16 Feb 2009: Yokohama, Japan

I have my bosses/company to thank for this great learning experience / exposure to handling an urgent issue with our Japanese vendors here. Of course, I only managed to share some pictures of the after-work, which meant most of it was taken at night.

Arrival in Narita Airport

View of Yokohama Bay from my 21st floor hotel room

Yokohama by night

Dhaka, Bangladesh

I think when you cannot find a single MacDonald's in a city, you'll have an idea of things right away.

But let's start from the beginning.

Lucky for me, I was assigned to perform an audit by my company, without which I would not have visited Dhaka. Yet it is also because of work that I had no time to wander off on my own to explore the city. I was also very fortunate to have the Station Manager bring me around, point to point, so I need not worry about the local transportation or being mugged in the middle of the night.

Speaking of transport, one has to forget any traffic rules, since there were none except to "not to give way". There are no traffic lights, or so I thought, as it was only on my departure day that I came across a gridlock at one traffic junction. And that was where I saw my first traffic light.

Then again, it wasn't as if it helped.

Bangladeshi drivers just don't care about right of way. And horning is music to them. Every driver horns at another vehicle/trishaw to warn them, kind of like a friendly gesture to "look out". When turning out to another street, they just do it, cos if they don't, they're stuck. So daring are they, that when one side of the road is closed, they just go against the traffic on the other side. In a traffic jam, nobody gives way, because when one car inches back, the other inches forward. So nobody lets this chance pass.

Enough about traffic. Zia International Airport, is a magnet for all people, flying or not. Usually, we'd expect travelling passengers and their friends/relatives to send them off at the departure hall. But for the locals, if they are not travelling, they are "required" to purchase a ticket from a booth outside, so they can at least enter the airport. So there is really just two ways about it - one, to bribe the guards, or two, wait till night when the cover of darkness eases the locals' effort in climbing over the gate. (Yes there is a gate outside the departure hall!)

Security, sadly, yet not surprisingly, was taken rather lightly. Sometimes, I was checked, sometimes, not. One time, I put my briefcase through the X-ray scanner - with no security guard monitoring the screen. Best of all, passengers who enter the departure hall (assuming they are taking a flight out) are only checked just before the check-in counters, but as a "airport staff", I had to be screened before being allowed into the terminal building.

Food-wise, it was certainly unlike the food paradise in Singapore we know of. I remember how the first lunch already led me to experience a stomach upset, most probably because our Singapore stomach is very weak, and hasn't weathered the local food, yet. I did, however, enjoy the lunch I was brought to, which saw a spread of dahl, naan, chicken, fish and mixed vegetables. the only rule of thumb the SM and myself adhered to, was that of drinking bottled water only. (And hot coffee/tea if offered to us as guests.)

On the day of return to Singapore, I could only say how blessed I was to have been sent to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and not Mumbai, India, which got the world's attention, for all the wrong reasons. Makes us want to appreciate our peace and stability we Singaporeans enjoy.

2-9 Sep 2008: Montreal & New York

I was fortunate to be sent on an overseas work trip the past week to Montreal, Canada. Fortunately, a series of fortunate and unfortunate events saw me stop over in New York for one additional unplanned day on the return leg of the journey home. The excerpt below recounts my journey there and back, typed in between all the lull periods waiting and waiting at the airports.

Tuesday, 2 Sep 2008: Departure for JFK via Frankfurt.

With a full flight, it was not surprising to be seated in economy. Despite the long flight time of 12 hours, I was fortunate that the lady beside me on 37E requested to move to a window seat, leaving the adjacent seat beside me empty. Further to my right were 2 senior citizens, who flew from New Zealand, en route to Frankfurt, whom I spoke to regarding their background (as with mine). Johanna, Dutch by birth, had migrated to New Zealand about ten years ago, after having worked as a nurse in the Netherlands. Together with her traveling companion Christine, they were on their way to Dubrovnik on Croatian airlines departing from Frankfurt. Interestingly, they were also making the pilgrimage to Medjugorje, the same one my family and I did more than 15 years ago. Being both Catholics, it was no wonder we hit off in our conversation comfortably. Where I had usually requested for playing cards, I made it a point to ask for two more, and took the opportunity to present them to Johanna and Christine, who were pleasantly surprised and appreciative of my gesture. After all, they already complimented me for this wonderful airline and airport. It was certainly another proud moment to be uniquely Singaporean.

Wednesday, 3 Sep 2008

The transit in Frankfurt airport took no more than 2 hours, which by this time, saw most of the travelers getting off. With a lighter load, I saw a change of luck in my seat, and service no less.

I arrived in JFK ahead of schedule, around 10.30am local time. We hopped onto a shuttle (Olympic Transfer, USD$27 + tips, located at the counter just outside the arrival gates), which took us to Newark Liberty airport in about one hour. There, we had to catch an Air Canada flight to Montreal at 4.25pm. My boarding pass printed my seat number 13C.

To my surprise, the aircraft at the gates was a 50-seater CRJ100, of the Air Canada’s Jazz fleet. To an even greater surprise, row 13 was the last row right next to the lavatory. Perfect.

We arrived in Montreal (Pillot-Elliot Trudeau) Airport at 6pm, and again took a shuttle bus (Aerobus, CAD$15 one way/ CAD$25 return, located at the counter just outside the arrival gates), which took us to the Central Bus Station in 30 minutes. At Station Centrale, we then hopped onto a smaller shuttle bus direct to our hotel (fare is included in the CAD$25 ticket, but tips are encouraged). By the time we arrived at our hotel, we realized every (affordable) diner in close proximity was closed/closing, and therefore retreated to our humble abode back in the hotel.

Thursday, 4 Sep 2008

With the business meeting starting only in the afternoon, we had some time for breakfast and a good walk around town. We headed to Chinatown, where boss scouted around for Dim Sum, and to our luck, was directed by a passer-by to “Ruby Rouge”. We later saw that same passer-by in the restaurant, and concluded he was manager there. But sorry, that did not mean we got any discount.

After breakfast, I decided to walk about town alone, thinking I would not have much time to sightsee the city of Montreal thereafter, and saw myself wandering about Old Montreal (without knowing it was Old Montreal until the day I checked out and re-read the visitor map), and the riverside.

After work, we met for dinner at a cosy restaurant by the name of Fouquet Forchette, a two-minute walk from our hotel, right outside the Place de Congress Montreal.

Friday, 5 Sep 2008

After the entire day of meeting/discussion ended at 4pm, I had the luxury of time to locate my Hard Rock Café and purchase a classic shot glass to remember this city. As I walked towards the place more than 20 minutes away, I soon discovered that Rue Sainte-Catherine was the Orchard Road of Montreal, with your big brands like Zara, Mango, H&M, Oakley and Espirit (amongst others) residing in. By evening and an entire afternoon of walking, I met my boss again for dinner at Chinatown, in a 2nd-floor Cantonese restaurant by the name of Keung Kee.

That same night after a wholesome dinner, I decided to check out our hotel gym, complimentary to us guests. And since the swimming pool was closed for the night, I would save it for the next day before check out.

Saturday, 6 Sep 2008

Arriving ahead of schedule at Montreal airport, we checked in, cleared all of US immigration and security checks, and arrived at our gate for our AC7742 flight on the small 50-seater CRJ100 aircraft, supposedly departing to Newark at 2.10pm. Here comes the “exciting” part.

Having boarded the aircraft, buckled in and awaiting pushback, the captain made an announcement all of a sudden, saying how Air Traffic Control (ATC) had informed them that the flight was now cancelled, owing to the tropical storm Hanna en route to New York. This being my first experience with a cancelled flight as opposed to a delayed one, I could only gasp in awe as I wondered how we would be able to catch our 9pm connecting flight at JFK back to Singapore.

With nothing passengers could do, we disembarked, passed through immigration, collected our luggage and returned to the Air Canada check-in counter to find out what alternative flights there were. As it seemed, the best option was to fly out of Montreal at 5.45pm and arrive at LaGuardia airport at 7.15pm. It would then be a tight squeeze to scramble to JFK airport to catch our 9pm SQ flight back home.

As Murphy would have it, the 5.45pm flight got delayed another 2 hours, and departed only near 8pm.

We got into LaGuardia at 9.30pm, clearly missing our flight out of JFK. It was also impossible to shuttle over to Newark Airport to catch the other 11pm SQ flight home. We were left with no choice but to check into one of the hotels for the night. “Thanks” to the US open and the last-minute arrangements, most hotels were fully-booked, including the preferred Park Central Hotel in Manhattan (even at USD$599 a night). We finally found the nearby Crown Plaza Hotel available (at USD$389 a night) which, as a plus point, had free wireless in the comfort of each room. With an additional unplanned free day in New York on Sunday before catching the 11pm direct flight home, I could not have asked for better “luck”.

Thanks Hanna.

The Return to London: 14-19 June 2008

Sat, 14 June 08.

My A380 flight from Singapore to London Heathrow was not the smoothest of flights, with the early part of the flight experiencing serious turbulence - passengers shaking in their seats from side to side, food on their meal trays popping into the air, and in one instance, I saw a passenger's coffee rise out of and up into the air, miss the cup on its way down. Nonetheless, the new ex2 Krisworld entertainment was impressive and easy to navigate (albeit one occasion it hung and I asked the stewardess to reset my system), and kept me glued to the movies I haven't watched in ages.

Upon arrival, I called Kelvin, who's been working at Heathrow since Feb 08. I was real fortunate for a prior arrangement I made, so that I could put up with him in his apartment for a few days. As he just started his shift, he passed me his spare keys and gave me directions to his place in Kew Gardens. I bought a 7-day pass (£29.40) as I thought I'd be staying 5 days and there was no 5-day pass. On hindsight, I didn't know they also sold a 3-day visitor's pass (which the station staff probably intentionally forgot).

The tube ride from Heathrow to Kew took 50mins, including a change of trains from the Picadilly Line to District line. Thereafter the walk from Kew to Kew Riverside Park was about 15mins. I got to Kelvin's apartment by 9.30am and settled in before heading out after noon.

Since I hadn't planned anything for the day, I decided I pop by the Wimbledon Lawn Championships that afternoon, but got off at the wrong stop (Wimbledon instead of Wimbledon Park), which was a helluva walk towards the Championship grounds. I went in to the souvenir shop for free, but chose to forgo the musuem since it cost more than £10. It was a pity I didn't plan my trip in a way I could watch Wimbledon which began on 23 June, as I'd have missed Jossy in London, and my £0 flight (£20 with taxes) from London Stansted to Milan Bergamo.

Sun, 15 June 08

Mon, 16 June 08

With a free day in which Kelvin was off, he drove us down to visit the town of Brighton, over an hour south of London. Fortunately, good weather greeted us when we arrived at 1pm. And since we were by the sea, what better way to lunch than Fish & Chips.

In the evening, I arranged perfectly with Jun and her sister Marlene to meet at Clapham Junction since Kelvin and I would drive by that town, and therefore avoid the London congestion charge (8£).

Tues, 17 June 08

-Shopping at Bond Street, Oxford circus, Regent street.

-Train to Clapham Junction to meet Cat, Jossy and Edmund, then head back to her place in Guildford.
-Dinner with her parents Ian and Jill, which saw a spread of roast beef, cauliflower and nutmeg, potatoes, peas and parsnip.

Wed, 18 June 08

Cat, Ed and myself woke up and prepared a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, before we set off to Windsor Castle.

By late afternoon, we drove back to Wandsworth where Cat parked the car at her sister's house, so we could take the tube uptown, and catch the Lion King Musical at the Lyseum Theatre. What I loved about the play was really the set and animalistic movement of the actors. When the musical does arrive in Singapore, be sure to look out for the stampede scene, which I felt was remarkably crafted, as well as Simba's father's (Mufasa) spirit when he appeared and disappeared seamlessly on stage. And did I also mention the African soundtrack was captivating too?

After the show ended past 10.30pm, we went for an Italian dinner at Zizzi's, where Jossy secretly paid for our dinner by the time we called for the bill. Thank you Jossy!!!

I tubed down to Victoria, where I boarded the 12.30am National Express coach (£10 one way, every 30mins) and arrived in Stansted airport about 80mins later, where I spent the night.