First impression of Singapore

Well ... my first impression about Singapore had started forming long before I actually came here. It was through a lot of friends and relatives who had been to Singapore and all of them had given positive opinions about the place ! So I was quit happy when I actually got the Visa approval letter and all the formalities were finally completed and I was all set to go !

What follows in this post could be quite boring to others, but I consider it as a nice memory for myself .. so would write down somethings !

The last few days were quite busy as I had to pack up and leave in just 3 days from receiving the letter and before that, the only preparation I had made was probably to buy a suitable bag for my luggage ! Finally we decided to go to Mumbai for a day, spend the day with my Mama, Aai, Didi, Nikhil Dada of course Chaitanya. We started off from our house at around 11 which was around 3 hrs. delayed from the actual time which we had planned ... but it was okay, didn't really matter.

Reached Thane around 2 p.m., then had lunch, played with Chaitanya for quite some time before he slept in the evening. Then went to Shantanu's place, met him, Shreyas and his parents and came back home at around 10:30. Everything was going on too smoothly and there was no real fun apparently, when the lights went off, and there was very heavy rain. We didn't sleep after dinner, final packing was completed, some unnecessary stuff was got rid of and I was ready to leave for the airport around 3 a.m. The reporting time was specified as 4:30 a.m. but it was raining and with this being my first experience of boarding a flight, I didn't want to take chances ! But it turned out that the rain stopped just as we were leaving and we made it to the airport sometime before 4 a.m. and probably was the first time I was so early to any place !

But the whole experience at the airport was very nice and comfortable - no problems at any place whatsoever, and without any trouble, I boarded an international flight for the first time in my life ! It was an Air India flight I think numbered 471 or something ... don't exactly remember.

And about 5 hrs. later, after a nice comfortable journey and not-so-great food during the flight, I was here at the Changi Airport in Singapore ! The plan was quite well-defined for my first day, check out and complete the formalities at the airport (Immigration etc.) and go straight to the Lab (as I landed on a working day in working hours, the lab was open then). So I took a taxi and got staright to the lab.

There it was a nice pleasant atmosphere and I was assured by seeing the atmo. that i would be having a nice time here. It was very informal, with quite a few Indians and infact 3 Marathi people around (out of some 15 people at the lab, around 7 are Indian !). First day, I did not have a place to stay, but Parijat here helped me out with it and got me a room to stay at one of the hostels on campus called "Price George's Park" or PGP as it is known commonly here. I had some veg. food at the canteen (probably the only time I would have veg. food here - not that its bad but non-veg seems more tempting at all times, and is better than veg in most cases)and then went and relaxed in the room. Next day, I went to MoM - Ministry of Manpower and some nearby places like Chinatown point - had a nice day. I completed all tha formalities at the MoM and then had to take a taxi back to lab as it had started raining and I was not carrying my umbrella with me, and also being unaware of bus routes and all, thought taxi was the best choice !

And so, after a day in Singapore, I was officially a part of the lab here and ready to work ! So, I had not seen much of Singapore yet but felt quite comfortable and was ready for a new experience in my life !

I felt Singapore was like India in some things - the weather being the most important factor. But it is a different feeling altogether to be in your country and probably the first time I realized what probably "Independence" or "Freedom" would mean !