High Up at the Pinnacle@Duxton & A Bad Encounter with the MA Office

A few weeks ago, my brother and I went to the Pinnacle@Duxton. It's actually a beautiful block of flats under HDB built differently from norm, with a breathtaking view at the sky garden and luxurious looking architecture more so than many of the usual private apartments or condominiums. When it was first launched, it was crazy in a way that those who managed to get the unit through balloting, would be considered very very lucky indeed. I am not really into real estates so I do not know the affordability of it as compared to private housing.

When I heard I had to pay $5.00 to go up the sky bridge, naturally, I didn't want to go. But since my brother was so keen about going, and do some vlogging, I had to tag along. It's around 10 to 15 minutes walk from Chinatown and Outram Park MRT station and there are many entrances. But we're supposed to go visit the MA office first in order to pay to go up.

And this was where our unhappiness set in.

There was no queue, just a little sign telling us the opening and closing times to go up the bridge at a small cubicle, with a person inside, and the window was closed. We came all the way and I'm not turning back if we're still within the hours. The door was also closed but it wasn't totally closed so I opened it to speak to the person. He wasn't happy because I didn't knock and proceed to open the window. Of course I was shocked at his comment yet apologetic but at the back of my mind, I was thinking, why the heck would you close the window if it's not closing time you know.

Okay that is one thing. It was at the 50th floor and before we went up, a couple was behind us and I overheard they wanted to go up as well. So I guess this guy could not close the window after us after all. I don't think he should either unless he wasn't in and in case someone tried to be funny and enter.

After going all the way up to the 50th floor, we found we could not push the gate with a turn around mechanism because it was locked. Funny, we paid $5.00 each only to encounter this stupid sh*t. My brother was already pissed off earlier, and now he's worse off. The couple behind us arrived and they said the guy downstairs had activated their ez link cards for them. But then, they also cannot enter. The only signage we saw when we were at the gate was to call the MA office if the gate could not open and so one of them called.

But I found it sooooo stupid we were not told to handover our cards to activate for entry and the fact I had to travel down 50th floor via the lift to ask. By the time we reached downstairs, there was a group of people queueing wanting to go in. After the two people were done buying their tickets, I had to like quickly ask the guy why I could not enter even though I have paid. His solution? To call him when we reach the gate.

WHY HE DIDN'T TELL US EARLIER?!!!

the nerves -_-

Now it was my turn to be pissed off.

So we went up the 50th floor again (le sigh..) and I called him. I guess he was quite free already because when I was on the line, the group of people had made their way up and they were ALL stuck and didn't know what to do.

The next thing I knew, since the turnstile gate could only let one person enter at time (Dumbest thing ever..), I ended up giving instructions for him to activate the gate whenever a person enter and another one was going to enter. The funny thing was, they were also clueless as to how to enter because obviously you don't just read the sign as you expect the gate to be able to open for you after you make payment, just like when you enter the fare gate prior to taking the train.

So yah, back to those people. I had to hold on the line to give him instructions to open the gate when someone wanted to open. Then these were not all locals. Some were tourists and like what my brother said, when he did the same thing like when he came another time in the day, the told him they could not call because they had a foreign line so it would be very expensive for them to call.

So the dodo, this MA office.

I was so scared my brother was going to do something stupid, like create a scene or something coz of his unhappiness at the incompetency of this whole matter of getting in, I got pretty emo. But in the end, he said that he was just venting his anger, but of course, he won't be so silly as to picking a fight with the guy, even though he's bigger and taller.

Therefore, initially I didn't quite enjoy the view despite taking two to three photos. When we both had calmed down, we spent like 45 minutes walking around and then lounging on some er, lounge chairs, even though there was no pool, and just soaked in the stillness of the night. There were also the residents walking around and I was thinking, they are so lucky to live here. Personally I don't want to live here not just because of the sh*tty way the MA office was handling the public, LIKE WE OWE THEM A LIVING, *cough* but I would rather stay where I am residing. However, it's quite near the city like probably 20 minutes away.

From another point where we were standing, we heard some loud music coming from one of the bars nearby along a row of shophouses. It was Saturday so we could see people enjoying their drinks and the music, even though they looked like ants from where we were standing up on the 50th floor.

Below are some shots that I took and the last picture was of us chilling at a McDonalds cafe ( not bar, lol..) and this was the calm after the storm.

Enjoy!

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