Life in Switzerland: First Impressions of Singapore

My first impression of Singapore on the drive from the airport was that it was green, lush, tropical, and humid as hell. The road was lined with tall, skinny trees with long, spindly branches and full green tops. The steering wheel on the right side of the car jumped out to me, although driving on the left side of the road didn't feel strange. American music was playing in the taxi, and Alanis Morisette was warbling "you got me wrapped around your finger, do you have to let it linger." No matter how far away you go, you can never escape American pop culture.

After about fifteen minutes we began to see the cityscape, although it was closer to 30 minutes before we really got into downtown. As we got closer to our hotel it reminded me quite a bit of Washington DC, with wide roads, huge sidewalks, large open spaces, buildings that were very spread out, and lots of trees.

We arrived to the hotel around 9am and dropped our bags at the concierge desk since our rooms were not available, and went to find breakfast. While we had clear blue sky on the way from the airport, as soon as we left the hotel we stepped straight into a monsoon rainstorm that came out of nowhere. We scrambled down the road, ducking under overhangs as best we could, until we found one of the food courts that Asia is famous for. My Asian friends became really excited to show off their traditional food and culture, and answered all our questions about what was really shown on the menus. They made us try all sorts of questionable-looking dishes (that had a lot of salt in them) that they promised were typical breakfast foods.

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel, and for lack of anything better to do decided to go swimming while we continued to wait for our rooms. We dug our swimsuits out of our bags as the concierge attendant looked on with amusement, and ran full speed into the pool. It was immensely refreshing after our 24 hours of travel, and we were all giddy with excitement from finally being on holiday a world away from homework and tests.

After the pool we decided to go exploring for a while, and set off on a walking tour of the area near our hotel. We went down to the water to see the famous lion fountain, which is one of the well-known symbols of the city, and one of the first things I noticed was that the the river water was disgusting, a murky brown slop with lots of trash floating on top. After several hours of sightseeing and a well deserved lunch we finally got our rooms most of us took a long nap.

In the evening we headed to a cocktail party with IMD alumni who were living in Singapore, as a way to meet more people and learn more about what it was like to do business there. After the alumni event a few of us went to see a great view of the city at a place recommended by one of my classmates, the New Asia Bar, which was on the 70th floor of the Swissotel. After enjoying the amazing sights, we headed home for a much needed night of rest before company presentations the next day.