Home ... Travelogue ... Singapore 2008
From September 13-17 2008 I was in the city-state of Singapore for the 24th Open Grid Forum meeting. I've been active in the OGF for years, and since they have three meetings per year it's provided opportunities to visit some interesting destinations.
This travelogue entry won't focus on the OGF meeting, since the program and minutes are online at the OGF Web site. Briefly, my role included an all-day standards steering group meeting in Platform's "Fusionopolis" office in Singapore (Sunday September 14), helping to present the OGF101 session and having some collaborative meetings on Monday, and presenting the *Grid Information Retrieval Research Group session on Tuesday.
The flight there and back was fine, though long...about 24-26 hours in transit each way, on three separate flights. I was on Alaska Airlines from Fairbanks to Seattle, then back again. From Seattle, I was on Northwest Airlines through Tokyo then to Singapore. Due to my elite frequent flyer status on Alaska, I scored an exit row seat on three out of four NWA flights (29A), which was great! Even though SeatGuru.com doesn't recommend these seats on the A320 aircraft, I do -- lots of leg room, and since row A is next to the window, there was not much traffic from the nearby lavatories. The non-dairy vegetarian meals on NWA were good, as always on trans-oceanic flights. Entertainment was about par, with a personal video screen and selection of movie and music (no live TV though).
For the record: the new Indiana Jones movie, which I watched en route, was completely stupid. It barely made sense, gave me absolutely no reason to care about any of the characters, and had Russian bad guys who were in all ways indistinguishable from the German bad guys of prior movies. Absolutely ridiculous, though I suppose there are some people under 12 years old who might find it enjoyable (or at least they'll enjoy the Indie tie-ins to their cereal boxes and such).
Singapore was not nearly as well-organized a city as travel guides would have you believe. I saw jaywalkers and gum chewers everywhere, though it's impossible to jaywalk on Orchard Road due to various barriers/fences. Yes, it was fairly clean, but also quite difficult to find a garbage can to toss small trash, even at the ubiquitous bus stops. The much-touted street organization actually sucks: the streets are generally not straight, and frequent name changes make them difficult to follow.
In preparation for my marathon run the following weekend, and because I like to run, I got a taxi Monday afternoon to the MacRitchie Reservoir to follow a 9km trail. This was really nice! I took a taxi there because I wasn't sure of the route, and to make it in time to be done at dusk (since Singapore is practically on the equator, sunset happens promptly a little after 6:00 pm).
The reservoir has a few trails that go around it, which are fairly smooth. It's basically a rain forest, so the trail can be slick. There are signs saying not to feed the monkeys, but other than a few birds I didn't see any wildlife. This is a popular spot with joggers. The only negative thing is that there is a loop trail around the middle of the main trail for a tree top walk, which sounds great but closed at 5:00 pm. Maybe next time.
From the Reservoir, I planned to run back to the hotel through the city streets, about a 5 mile run. This was pleasant, since there are reasonable sidewalks the whole duration, except that I got completely lost. So, I was out for hours longer than expected in the dark, and ended up running well over 10 miles. My map wasn't accurate enough, and got wet, and as mentioned the streets kept changing names. I made it back eventually, though, and got to see a fair amount of the city during my exertions.
On Tuesday, I spent some time wandering the famous outdoor shopping plaza of Singapore, Orchard Road. I had a very nice lunch with colleagues at Lingzhi, a restaurant on the strip in Liet Tower. This is a top-end vegetarian Chinese place (all *vegan, I think). Then, I took my time walking back to the hotel, visiting a few shops. Mostly, they were unremarkable...about the same stores that you find in any shopping mall in the US, or similar streets in places like Amsterdam. There were some stores less seldom seen, though, such as some places selling Turkish rugs.
One highlight of the trip is the Deli Vege restaurant, where I went for dinner on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights. It's in Chinatown, about a mile from my hotel. This is not all-vegan, and the serving staff are occassionally confused by English, so ask clearly whether a particular dish includes eggs or milk. Most don't. The first night I had something called a DFC, which was a classic Western "fried chicken" dish with slaw and fries. Great stuff, though a little too fried for my taste. It was a recommendation by the wait staff, evidently quite popular there. I saw some Chinese-appearing patrons at the next table ordering the same thing. Monday night I had vegetable tempura and a rice clay pot. Tusday night I had sushi and braised tofu. Good stuff all-around. The menu is astounding: lots of dishes from Western, Chinese and Japanese heritage. Good clean decor, and inspiring pro-vegetarian quotes on the walls & menus. Highly recommended.
Singapore lived up to expectations as being highly multicultural. People spoke English, though many didn't speak it very well. (Monday's lunch was at a place in Biopolis called Raj Vegetarian. Not recommended, because they were unable to understand English well enough to understand my questions about which items were without dairy, and ended up not delivering the food we ordered, for reasons unknown.) I saw many people who appeared to be Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and more. There were a number of Arabs, and Australians. Numerous Americans and British, as well (I'm assuming that people standing at bus stops with briefcases weren't tourists, but probably some were). Highly multicultural, and friendly.
My hotel was called Hotel Miramar, and was about 5 miles from the Biopolis area where the conference was held. The hotel was so-so, probably 3 stars for the hotel room and 4 for the open spaces, and 2 for the recreational facilities. They had one of the most pathetic gyms I've ever seen in a hotel: a treadmill and 3 weight machines in a room that was about 8 by 12 feet. Strangely, it was only open from 7a-7p, despite being unmanned. The outdoor pool was small, open 7a-7p, with no hot tub. They had some sort of spa on site, but I didn't visit it.
The hotel's two main elevators were incredibly slow, and several nights there was room service refuse left in the halls all night. Internet costs S$28 per 24 hours for wireless, which was way too much. The morning breakfast buffet was generous, and had some good vegetarian/vegan offerings. It was included with my S$250 room rate. My room had two twin beds, basic furnishings, a hot pot with instant coffee and a small tea selection, and no alarm clock. Basic cable TV. Clean, and not uncomfortable, but far from posh.
Rather than take the conference shuttle bus, I walked to and from the meeting sites all three days. Sunday was to Fusionopolis, which was a bit further away than the Biopolis meeting sites Monday and Tuesday. They were all 5ish miles of city walking. I got soaked with sweat (and a little rain on Monday), because even at 7:30 in the morning it was 80% humidity and about 80 degrees. But otherwise it was pleasant, and gave me a chance to see parts of the city. After Sunday, I wore shorts and brought a change of clothing, so it wasn't a problem getting sweaty on the walk.