Singapore's Wild Wild Wet

Lin Kiat took the day off from work, so the two of us decided to check out the new theme park by NTUC Club. Wild Wild Wet - okay, I'll forgive the name if the place really offers thrills and spills.

It was hard to enjoy all of it though. It's the June holidays, after all, and every kid this side of the island seemed to be at Pasir Ris with parents in tow. Long queues for the Funkey Card, which is Downtown East's version of put-money-in-your-card-and-spend. Long queues for rides.

After LK and I got our pass, got through the entrance to the park, we found ourselves a locker which didn't work, stuffed our belongings in, got someone to fix our locker and then we were off to the first ride. We queued for some twenty to twenty-five minutes before getting our chance to slide through a long, dark tunnel. Okay, not bad, but not very great.

We gave up on queueing for other rides and headed for the wave pool called Tsunami. We hung out there for another twenty minutes with other waiting folks, huge bobbing floats (a considerable number of girlfriends were perched on top like queens while the boyfriends pushed the floats around or gazed up adoringly at their ladies; I regret not getting LK to rent one for us), and the occasional kid kicking you in the stomach. LK and I asked the lifeguards when the wave was coming. "It comes every fifteen minutes," one of them told us. "But the other lifeguard said that to us twenty minutes ago!"

Finally it arrived when LK and I were at the deep end. We were gasping for air as the water sloshed over our heads repeatedly. (We really should've gotten a float.) Floats knocked into us the moment we surfaced, so we gave up and headed towards the "shore" where the waves broke and pummelled us at a rate and depth that we could handle.

Then we went to the kiddie section (actually, most of the park is rather kiddie), that turned out to be more fun. The slides and climbing structures were equipped with faucets, buckets, and pipes that poured water into more containers that finally emptied onto you if you were unlucky enough to be standing underneath. Kids could pull strings to release the water onto themselves or aim some water guns (they looked like gas pumps) at hapless victims. LK enjoyed standing underneath a pipe which emptied water very strongly - good massage for the shoulders and back. We saw a bunch of kids gathering at a certain spot and wondered what they were waiting for. Minutes later, a huge bucket perched high above had filled with sufficient water and the bucket groaned with its weight. It bent until a dizzyingly large amount of water crashed onto the happy campers below. It really was quite a sight. I determined to catch the next "waterfall." I got my place early while LK waited on the side to witness my demise. It was a long wait. When it did happen, I got more arms and legs in my face than water. The children around me were screaming with such glee you'd think it was toys falling from the bucket. But it was a cool experience anyway.

Wild Wild Wet isn't very large but it's supposed to be the largest theme park of its kind (the wet kind) in Singapore. I sort of regret never having visited Fantasy Island before it closed now. In any case, maybe LK and I will return in July, once the kids are back in school and the crowds diminish. Then I'll get to have another water-dumping session. We'll bring LK's niece next time; she'll probably have her float with her so LK and I had better rent one of our own too.

More info on the park can be found here.

Posted by Monoceros at June 11, 2004 11:51 PM