I am now one month behind in blogging about travels, it’s embarrassing. I’m currently in Seoul, South Korea. My experience in Korea has been, without question, my favorite in Asia. A lot of this is due to chance (good weather, good company), but also due to other factors. I’ll discuss more on this when I finally write about Seoul.
First, let’s talk about my Singapore trip from March 19-23, 2014.
I left Bangladesh at 1pm. The country made sure I was fighting until the last second. I arrived at the airport 1.5 hours early, as anticipated traffic was nonexistent. This proved to be horrible decision on my part – no air conditioning, plus the overly abundant supply of mosquitoes kept me moving for over an hour. I kept myself entertained by swatting mosquitoes out of the air, then stepping on them when they hit the ground. I easily killed over 50.
The flight was delayed by an hour, and there were two more mosquitoes in the plane. Not cool. Luckily, I had the entire isle to myself and had a window view of some of the most beautiful clouds I’ve ever seen.
I landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia only to sprint to my connecting flight due to the delay. I then landed in Singapore and got through immigration swiftly, only to find that my luggage was missing. My luggage didn’t make it on the same flight, so it had to be shipped to my hotel at 2am in the morning.
My time in Singapore was almost entirely spent at a large, 1000-person conference. Didn’t get to see too much other than dinner with my colleagues.
I met some clients and worked with them on the executive club lounge of a hotel. The 29th floor had a nice view of the city/country.
Our hotel is right on the waterfront, so we also had a fantastic view in the day and night.
One of many bridges connecting the river.
A fountain right outside our conference venue.
My hotel. Just realized I didn’t take a picture of my room. It was well past midnight and I was missing luggage, thought must have slipped my mind.
My colleagues’ view from the back of the hotel, of our pool area. Note: That’s Chris Hemsworth swimming in the pool [in our imaginations].
Some conference food. They served insanely delicious food, which has helped contribute to my 6 pounds gained in the 28 days of travel (so sad).
View of the river during the day.
After the conference, my colleagues and I ate some crab dinner at a local spot.
This meal tied my crab meal in Colombo, Sri Lanka as the most delicious meal of the month long trip.
Afterward, I ate durian for the first time! One of my colleagues did not like the taste, while the other and I gladly ate it all. It was pricey! Around $35 for one fruit.
It’s interesting that the owner’s entire business is from selling a single fruit. No dice keeping other stuff in vicinity, the smell is too strong. I was able to identify the odor from 30 meters away, nothing like it. Note: durian is not allowed in hotels, trains, or airplanes. It has a strong smell that makes it illegal to carry in many locations.
It was a thick custard that smelled bad, tasted strange. I would eat it again, but only if it were already in front of me and I were hungry. My mouth stunk for several hours afterward.
The next day, my month-long journey in South/Southeast Asia ended.
I would have liked to explore more of Singapore. My only impression was that it was clean. Very clean. It was fairly humid, but not as humid than India or Sri Lanka. The women really enjoyed wearing sun dresses, and their English and Mandarin were good (as expected). I couldn’t relate to the way they dressed – definitely unique, as it is not the same as China nor Taiwan.
I was able to see a good 70% of Hong Kong in three days. Singapore is half the size, so I’m hoping to see it all in a good 2-3 day trip in the future!
Andy Cheng 