Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would ever wind up here, especially for a work assignment. The small back story to this is a client called Siemens has facilities in Singapore, Shanghai, and Batam (Indonesia). I stuck my hand up, foot out, neck up, whatever and Workforce took me up on it, but I never expected a 6 week assignment with a good possibility of a second 6 week stint after I get a break back home for a couple weeks. So, here I am in Singapore...WOW! First, let me say, it's what everyone says about cleanliness, it's spotless EVERYWHERE; the airport, the subway, the highways, the malls, you name it, it's clean.
Let me back up a bit and talk about my travel experience. So glad I had some Ambien to help me sleep, because I would have not gotten a wink if not. The long 14 hour flight from Atlanta to Tokyo started out a bit unnerving. I had moved at the last minute to a row with the two middle seats empty hoping I'd be able to spread out during the long flight. Boy was I surprised when I got to my seat to find not only the middle seats occupied by little munchkins, but my seat as well. There was a large Filipino family (is there any other) headed to the Philippines for a funeral and the parents were doing all they could to keep all three kids together. OK, no biggie, but I'm keeping my aisle seat at least and I just moved to the other side of the aisle. Now the baby brother is starting to cry and his sisters and getting antsy and we haven't even taken off yet. Fortunately a nice flight attendant (oxymoron intended) told me there was an empty row in the back which I promptly snagged. Ear plugs in, hoodie up, sun glasses on, check, check, check, let this begin. Watched Silver Linings Playbook which surprisingly was complimentary and popped my Ambien just as the sun was setting. Woke up as breakfast was being served and only a couple hours left before landing in Tokyo. Delta did a good job of upgrading the old 747 jumbo jets which wasn't the case back in 2009 when they had just absorbed NWA and I was flying to Honolulu. The seatback TV sets were new and about the size of a large laptop screen with a USB charger for tablets or smart phones. OK, I'm beginning to sound like a reviewer for Travel magazine. One more plug for Delta, their Club room in Tokyo had showers, sushi, and free internet on nice new Macs, all of which I partook heartily.
The flight from Tokyo left at 4:30 PM and we landed at Changi airport at 1:30 AM, but I wasn't the least bit tired because I had not even begun to realize what timezone I was in. Again, the airport was a model of efficiency, ease and grace. Everything was clean, modern, and user friendly. I made my way down to baggage claim easily and my bag was rolling out in about ten minutes. My travel partner from Workforce, Sandra, landed an hour earlier on American and said we would both be in terminal 2, but I was in terminal 1. Fortunately, as I was wandering aimlessly thinking about taking the train to terminal 2, she appeared. We walked outside and promptly hopped into a cab that took all typed of credit cards. Bonus!
The cabbie hauled ass and the blur of things going by were all clean and green. We made it directly to our hotel in nothing flat and were checked in and in bed by 2:30 AM. Now if I only felt like sleeping. Turned on the nice LG flat screen and found Wild Things with Denise Richards and some other actors not worth mentioning. OK, Kevin Bacon and Matt Damon, OK girls, happy? So here's a sample of how non-prurient Singapore is, the scene where DR climbs out of the pool in a one piece Speedo was cut at the thighs to avoid the nipples. In fact, there were several other gaps, but I faded out...finally.
I awoke to my phone ringing at about 11:30 AM from Sandra asking if I was ready to go. Ready to go? I'm dead, but I know I have to shift gears and get switched over to the opposite AM/PM paradigm. For any of you that know me, I rarely sleep past 7:00 AM and when I wake, I'm ready to go. This is not normal, but I'll play along. The shower was HOT, too hot, and I had to cut it way back to keep from scalding, but the pressure was good so I was happy. Throw on shorts, t-shirt and tennies, and I'm out the door. We bolt down the street to Orchard Road, which is Singaporean for FREAKING EXPENSIVE shopping district. They had Rolex stores like Starbucks here, not to mention every other major name in the industry; Dolce, Ferragamo, Louis V, you name it. Not a Wal-Mart in site. Luckily they did have a Starbucks on the corner and we found sustenance in coffee and quiche. Don't say it!!! Wake up call satisfied, I need to find some way to get my cell on their network. Would you ever imagine I needed to show my passport in order to buy a sim chip for my Crackberry?!? They scanned it like they were security at the airport. Oh well, at least I'm connected. Oh, and they gave me a nice full size umbrella which couldn't have been more appropriate since there was a tropical thunderstorm happening as we left the mall. To avoid the rain we slipped inside another upscale mall called ION Orchard. You need to check this place out, 8 floors of high end shopping, a food court that is a culinary delight, valet parking, and a Singapore Airlines ticket office that looks like the entrance to a super chic boutique hotel. Google it...
We found the entrance to the MRT (metro rapid transit) which is a glass bubble that looks akin to Chicago's Cloud Gate or "Bean" just outside of the mall. We quickly retrieved a rail pass and descended into the cleanest and most feng shui correct subway system I've ever seen. They did this right; the maps are easy to read (yes, the language is predominantly English here), the trains have no graffiti, the tunnels don't stink of urine, there are water sculptures and they even paint arrows at each car entrance to help with ingress and egress of the passengers. We had to make a transfer and once again was impressed by the cleanliness of everything. Missing were the panhandlers, buskers, and other miscreants usually found on most metro subway systems. The rain had almost stopped by the time we got to the botanical gardens, so the umbrella wasn't necessary at this point and fortunately, the sun didn't come out blazing to steam things up. We meandered through the park and found the main attraction. Orchids, orchids everywhere. All sizes and colors and were absolutely amazing in both their quantity and quality.
Headed back to the hotel and stopped in at ION to grab some groceries. Too tired to head out for dinner tonight and am still getting used to being on the opposite side of the AM/PM. Haven't blogged before. Hope you like it and hope I can add my pics to help tell the story. Peace and Love to all....
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