3/10/2009

SINGAPORE DAY 1

So it's 4pm my time (around 1am Vancouver time) and I am sitting on the 51st floor of the Stamford Hotel in downtown SINGAPORE. From my balcony I can see the Port, the Convention Center, the under construction monstrous Casino and the legendary Raffles Hotel (home of the original "Singapore Sling" cocktail). 

It look 13.5 hours from Vancouver to Hong Kong, then I had a 90 minute layover and another 3.5 hour flight to Singapore. The flights were good, I flew with Cathay Pacific and was fortunate enough to sit in Business Class so I had my own little "seating pod" with retractable seat bed and my own monitor filled with movies & TV shows. I also had kick ass meals, real silverware and non-stop Johnny Walker Gold... booya! Despite the long hours, reasonable seating and booze, I still only slept 3 hours so right now I'm a bit of a zombie but hey, I think I should be good to go for a solid rest tonight.

First impressions of Singapore? Hot, clean and friendly. I walked around the area of my hotel (known as CITY HALL), lots of little shops and cafes and my hotel is connected to a big mall so I explored that as well (and found the Crumpler store right away - awesome). I had a Tikka Chicken Wrap with some Mushroom Soup at one of the street vendors and it was fantastic. I had numerous people tell me that the "street eats" are some of the cheapest and best food in Singapore and they were right. As for the heat, I am a big boy so I sweat like it's going out of style and it's so humid here you feel like you are scuba diving constantly. It's going to be interesting how many times I have to change clothes here just to stay ahead of the sweat-storm. Tonight I am meeting up with some work folk for Dinner before my day of interviews tomorrow. Hopefully I get some further insight into the company and the position as well as some great snaps of the city at night.

More tomorrow...

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