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Two day trip to Singapore

Coffee in Orchard Road with Xander
Tuesday and Wednesday Xander and I were in Singapore for business meetings. I had not been to Singpore in almost 2 years (except for stopovers on the airport) and it was good to be back for a few days.

Next to the busy meeting schedule we also managed to see a bit of the city, especially because our meetings were scattered all over the place. During most of my recent trips I stayed in the city center, so I noticed that the city changed quite a bit since I last spent more time here (which was probably back in 2003 when Grace did a semester at INSEAD here, almost 9 years ago already).

Seafood at the East Coast Park in Singapore

My parents were also in town, so I had drinks with them at Boat Quay and of course my favorite Pepper Crab at Jumbo on the East Coast. The East Coast never changed, simple chairs and tables on a concrete floor next to the beach and excellent food (and cold Tiger beer!).

The INSEAD campus in Singapore has changed a bit since 2003

The area around INSEAD had totally changed. We had a meeting at Fusionopolis, and when we arrived there I realized it was right next door to the INSEAD campus. I think that in the old days there were just some fields around the INSEAD buildings, now there was a nicely looking building towering over the INSEAD grounds (see picture above).

Sentosa island late afternoon

On Wednesday after our meetings were over we had a late afternoon drink on Sentosa island with my parents. I used to like Sentosa a lot, but the place has become a kind of amusement park. It’s a pity, but I guess that’s what people want. The (man-made) white sand beaches were still there, but all of them now had bars with music and on the other side of the road there were all kinds of attractions to keep people busy, including among others the biggest indoor skydiving place in the world… It doesn’t fit to the island, but people seem to like it.

Having a beer with my dad on Sentosa

Also the Singapore skyline changed dramatically because of the addition of the Marina Bay Sands hotel and resort area. When driving into town from the airport it looks okay, but from other places in town it is just plain ugly. I decided not to take a picture of it but to only put the old skyline in the picture below!

Singapore skyline at night

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  1. went back to see last running or biking
    post but gave up!

    I know you’ve been making more efforts for
    being with family but don’t give up on exercise.

    Not sure I can post pict of riding bike

    west to Morganshan and back but I remember you’ve been the first to connect
    us with that great place.

    Keep it up!

    Nopem, seems you don’t allow inserting
    picture or copy and paste, too bad. It was great ride.

  2. @whmcharg: I still do sports, I ran 10 km yesterday and did a 6 km rowing work out this morning. I try to keep in shape 🙂
    You should be able to insert a picture in a comment, as long as the image is stored at another web location.