Life, as it goes.

Long winding queues at Mumbai airport. Took forever to board the flight but managed in time. Superman Returns on the flight (watched the movie on the little screen, real cute guy to replace Chirstopher Reeve). Wierd knot in the stomach all through out the flight for some reason so could not eat the apology of an Indian supper that they gave.

No problems in pick up and no mispronunciation this time like it had happened with the Bangkok trip. The placard was waiting with its dark Dravidian driver. Rangacharian was his name. Second generation Indian-Singaporean. R commented, someday we will have to make a new race with Indian _____ considering every country has its share of Indians or people with Indian origin.

Slept for two hours and got ready in a mad rush for a meeting. Finished meeting and met R at a city Hotel's coffee shop. He had by that time figured out the entire Metro rail system. Took me to Little India, a suburb of Indians in Singapore. We will never improve no matter where we go and how many years we live away. The same sidewalk encroachment and pan spittle here too. Felt like home. Had nice South Indian filter coffee in a cafe at Little India.

Indians are the third largest population consisting of 8% of the total population of Singapore. 80%-90% are of South Indian origin. Most of them have been born and brought up here and have never seen the looks of Chennai. Majority work in blue collar jobs of taxi drivers, waiters, security officers etc. which is sad considering how we have reached much higher levels in other countries.

Went to Mustafa Market, the only 24 hours shopping mall in Singapore. Jam packed shelves and showcases with everything from pins to laptops. Did not shop much since don't really enjoy it and neither does R but nevertheless spent a couple of hours just looking around. Prices are the same as India in some cases a bit higher but there is much more variety in the products offered. It was full of Indians shopping their minds off. One Uncle bought a sackful of deodrants and another lady ordered here entire kitchen. How I know they did not live in Singapore? I examined the shipping bills at the billing counter. All the products were to be packed and shipped to Calcutta.

It was raining by the time we left Mustafa. Took the Metro back to R's office apartment. Dinner was at the Singapore Zoo and did the night safari there. It is awesome. At first it seemed like a large scale sham because it is not everyday that one sees the king of the jungle pacing a few meters away or a gargatuan elephant tusks and all munching on grass a few paces away. What they have done is recreated the fragile eco systems of rain forests, steppes, grasslands, mangroves etc and habited it with almost extinct species of flora and fauna.

The animals are kept in open under white lights which resemble moonlight in brightness and temperature and in the middle there is a trail which is completely dark. The distance of the trail from the animal depends on the power of its eyesight. The trail has a tram which runs through the safari and with a tour guide give an idea about the animals around. There are walking trails also. It is an experience not easily described. You can know more about this at www.nightsafari.com.sg. Its worth the visit.

Came back after a tour of the city hotels. Actually thats what it became. We were in a tourists bus which had tourists from 8 different hotels and the driver was supposed to drop all of us, so the tour guide converted it into a night tour complete with running commentary on the various buildings and places. It was quite interesting and we got and idea of the business, tourist and civic district of the country complete with the Supreme court - shaped like a spaceship, the Parliament House and the statue of Sir Raffles, the man responsible of building modern Singapore.

The first day was smooth and a lot of fun. Turned in with a hope that the rest of the trip will be in the same tune.

I am back. The trip was awesome. I haven't had so much fun since I had gone to the trekking trip in college. The work was the first two days and after that was 8 days of pure and simple fun.

It was my first time in Singapore and from what people had told me it is a squeaky clean place where people are fined for smoking, littering and cannot even imagine in their worst nightmares of spitting on the streets. Its all true and boy the effect is surreal. Its seems beyond faultless with automatons posing as people.

There are a lot of observations but as of now do not have the time to write them all down. I wish I did but am swamped with pending work and on top of that finding it difficult to sit on a desk and look through emails after 10 days of no PC, no cellphone and most importantly no boss.

R and I went to four countries, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia in 10 days but it still wasn't a rush-rush thing. We used public transport and tatiya (feet) transport most of the time wherever we went so as to minimize expenses since we are both quite broke now after spending so much in the air tickets and accomodation. Some of it was paid for but quite a bit was our own money.

I am now tanned and glowing. Parents are relieved, as if we would have made the brief voyage into a permanent escapade and never returned. R was back to work this morning itself with a con-call. Things will return to normal in a few days but all in all the fantastic 10 days will be remembered and relieved again and again through the memories.