Random Pictures of Singapore

Singapore definitely has some wild buildings.  Here are a few pictures I've taken on my walks.

This looks like an old Art Deco building, but it was built in 2002.

The Fountain of Wealth, the world's largest fountain, or so the sign claimed.

The blob shaped stadium is supposed to be inspired by the durian, a popular but smelly tropical fruit.

Not the only glowing mall in Singapore.

A permanent address!

Looks like I'm moving to Bishan!

It is maybe a little farther from work, and a little farther from the subway station than is ideal.  But I think I did pretty well.   Around the Bishan station is a mall, a library, lots of places to eat, and several big grocery stores.  The house is in a neighborhood just west of the station with several playgrounds, and lots of kids, dogs, and professionals of about my age.  And a couple of restaraunts very near by the townhouse.  Somehow I failed to get a picture of the front of the house, but here is a shot looking down the street, and at a nearby park.

Hawker Center.

Apparently my office will be moving in a month to the Marina Sands area (maybe Singapore is trying to keep the finance guys close to the casino.)  So yesterday, I decided to take a walk down that way.  I was ready for dinner, so I was happy to find this gigantic hawker center.

A hawker center is like a mall food court.  Small counters with small kitchens behind them, with food prepared quickly after you order them.  I'm shure that some of the shops are chains, but I bet that most of them are tiny independent businesses.

Apparently the one I found is a famous hawker center among Singaporeans. It is an old victorian-era cast-iron market that once sat out on the water.  Luckily it has survived the many land fill projects since then, it even was disassembled for subway construction and rebuilt.

While most hawker centers seem to be eight to a dozen stalls, this one is an octagonal building with eight halls of stalls.  One of the neighboring streets was shut down and push cart vendors were setting up.  It was good I got there before the evening rush so that there were plenty of empty tables and room to walk around.

You can find a wide variety of food groups here.  I think the four main food groups are Chinese, Indian, Malay, and American fast food. In fact, this one has a Wendy's sitting at one end.  I ordered from a Vietnamese stall, and have also seen Japanese, Korean, Italian, German, and Turkish.  Most food would not look out of place in an American Chinese restaurant, but it is not hard to find such delicacies as fried fish heads, and of course the Chinese do not shy from organ meats.  The most shocking thing to me is how popular soup is in a country where you eat outside in the heat.

Eventually I did find my way to the new office building.  The thing is huge.

Transit.

The subway here is very clean, air conditioned, and fairly quiet.  The complete opposite of New York's subway.  The stations have signs telling you how long the wait is for the next train, and their platforms have doors that shut when the trains are not in the station.  All signs are in english, sometimes with several translations along with it.

It is crowded at rush hour, but not unreasonably so, and no pushing.  The worst crowd is the line for the escalator.  And I haven't had to suffer a long wait yet. You have pretty good coverage across the island, but you still might be a 20 minute or more walk from some areas, like east coast park.  There is also an extensive bus network, but it is a bit more challenging to know which one you want.  Trains and buses operate on a touchless fair card system, so I can just put my wallet on the reader briefly without having to find the card.  Fares are reasonable, I've only used $17 in about a week.

All in all, a pretty nice way to get around.

Day 4

Day 4 in Singapore was also Day 1 in my new job.  So no marathon walks today.  Instead, videos about regulatory compliance.  But I did get another glimpse of the huge new casino Singapore has built.

The sort of dotted tower thing above and to the left of the water-lily shaped building is a giant ferris wheel (seen edge on) the Singapore Flyer.

I'll finish up with some other pictures I've taken over the last few days.

 Lots of buildings in Singapore feature greenery on the roof or balconies, but this one has managed to grow vines up the wall.

An old majestic building of some sort with a giant post modern tower next to it.

 Can barely see the buildings behind the street trees sometimes.  Their shade is well appreciated, let me tell you.

 If you look just to the left of the tree, there is an Indian temple.

Days 2 and 3

Turns out I've walked about 25 miles in Singapore, and wore myself out. I wanted to go out again this evening, but I don't dare walk another step. Luckily I bought sandwich fixings yesterday.

Primary goal was explore the east coast of Singapore, which is probably the largest section of single family housing in the country. I hope to live in a house or town house if possible. Also checked out a lot of malls, primarily because they are air conditioned, and Little India on the way to check out a listing Vanya found.

Speaking of air condition, just how hot is Singapore? Actually it is right on the edge of comfortably hot. I did most of my walking in blue jeans and polo shirts (which aren't exactly airy), and did all right. It isn't the heat of heat that saps the life out of you. But if you get the sun shining on you, it heats you up fast. I need to buy an umbrella and use it rain or shine. Luckily, most of the time it has been cloudy so far.

As for the East Coast: much much calmer than center city. Shops are bigger and less frantic. All the neighborhoods look nice. I actually kind of wonder if Singapore has bad neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods aren't pretty, the public housing blocks (HDBs they call them) are a little ugly, but they aren't crime ridden ghettos.

A highway lies between the actual coast and the neighborhood. Reachable by pedestrian underpasses is a large park along the coast. They have restaurants, bike rentals, bike and walking paths, skating school, fishing piers, and the beach. A real thin beach that looks out at an astounding line of shipping gridlock waiting patiently in line for the shipping port. Singapore does not appear to the place to go for a beach vacation. Actually I have to check out Sentosa Island before giving up on the beaches here.

One other thing about walking through Singapore. It seems like the zoning requires a side walk, but doesn't require it to actually be usable. The best side walks (and you see them a lot in center city) have the buildings overhanging the side walk so you can count on shade and being out of the rain. No guarantee that the side walk will line up from one building to the next though. Shops will often set up all the way out to the curb, so that walking down the side walk involves going down an aisle of the shop. Many many times I have seen a tree planted in the middle of the sidewalk. And in Little India I had to give up and walk down the middle of the street.

Last night I found myself going from mall to mall. How the heck does one city support so many malls right next to each other? And I couldn't find a book store in any of them.

Day 1

Whenever I get to a new city, I like to explore.  So I pick a random direction and try not to get completely lost.

I had a few goals in mind.  Figure out the mass transit, see where my new office is, buy a new mobile phone, and feeding myself, of course. The last one normally shouldn't be a problem (there are food courts and restaraunts everywhere) but my stomach was in no mood for the exotic.  What I can say but thank heaven for Seven-Eleven, they are everywhere here.

Finding a mobile phone was an interesting adventure. Ultimately, I failed: my employment pass is still 'in-principal' until I go through some further admistrative steps.  I could still get a phone, but I'd have to pay a sizable deposit. 

But it was an adventure.  First I found Sim Lim Square, several stories of individual discount computer and electronics stalls.  It was like those old computer shows you would see at convention centers in the 90s.  Sim Lim has cell phones, but you can get one subsidized with a new contact, so this didn't look like the place to do it.  I'll come back for a netbook after I get paid, though. Also the place to go for pink crystal encrusted or hello kitty themed cell phone cases.

In a later walk, I found the SingTel office tower, and guessed corectly that there would be a flagship store there. I know where to go now when my status is more official.

From there I walked downtown, found my office, bought a transit card and subwayed back.  Some interesting sites along the way, which I'll have to make into a later posting.

My jetlag isn't that bad.  I went to bed at 7pm, woke up at midnight and was up for a few hours, back to sleep till 7am.   It'll be nice to be able to sleep 8 hours straight, but I'm holding together well.

The Flight

I got to Dulles at 10:30am on Wednesday, and left Changi at 11:30pm on Thursday.  Taking out the time change, that is 25 hours of airports and airplanes, and about 20 hours in the air.

Everything went smoothly.  Flying business class kept me out of the long lines, and gave me plenty of space to stretch out.  Still, I can't say I enjoyed it.

I ignored the advice to not sleep during the flight, which would certainly have been bad advice.  But I had spent the days prior staying up later to start preparing for the time change.  But since I hadn't been sleeping in at all, I was just poorly rested.  Then I slept only fitfully on the plane.  By the end of the second leg, I was feeling very queasy and a bit dehydrated. I was keeping the airsick bag safely nearby, but luckily never needed it.

I think on any future flight, I'll have to consider breaking up the flight into legs with a day or two stopover.

Other than that, I was disappointed that we didn't fly over the arctic (it was Alaska and Siberia instead) and that you can't really keep looking out the window because everyone is trying to sleep, and it floods the cabin with light.

Goodbye, America.

Hours ago, my flight crossed the Bering Strait into Siberia, my first departure from North America.  Leaving America was a chore, mountains of paperwork, packing, getting the house ready for sale, saying goodbye to friends and coworkers, and misty-eyed last moments with family.

And there is still so much to do. My wife is burdened with the remaining task of getting the house sold, and getting our dog sent over, on top of caring for the kids. I have a fairly short amount of time to find a permanent place to live, dealing with receiving the dog and the furniture, and proving myself at work to be worthy of the expense of moving us all out here.

I hope it will all settle down and become a fun adventure for all of us.