Man your stations at Sembawang Park's Battleship Playground

(Daddy battles)

There is a new playground in town and simply put, it is totally worth charging full-steam towards it!

Or at least that was what my monkies did on seeing the massive Battleship structure plonked in the middle of Sembawang Park. I myself did a double take too, because for as long as I can remember, I can't recall the last time when a playground made me go 'WOW!'.

Presumably as a nod to Sembawang's naval history, the Battleship comes complete with gun turrets, smoke stacks, propellers and even a rudder. Predominantly made up of wood, the Battleship is a dream come true for both Ash and Ayd... and Ale, who seems to revel in imitating her two brothers these days.

To scale onboard, there are three entry points. The first is by climbing up a rock wall while the second is via up a rope ladder, which is one of the easiest options I reckon.

The final option is through an escape 'hatch' at the side of the ship which trust me, it is not as easy as it looks. But it is yet undoubtedly the most fun!

I would have love to give it a try as well but somehow, the sight of an oversized adult getting stuck in a hole did not seem to be too appealing. So I sent my troops to conquer the Battleship in my place instead.

Once inside, they then had to monkie their way around by navigating across a grid net - which Ale accomplished rather effortlessly to my amazement.

Once the net is successfully navigated, all that is left for them to accomplish is to spiral downwards back to the sand below!

Or for a greater adrenaline rush, scale up even higher for more twirling action!

I managed to squeeze and squirm my way up to the decks above - thank goodness I did not clog up any openings - and I realised that there was load of spaces and equipment for kids to climb and play with.

In fact, the best part of being on top of the decks is the feeling of being at sea - all thanks to the Battleship's sloping decks! So it definitely made manoeuvering onboard the ship a tad more exciting.

But that was not all - the front part of the Battleship is a hollow structure with tilting platforms for kids to demonstrate their agility.

Which Ale demonstrated to great effect.

At the end of the structure lies a hole where one can descend by sliding down a pole. Uhm, that didn't sound like a very good idea to Ale.

So it was up to her big kor-kor to show her how it was done.

There is also a red climbing net reminiscent of a naval flagstaff beside the Battleship, which the ever-garang Ale gamely scaled as well... to the horror of her Mummy.

But the most popular contraption of all has got to be the insanely fun pendulum swing, with hordes of kids waiting to hop on perpetually.

The monkies definitely had their share of fun at the Battleship playground, although I must add that the playground is designed for children aged between 6 and 12 years old. Younger children may find it a bit more difficult (and intimidating) to scale the rope ladders to go up onto the decks and once up, they may get a little disoriented since it involves more crawling and climbing to get to the slides. Oh and a final note, toilets with taps for washing are located just nearby from the playground.

Have fun manning your battle stations!

Useful Information:

Location: Sembawang Park (At the end of Sembawang Road)

Getting there: If you are driving, drive past the first carpark and park at the subsequent one. For public transport, take Bus Service 882.