but it seemed plausible since Ahron stayed where he was the whole time, never introducing himself or making eye contact. In our defense we felt we had to be spy-like to get in, so all precautions we took were done so to keep attention off of us. In hindsight, we probably looked more suspicious but that is a debate for another day. So we had a key, packed our stuff, told Ben and Danny (from Brisbane) we would be back in twenty minutes and went off to change. We rendezvoused at the check in gate passing the key to the security lady. After she swipes the one she asked why we don’t have two.  We replied that we must have left it in the room since we were together, thinking we only needed one and then told her our last name: Stenhouse. Well, we must have convinced her as she hit the button, the gate rotated and we entered the Sky Park Pool. Phase Three complete.

Phase Four consisted of two things and two things only: swimming in the pool and taking as many photos at the edge of the giant, high up monster as possible. With this complete we snagged some complementary towels, dried off, changed back into our old clothes and went back into Ku De Ta to return our keys to our new pals and buy them a few drinks as a thank you. It just goes to show you two things; the first being you can never judge a book by its cover. Just because these dudes were up, way up at the top didn’t exactly mean that they lived there. They were travelers just like us, just taking a day to spoil themselves. We do that often as well. The second thing you can never do is underestimate the kindness of strangers. We asked them for a crazy request: for their keys, name and room number to get in to the pool that they had paid for. If we would have been caught, who knows, they might have got booted and we surely would have! But we didn’t get caught. We had a dip and we did as we told them we would and returned the keys and were very grateful. When you go up to strangers and start talking to them, and even make crazy requests, you never know what you will get.

After our successful swim, we said see you later to Ben and Dan, but not before making plans to meet up later that night. We went out to find some food and rest up a little. It turns out we needed that rest as we found a drinks buffet over by the river. We met up with Ben and Danny and tried to match each other rum for rum as we attempted to cram as many drinks into our guts in the 1.5 hour allotted time limit. For $16.66 Singapore Dollars per hour, these were the cheapest drinks we found ANYWHERE in town. Later when it ended and we had meandered down the river to find a bridge where people where hanging out having a good time we bought a couple cans of beer from a corner store. The price tag on the beer was $8. It was a good thing for that buffet.