Singapore

After my lovely Malaysian holiday, it was time to refocus on the reason I was in this part of the work, a meeting in Singapore. That’s the reason I didn’t write my blog while I was there. It is a busy week and on top of the work, our hosts went above and beyond to make sure we saw and ate everything they could fit in.

Singapore could not be any more far removed from the Asia I love, which is more traditional and less developed. Saying that, I loved Singapore. It is a complete wonder how this city that is a country that is an island off the coast of Malaysian has risen to become a modern metropolis. I am not sure how to describe it except to say, it has a futurist flare with flashes of tradition and the most amazing food. My criticism….the insane heat and humidity which is apparently a constant year round. To be honest, I stayed in the same building as my meetings so only went out in the evenings.

On the day I arrived, I walked to the beautiful and extravagant Gardens by the Bay which used to host the highest indoor waterfall in the world until Singapore Changi Airport built a huge indoor water park and mall with an even higher one.

The airport one:

On our first night, we were treated to an amazing welcome dinner which consisted of about 8 courses of seafood included the famous spicy crab. Amazing. This was followed by a beautiful harbour cruise.

The food was endless on this trip, so any gains ( in the forms of losses) from my Malaysia trip were lost. Our meetings were catered with the best local treats. In addition, I was treated to a working dinner meeting which was INCREDIBLE. Although the Peking Duck and Burning Chicken were pretty special, I enjoyed my dessert, a real delicacy. When translated, it was “the fatty tissue around the fallopian tubes of a frog”. It was delicious and I am just amazed how someone determined that this was a good thing to eat.

On our last night, a few of us went up to One Altitude, a bar with an incredible view looking “down” on the many skyscrapers and the boat filled harbour. After this we ate incredible bbq satay. I ate mostly shrimp. I pretty much ate seafood every day in Singapore.

From here our hosts insistent we go eat durian like a local. Since durian is only sold in specific roadside shops (because of the stink), we followed our leader to one of the best shops. So, I had durian, more than one piece, it was not as bad as I remembered but I am not prepared to say it was good. The texture is very avocado like. But I am prepared to say we had an absolute blast. This was not the end, we still had to try local desert….remember no one else had a chance to have those frog fallopian tubes and we wanted to share the experience.

A super busy week but considering, we got to see a lot and eat even more. I had always known my Singaporean colleagues were kind and funny but I could never have anticipated such incredible hospitality or generosity.

My meeting group which had more women that ever before!