I’m all the way up–Views from Singapore

I should really probably do research on some of the countries I visit before I visit them.

But there is a part of me that relishes the mystery of the unknown…

I think people tend to romanticize traveling for work. Now I won’t complain about it either, my life is not generally hard when I’m on the road, I stay in nice hotels, have nice dinners, and generally travel with nice people. However, I have spent some time in “4 star “ hotels that make me question who the hell is assigning these rankings…those aren’t lavish stories….But spending 3 days in Singapore and then going on to Thailand is….

Let me start by saying I’d never been to an Asian country before, I didn’t know what to expect, and as I mentioned above, I did no research. One of my co-workers was kind enough to inform me that chewing gum is illegal in Singapore, I found this to be quite depressing and compensated by eating roughly 9083 tic tacs in the 3 days I was there.

Anyway…

From Chicago I have to first fly to Toyko, 14 hours on a 747 with about 30 other people on it. I happen to be one of those people that enjoys the food on international flights I think its delicious and the flight attendants kept bringing it to me so it was like a buffet in the air.  Since I knew I’d be flying for 24 hours and drinks on the plane are 7$ a pop, I ‘byob-ed’ it. That’s right. I filled up some of those empty carry on sized shampoo bottles with the finest rum, and had myself several cocktails on the first flight( yes this is perfectly legal)

So I arrive in the Toyko airport and go through security again. I’m thinking that this is a great time to grab a bottle of water so I head in to a café and look in the cooler. Uh…which one of these is water? You’d think it’d be obvious right, just get the clear one, but in this particular place all of the drinks in the cooler were 1: Clear 2: In plastic soda type bottles and 3: The same price. I grab a bottle and head to the cashier and ask her if its water. No its sparkling white wine( nope I’ve got my own rum). I find some water and head to board my next flight. Another 8 hours from Toyko to Singapore.

This flight is full, and I can tell that the guy next to me is totally judging me for spiking my diet coke. Whatever dude, you’re just mad that your shampoo bottle is actually shampoo. We arrive in Singapore and I connect with my co-workers at the baggage claim, we hop in a cab and get a nice little tour of the city on our way to the hotel… and this hotel is WOW.

It’s a five star hotel, and the architecture is something out of a futuristic movie. There is an infinity pool on the top of it (57 floors up) and the views are amazing and utterly TERRIFYING!   Everything in my room is brand new, and the power outlets are built to accept plugs from multiple countries (why doesn’t every hotel do this)? I walk over to this control panel on the wall and immediately press all the buttons…the shades go up, the lights dim, the light outside of my room switches to do not disturb, and the tv comes on.  The bed is super comfortable, the bathroom is huge, I love this place!

The next morning I reconvene with my work folks and we head over to the convention center to begin setting up for our conference. We get directions from the concierge and start this 15 minute walk to our area. We walk through a mall full of high end designer stores, past a casino, past a theatre and finally after riding a ridiculously long escalator, we’re here. We finish our work as quickly as possible and head out to explore.

Everyone has been buzzing about Chinatown…and in my head I’m thinking, ‘ really, we came to Singapore to go to Chinatown?’ We have some lunch in Chinatown (which was absolutely amazing) and go for a walk. I’m noticing a lot of erotic massage places that are kind of hidden in alleys and a lot of very happy looking gentlemen coming out of them (judgement free zone)

We went to some botanical garden which immediately made me sleepy, and then walked back to the hotel. On the way back there are these massive artificial tree -like structures that look kind of silly, but are really cool at night (apparently). By this time, we’re all jet lagged and exhausted and decide to call it a night.

Our event goes smoothly and our local volunteers want to show us around afterward. We go to a food market near the water and our local guys order us up some things to try. As I’m walking around trying to find something to eat, I notice that there are shrimp 10 for 5$ (the currency conversion is pretty close to dollar for dollar). I order 10 shrimp and when they come out  I just stare at them… ah, welcome to Asian cuisine(ignorant American).

I walk over to one of my new local friends (who is actually a German guy that moved there about 5 years ago) and ask him how the hell I’m supposed to eat these things. It’s an entire shrimp! It has legs, eyes , and feelings intact. Of course he laughs and tells me to break it apart like a crab. I am disgusted, it feels like cracking in to a giant bug, and when I finally get to the meat and eat it its soft and mushy, further freaking me out. Finally, I find the part of the shrimp I thought I was getting and my life returns to normal. The local guys bought a bunch of random local food for us to try including the genital parts of a lamb (I passed on that one). I tried to keep an open mind and I won’t lie, some of the stuff I ate was pretty tasty. After a while I stopped asking what things were and just put them in my mouth (that’s what she said).

We went on a ridiculously long walk after dinner to see the botanical garden, again. However this time the big giant trees are lit up and playing music. The scene reminds me of the movie Fern Gully blended with a bit of honey I shrunk the kids. We’re standing in the middle of this forest like place with these 15 story tree things that are singing to us. The music is loud, the but the feel is actually quite serene, there are people sitting on the ground in meditating positions all around, and I get it. We finish our walk and head back to the hotel. Everyone bids each other adieu and a safe trip. Next, I head to Thailand…

You cant really tell from the picture, but its completely dark outside, and these things are beautiful!