Stunning architecture—Marina Bay Sands

The Marina Bay Sands with the Helix pedestrian bridge left, the ArtScience museum on the right and the curving, cantilevered Skypark atop the three towers of the Sands Hotel 

The Singapore Flyer as seen from the Skypark

View of the Singapore Strait and ongoing construction below

The durian-shaped Singapore Convention Center

Looking down on the bay and the ArtScience Museum

The Skypark is definitely not for the altophobic

The Central Business District and beyond

The ArtScience Museum

The Merlion seen from 57 stories up 

Today's architect has technology close at hand for creating extraordinary shapes and forms and turning these into astounding structures. The Bird's Nest and the Water Cube in Beijing, the Burj al Arab Hotel, i.m. pei's groundbreaking Louvre Pyramid, Zaha Hadid's BMW plant—all these iconic buildings were conceived using computerized modeling. Just thirty years ago edifices like these would have been impossible to build—a mere pipe dream to remain as a fantastical doodle in a designer's sketch pad.

The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, designed by Israeli-born architect Moshe Safdie was initially inspired by a deck of cards. This astonishing complex, said to be the most expensive stand alone casino costing US$8 billion, is a  blend of glass and steel curving along impossible lines. It was a challenging project according to its engineers and builders. Three 57-storey towers of the Sands Hotel is joined together by a rooftop structure called the Skypark. It has a cantilevered  deck jutting out 64 meters from one tower, and the largest–longest–highest infinity pool with an edge "vanishing" into the Singapore skyline and beyond. It has a restaurant and bar offering a vertiginous view of the bay on one side and the Strait of Singapore on the other. The 20 hectare property includes  the ArtScience museum (shaped like a lotus flower), the Shoppes, the Glass Pavillions and the Sands Hotel and the 4-storey Casino. There is also the Helix Bridge, a pedestrian walkway linking the Marina Centre with Marina Bay Sands. 


The Shoppes is a mall of high end stores and gastronomic restaurants of superstar chefs like Mario Batalli and Daniel Bouloud. It also features a large skating rink of fake ice and sampan rides in a Venitian-like canal snaking its way around the shops. It's centerpiece, the Rain Oculus, created by American artist and sculptor Ned Kahn, has water bursting forth from an acrylic basket in the ceiling, gushing down into a rotunda in the waterway.


Peppered throughout the Marina Bay Sands complex are remarkable pieces of modern art, a visual feast for guests and the casual visitor. An ongoing exhibit at the ArtScience museum is a fairly comprehensive retrospective of Salvador Dali's works. There are Broadway musicals like The Lion King, Cirque Elóise and Rahman's Jai Ho showing in various theatres.


There are two yet to be completed crystal pavilions that will house the largest Louis Vuitton boutique in the world and two world famous night clubs, the Avalon and Pangea. The structures are on a floating island and connected by an underwater tunnel.


Overall, if one is allowed to proselytize, this temple to hedonism does its job in spectacular fashion. It indulges the senses in all ways possible. From the distinctive hotel, plush casino, luxury brand stores, gourmet restaurants, shows and attractions—all are designed to bedazzle, and entice you to part with your hard earned cash without really feeling it. The ancient art of smoke and mirrors, with the aid of technology, is now a science and cleverly employed in this breathtaking, 21st century resort.

Getting damp in a sampan by the rain oculus 

Skating on fake ice

ArtScience Museum closeup

Not too many straight lines here

Inside the glass awning of The Shoppes

Sculpture dotting the shopping mall

Diving the Kyokuzan Maru

exploring the very tip of the bow

strange coral shapes along the ship railing

through the wheelhouse

resident batfish

army vehicle in the hold, depth around 104ft

another swim through

a view of the upper deck

near the mast

Busuanga, Northern Palawan is famous for its World War II ship wrecks in Coron Bay. There are at least 11 that are easily reached by the average diver. One wreck in particular, the Kyokuzan Maru, was a supply vessel for the Japanese Army. The vessel sailed from Manila to Palawan during the liberation of the country in September of 1944. It then hid from American spy planes flying over Coron and later, it was deliberately scuttled to avoid enemy capture. All the ship wrecks in Coron Bay were bombed by the US Air Force except for this one. It sits in an upright position which makes for easy penetration.

looking down at the cargo hold, around 130-140ft

What makes the Kyokuzan Maru unique is the ship and its cargo remain relatively intact. Army vehicles with white side wall tires are still visible in its hold. It was also carrying building material including a load of asbestos. The asbestos is seen as a milky, suspended substance inside the open cargo hold. An eerie, ghostly aura emanates as you look straight down into this large, dark space. Not too many divers dare venture into this lower part of the ship. It is quite deep and beyond recreational diving limits. The thought of diving into a soup of asbestos is also not very appealing.

The vessel is large, 450ft in length and requires two dives to fully explore just the upper portions. Nitrox is advisable as most of the interesting sections are at 80-110ft in depth. The wheel house and galley are particularly fascinating— clam, batfish, and numerous hard coral have made this their home.

The ship wreck is situated in the northeastern side of Busuanga, close to Dimalanta Island, in a calm, protected bay. It is also known as the Dimalanta wreck. On the way there, you pass the heavily guarded Jewelmer Pearl Farm. Visibility underwater is remarkably clear because the area is sparsely populated. It is a wreck dive not to be missed!

i said i'd never blog... it's too public

But here I am tapping away at my keyboard. As if being on Facebook isn't enough to eat up my time. I've woefully neglected a huge part of my work, giving all sorts of excuses to my client why projects have been late. My work was recently accused of "lacking inspiration." Yikes... that hurt. I have only Facebook and my online voyeurism to blame. 

So why am I feeding your voyeurism? Three little letters, E-G-O, I want to hear you say.... that's really nice! Ha, ever so shallow, ever so insecure....