And so, I found myself roaming around the little island of Singapore this past weekend. My company was kind enough to send the entire Beijing and Guangzhou offices to Singapore for a weekend holiday. Despite my
initial impression of Singapore, who can say no to a free trip? :)
Now, four days and three nights later, I have to say that I really enjoyed my weekend rendezvous in Singapore. I loved how my skin got clammy from the heat and humidity, how clean and unpolluted the city is, as well as the diversity of its population - all these qualities are hard to find in Beijing!
Even though it rained buckets while I was there (mostly in the afternoon), it was great to explore the city's down town area, lay out by the pool, and do the obligatory (!) shopping, eating, and drinking. I was in seventh heaven when I had my first banana leaf food and
dosais in years (again,
nonexistent in Beijing). Jumbo's seafood also had a great selection of pepper crabs, little sweet lobsters, and a variety of other seafood. St. James powerhouse was great fun and
Chijmes was a nice spot to have a few evening drink with a few friends (or in our case, about 25!).
Another highlight of my trip was meeting up with the infamous Mr.
Beeker, an alum of my department who has been kind enough to give me photography pointers and future career guidance. His company was great, as expected - cheers, old boy! :)
I also was able to meet up with
Aditi, who was nice enough to give me tour of Gotham City! What a wicket lobby bar!
All in all, Singapore is still a bit too "perfect" for me - I'm a big fan of the "rough edges" of developing countries (and despite what Singaporeans say, their "little India" is really not that seedy). But alas, I was a bit sad to leave Singapore - another few more days would've been grand. Alas, I'm sure I will find myself there soon enough!
