It was the most unplanned weekend I've had after coming to Singapore. But, to tell the world the truth, it was the most thrilling weekend I've had after arriving in Singapore on 27th of July 2009. Our initial plans were to go to Little India, so some shopping, visit a temple that was long pending on the list of to-do items. This plan is almost a must do for every Indian living in Singapore. If you are in Chennai, Mustafa Shopping centre could be compared to all the Saravana Stores put together in one single place. An ocean by itself, offering everything you need to stay alive in Singapore. With a concrete plan in mind when we left our rooms at Graduate Hall situated at the NTU campus, I met one of my seniors at the MRT and he told me that there was an IT fair going on at Suntec City at Raffles Place. To begin the demolition of our plans one of my friend informed me that the temple had closed for the day at Little India.
We began juggling our minds between going to Suntec City first and seeing the Merlion, both at Raffles Place and finally disembarked at Raffles Place. It was the most beautiful sky I've seen in real-time. I've seen photographs and videos of the sky being filled with skyscrapers but not been there seen them. Our journey began at the Merlion Park. This was one of the destinations I've wanted to see after coming to Singapore and I did that at last. Thanks to our poor planning! It was blessing in disguise. The Merlion was majestic and there were scores of people beneath the huge Merlion taking photographs of themselves. I was one of them, looking for those few shots that would mark my presence in Singapore for the rest of my life!! Having seen this, we moved on to the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore. It was one of those buildings in Singapore that is distinct in its architecture. I came to understand that the design was inspired by the durian fruit. The interiors in the Esplanade were so aesthetically designed and smelled of lemon inside. The Esplanade, I heard, was famous for its free orchestras and bands playing rock concerts by the waterfront! I had a chance to see the rock concert by the waterfront. After going so near the concert, we noticed that the Singapore Flyer and the Singapore Grad Prix racing track was so close.
Our Suntec plans began its delay further and we headed straight to the racing track. It was completely dark but the darkness did not bother us. We began walking on the track where Fisichella and Barichello would be whizzing past in a few weeks. I am not an F1 fan yet was pondering over the money and the efforts that was put on this race. I believe that tickets at the grandstands where I had been costed around 200 to 300 Singapore Dollars (7000 to 10000 Indian Rupees) and that the tickets near the pits were anywhere between 1000 to 2000 Singapore Dollars (34000 to 70000 Indian Rupees). At a time when the world is crying over the spilt milk, i.e. economic breakdown and recession, where do these people (I mean the F1 fans) get such money from? But then realized that there is no recession in the sporting industry!! I read that MS Dhoni, the India cricket captain was the highest paid cricketer in the world in terms of earnings in the year 2009 followed by Sachin, Sourav and Rahul! The hotels near the race track here is offering rooms that start at 600 Singapore Dollars a night which is about 21000 Indian Rupees. I believe an IT fresher in India would receive that amount as his monthly salary and here are people spending that for one night and that too for watching Formula One. Our trail led us near the Singapore Flyer and yet we decided against going to the flyer only because of the fact that it was already quarter past eight in the evening.
We were joined by two other friends to continue our journey to Suntec City. The star attraction at Suntec park was presumably the Fountain of Wealth that is situated right in the centre of the five Suntec buildings! We reached there after walking for about 15 minutes from the Esplanade. The Fountain of Wealth was at its best that night. Brilliantly lit lights, wishing people who had made efforts (like us!!!) to be at the fountain in time to view the awesome display. One of the guys in our team (who is also like half a Singaporean only because he knows this place, its history, the people, the culture and what not) told us that we would be able to go in to the center of the fountain and touch the smaller fountain. But as luck would go, the fountain was at its peak with water reaching heights of about 5 metres! We then proceeded to eat our dinner at a Subway which was at one of the buildings. To our surprise, after our dinner, the fountain of wealth was opened for people to touch the centre of the fountain and to make a wish there. It was our poor planning again that helped us to be here as our plans were to go to the convention centre to buy a hand phone for one of the guys. Our poor planning was a blessing in disguise for us.
Though our plans were to get a hand phone in the end, the convention centre was closed down but we still managed to get in to have a feel of the IT fair that was happening. To our surprise, we found that the place was in utter mess, papers strewn all over the floor and there was total chaos. This was the first time I had seen such a chaotic, unclean and unorganized event in Singapore. We finally managed to pull ourselves to the City Hall MRT which was about half a mile down the road. Boon Lay is the most frequented interchange by any NTU student and we were no different. One interesting point we noted was that our trip to Graduate Hall costs which usually 91 cents costed only 41 cents. It was understndable that off-peak hours are cheaper to travel than the normal and peak hours! At last, we reached our rooms sleepy and ready to hit the sack for the day but with plans to go to China Town and Little India the next day. And hoping that our poor planing would help us this time too! Watch out for my next post when I shall describe what happened to our trip the next day. Cheers!!
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