My Singapore Adventure Begins

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Although I have been to Singapore before, that was five years ago already - it may not seem like a long time, but to me, it's really been a lifetime. We were not originally coming here for this conference either, but returning to Bangkok, one of my favorite cities. Unfortunately because of the political situation there, we were forced to make the decision to move our group. Because we had been to Singapore before, and were comfortable working again with the local events planners, we were quite happy to make the change.

I arrived yesterday morning and firmly believe that Changi airport looks different to the last time I was here. After a while, airports do seem to blend together a bit, so it's hard to be really sure, but it certainly felt different. We'd flown in on the Airbus 380 which is a BIG plane. We were in economy, which felt the same as any other economy class accommodations (with the exception of the service, of course, which is top notch on any Singapore Airlines flight). But the plane itself was MUCH quieter - during takeoff and flight, you could barely hear the engines, which was such a nice thing. Normally, though you get used to the drone of the engines, it does grate on you after a while. Which on a 13 hour flight can be a bit tedious.

But anyway, we arrived, made it through passport control, quickly picked up our bags, went through customs and headed out into the steamy Singapore morning. It's actually not that warm here right now, according to the locals (about 81 degrees), but the level of humidity is so high that you feel like you're breathing with your face in a humidifier. We are right close to the equator after all.

Our hotel is the Four Seasons - last time we stayed at the Shangri-La, which was bigger and of course lovely, but they weren't able to offer us the best deal this time. Plus, we had such incredible service at the Four Seasons in San Francisco last year that we were confident that a short lead time in planning this conference here wouldn't cause us any difficulties. Mostly, that was true, and once we arrived, the ambience of the hotel more than made up for any hiccups.

I'm a sucker for a hotel that smells lovely. It seems quite a silly thing, but when you walk into a hotel lobby that's quiet, cool, elegantly decorated and perfumed with exotic scents, it just feels very soothing. I was really happy that our rooms happened to be ready (not always the case when you arrive so early in the morning) and we were treated like VIPs, with one of the guest services managers taking us directly to our rooms to handle the registration process. I also received a letter from the director of sales and the conference services manager I've been working with, to let me know that they had arranged for me to get a complimentary massage - exactly what I needed, how did they guess? That made my whole morning better.

The room itself is great - so spacious with a large desk (very handy when you're working in the room and need to spread out your four inch thick folder of conference materials all over the place), a cozy armchair (where I've spent some time reading good books), a very comfortable king sized bed, a dressing table, big dresser with a tv, and HUGE bathroom, with a deep deep soaking tub, separate shower and two sinks. Much too big for one person, of course, but it's nice to be able to spread out a bit! Plus, I had forgotten that Four Seasons carries my all-time favorite shampoo & conditioner - L'Occitane. I almost cried when I realized it, because the scent is so lovely and stays in your hair all day. It relaxes me, which is a necessary thing when running one of our conferences!

Of course, I didn't get to experience too much of the hotel's amenities yesterday, since I fell into bed around 10:30 and didn't get up until 6:30 (save for a couple of emails I answered somewhere in the middle). What a luxury to have a whole day to sleep! Finally, I forced myself to get up, took a nice bath (when you're as tall as I am, most tubs are too small, so I try to take LOTS of baths when I find a big tub!!), ate some dinner and ironed all my clothes for the week. I'm not a big fan of ironing, so I only do it when I'm traveling!

I slept another four hours and then was up for good this morning. We had a meeting with our events planners, followed by a meeting with the hotel and then lunch with them as well. Lunch was an event - we ate at Jiang-Nan Chun here in the hotel. The conference manager I've been working with is Cantonese Singaporean, so she chose the menu for us in advance. It was a very special welcome for us to the hotel, and I was very touched that she had done so.

However, my picky eating is always out in full force in Asia, where there are always a lot of vegetables and seafood. My dad pointed out that I will pretty much try anything (true, except for veal brains, as you know, and maybe a few choice other foods - let's not forget the time I ate cow's tongue soup without complaining). And I did, though it was a bit of a struggle at times.

We started with some type of mushroom dumpling in a flavorful sauce. Those of you who know me well know I also don't eat mushrooms, but I didn't want to dishonor our hosts, so I ate it - the sauce covered up most of the mushroom flavor, so I was fine. Next came out a double-boiled soup - apparently the Cantonese are known for their soup, and this one is cooked for several hours in a double boiler, because it is believed that the nutrition would be removed if the flame was to directly touch the pot with the soup in it. Next, we had a plate with three dumplings on it - one shrimp, one of unknown origin, maybe potato, and one scallop. The middle one had vinegar poured over it - I do love vinegar, though it's been hard to stomach lately with the acid reflux. I managed one bit of the shrimp one - it wasn't so much that it was fishy, but I'm also very sensitive to texture for some reason (which is why I often love some foods, not so much for the taste, but for the texture), and it was a bit strange. I ate the entire middle dumpling with a bit of vinegar, and then only a small bite of the scallop one.

Then, a type of beef dish came out, with what looked like kale underneath and tiny mushrooms on top. I ate all the beef, but didn't attempt the greens or the rest of the mushrooms. That's when my picky eating came up with our hosts, who took it very well. I just think green vegetables taste like dirt. Can't stand 'em, no matter how hard I try. The only thing I like is celery, or zucchini chopped very thin and fried. Really good for you, I know!

Finally, we had a broth with glass noodles and a crab claw. You'll be proud of me - I ate most of the crab claw with the noodles and broth. I should also mention that a lot of this was eaten with chopsticks - I'm getting some good practice and hope to be proficient by the time I go home! Particularly since I have some lovely chopsticks at home already that were a gift from the Shangri-La at one time.

Dessert was a mango custard/pudding type thing that was just delicious - it was so refreshing. And in addition to the food being delicious, of course, the company was wonderful too. It was so nice of our hotel contacts to treat us to such a special lunch, and we quite enjoyed learning more about each other.

Fortunately, it was time for some rest before dinner with our hosts. Since we aren't sure what the coming days will bring, my dad suggested I use my complimentary massage today. I made an appointment for a Balinese massage with the hotel spa and headed down around three. I just love massages (who doesn't, right?) - they force me to focus on being in the moment instead of thinking about all the work I have to do. Plus, they're very relaxing. I chose the "calming" oil and a medium pressure, though if that was medium, I'd hate to see what hard pressure was like! The masseuse did a wonderful job, focusing on my shoulders and back where I have consistently large knots. But I also love having my legs and arms massaged, and between the lovely scent of the oil, the peaceful music, and the comfortable massage table, I was ready to fall asleep right there. I wish they'd let you just lie in the room for an hour and nap!

But instead I got changed again and headed back up to my room where I did nap for about two hours. I was still so tired when I got up that I could have gone right back to bed! But tonight, we were to dine as real Singaporeans!

One of our hosts and her husband had hoped to take us to a real Singaporean restaurant, but they were overruled by the other two hosts who chose a seafood place, Long Beach. Ah seafood. It was still very Singaporean though and a fascinating experience. There were nine of us at dinner, so it was a nice big group, including the couple's two sons who never said a word the whole evening. We sat at a big table with a lazy susan in the middle so that we could share all the food. Between every two people was a bowl of what looked like tea with a lime in it, which turned out to be for cleaning your hands. Instead of napkins, there were wet wipes - this should have tipped me off to a messy evening! One of our hosts managed to change a couple of the dishes from seafood for my benefit, but I agreed to try as much as I could.

We started with shark's fin soup - not the first time I've tried it. It was okay, though the consistency is a bit jelly-like, so I was only able to eat a bit. I found if I didn't chew the pieces, it didn't taste too fishy to me. Next came out these huge prawns, with their heads still attached. I can handle a lot of things, but I don't like to have my dinner looking at me when I eat it, so I did decline to even try that. Apparently, it was very good though!

The next thing to come out was a type of fried dough with shaved pork on top of it and some kind of sauce - it was very good, and I was encouraged to have three pieces since I'd declined the prawns (one of our hosts kept telling me I'd lost weight and though she's terribly misguided, it was a lovely thing to hear!). Next came out the pepper crab - Singapore is known for its chili crab, but this restaurant has the black pepper crab as its signature dish, so it almost never serves chili crab. Our lunch hosts were telling us that steamed crab is also popular, particularly since the crab here is so fresh. They encouraged me to take a claw and crack it open. So I did. One of our hosts helped me pull the meat out and I ate it. Pretty much all of it. There was so much spicy pepper on there, that I didn't taste much of the flavor of the crab and I'll admit that I actually enjoyed it. My friends who are currently rejoicing over this should know that it doesn't mean I'm running out for crab legs anytime soon!

Next came the chicken, with a crispy skin on it, to which we were to add either hot chili sauce or finely ground salt. I tried both and the chili sauce was HOT. During this entire process, I should mention, we were all using chopsticks and our hands to eat - our hosts kept saying the food was finger-licking good, and it was! But also messy - lots of use of the disposable napkins and I was regretting my decision to wear white linen pants (but they survived stainless). Next came out some pork ribs - they were HUGE. The sauce was delicious, but by then I was losing steam and only ate about half of it. Finally, it was time for the carbohydrate - I learned today that the more expensive food comes out first, so that you don't fill up on the carbohydrate before getting to the good stuff. So in Chinese cooking, it always comes out last and signals the end of the meal, or just before dessert. The carbohydrate in this case was some kind of rice, that came out with an almost candied spinach type of green, another kind of crab, and some other mystery seafood. I actually tried the sweet greens, which were not bad, and at all my rice with my chopsticks.

For dessert, I chose a pumpkin custard with a little bit of ice cream in it - all the desserts came out in these little dishes sitting atop glass orbs bubbling like cauldrons with a green mist coming from them. Seriously. They had put dry ice in with colored water in the glass orbs, which kept the desserts cold and created this crazy effect. We all oohed and aahed over them before finishing them.

By then, I was really fading, so I was glad to head back to the hotel. Tomorrow, we have lots of work to get finished in the morning, and then a lunch with our hosts and two of our delegates. We might also have dinner plans again, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to catch up from my jet lag at some point! But it was really nice tonight to be able to spend some relaxed time with our hosts before the craziness of the conference gets underway!

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