Musings

The Singapore Flyer is one of our little island’s newest tourisy-attraction. My sis-in-law Jasmine has gone up for the ride, as has Ling and mum-in-law; and from all accounts, it seems a ride worth taking. Ling has plans to bring Matt up for a ride too.

That said, if the below pair of letters is anything to go by, the level of customer service for the ride needs to do a lot better. Snippets from The Straits Times forum; the first letter from here, response from here.

May 20, 2008

Romance punctured: Singapore Flyer

…

The cause of the unhappiness was that I had taken my girlfriend on the Singapore Flyer ride on April 11 as a surprise present for her birthday. I bought tickets for the 7pm ride and the tickets stated that customers had to check in 30 minutes before the ride for security checks. So we checked in at 6.30pm. But we were told that we could not wait until 7pm to board the Singapore Flyer.

The usher at the entrance to the cabins said that they had a private function at 7pm and we might not be able to board the flyer at 7pm. So we unwillingly boarded the flyer at 6.30pm but missed out on seeing the night landscape of Singapore which would have made my girlfriend’s birthday celebration so romantic.

…

It is unfair to tell customers to check in earlier and then make them go on the ride immediately afterwards because it is not the actual boarding time that the customer had wanted and paid for.

Sim Boon Yuan

And response a Bernard Lim, the Director of Special Projects @ Singapore Flyer:

May 26, 2008

Turn up 30 minutes before Singapore Flyer ride

I REFER to Mr Sim Boon Yuan’s feedback last Tuesday, ‘Romance punctured: Singapore Flyer’.

Under our terms and conditions, guests are encouraged to present themselves at the boarding entrance of the capsule 30 minutes before their flight time, as reflected on their ticket. Therefore it was all right for Mr Sim to board the capsule 30 minutes before 7pm.

…

Bernard Lim

Director Special Projects

Singapore Flyer

I nearly fell off my chair after reading Mr. Lim’s response. Has he missed the issue? The whole point for some folks to take the Singapore Flyer is to catch the beautiful sunset at specific timings. What kind of service operator arbitrarily changes the time of a provided service when timing could be everything to the customer. As someone suggested in the discussion thread: Mr. Lim should put himself in Mr. Sim’s shoes and ask himself with this kind of reply, will Mr. Sim ever want to take the ride again.

And here I was thinking of giving the Flyer a try in June. No way now I’m going let them get my money now if this is the kind of customer service the operator displays. More comments of outrage and dismay from the public here too.

…what would you recommend him? Okay, this is my list of things to do:

Topmost on the list: Must bring him to try our local fare, of course!! I mean, we don’t have much of a natural heritage here, or any man-made wonders of the world (eh, does the Singapore Flyer count?), or dirt-cheap shopping, or nice quaint vintage houses, or tranquil countryside, etc.

Matt, our dear buddy, will be flying all the way from America to Singapore in a few weeks’ time. This will be his second visit here (he was Yang’s best man during our wedding, remember?) He will be here for our local food. He misses the Katong laksa, roti prata and dim sum. Okies, for the sake of our dear foodie friend, I shall draw up a list of must-try foods for him while he’s here again:

1. Paranakan Cuisine: laksa (Katong of course!), nonya curry, mee siam, rojak, popiah, kueh kueh, otah, etc
2. Chinese cuisine: dim sum (e.g. xiao long bao from Din Tai Fung), clear soups, congee (Crystal Jade’s), Hainanese chicken rice, duck rice (A* coffee shop), steamboat, shrimp dumpling noodles (Rivervale Mall’s Foodcourt), beef hor fun (Casaurina Rd), fried carrot cake (Shi Fu coffee shop), fried kway teow, fried rice (Din Tai Fung’s), chilli crabs (Jumbo’s), fried Hokkien mee (Punggol Plaza coffee shop), etc
3. Malay cuisine: mutton / beef rendang (my mother in-law’s one is good), satay, nasi briyani, nasi lemak, lontong, mee rebus, mee soto, mee goreng, etc
4. Indian cuisine: Roti prata (Compass Point Banquet – the best!), naan, teh tarik, teh halia, etc
5. Thai cuisine: green curry, mango and glutinous rice dessert, red rubies, sweet tapioca, etc
6. Local fruits: durian, mangosteen, malay apples, etc.

Pant, pant… did I miss out any ‘die die must try’ dishes? Tell me please ok?

As for places to look-see, here’s my rough plan:

1. Rustic pulau ubin
2. Bukit Timah nature reserve
3. Singapore Flyer
4. Singapore River / Clark Quay
5. Chinatown
6. Little India
7. Marina South (to have steamboat??)
8. Chinese Tea House ??
9. Zoo?
10. Where, where, where? Oh yah, go catch latest blockbusters…cheaper than the States…

This time round, we will still get Matt a tub of bak qua as happy-hour snack and stock loads of chilled green tea in our fridge. Now, haven’t we got something going?