A Taste of Singapore =)

June 27, 2012

My first day at Singapore was awesome! I woke up at around 06:00 took a shower and made up myself for a long business day ahead. I glanced at the glass window from my hotel on the 16th floor of Gran Mercure and it was still so dark. Yes! 06:00AM in SG is like 4AM in Manila though time zone is just the same. After i made up myself, i took my laptop bag and all set to go to the executive lounge to have some refreshments and breakfast. It was around 0715 when i got inside the executive lounge of the hotel. There i was greeted by hotel staff - a Filipino. I forgot to get his name though. Anyways, there were wide choice of food, from bread, rice, meats fruits.

View from the Executive Lounge: 17th floor of Gran Mercure Hotel

I proceeded to the Hotel lobby after my breakfast. It was around 7:40 when i waited for a cab outside the hotel lobby. Unlike in the Philippines in which hotel staff/security personnel would hail a cab for you, in SG it's different. You have to stand on their taxi lane and wait for your turn till you get a cab, so i did :( It took around 5 minutes only before i got a cab. Then all set to Tampines Grande to meet with the NCR people there. I asked the uncle cab driver (the term they use for older guy equivalent to manong in Philippines) to take me to the NCR office. He doesn't know the place though. Jeez! Good thing i was able to take a screenshot of the google map i searched earlier with the hotel wifi. I showed it to him and he's fine with it. The cab driver was so friendly. he was asking if how's my day and where i am from. We discussed about Singapore business. We exchanges thoughts until i arrived in my destination. 

NCR Corporation Center on the 7th floor

After i met the NCR IT guys in Tampines site, we went directly to Techno Park Chai Chee. This is where the NCR DR (Disaster recovery) site is located. We got her via cab. The good thing about this place is that food is always available 24 horus just across the street. I was working with Conrad who is an IT specialist in NCR SG and he was too good to let me try their local food. During lunch break, he took me to the "hawker" where various local food is available. Hawker is like a "karenderia" in Philippines. It mostly offered noodles though there were rice meals as well. 

Hawker Menu

At around 5:30PM i was done with my work so i had to meet up my previous Team Lead in Cebu who's already based in SG. We agreed to meet up at Bedok Train station. Since it was my first time in SG, i only relied on my iphone plus my best friend - google map. Conrad told me that the train station was just few blocks away. He provided me direction on how to get there. Good for me as i was good at taking directions. So there i was ready to stroll Singapore with my heavy laptop. One thing i like the most when i was walking on the side of the street was the fact that there were no snatchers in the area. Also, you can hardly see heavy traffic flow on the street. People were law abiding citizens. I had not seen people crossing anywhere on the street just like in Manila or Cebu. They always follow traffic rules :)

Bedok MRT Station

It was already 07:00PM when my firend arrived in the MRT station. Jeez! was waiting there for an hour and a half listening to the beat of pop plugged on my ears. All was set and we're heading to my hotel to change clothes and to deposit my heavy portable. Then, we headed to Marina Bay Sands. We had our dinner at Makansutra where grilled food is available. 

After Dinner, we headed to the world famous Marina Bay where you can see bright lights dancing in the air. Yes! i was amazed with the beautiful and colorful lights surrounding Marina Bay sand plus the cool river flow. Below is an image of the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel, a structure which symbolizes Singapore's prosperity. One can reach there via "Helix Bridge" - a glass bridge wrapped by purple lights where one would feel royal on his walk. 

Helix Bridge

Newly constructed outdoor stadium

With my Previous Team Lead

Inside the Marina Bay Sands Hotel Shoppe

At Changi Airport