Hazy Business at Vivo City Soft Opening

On Saturday, 7 October 2006, I took Inka and Irza to Vivo City, a brand new shopping mall in Singapore, which is just opened on that day. The new big shopping mall is located just next to the Harbourfront Centre, near the ferry terminal where the ferry to Batam departs. It's also located just beside the gateway road to Sentosa island. It's also located just above the Harbourfront MRT station, on the North East Line of the MRT line.

Vivo City is reputably the biggest shopping mall in Singapore right now, beating rival Ngee Ann City and Suntec City. Some of the anchor tenants include Tangs, Marks and Spencer, Giant Hypermarket and three big food courts, Kopitiam, Banquet and Food Republic. It also has an outdoor playground on the second floor, and a "sky park" on the third floor, which is near the waterfront facing the Singapore Cruise Centre and Sentosa island.

Unfortunately, the haze in Singapore was on its worst on that day, with PSI reading went up to 150 on that day. As you can see on the pictures below, the skyline was very hazy, we couldn't even see the sun.

We spent most of our time in VivoCity at the outdoor area, such as the water fountain area in front of the mall (facing Telok Blangah Road), along the waterfront (facing the sea), in the playground on the second floor, and around the SkyPark on the third floor, facing the waterfront. As a result, Inka fell sick the next day due to fever and cough, and skipped school for three consecutive days. The doctor confirmed that it's due to the haze. So, my fellow Indonesians, you can see that not only Singaporeans and Malaysians suffer from the haze, we do as well!

From the waterfront and the sky park, we could see Sentosa, with its Merlion and Calsberg Sky Tower, plus the cable car towers, despite the haze. We also saw the Sentosa Express monorail, which was still under trial run (see picture below).

In the evening, we went to Harbourfront Centre, which is connected to VivoCity by a bridge on the second floor, to break our fast with the kids' favourite menu: New York Pizza. The pizza counter is located within the Singapore ferry terminal complex in the second floor.