Hey guys! Wow, I’m so excited to post our first (official) blog post together here! This post, written by Luqman, is about part one our date last Tuesday at The Escape Artist !
Before he begins… hehehe here’s a picture of my breakfast on that day
(courtesy of the best boyfriend in the world!^^)
Of course, since I was late, he had the time to stop by a pasar malam in Bishan
(I have no idea why it’s called pasar malam if it’s open at noon) to buy me this
super delicious Chicken Ramly Burger… yummy ~
Luqman says :
Ok so on the 17th of September (after much much much planning),
we went down to The Escape Artist (or T.E.A) to try our hands at being detectives.
Considering the fact that I stay in the East while Eli is residing in the West, we initially thought
that the place would be pretty inaccessible (since well Bukit Timah is neither on the Green nor
Red line)
Located at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre at Upper Bukit Timah Road,
getting to the place itself wasn’t much of a hassle.
If you’re coming by bus (like we did) there are plenty of buses there, you can just google the
bus stop opposite Beauty World Centre.
One of the buses from the east would be SMRT bus 67 from Tampines Interchange!
But, I think taking the circle line to Botanic Gardens and then taking the buses there would
save PLENTY of time!
Going into the building itself, we were quite wary because it looked a little … off?
A little run-down, looks like a shopping centre from the 70s or something
and there were like maid agencies everywhere …
After walking about for a while, we found the lift, which also felt a little bit creepy
and we went to the 11th story, as stated in the address on the website.
When you exit the lift, turn left and you’ll see a narrow entrance there, where The Escape Artist is.
When we entered, there weren’t many people around
(Eli says : LOL I bet we were the only people around) but that’s probably because it was a weekday afternoon.
As it was during the off-peak period, I was charged $15 and Eli $12 (since she’s still a student and all)
We were given a choice of two rooms which were namely The Secrets Of Da Vinci and Dimension Z but we were heavily persuaded to try the later because it was apparently ‘easier’ for two players who’ve never tried this game before. The other two rooms, A Wonderfool Dream and Carnivore’s Lair are catered to bigger groups of at least 4 people so those were definitely out.
Giving in to persuasion, I chose the Dimension Z for us! So the rules laid out were pretty simple:
Locked in a room. 50 minutes. That’s all the time you have to gather clues, unlock codes and get out alive…
Try to sneak your phone into the room to take pictures of yourself playing (though there are cctv in the room and you’ve been warned to keep your phones in your bags outside). If you didn’t bring your phone like me, then you can settle for pictures outside with the banners and the props provided.
(Eli says : OF COURSE BEING SO OBEDIENT, when the guy told us that we couldn’t bring phone into the room, Luqman diligently kept his phone in his bag even though unlike me, he had a pocket to put it inside. Therefore, lack of pictures inside the room itself 😡 )
The room pretty much looked like a setting from a traditional Japanese movie,
with like the tatami mats and antique furnitures and not to forget tacky background music from some zen Japanese album probably.
It smelt like green tea latte actually, which made Eli crave for it once we entered the room!
When we entered we were pretty much quite clueless on what to do so we just legitly
ransacked the whole place and found plenty of clues and puzzles but we just couldn’t decide on what to use for which lock. (We had to find codes to unlock locks that lead us to the next clue)
So like every 10 minutes, the person from T.E.A would come and help us by giving hints,
and after she left, we’re still… stuck on the next one.
So unsurprisingly,we weren’t able to escape the room Dimension Z,
and we are doomed to spend the rest of our lives meditating in it booohooo
but who could blame since there was only a 15% success rate.
I guess you could say that we enjoyed ourselves there, apart from not being able to escape.
(Eli says : Nah, not really, there was so much math-y and counting stuff. I hate math. I’m still glaring at you for not choosing the Secrets of Da Vinci room. Seriously, the only part I enjoyed was figuring the soduku part and that is only because I understand it.)
The puzzles in Dimension Z range from things like knowing how to play chess to playing Sudoku. If math isn’t one of your strongest subjects, Dimension Z is definitely not the room for you.
The highlight of the whole thing is when the let us play around with the props and stuff!
For more information of what to expect for the different rooms, you can simply visit www.theescapeartist.org .
This is certainly a type of activity that not many Singaporeans would have come across before or even know about, and since I’ve gotten many queries about this place from my instagram post, I’m pretty sure many of you would be keen to try.
Verdict:
Luq :
Affordability – 4/5 (other similar options are pricier than this)
Overall – 3.5/5
Eli :
Affordability – 4/5
Overall – 2.5/5
(Eli says : I’m not saying this place is bad, it’s decent. The staff were relatively friendly
and they let us play with the props after we failed to escape the room. I just dislike…. the room itself so i’m gonna have to give it a 2.5. It’s decent, but won’t fill up time for a long date, well unless you’re willing to pay for like 4 games and kill 4 hours)
If you’re interested, you can head down to The Escape Artist :
170 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #11-02 Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, (S)588179
Two-Three-Four! 