Shyam's Blog

It has been Super Saturdays for me for 3 weekends. Yesterday was the turn to visit the Chinese Gardens near Jurong East. The whole park is so vast that it takes 7-10 kilometer walk to cover it. Attached with this garden is the Japanese Garden. On Friday night, I had made up my mind to visit this place. The only thing I had kept undecided was the time. As Saturday progressed, I thought that 4-7pm will be a good time to visit. I was in the park by 4pm after getting down at Chinese Gardens MRT. With a few meters walk, I reached the entrance of the side gate. With sun still up, my mouth started to water once I saw the ice cream cart. "One dollar..", said the vendor. I told him to give me a cone and got to know that he has neither cone, nor the stick. Rather, he prepares it from scratch. I just wanted 'some' icre-cream. So, I said, "ok, give however you want to". He had a family pack kind of a thing inside his cart. He cut a slice of it along with the cardboard ...

Saina Nehwal won the Indonesian Open few minutes ago to add her tally to 3 titles in 3 weeks. 2 weekends ago, she won the Indian Open in Chennai. Last weekend, she won the Singapore Open. What a performance by her these days! She is now ranked 3 in the world and is expected to go higher. After watching her play, I felt that she really is a true fighter and never gives up easily. This is the first time an Indian woman's Badminton player has reached such heights. Only other Indian to have reached such recognition is Prakash Padukone. Couple more have come to Badminton circuit with some odd titles in the past decade - Gopichand and Aparna Popat, but none achieved any of the top 3 spots as far as world ranking goes. Well Done Saina!!!

Saw this Ad here and found it funny the way it is phrased (or the way it can be interpreted) CHOA CHU KANG BLK-472,NICE OWNER, MASTER ROOM PLS CALL - ******** MASTER ROOM IN CHOA CHU KANG AVE 3,BLK-4** JUST 2 PERSONS ONLY IN THE HOUSE,VERY CALM. HI FLOOR,RENT NEG. INDIAN OWNER FULLY FURNISH LOOKING SINGLE OR 2,ANYRACE GIRLS,LIGHT COOKING ALLOWED IMMED CALL

Watched a Kannada movie (#73 Shanthi Nivasa) which was on-air today here in a local channel. The movie is a remake of Hindi version. Sudeep aka Kiccha has directed this movie and also has played the lead role. It is must watch family movie. Komal has done well to add some laughter. The song 'Preeti Yendare Heegene' (listen here ) is a good one which is based on raaga, Kalavati.

There are a few things tourist visiting Singapore (pronounced as Sin-ga-pore and not Sin-gaa-pore as many Indians do) must not miss. I will prioritize the list after my 3 weeks now. Though I haven't seen a few places (still in my 'must-visit' list), there have been a bunch of places that really attracted me. A must see in Singapore: 1) Singapore Flyer - A beautiful view of the City and the ocean. Best time to visit - 6:30pm - 7:30pm. For that, one needs to be in the ticket counter by 5:30pm. During this period of the day, you will get too look at the city with a bit of sun light and also with lights lit just after sunset. 2) Singapore Botanical Garden and National Orchid Garden - If you love to relax, the Botanical Garden is the best place to be in. With so much natural beauty and calmness, you will enjoy peace with a nice breeze. For photography fans, Orchid Garden is the place to spend to fill 1-2GB of your camera memory. Best day to visit - Weekdays OR, Saturday mornin...

Visited Henderson Waves (a bridge) this evening. Many had come with camera to shoot the night lights of this bridge. I was the only one without a tripod :(. May be, it is a lesson for me to get a tripod for such shots. View of Henderson Waves The bridge is designed in a unique way to look like a wave. In real, the path to walk is along a horizontal access of this wave. The first image shows the walkway. The day-light image of this bridge is not that impressive compared to the night-light effect.

Singapore rain was in the news this morning. Yesterday, it rained heavily from 8 am to 11 am and recorded 60% of average rainfall for the month of June. People were very harsh in commenting on the drainage system on specific roads. They need an inquiry in to drainage system in the affected areas. Another notable thing about this place is policy to maintain the city clean. It is 'bad' as pr Govt. rules to pick your nose in public. Apart from this, if a person dirties a place, maximum punishment is to recruit the culprit as 'Litterbugs' (read here ) and order him/her to maintain cleanliness in a given public area. Finally, about cars - one cab driver was explaining that after a car turns 10 years, it has to be re-checked and registration has to be renewed. Cost of re-registering an old car is around S$30,000. Adding few more to that, we will get a new car. This is the reason, we rarely see cars/vehicles older that 10 years on Singapore roads.

There are few Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) people have asked me about my impression about Singapore. It has been 10 days since my landing here and I am getting a pretty good look at the place. The first couple of days was more of getting to know the transport system and the places/names of places. After getting an accommodation, it has been more of exploring the city and its attractions. I have covered a few tourist spots. Below is the list I have covered till now: 1) Merlion/Marina Bay 2) Singapore Flyer 3) Singapore Botanical Garden 4) Singapore Philately Museum 5) Singapore Zoo I am yet to explore Sentosa Island and Singapore Birds Park. Coming back to FAQs, here are some FAQs and my answers to them: 1) How is Singapore? The city/country is nice and is bubbling with people everywhere. The place is neat and green too. The weather is hot (around 90F) and humid. People are very busy working for 10-plus hours daily. 2) How is Little India? I liked this place as it resembles Brigade ...

Visited Singapore Botanical Garden today. It is a nice place for a day out with lots of things to see. A family picnic is always a good idea. Click on the image for pictures. I liked the Orchid Garden which has 'n' varieties of orchids.

http://www.singaporeflyer.com/ Visited Singapore Flyer, the largest Ferris Wheel in the world. This makes my Ferris Wheel ride count to two. My first ride was on London Eye in 2006. The view of the city is awesome. For couples, a romantic ride is arranged with dining facility. The ride takes around 30 minutes.

Listen to this audio and decode what the person is selling. I get down at Jurong East MRT station and I see one old lady selling something daily. This lady sits on a wheel chair and has a lot of stuff to sell. It is hard to decode what she is selling seeing her. She will be announcing her product every 15 seconds. I recently got to understand what she really sells by telling the above announcement. She is the only one I have seen in the whole of Singapore selling by announcing in a public place (resembling Indian Style). I will give the answer to this tomorrow. Till then, keep guessing and comment it here.

I was very excited on Day-1 when I was traveling from the Airport to my guest house. My excitement of seeing Suzuki Swift and Hyundai Getz here in Singapore was short lived. A brand new Suzuki Swift costs Rs. 22 lakhs (~ S$ 67,000)!

View from living room Singapore has different types of rental houses. Most of the apartments are of two types - private and HDB (Housing Development Board). While the former is developed by private developers, the latter is built by the local government and could be owned by anyone. The latter one is like the BDA site allotment system where local people apply and get a plot/home. House rent in Singapore is very high because of competition and encouragement the government is giving to private companies. On the other side, companies are not paying higher salaries to their employers. They are of the mindset, "if this candidate doesn't accept the offer, we have others in the list".

Today, I had a chance to figure out the inside of Mustafa Centre. I got all the groceries I wanted. I think, it is a place where you can get 'everything', that too 24 hours! Good time to visit this store is during the week. During weekend, I was told that it is hard to check out from the cash counter.

Day 3 and Day 4 had been filled with roaming for two reasons - 1) See Singapore, 2) Find an accommodation. I could complete the first one little bit and there is lot left to see in the coming weeks/months. On Sunday, I saw a few houses for a shared accommodation and settled for the one I liked. Waiting for the week ahead.

This is the view of Singapore from our Office window on the 33rd floor.

Landed in Singapore at 6:10am. Immigration was done within 10 minutes. I was at my designated guest house by 6:45am. The moment I showed the address to the taxi driver, he said, "Oh, this is a house, I know". My first experience of Singapore was heavy condensation! Once I opened the taxi to step out into Singapore soil, my glasses needed wipers for nearly a minute. It was 27 degrees at 6:45am. I got used to the transport system here. Bus, MRT, taxi, walking - all are useful modes of transport. I felt the weather to be very hot and humid. One funny thing to remember - This is the first time I got into a 50 storeyed building (our office here in Singapore is located on the 33rd floor with a beautiful view to the ocean and downtown). On the ground floor, I pressed the "Go UP" button and waited. There were 8 elevators and one of them arrived. I got in to that and for my surprise, it took me to 41 st floor. There was no button inside to click 33 :(. Then, I figured out th...