Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Casino

I don't gamble, but if there is something new that has to be seen then I'd go see it even if its a casino.  Singapore has just recently opened it's Marina Bay Sands  Hotel and the area has both Shops and a Casino.  Coming from Las Vegas, they brought the concept here and I must say I felt like I was no longer in the island country of Singapore.  Even the restaurants and the Casino come from Las Vegas.  The casino has 500 tables and 1500 slot machines. Imagine how big it is.  It is a mega gambling empire.

After an extremely delicious meal of scrumptious steak at the newly opened restaurant called "Cut" (which I will write about tomorrow), my dear friend in Singapore took me to see the Casino from a bird's eye view.  We were standing on the third floor balcony overlooking the 500 tables.  The feeling is unlike any I've had before.

Upon first seeing it you are just dazed and awed. It's all a gigantic space of curves and lights. For a few seconds, I didn't realize what I was seeing until my senses started adjusting.  Then you see it. It suddenly appears to you just like that.  Beneath all the curved lights in the middle of this large encircled area, which for some reason reminds me of a futuristic behive, there are hundreds and hundreds of tables.  Upon looking even closer, you see them covered in green or blue and cards are being decked out.  It really feels like a behive. I feel like I am in part of a sci-fi movie.  The yellow lights and curved walls give it a strange luminescent glow.

Then once your eyes have adjusted to the sight, your ears suddenly start being aware of a peculiar humming sound that gently vibrates and wavers through the air.  It's not like the sounds you hear in the Pachinkos in Japan, but instead the sound is like a monotonic "E" that softly hums and rings.  It rings and somehow I feel it go through me.  There is some sort of eerie silence mixed with the sound of slot machines and people playing black jack that makes this monotonic "E."  Perhaps its because I'm standing high up where the sounds mix and have some lagged effect but nevertheless its a strange feeling.

We take pictures but at the slightest indication of a flash being used, a security guy dressed in a black suit with some wiring to his ear appears out of nowhere and asks us to stop taking pictures.  He leaves just as quickly as he appears and we make our way home. Back to normal life and out of this sci-fi world.

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