Light snow was falling as I boarded a Qantas 747 bound for Singapore. Before take-off the plane needed to be de-iced and prepared for its 12 hour flight across to the small island just below Malaysia and across from Indonesia.
Being a particularly good sleeper the flight was pretty painless. A movie (Summer Coda( and some reading (in German of course) and the long sleep meant I arrived fresh and energised at Changi airport.
It was a lazy 30 degrees in Singapore and of course very humid. Superb weather! The cab dropped me at Kirsty and Stuarts place to be also greeted by Mitch and Katie. Mitch I hadn't seen since June 2009. Although we had tried to meet in France and Italy I had never met Katie before.
Kirsty had kindly allowed me to stay at their place in Singapore while she was at a wedding in Perth. They have an amazing apartment with an even more amazing panarama of the city. High on the 21st floor it was easy to Singapore's famous skyline punching well into the clouds. Since Berlin and much of Germany for that matter subscribes to a low building policy, this was quite a change.
Of course a swim at the apartment pool was necessary to refresh after the flight and carrying all my gear around. Then it was time for sight-seeing. The three of us piled into a taxi and shot out to Sentosa Island. Although I confirm it, the island has a very distinct man-made feel. Here the fresh sand, clean streets and perfectly manicured gardens and beaches contribute to the stereotype of a super clean Singapore. It's almost too perfect. Having the oil refineries across the bay (in Indonesia) as well as the thousands of tankers was however a reminder of the drivers to their economy and that behind all that wealth and exuberence, there is still hard and dirty industry powering Singapore. Both the oil refineries and the shipping are both in their own right in the top 3 in the world.
A few swims and a lot of sun later I went back for an afternoon nap having forgotten about the cold and desk work that I had taken a break from only 24 hours earlier!
We kicked off Saturday evening with a lovely chinese style dinner. Daisy who had joined us at the beach, suggested this place and certainly didn't disappoint. Wasbi prawns were a highlight. China bar at the top of the Swisshotel Stamford was the next stop. This is where mz ex-pat Singapore experienced really escalated. Here on the 70th floor, the best deal was bottles of Moet. When in Rome....! While Singapore's skyline is impressive by day, it is spectacular by night. The lights give an extra touch of glamour and dimension. A city crawl ensued culminating in a solid tour of the sights, sounds and evening entertainment venues of downtown Singapore. The night ended where it started - on a couch under the airconditioner!
Bright and early with the sun beaming through the north facing windows, I was up and then ducked down for another swim. Sunday was to be another busy day. Mitch and Katie had a 9:30 appointment with the agent of their new apartment to choose light fittings and blinds. They were both excited to be one step closer to moving out of their much smaller serviced apartment and into a far more appropriate multi-bedroom apartment. The kitchen, living area and balcony are a stand out. There was plenty of haggling to get the agent to agree to some simple terms, but I guess that is the asian culture.
Next stop was again the Swisshotel Stamford this time on the 69th floor. Mitch had arranged to meet with a friend from school, Ben, together with his wife and a few friends. Brunch is a big thing in asia and in particular for ex-pats. This was a serious brunch. The menu included none other than a full smorgasboard of foods, freeflowing Moet and cocktails. Although you could enjoy a roast lamb for brunch I went for the seafood area and even tried a fried Fois Grais. The Ristretto Martini was a hit also! After 4 hours of eating and drinking it was time to send some of the guests home! It was a little much for them.
Later that evening I caught up with Darren and Gary from the MBA. It was great to see them on their home turf and also get a perspective of Singapore perhaps a little different to the ex-pat version. We wandered the streets looking for one of their favourite restaurants. They both live out of town. Mind you Singapore can be crossed in an hour thanks to their very good public transport systems known as the MRT. We tackled some more authentic Thai/Singapore food including fish cakes, glass noodles (that were very black) as well as Tom Yam soup. All very good!
Darren gave us a tour of the underground routes through to Marina Bay the small harbour in front of the city. As he had worked there he certainly knew his way around the underground (but thankfully airconditioned) warrens. Once there we had a great look at the Merlion (the symbol for Singapore - due to the tigers that used to roam the swamps before the British colonised Singapore more aggressively). The Fullarton hotel stands very proudly overlooking the bay and is a very opulent introduction to the CBD. It was great to see the boys having only said goodbye to them a couple of months earlier in the Mannheim Schloss at our graduation.
I arrived back just as Kirsty had returned from Perth but after a chat I hit the hay and slept like a stone.
My Monday morning started with an espresso which fuelled my motivation to go for a run. Running in the tropics, fit or unfit (and I am the later these days) is tough. Furthermore even at 9am the sun is beating down; onto my already reddened skin! I chose to run away from the city to see what I could see. From what I saw Singapore's landmass is covered primarily by housing development homes (very well looked after despite the bad stigma that goes with the term of housing development buildings) and open areas for schools and sport. I had planned a loop heading first north and then hoping to turn right a few times and get back to the apartment. That was a wishful plan! With few major landmarks (other than more large buildings) and roads that don't go straight, I became very geographically challenged. After over an hour of running I was lost really getting too close to Changi airport for my liking. In the end I pulled into a construction site office. Despite the strange looks the receptionists armed me with a map, some water and a best wishes for my onward journey! I actually wasn't so far from where I needed to be however certainly needed some assistance to navigate under and around a serious highway to get back on track.
After another swim, I met Mitch, Kirsty and Katie at Raffles Place for lunch. We had a great soup and a lime and plum soda in China Town. The heavens had opened up to give me the real tropical experience. For them it was an annoyance but I enjoyed the novelty! They had to head back to work so after a soppy goodbye Katie and I headed off for some further exploring while Mitch and Kirsty went back to the desk to tackle some big mining / oil and gas clients in Asia.
Katie, being the shopping pro, gave me a tour of Orchard Street. Shopping centres are the weekend activity of choice for Singaporeans. The entire Orchard St is lined with malls. The strangest thing being that most malls have exactly the same shops in them. Spending money is the social sport of Singapore - consumerism at its purest.
As I am still recovering from a year of being a student, the shopping experience was too painful so we pulled up for a coffee for the remainder of the afternoon. I don't know if the coffee shop was a chain but it had a great feel to it. We solved many of the worlds problems!
For me it was back to the airport ready to board for Melbourne. For Katie, she headed back to her Singapore life in prepartion to start working in the coming months.
It was brilliant to be hosted with such generosity. Thank you. Moreover really great to see in a lot more detail a city i'd heard a lot about and visited only too briefly in the past. To be honest, it was be tough to see me working there unless there were a lot of extrinsic motivational triggers but that being said I am very much looking forward to visiting again.
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