South East Asia Aquarium

Lyn L Kang
The hubs and I planned a family outing with the kiddies and gramps to the SEA Aquarium. 

I heard horror stories about how long it takes to queue to get in, both from online blogs and almost every friend who had been. 

So our strategy was to take leave, and go on a weekday afternoon instead. 

It worked. 
Elated to see zero queues!

This was the entrance to the maritime museum section, where a friend queued 2 hours just to get past. Another friend got so frustrated she paid a further $12 per person for express passes so that her whole entourage could bypass the queue. 

I initially thought this was a wonderful replica of Noah’s Ark, then later realised it was Admiral Zheng He’s junk. (Cultural awareness FAIL.)

As with many other people, I found the shark egg exhibit among one of the most fascinating. Even more so if you were a mother or parent, I imagine. Enthralling to see the vellum-like sheath that these shark foetuses were encased in. Every pulse of life was evident, every little baby movement visible to the naked eye. 
Truly a moment to pause and be amazed at our Creator’s ingenuity. And at the privilege of being able to glimpse through a window of creation, so to speak. 

There was a very helpful info graphic right next to the exhibit. I thought the ‘locomotion to oxygenate capsule’ was particularly fascinating. 

And below, a cast off bundle of shark capsules – the baby sharks were in the same rock pool too. 

Grey-black patterned baby sharks and some sea stars (not starfish cos they are not ‘fish’ in any sense). 

Most of the huge tanks dwarfed the little girls.

We spent the vouchers from my organisation on sushi (haha), popcorn and drinks. 

Other favourites included the dragon sea horse (above, resembling drifting seaweed!) and the toadstool like sea jelly (below with the upside down jellies).

The ethereal dance of the sea jellies (also not fish by any classification)

Giant garouper

The lilt of fairy-like music and the vastness of the gallery panel conspire to make one stand captivated, crowd and its chatter notwithstanding. 

I could not take my eyes off the wizardry of the somersaulting manta ray, as it looped the loop for almost 5 minutes, basking in the frenzy of bubbles released by the divers within.

It was almost an other world experience to watch the ray and its acrobatic performance. 

Ironically, the kids were most mesmerised by a diver cleaning the coral and gravel at the ‘dome’ end of the open ocean gallery. They simply refused to leave!!

Gorgeous – the most vivid display in the aquarium. Bursts of red, yellow, orange, purple assault the senses. 

As we neared the end, there was a particularly mean looking shark settled at the sea bed. B really liked him though and we spent a while hamming it up next to Sharky. 

A shark that thinks its a seal and a girl who… is acting cartoon?

I thought the final pane at the exit encapsulated the SEA Aquarium well. Huge spacious tanks for the sealife to roam around, similarly vast glass panes to bring gawking humans as close as they can get to marine life without donning a dive suit, and majestic marine creatures (check out the size of those sharks!). 

All in all, our family had a great time. Glad we went when it was not too crowded and we did not have to jostle with hordes of tourists. ^_^

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6 Comments

  2. thanks for sharing tip on how to avoid the queue ! we tried to visit but was turned off by the queue, if I remember correctly, we were told it will take 3 hours to queue and an hour to get in ! GOSH!

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