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February 19, 2006

Touchdown To Singapore

Finally (and thank you so much to God), yesterday evening I was able to arrive safely to Singapore - the lion city.

It's better that I tell my adventures here via photos. See them below. Move mouse over each picture, and see the comments on each.

Boarding the Tiger Airways plane

Tiger Airways airplane. The only thing I dislike air traveling are popping ears due to changing air pressure, especially when landing. I got a great discount for my airfare in this flight. Bad thing was I went to a long and sweaty trip to Clark Airport in Pampanga last Saturday.

At the Changi Airport Immigration

At the Changi Airport Immigration. I needed to smile a lot to be able to exit the airport without any hassle. Luckily, the female Singaporean Immigration officer was in a sunny mood too.

Singapore Idol, baby
Singapore Idol (The sign says it all).


Back home, we've got Mc Fried Chicken and spaghetti at McDonalds. Here, you've got this... I don't know... looks like, exotic rice cake sandwiches.

Exotic rice sandwich in McDonalds. I discovered its price to be at around $SG6 (roughly P180.00 back home). Expensive indeed. I did not order this, I went with their usual McChicken sandwich meal (around P90+ back home).

Oh, really?

In the news. No, actually it's a big advertisement in the newspaper I found lying on the floor in the apartment.

Everywhere I go, I see big apartment buildings like these.

Apartment buildings (everyone in the area I am currently staying).

Money, money, and more money. A US dollar bill there and Singapore dollars here.

Bills and coins - these all I have. You could see the US Dollar bill behind the Singaporean notes. The guy in the Singaporen bills resembles the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal.

Underpass here below Orchard road towards Lucky Plaza is quite spic and span.

Underpass. Very clean, though I found a couple of crumpled tissues and cigarette butts in certain corners.

Lucky plaza, where many money changers, cheap finds and food fares exist.

Lucky Plaza. I see too many kababayan Filipinos here strolling and gathering in stalls.

Orchard road, where many malls and entertainment places exist.

Orchard Road. Many classy malls line up this area. I also discovered that certain portions of this road have counter contraptions used in indicating how many seconds are left signifying the change of signal from "pedestrians walk" to "pedestrians don't walk". Say, the green signal lighted up for "walk". Then the counter would begin to "count down" shortly (usually 25-20 seconds) before the red signal for "don't walk" would light up.

I've never thought I'll be able to catch a picture of pigeons this near. Other exotic wild birds fly down the pavements undmindful of the throngs of people passing by

Pigeons. I constantly hear other birds crying and schreeching on top of trees. I saw ravens or crows (I think) pecking another one of their dead kind at the middle of the street. In one case, while walking, I saw an exotic yellow streaked black bird following me (resembles a mynah bird).

Filipina househelps gather in small corners in Lucky plaza.

Picnic time. Besides looking at features, I would readily notice fellow Filipinos when suddenly I would hear them chatting in Tagalog or other Filipino dialects.

Inside one of the city's MRT trains.

Inside an MRT train. This country has quite a fast and efficient transportation system. And when I say fast, I mean really fast. Back home, MRT trains would sometimes travel slowly or stop in the middle of a long trip for unknown reasons.

A window display of rubber shoes in one mall.

Display of rubber shoes. I wish I had so much pocketmoney to be able to buy all of these items.

4 comments:

rmacapobre said...

i wish you the best!

rmacapobre said...

from the pictures, singapore sure dont look much different from makati. what kind of food do singaporeans eat?

what is their impression of filipinos?

jio said...

Thanks, Max.

We Filipinos are slowly increasing in size here, much that whenever I walk around the city I could hear or see fellow Filipinos.

Impression? I've heard from a friend here that according to Singaporeans here, at work we tend to boast around (mayabang) in matters or ideas we know. We like to ask questions, a lot.

Me and my friend had a discussion about this regarding our inquisitive nature at work. Well, as far as I know, it's but part of a good communication at work. Of course, we don't assume that we know everything. We can't just do something, apply our own standards, and just let things by our way when we know it would be different here in this country.

Now for the boast part, we think that maybe the people here misinterpret our sharing of ideas or know-how's to people who would benefit from our help. Boast? I don't know about it. Maybe for some Filipinos here.

Anonymous said...

As Singaporean, just like to say "Welcome to Singapore!" You seemed enjoyed Singapore. Singapore has a Church located in 5th Floor Cuppage Plaza(next to Centerpoint Shopping mall) with 650 Filipino, 95% are professional like nurses, engineers, IT support. Do drop by, our worship time is 5pm in the evening. You will love to get to know them./CO

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