Singapore Sojourn - Part 1

Well, a big hello to all my readers (if there are any left :) ). This post finds it way to my blog after a considerable gap (more than a year to be precise). A lot of things have happened in between though - got my btech degree, joined a company, got an offer for higher studies and after much thought, left the company (in 6 months time, must be a record) and set sail for foreign shores.

To put it more precisely, I got an offer from the National University of Singapore (NUS) for higher studies and after several sleepless nights spent making a decision, finally decided to go for it.So, in the wee hours of 7 January 2008, I landed at Changi International airport (with one of my friends in tow) all charged up. Err, not exactly very charged up given that almost the whole night I was awake in that flight trying to get some sleep which was next to impossible as the airlines insisted on serving food throughout the flight. Strange, just when you want nothing more than to catch a nap, the airhostess insists on waking you up and enquiring (very lovingly) if you would like some tea or coffee (what time was this you ask ? 3 a.m. yes A.M you read it right).

So, you can well imagine my condition, almost looking like one of the zombies from the night of the living dead. Still, in that condition the sheer size and elegance of the airport simply took my breath away. I saw only one section of one of three terminals but the trailer was enough to give the full picture. Not much can be described here (not that I saw much also), but here is a sample, there are orchid gardens inside the terminal (real orchids). If you are intrigued by this, follow this link to know more about the wonders contained within.

Well, it was smooth sailing till now. Our assigned welcome buddy (provided by our college, how thoughtful) was there to take us to our hostel. So we hailed a taxi and were off to our destination, our hostel to be precise. Now I was hoping to catch a few z's in the cab, but the taxi driver upon learning that we were from India, started talking about that eternal link between India and the rest of the world - Bollywood. The cab driver however was not interested about Shahrukh or Hrithik (or even Amitabh for that matter), he started enquiring about Shammi Kapoor (of all the actors !!!) and we were forced to a Singaporeans rendition of 'chahe koi mujhe junglee kahe'. Well, my hopes of getting some sleep were dashed so I focussed on the sights outside. What immediately captured my interest was the amount of greenery all around. There was not a single area bereft of any kind of vegetation whatsoever. Even the overbridges were bedecked with bougainvillea creepers. Hmm, my morale was already getting boosted by the sights (little did I anticipate what was about to come).

Finally, after travelling what felt like the entire length of the island we reached our hostel which overlooked a nice big park were some old chinese ladies were doing tai-chi (I can't explain what that means, its some sort of exercise and a perfectly respectable thing to do in a park). I was drop dead tired by this time so I was just waiting to go to our room and sleep in our nice room (as the hostel website photos suggested). We were checked into the hostel by a rather enthusiastic lady whose desk also doubled up as a breakfast table (considering we had arrived at 8:30 AM). The check in process which entailed saving my passport from an assault by strands of noodles and blotches of ketchup, was over pretty soon. We were both (my friend was also staying in the same room with me) handed a bunch of keys and we went off in eager anticipation to our room.

The hostel had around 11 floors with each floor having around 15 rooms along a balcony that overlooked the park I mentioned earlier. Our room was on the second floor so we were spared the ordeal of dragging our luggage all way up.
We got to our room, unlocked the door and went inside. Once the eyes adjusted to the light inside, what we saw...

....TO BE CONTINUED....