Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Lion City

I was offered an exceptional chance to go for a business trip to Singapore, for the invitation of our customer to train their new resources who takes over our job. Of course, I accepted it, though it was a very tight schedule: I arrived late Sunday night, and left next Friday night. However I was still hoping to make it a tourist visit in the evenings. The offices were very close to the airport, just one station from it with the MRT, the monorail train. Here you see the Spaceship Enterprise-looking roof above the station. No, it's not me trying to look like Grace Jones with her extreme hat wear. To the right it's the huge building of the Expo with constant sales offering 50% bargain on even high-quality electronic products.

The Quincy hotel where I stayed at was a 1-hour train ride from work. So I spent a lot of time traveling in between each day, and felt like getting back from work to my room for a shower and to change clothes. As the country is almost by the Equator, and surrounded by the ocean the temperature is always close to 30°C, and the air is very humid. One day I took my shorts and a T-shirt with me to work, so that I could change there, and make it faster to head for sightseeing. Unfortunately the monsoon-like rain started in the afternoon, and went on into the evening. This is Quincy.



I haven't bothered to take any pics of it. Might be so because we had some misunderstanding about settling the bill. When I checked in after a 16-hours flight, I told the receptionist this was a business trip and the company paid for the room. When I showed her the confirmation number she told me they had booked the room through a web site, but had not paid for it. So I had to give her my own bank card to be able to check in. The next day I told about this to the company, and then the whole week was spent chasing my own money which was kept as deposit by the hotel. It is actually still not released, as for some reason, they waited for me to check out, and only then put the deposit on the card the company provided them on my second day there.



This is Esplanade Art Center with different cultural events each day; theater plays, movies, exhibitions, dance shows from all over the world. The roof (once again something extravagant) forms two halves of the local durian fruit. The company made sure on my last night that I got to see something of the city, and took me to the Marina Bay, one of the most famous sights. This is where Esplanade is located along with many other important places, and breathtaking architectural wonders. The newest one is the Sands Hotel offering luxury accommodation, shopping, dining, world class entertainment, and casinos. The whole place is built by an amazing design, the towers forming waves and supporting an enormous ark with palm tree avenues on it.

We spent the dinner open-air right by the bay, so we had a view on the gorgeous Sands Hotel, and all the skyscrapers on the other side. The cuisine is just as mixed as the population bringing here their culture and food, and sharing it all in their new home. We could choose from Chinese, Thai, Indonesian and Indian; different kinds of sea food, vegetarian and also Western food by which they meant Mexican at some places. Anyhow we had marinated crispy chicken wings in soy sauce served with mixed rice, some beef and chicken BBQ with a variety of dips, devil fish (or similar to that) pieces roasted and served on bamboo bed covered in some very spicy sauce, and shrimps in cereal coat. Oh and don't forget the local Tiger Beer! :-D



I really loved that the streets were kept clean, you felt safe even late at night in any parts of the city. It takes a strict government to fine even people spitting chewing gums in the street, but it works. The locals and also those like most of my trainees, who just moved there, were very open and friendly. Tax is very low, and the economy is growing full speed. Public transportation and food is very cheap, and the MRT is built to take you basically anywhere in the city. I would definitely go back if I'll ever have the chance again, but next time as a tourist spending my whole day discovering the place.