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Blogs from Singapore, Asia - page 4
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March 31st 2013
Getting there Our flight from Atlanta left about 1:15 Wednesday afternoon. We were startled to discover that Atlanta has a new International Terminal, which is completely on the other side of the now “Domestic” terminal. Glad that we weren’t running tight on time. We could see how the new terminal eliminated a lot of the crowdedness and parking congestion. Not sure about having to take a shuttle if transferring from domestic to international, though. After flying about 14 hours, we made a 2-hour transfer in Narita, Japan, and flew an additional 7 hours to Singapore. Christopher and LeeLi (his significant other) met us at the airport and by the time we had cleared customs and got our luggage, it was about 2:00 am Friday morning, which as far as our bodies we ... read more
March 28th 2013
Got the best bus ever from KL to Singapore with our own vibrating lazy boy chairs!! Travelling in style! Again we were only here for a short visit so fitted in what we could – checked out all the fancy-dancy-couldn’t-afford-to-buy-anything-in shopping plazas. There must have been about 20 massive plazas all with Gucci, Louis Vutton, Burberry shops in them, running down Orchard Street all connected by underground tunnels and bridges. You could almost go from one end of Orchard Street to the other without having to set foot on an outdoor pavement! Our highlight of Singapore was treating ourselves to Singapore Slings in Raffles Hotel where they were invented/created…these were pretty pricey – we paid £32 for two and made them last an hour . When in Roman do what the Romans do and drink Singapore ... read more
March 27th 2013
23 March 2013 At 04h30 in the morning, sitting at KL LCC, after getting in after midnight thanks to that wonderful and almost never on time budget airline Air Asia, it is hard to get excited about going to Vietnam. Just a warning to fellow travellers, buy your taxi coupon before you exit the arrival hall or you will be f#*#ed. KL Low Cost terminal has become a nightmare. Transport syndicates prevent you from just catching a cab outside the door like you once could, and the place is so crowded now that even if you did get your coupon in the right place, you will stand in a very very long queue and taxis are not guaranteed even if you have the coupon. This terminal is horrible. Almost as bad as Manila. We have just ... read more
March 24th 2013
18.03.13 Um 06.30 Uhr ging die Fahrt zurück nach Alaminos. Dort holte ich meinen Koffer im Tourismusbüro ab, packte diesen erst einmal um und trank noch einen Kaffee, bevor es mit dem letzten Bus weiter ging. Ich hatte Glück und musste nicht lange warten, da gleich bei Ankunft bei der Busfirma ein Bus abfuhr. Die Fahrt bis zum Dao Terminal dauerte 4 Stunden, so kam ich noch früh genug an, um meine Pendenzen zu erledigen. Das Wichtigste war nun, meine übrigen Pesos in Dollar zurück zu tauschen. Bei einem Geldwechsler fragte ich den Kurs an und danach wollte ich eigentlich zur Marquee Mall fahren. Doch als ich aus dem Terminal raus wollte, traf ich per Zufall zwei Touristen, wobei die eine tatsächlich mit mir Geld tauschte. So hatte ich dies innert kürzester Zeit erledigt. Die Fahrt ... read more
March 24th 2013
Singapore was my last stop in Asia, but was far from representative of the rest of Asia that I'd seen. It was so modern it felt almost futuristic. It's also unbelievably clean, you aren't allowed chewing gum there which shows their dedication to the cause! Everything is very efficient, but it felt a bit too organised for me, a bit sterile. Even all the people there seem very organised, like a city of robots! However, the buildings are impressive and around marina bay was really lovely. I managed to get lost in one of the many malls...which was my idea of hell. But the malls do deserve some recognition, they're far from the White Rose centre and more like luxury hotels. The 'food courts' are out of this world too. I sampled some soya bean ice ... read more
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March 19th 2013
Refreshed after a good night sleep, my classmates and I started the day by meeting with a hedge fund manager of one of the biggest funds in Singapore. This man handles a fund with over $2 billion and is probably one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. Not only was he able to communicate well, but was able to communicate extremely complex problems in extremely simple terms. Even the non-finance people of the group were enthralled. That is really saying something. Truth be told, I geeked out a little bit and was so interested in what he was saying. I have about 5 pages of notes. After the morning session, we headed to meet with a company that specializes in ornamental fish. It was ok, but the highlight was putting our feet in a pool ... read more
March 19th 2013
From Sri Lanka to Singapore, we crossed the line dividing the Sri Lankan Rupee and the Singapore Dollar, the cheap with the expensive and the chaotic with well, a different kind of chaos. From the ramshackle streets of Sri Lanka we arrived in the clinically clean and organised, busy world of Singapore. With a fast and efficient train line, getting from A to B was a lot easier (and airconditioned) than the buses in Sri Lanka. Everywhere we explored, there was mass of people - tourists trying to navigate the subways and locals rushing to work. We explored Orchard Road for the (window) shopping, China Town for great food, Little India for the markets and Sentosa Island for the beach. Doing Singapore on the cheap has its difficulties. Instead of staying at the Marina Bay Sands ... read more
March 18th 2013
Bzzzz Bzzz Bzzzz. Damnit. It felt like I had just fallen asleep. This time, it wasn’t the jet lag that woke me up, it was the alarm clock that jarred me out of my slumber. I quickly got ready and headed down to the lobby for breakfast. After a quick bite, we headed to the Marina Bay Sands to listen to the CEO's presentation. I must say, he's a sharp individual. He was eloquent, intelligent, and extremely skilled at dancing around the tough questions. After we finished there, we headed over to IBM and listened to some of their management give us a run down on their Singapore operation, direction, strategy, etc. It was pretty interesting. After we finished the school obligations, I went to do some exploring with classmates. I showed them the Hawker Center, ... read more
March 17th 2013
It was a little tough sleeping last night. I kept waking up in the middle of the night. Guess that’s the jet lag. In any case, my roommate Charles and I headed over to Mulligan’s in Clark Quay with our teammate Tim to meet some of Charles’ friends that live in Singapore. His friends were so nice and had the cutest 15 month old daughter. We chatted for a while over a few pints and headed to the Maxwell hawker center. For those of you that don’t know, I highly suggest checking this out in Singapore, especially if you’re on a budget. We had much more expensive meals while in Singapore, but this was by far the best meal I had there. There’s a stall in the Hawker Center called the Tian tian chicken and. For ... read more
