A new life at Singapore!

New Beginnings

A new beginning in my life, when I decided to take on the opportunity to work in Singapore. On February 5, 2012 in the early hour of a pleasant morning landed in an illuminated world from my native country where mornings are lazy. Here, life seemed to be busy with taxi drivers waiting for the passengers in a queue, and the airport crew bustling with their daily chores. A distant cousin of mine, arranged for my stay in a posh and decent backpackers inn at Race Course Road.

Changi Airport

In my very first international flight, I met few more first-timers who had no idea where to go or how to get a clearance from the immigration. Finally, we figured out that we needed to fill our details in the white card that is available at the immigration desk. While conversing with them, I came to know that the Changi International Airport has one of the best facilities for travellers with buggy (golf) carts that pick you up from the airport arrival to the immigration checkpoint, which is quite a walk. You get the best of breweries from Chivas Regal to Glen Fiddich. You could feel the difference surrounded by beautiful air-hostesses to various jewellery stores and mouthwatering snacks.

After getting the clearance from the immigration officer, I met my cousin who was waiting for quite a long time. We hired a cab and headed towards the inn. My cousin was sharing his experiences and he told me that it is easy to settle in. However, he warned me about the high cost of living. The chauffeur jumped in on our conversation and asked the purpose of my visit. We told to him that we are here to work. He was sort of happy and surprised.

Courtesy: http://www.tripadvisor.com/  

Meanwhile we reached the inn, a three-storey building located on an Indian street. Each room was shared by four to six backpackers. They offered a complimentary breakfast of boiled eggs, peanut or chocolate butter, bread, banana, and an apple for occupants. The Filipino administrator asked me to fill in a form to reserve a place. He mentioned that we needed to wait for two hours before the bed could be ready, but I can take a shower and relax for an hour on one of the beds without disturbing other backpackers. After filling out the form, and keeping my luggage in the locker room, my cousin and I went out for a coffee across the street.



Buddhist Temple

The street had a different look with the Buddhist and Chinese temples at both ends. In the corner of the street there were few eateries open at 6 a.m. to serve breakfast, coffee, and snacks to morning customers like us and early office-goers. We ordered for coffee and to my surprise we got a mug full each. Looking at the mug it felt as if we would need to spend half an hour to finish it. The coffee is made with milkmaid instead of regular milk. My cousin asked me to stir the coffee very well so that my stomach wouldn't get upset with the new taste and rich content.

Later, when my cousin left; I entered the temporary room where I took a shower and rested for a while. As the sun began to shine through the day, I was given a bed in the ground floor (oops... first floor, there is no ground floor concept here). The room was occupied by an Australian couple who were stationed in Singapore for two days on their way to a mini-world-tour. The Australian told me they were traveling from past three months and have been to India, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Singapore, and were on their way back to Australia after visiting Malaysia. Isn't this amazing?

There was also a student from Malaysia who was here to attend a medical conference cum training for a week. How can I forget the Jewish guy? He is a business man from Israel who runs his online sales company for spare parts. After a brief introduction with my roomies, I wanted to explore the new city, but before that I had my fill with the complimentary breakfast.

Courtesy: http://www.ayushveda.com/

My cousin asked me to call him, when I was ready to go. We decided to meet at the Mustafa Centre - a 24-hour shopping mall, which is half a mile away from the inn. It was a sunny day and as soon as I started walking with my denim shirt on, my face was full of sweat as if I'm out from the shower (Lesson1: Never get out in Singapore with a denim shirt on). We reached at Mustafa and went to get a new mobile number and Ezlink card that calculates and detects fare for bus and train journey based on distance travelled automatically. We got the Ezlink card but for a new Singtel number we needed an ID proof (passport), which we had left at the inn.



My cousin advised me to go and rest until evening, and bring the passport later for the number. As the sun was scorching that day and I was wet all over. I decided to return to the inn, when we finished our lunch at Ponnuswamy Restuarant. We had a fish meal set composed of rice, roti, fish curry, and vegetable curries resembling the southern Indian cuisine. With my stomach full and hot sun over me, I wanted to take a nap.


MRT

Later, as the day progressed, I felt like visiting my new workplace, where I had to report the next day at 9 a.m. sharp. The inn's administrator changed after the Filipino's shift. Medi Singh an Indian who sported a French-bearded look and spoke with a UK accent, noted down the route to reach to my office in Alexandra road on a piece of paper from the gothere.sg/ website. I thanked him for the information and started on my new mission, in a new country, to find where my new workplace was. Somehow, after checking with few locals I took the MRT (Mapid Rail Transit) from the Ferrar Park to the Harborfront station and from there boarded a bus to Alexandra road. It took almost 40 minutes to reach to the destination, but this time it felt better in the Puma dry fit t-shirt that I wore.



Alexandra Point

Amazed by the high rises, clean city, modern transport system, and unknown language on hoardings I felt happy and but was puzzled too. Clicked some pictures of the PSA building, Alexandra Point, Hewlett-Packard offices, and the transport system on my way back to the inn. It was almost the dinner time when I reached the Ferrar Park MRT station.

I had my dinner at the local Chinese outlet before calling it a day full of new beginnings!