Rush Hour

So instead of writing about what I have done day by day, I figured that it might be a little more interesting if I explain Singapore experiences that I encounter (ie. subway, food, etc) and parts of the city that I explore. And then if I ever have a trip or something out of the ordinary, then I will write about that as well.

The first topic that I’ve decided to write about is the trek that I make to work daily. I will eventually get a car (Toyota Corolla!), but I have to make it without for now while the car is in process.

I try and get out by about 7.45 AM. I have about a 5 min walk from the hotel to the Somerset MRT (Mass Rapid Transit System) station. I pass mostly food shops on the way along with the Sing Tel building (largest telecommunications provider here) and a skate park right above the station.

Once I go underground at this MRT station like most I have to walk a little ways to get to where the trains actually are. Underground it is like a mall of sorts with convenient stores, all kinds of food shops and about any other store you can think of. Depending on the time I am guessing, the MRT can be less or more busy, but every time I have been over the past week it is just floods of people going in every direction. To enter the part of the station where the trains come and go I have a card that I have put some money on and keep in my wallet that I swipe in front of a reader on one of the many turn stalls and it opens. A train arrives about every 5 minutes and I guess since I am pretty close into the city the trains are completely packed already when they arrive. I just have to ride the wave of people pushing themselves onto the train everyone with their Ipods in, newspaper in hand, and a briefcase slung around their shoulder. One in every 10-15 is about my height most likely being European, Australian, American or just a really big Asian… and I usually make eye contact and we give a slight nod as to say, I know how you feel.

I only have 3 stops to go before I arrive at Raffles Place and I usually try and stay pretty to myself. I have the Shins, Norah Jones, Bright Eyes or something of the sort going in my Ipod and I try and situate the newspaper that was left for me outside my hotel room door to where I can read a portion of that day’s top story. I get off of the MRT very similar to how I got on... just riding the wave of people all trying to exit the same station.

I got lost the first day because I did not realize how crucial it was to pay attention to where you are exiting the station. Like I mentioned before, there can be full mall type areas and a long way to walk underground depending on where you are headed compared to where the train portion of the station might be. The walk to the most reasonable exit for me is a good 10 minutes walk passing 3 or 4 others where the crowd lessons and lessons with each exit that I pass. I finally emerge from the MRT at One Raffles Quay (pronounced key) and just have to go across the street to the building where I work.

There is construction just about anywhere you go in the city not excluding right next to my building. They are currently building on-ramps on either side of the road that will feed an over pass leading to a state of the art casino set to open in about a year and a half (1 of 2 casinos they are currently building in Singapore). I ride the elevators up to the 32nd floor (Bridgestone occupying about half of the floor) and hopefully make it by around 8.15 AM.

The First Day.

I arrived in Singapore at 11:30 on Sunday night and didn't make it to the hotel until until about 1 in the morning... So, I've decided I am going to consider this the beginning of my first day.

I awoke at 6:30 am to the ring of the wake up call, the alarm, my phone and my conscience that I had all set just in case 2 or 3 of those decided not to work. I ironed a set of clothes and splashed some water on my face as the toiletries out of my luggage mysteriously disappeared somewhere throughout the trip. I grabbed a complimentary breakfast and was out the door to meet Yamagata-san promptly at 8 for a ride to the office. I arrived at the office and was introduced to the 20 or so employees and was confused on how to answer the, "What shall I call you?" question asked over and over again.

I spent the majority of the morning setting up all of my system passwords and making sure that my laptop and docking station were all in working order. We walked over to the Hawker center at lunchtime right across the street from the office. There were about 6 of us in the sea of hundreds of people flooding the street. the Hawker center is a very large open-air food court with probably 50-70 vendors with a line of 3-4 customers in each. I had a plate of Indonesian Chicken Curry and rice that cost about S$4.00. We took about 20 mins to eat and then had a Green Tea drink for dessert.

I was picked up by my "Property Consultant" at 1:15 to view housing that is both available and fit in the price range stipulated by the company. Berna, a young Filipino woman probably just a couple of years past my age, walked up to me standing on the corner. She said that she had chartered a car to take us around for the day. The car was a white Mercedes that a decal on the side reading "Limo Services". Berna and I got in the backseat where I had legroom for days with bottled water and reading material provided. In the front was Berna's assistant Johnny and her trusted driver "Jack" (Jack's real name displayed on the dash read 15 letters long with about 3 consonants). Our last viewing was at 5:30... we had seen 9 properties in a little over 4 hours and I was exhausted. The overwhelming theme was that almost all of the properties were very nice, but that I had to chose whether the apartment itself or the complex's facilities were most important to me. Some had pools the size of 2 football fields with waterfalls, jacuzzi, tennis courts and a workout facility all at your fingertips. The apartments there (although nice) were small, plain and left a lot to be desired. Other apartments were top-of-the-line everything with views and stylish furnishings and these had almost no facilities. What is most important to me...?

Berna dropped me off back at my hotel where I had enough time to take a quick shower and rush back to the office for Dinner! I was asked to meet there at 6:30 (the normal time everyone gets off of work) so that 6 of us could go out to dinner. Gan, Ong, Yamagata-san, Takeuchi-san, Yamoto and I went to a whole-in-the-wall Chinese place. The food was being served out of a walk up bar with a couple of tables and chairs right on the street, but there was a restaurant next door that had inside seating. The menu consisted of 2 bottles of wine (brought from the liquor cabinet back in the office!), hot tea, noodles, some sort of greenery dish, pork ribs, chili crab, frog legs, a grouper fish from head to tail, tofu and deer meat... and it was good! We ate it all from 6 inch plates that each of us had in front of us just serving ourselves 3 or 4 bites at a time. The conversation ranged from my education and travels to my involvement in sports to the inadequacy of the U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball team to the lack of discipline in today's Japanese educational system.

We wrapped up dinner by 9:30 and I had made it back to my hotel by 10. I barely made it to my bed before I passed out. It had been a good day, but a long day and I was happy that it was over.