SINGAPORE - Night gathers, and now my watch begins.
Like a ranger of the Night's Watch in the hit HBO drama Game Of Thrones, I am locked in to a winch elevator in Castle Black that takes me up more than 200m to the top of the eerie solid ice Wall, that separates the wildlings from the realm of the Seven Kingdoms.
The higher I get, the more I have to fight the urge to scream and/or grab on to the grilles of the booth for dear life.
Indeed the heartracing 90-second Game Of Thrones: Ascend The Wall virtual-reality experience at Ion Orchard is so visceral, it comes with a warning ominously telling fans to "participate at your own risk" and bars pregnant women and minors under 16 from taking part.
It is developed by HBO and uses Facebook's virtual reality (VR) head set Oculus Rift. The graphics are by the Oscar-winning company Framestore, which was responsible for the mindblowing visual effects in Sandra Bullock's 2013 lost-in-space film Gravity.
The Ascend The Wall experience, which makes its Asian debut in Singapore, is available free to the public. It runs from Saturday (April 2) to April 7, from 10am to 10pm.
For the experience, this reporter also wears a pair of headphones along with the VR headset, so I can hear the icy cold wind while feeling it from the wind machines blowing at me, making the already semi-real experience even more real.
Halfway through, I am tapped on the shoulder and guided to turn around. I am now at the top of the Wall, where I move down a snow-filled corridor, edging dangerously closer and closer to a wooden precipice. As I look around, all I see for miles on either side are the sheer cliff drops of the icy Wall. Willing myself not to look down is the hardest part.
A horn blasts - it is the harbinger of doom. Flaming arrows - possibly from the wildlings beyond the Wall - fly at me. One misses narrowly, but shortly after, one strikes, and I plummet to a white, wintery death as the screen goes white.
Ascend The Wall is undoubtedly the highlight of HBO Asia's The Game Of Thrones Experience: Worlds Of Westeros event to promote Game Of Thrones Season 6, which premieres in Singapore on HBO (StarHub TV Channel 601) on April 25 at 9am, the same time as in the United States.
Game Of Thrones' English actor Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran Stark, will be making his appearance at the event on Saturday (April 2), from 3pm, to meet and greet fans.
A life-sized replica of the Iron Throne takes centre stage for photo opportunities, while an array of weapons from the show, including Brienne of Tarth's sword Oathkeeper and Arya Stark's Sword Needle, are also on display.
Along with original storyboards by artist Will Simpson, there is also a green screen set up for a mini video opportunity to fight Daenerys Targaryen's dragon Drogon.
