Hi Guys, Mau bertanya soal info tourism? Mau tau info apa aja seputar Singapore? bisa juga lewat mailing list ikutin petunjuk link dibawah
http://www.kaskus.co.id/showthread.php?t=11866319
atau bisa langsung apply lewat link dibawah ini:
https://groups.google.com/group/regionalsingapore

Sentosa

Spoiler for pictures:

Sentosa, which translates to peace and tranquility in Malay, is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some five million people a year.[1] Attractions include a two-kilometre long sheltered beach, Fort Siloso, two golf courses and two five-star hotels, and the upcoming Resort Worlds at Sentosa, featuring the new theme park Universal Studios Singapore.

=========================================================
Etymology
=========================================================
Sentosa was once known as Pulau Blakang Mati,[3] which in Malay means the "Island (pulau) of Death (mati) from Behind (blakang)".

The name Blakang Mati is rather old but may not have been founded in the nineteenth century as generally believed. In fact, there exists an island that was identified as Blacan Mati in Manuel Gomes de Erédia's 1604 map of Singapore. Other early references to the island of Blakang Mati include Burne Beard Island in Wilde's 1780 MS map, Pulau Niry, Nirifa from 1690 to 1700, and the nineteenth century reference as Pulau Panjang (J.H. Moor). However, early maps did not separate Blakang Mati from the adjacent island of Pulau Brani, so it is uncertain to which island the sixteenth century place names referred.

The island has gone through several name changes. Up to 1830, it was called Pulau Panjang ("long island"). In an 1828 sketch of Singapore Island, the island is referred to as Po. Panjang. According to Bennett (1834), the name Blakang Mati was only given to the hill on the island by the Malay villagers on the island. The Malay name for this island is literally translated as "dead back" or "behind the dead"; blakang means "at the back" or "behind"; mati means "dead". It is also called the dead island or the island of the dead.

Different versions of how the island came to acquire such an unpropitious name abound. One account attributed the ominous name to murder and piracy in the island's past. A second claimed that the island is the material paradise of warrior spirits buried at Pulau Brani.

A fourth interpretation is that "dead back island" was so-called because of the lack of fertile soil on the hills.

In 1827, Captain Edward Lake of the Bengal Engineers in his report on public works and fortifications had proposed an alternative name for Blakang Mati as the "Island of St George". However, the island was seen as too unhealthy for habitation and his proposed name was never realised.

In a 1972 contest organised by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, the island was renamed Sentosa, a Malay word meaning "peace and tranquillity".

=========================================================
History
=========================================================
Pre-1945

Spoiler for pic:

Gunners at work on a 6 Inch Gun emplacement at Fort Siloso.

In the nineteenth century, the island was considered important because it protected the passage into Keppel Harbour. Plans to fortify the island as part of the defence plan for Singapore were drawn up as early as 1827, but few fortifications actually materialised until the 1880s, when the rapid growth of the harbour led to concern over the protection of coal stocks against enemy attack. The forts built on the island were Fort Siloso, Fort Serapong, Fort Connaught and the Mount Imbiah Battery.

The western end of Pulau Blakang Mati, the place where Fort Siloso is now, used to be called sarang rimau (the tiger's den). Salusuh is a kind of herb used as a remedy in childbirth, but there is no explanation of how the fort came to be so-called, the orang laut of Kampong Kopit only knowing the place by the name of sarang rimau. By the 1930s, the island was heavily fortified and a crucial component of Fortress Singapore, and the base of the Royal Artillery.

During the Second World War, the island was a British military fortress. The British set up artillery guns in Fort Siloso that were then pointed to the south, facing the sea in expectation of a seaward Japanese assault. However, the Japanese eventually invaded and captured Singapore from the north, after having done the same to Malaya (now known as West or Peninsular Malaysia). Following the surrender of the Allied Forces on February 15, 1942, the island became a prisoner of war camp, housing Australian and British prisoners of the Japanese.

During the Japanese Occupation, under the Sook Ching Operation, Chinese men who were suspected, often arbitrarily, of being involved in anti-Japanese activities were brutally killed. The beach at Pulau Blakang Mati was one of the killing fields.

1945-1972

After the Japanese surrender in 1945 and the return of Singapore to British rule, the island became the base of the locally enlisted First Singapore Regiment of the Royal Artillery (1st SRRA) in 1947. Other locally enlisted men from Singapore were sent to the island for basic military training before being sent to other units of the British Army in Singapore.

Ten years later, the 1st SRRA was disbanded and its guns dismantled. The coast artillery was replaced with Gurkha infantry units, first the 2/7th Duke of Edinburgh's own Gurkha Rifles and later the 2/10th Princess Mary's own Gurkha Rifles. Fort Siloso and Fort Serapong became a Catholic retreat and a Protestant church house respectively. Fort Connaught was left in ruins.

In the early 1960s, during the Indonesian Confrontation, the 2/10th unit defended the island against Indonesian saboteurs. With the end of the Confrontation in 1966 and the withdrawal of the Gurkha units from the island, the British handed over Sentosa to the Singapore Armed Forces of the newly independent Government of Singapore in 1967.

In 1967, Pulau Blakang Mati became the base for the Singapore Naval Volunteer Force, which relocated there from its old base at Telok Ayer Basin. The School of Maritime Training was also set up there, as was the first Naval Medical Centre.

In the 1970s, the government decided to develop the island into a holiday resort for local visitors and tourists.

1972-Present

The island was renamed “Sentosa” in 1972, which means peace and tranquillity in Malay, from a suggestion by the public.[3] The Sentosa Development Corporation was formed and incorporated on 1 September 1972 to oversee the development of the island.[3] Since then, some S$420 million of private capital and another S$500 million of government funds have been invested to develop the island.[3]

In 1974 the Singapore Cable Car system was built, linking Sentosa to Mount Faber.[5] A series of attractions were subsequently opened for visitors including Fort Siloso, Surrender Chamber wax museum, Musical Fountain, and the Underwater World. The causeway bridge was opened in 1992 connecting Sentosa to the mainland.[5]

The Sentosa Monorail system was opened in 1982 to transport visitors to various stations located around the island.[5] On 16 March 2005, the monorail service was discontinued to make way for the new Sentosa Express, which commenced operations on 15 January 2007.[5] An environmental assessment conducted by the government of Singapore concluded that the construction of the resorts on Sentosa would to result in high likelihood of high scale biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, soil erosion and climate change, as well as several other destructive ecological impacts.[1]

=========================================================
Geography
=========================================================
The island has an area of 5 square kilometres. It lies just half a kilometre (a quarter of a mile) away from the southern coast of the main island of Singapore. It is Singapore’s fourth largest island (excluding the main island). 70% of the island is covered by secondary rainforest, the habitat of monitor lizards, monkeys, peacocks, parrots as well as other native fauna and flora. The island also has 3.2 kilometre stretch of white sand beach. Significantly large portions of land are currently being added to Sentosa due to land reclamation.

=========================================================
Transport
=========================================================
Sentosa can be reached from the Singapore mainland via a short causeway or Cable Car, which originates on Mount Faber and passes through HarbourFront en route.

The island is also accessible by the SGD$140 million Sentosa Express monorail, which has four stations on Sentosa. Opened in 15 January 2007, the terminus of the line is at the VivoCity shopping mall on the mainland, which is in turn served by the HarbourFront MRT Station of the North East MRT Line. The journey takes four minutes. The WaterFront Station of the monorail is expected to open in 2010.

Within Sentosa there are three bus services, identified as Blue, Yellow and Red lines, and a tram service called the Beach Train. Since 1998, passenger cars have been allowed to enter the island.