Day 2 - The MRT

Today was my first day at work. Of course my sleep is a little messed up so I woke up early. There are 2 ways I can get to work, I can take a cab which is about a 30 minute ride or I can use public transportation which takes about 50 minutes. They have a train here called the MRT, pretty much like BART. Except that it is VERY clean and there are no homeless people or weirdos hanging out on it. There was not a speck of graffiti on this train and not a piece of trash in sight. The cab would cost me $50 round trip and the MRT costs me $3.20. Not really a hard decision because the cab would make quite a dent in my daily per diem. The MRT is a little intimidating. First off it is hard to remember where you need to go when you have stops with names like Ang Mo Kio, Paya Lebar, Tanah Merah, Tiong Bahru, well you get the point. I have to transfer twice and my biggest fear was getting on the wrong train and ending up who knows where. I did pretty well though and didn't get lost once. Where I get on the train is in the main part of the downtown business area. It was PACKED. I mean really packed. When I got on I literally went about 2 feet inside the door because that is all the room their was. Fortunately the farther I got a way from town the more the train cleared out and I eventually got a seat about half way through. Singapore is very populated and most of the common folks live in big government run housing. They buildings are tall and all look the same. I have heard from people who have been inside that they aren't heavy on the amenities. Small kitchens, exposed plumbing, no AC, lots of people sharing one apartment. Still though, no trash and no graffiti. I took a couple of pictures of some I saw from the train. Public transportation is pretty well thought out here and on my walk from the MRT station to my office they have a long covered walkway to protect you from the sun and probably the rain. It sounds simple but I got a strange sense of satisfaction making my way to work and back. The one downfall of the packed train is that some of the people here don't seem to practice the highest level of hygene. Now their clothes look clean and all but I am not sure if everyone had taken a shower in the past couple of days. When I was leaving work walking back to the train I found myself behind this worker who looked like he was from India. He had slacks and a dress shirt on but I could smell him from about 20 feet behind him. I did have a moment where I wondered if maybe I smelled the same. Did I happen to mention that it is hot and humid here and everywhere you walk outside will cause a sweat? I made a mental note to watch where he went on the train platform and go the opposite way. I ended up wedged between 2 ladies on the train and I was thinking to myself that I hope they weren't thinking the same thing about me!

The area around my hotel is a little touristy so the train was the first place I went were I was really among the locals. I was pretty much the only person on all the trains I rode today who was white. I saw quite a few stares but nobody really made me feel uncomfortable. There is a ladies voice who announce the stops. One of the announcements is to report any strange people on the train or anyone doing something unusual. I was hoping that someone didn't report me.;)

Work was good. I found out just before I left SF that they wanted to change my schedule around. I had planned out 15 days of training and they wanted me to cut it down to 10. I was a little bummed but what are you gonna do. So when I got in we met and they basically said I didn't have to do anything in particular the first week. I sitting around people who have already been through training and are working on real shots for ILM. I just have to answer their questions and help them out for the next couple of days. They are really nice here and I think they really appreciate when someone makes the long journey over here. They told me to cut out early because they knew I would probably start fading in the afternoon. Sure enough about 4pm I was starting to feel just a little tired. So now I have a couple of days to work on revising my training plan and getting used to the time change before I have to go into action.

So now I am back at my hotel contemplating what I am going to do for dinner. This is the time I wish I had someone to hang out with. I am thinking is time for some good Indian food so I might head over to Little India unless something else catches my eye.

Singapore Day 1

Well I made it. The flight from Hong Kong to Singapore is about 4 hours. I couldn't find any 'Welcome to Singapore' sign in the airport, maybe that is some sort of sign. The first thing you have to do when you get off the plane is go through immigration. It really is much simpler than I thought it would be. You just walk up to an official looking booth with guards looking on. You present your passport and a form you had to fill out on the plan with your name, address, etc. If you make it past the first guy then you get your luggage and most people are free to go. The customs guys randomly select people and then look through all of their luggage. If you are lucky they just pass it through a big x ray machine but if anything looks suspicious then you are in for a much longer search. I was one of the lucky guys to get some extra attention. I guess everything looked ok in my bags because they didn't ask me to drop my trousers or anything. Going through Immigration and Customs always makes me nervous though. Not that I have anything to hide but I really just want to get my stuff an go.

I am staying in a pretty nice hotel called the Goodwood Park Hotel. It was built in 1900 by some German guy. Because I am staying a little longer they set the instructors up in more of an extended stay type of room. It is really like an apartment. I could definitely live full time in a place like this if it was just me. The lady checking me in told me that they have had people that stay in the room for years. It is actually kind of like a split level with the bedroom upstairs and downstairs there is a living room with a small dining table and a desk. There is also a full kitchen with everything you would need to cook a meal.

After I got into my room I had a quick video chat with the family. I was in dire need of a shower after spending all that time on the plane it was wonderful. It is hot and humid here. I think people who live here get used to the humidity. I on the other hand, just sweat like a pig doing normal things like walking down the street. After my shower the hunter gatherer instinct kicked in and it was time to find a grocery store and get some stuff in my fridge. My hotel this time is in a much more populated area. It is near one of the biggest shopping area's in Singapore called Orchard Road. They love their malls here and there are about 6 of the all next door to each other on Orchard Road. Several of the are pretty upscale establishments and had lots of name brand stores. I passed a Nike store and popped in to see how the prices compared. The first pair I picked up were $25o singapore dollars. That works out to about $183 US. I also looked a Ralph Lauren store and shirts that were $75 at Macy's were$110 here. I guess you aren't gonna find any deals!

Anyway, the bell hop told were the closest supermarket was (they have no idea what a grocery store is). It is called the Isetan Supermarket and it's a Japanese chain store. Now another strange thing about Singapore is there are really any strip malls. Land is precious here so all the malls are 5 or 6 stories tall, kinda reminds me of the Embarcadero in SF. The grocery stores are usually inside of these malls. It is a pain in the ass if you are on foot. Probably even a pain if you have a car because it is not like you can park close to the front door. Apparently people grocery shop on Sunday's here. The store was PACKED, I was having a Disneyland flashback. There were a lot of weird things in this store. I would say about 25% of the store had things I recognized though. The US food was pricey. A 1 liter bottle of Coke was $2.50 which works out to $1.83 US. I got the basics so I could at least make some breakfast in my room. The crappy part was carting all those bags back about 5 blocks to my hotel. I was sweating walking down to the store and I was practically soaked to the bone after the walk back. So much for that shower!

I did stumbling across an interesting fellow in the store, Mr. Scallop. I guess he was promoting a product in the store but I really couldn't figure out how his costume was supposed to look like a scallop.

So anyway I guess I should wrap this up. It is just about 6pm here and I starting to fade pretty fast. The TV pretty much sucks here. You have about 20 channels or so. Discovery, Stars Movie Channel and ESPN are about the only ones with shows I recognize. You would think I would be happy with ESPN but it isn't the normal one. It is something like ESPN Asia and has had soccer on all day. I brought a DVD player and some DVD's but I think I might not have brought the right cables to hook it up, Doh! I can still play DVD's on my laptop so I might have to make do with that. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to take public transportation to work. They have a system kind of like BART called the MRT. It is set up pretty well since most people here don't have cars. I have to change trains twice though so I hope I don't get lost. The MRT is dirt cheap and the highest fare is $1.60 each way. A Taxi will cost me about $22 each way so that would burn through my per diem pretty quick. The main thing I am worried about is just getting sweaty on the way to work. Ok, starting to ramble. I am gonna get my ironing done and try to make it until 8 or so before I crash.

Testing, testing, 1 2 3

Just checking in to see if everything is up an running. I am heading over to Singapore for 3 weeks and thought I would fire up the old blog. Right now I am sitting in the airport at Hong Kong with an hour layover so the plane can refuel and hopefully get some yummy new snacks. I just saw 3 military guys waking around the airport in full gear each holding a machine gun. I guess that is how you know you are in a foreign country. It is just about 6:30am here and 3:30pm back in the US. The flight here was decent. There was about an hour straight of turbulence in the middle of the flight which made sleeping a little hard. I have always felt I could sleep through anything, lights on, TV blaring, but having the plane bounce around is the one thing I guess I can't sleep through. Also, it is a little unnerving that your are somewhere over the middle of the Pacific Ocean probably hours from land. I just kept telling myself that turbulence was normal. Well this is just a quick check in. I don't have much else to do and most of the stuff in the airport is closed anyway. I will post again after I get checked into my hotel in Singapore. Until then, See Ya!


p.s. If you read this feel free click on the comment button and add some comments, that way I don't feel like I am talking to myself.

p.p.s. Food in Business class is really pretty good. Not your usual microwave dinner fare. However, you can definitely see the Asian influence on the menu. For breakfast they start you out with a nice cup of coffee, some juice and nice plate of tropical fruit, delicious. Next you get a nice bowl of corn flakes and a pastry or croissant. Then came the main course. You had 3 choices, a bowl of Chinese noodles with big juicy shrimp, a plate of dim sum with both pork and vegetarian, and a cheese omelet with mushroom, peas and onions with a side of veal sausage. I guess you could make do with the cheese omelet but I figure ‘when in Rome...’ and I went with the Dim Sum. I have never really had Dim Sum but it was pretty good. Peas sound like a really strange thing to have with your omelet.

I am just about to Singapore now and I am pretty sure the seat stopped being comfortable about 8 hours ago.