Singapore Trip - 1

I am in Singapore these days, on a two weeks trip on an academic project. While its a short duration trip, I will try and cover as much as possible and keep the blog updated.

We are a bunch of 22 students, assigned to different projects with companies in Singapore. The Air India flight landed in the Singapore airport early in the morning. The bus ride from the airport to YMCA (where we are putting up) gave us a sneek preview of the beautiful landscape in which Singapore is set. It is an island microstate, with a total area of ~700 km-square, as wikipedia tells me. The ride was short, around 20 odd minutes, and the YMCA place turned out to be pretty nice considering the constraints of the modest budget this tudent trip was organized under.

On the first day, we went to this place called Little India. Indeed, it seemed to be a really small place with Indians and Pakistanis crammed up together, with some Sri Lankans thrown in for good measure. The place was crowded and smelled bad; with junta seeming to have little regard for traffic laws - quite strange for Singapore. Still, it felt quite closer to home in a weird way :). We visited Mustafa, this huge shopping complex where you could find anything and everything at relatively cheaper prices. One of my friends got USD exchanged for SGD, surprisingly the exchange rate offered there was much more attractive than the other places we had tried before. God knows how we Indians do it, but we always seem to be one step ahead when it comes to saving money. Dinner was a quiet affair, with everyone settling for some nice biryani. Restaurants were plentiful, with many advertising their regional cuisine speciality - India seems to be the only country who doesn't have one single "Indian" cuisine for the world, rather a diverse array of the same.

We reported to our respective offices the next morning. Mine turned out to be a startup in Out-of-Home Media, a promising new-age advertising concept rapidly gaining ground in India as well. A few hours went by exploring various parts of Singapore looking for the LCD screens this firm employed in its business, to get a first-hand feel of this form of advertising business. Felt good :)

The evening was spent in Boat Quay, a nice riverside place with a string of restaurant flanking one side. We ordered a couple of lasagnes in an Italian joint and just enjoyed the view. Instead of taking a subway train back to YMCA, we decided to walk back, stopping briefly on a Starbucks on the way to grab a coffee.

Will put up some pics as soon as I am able to get them on the lappy.