Got into Singapore early this morning around 12:30am local time. No issues with the flight – I flew Japan Airlines from Tokyo to Singapore and was in economy this time, but I scoped out an empty row in the back of the aircraft, popped another sleeping pill, and slept most of the way again. Going through customs was no problem – got another stamp in my passport (!), picked up my luggage and jumped in a taxi. The weather was hot and humid even in the middle of the night. Hotel is really really nice. I got up to my room though and I couldn’t figure out how to turn the lights on. I seriously fumbled around in the dark pressing buttons for about 10 minutes until I called the operator.
Hi Miss Bailey what can we do for you
Um I can’t get any of my lights to turn on…
Oh ok, we’ll send an engineer up there immediately.
Thanks.
So the engineer comes up, sticks my room key in a slot near the door, and shazam, all the lights magically come on. Wow I felt so dumb. Let’s blame it on my jet-lag. How was I supposed to know this? Anyway, slept for a couple more hours (I think) until waking around 5:30am. Hit up the breakfast at one of the MANY restaurants at my hotel and WOW, I am so impressed. It’s a ginormous breakfast buffet… kind of reminded me of a cruise with all the options, and everything was super fresh. Fresh squeezed OJ, lots of fresh fruit (exotic types like papaya and starfruit), even a real honeycomb that you could scrape fresh honey off of for cereal or yogurt. Some unique foods too that I will maybe try later like chicken porridge. Now I know porridge means oatmeal, but chicken + oatmeal together? Hmm. Anyway, had my coffee & some food and headed down to the lobby around 8am to meet other team members and jump in a cab to the office. I shared a cab with 2 guys from the U.S., a Deloitte manager out of the L.A. office who’s actually from Australia, and a client manager out of the San Francisco office who’s actually from right outside London. The Deloitte guy was telling me how he refers to Singapore as “Asia for beginners.” I found this kind of funny, but I can see why now… it’s clean, safe, pretty much everyone speaks English, plenty of cuisine choices, not too crowded with tourists, and no crazy bicyclists that’ll run you over if you don’t watch out.
Ok gotta run. More later including some pictures that I took of the view from my hotel. Need to get some work done tho.
3 comments:
We have all been "tripped up" by the key-in-the-slot thing. Grandma and I learned about it when we went to Spain. :) Love you!
Love'd the pics and your perspective on Singapore. ...your blonde moment was priceless!
Just got caught up on your blog, looks awesome!!! Can't believe you get to go to Singapore. I didn't have any light switch issues in Spain, but the bathroom doors said "S" and "M". I was going to go into the "M", because I figured "Males", or "Men" or "Monsieurs" or whatever......but it actually was for MUJERES! and The "S" was for Senores. Live and Learn...have fun!!
JB
Post a Comment