Singapore, Our New Home

We landed at Changi Airport in Singapore on a Jan 22, Saturday evening.  For the first time in my life, we were greeted at the airport by a stranger holding up a sign with my name on it.  Ok, so technically, this still hasn't happened to me, since it was Kavita's name on the sign.  But I think I will start greeting friends at the airport this way.... it does make you feel slightly more special.  I can only imagine what it feels like to see MY name there.  Of course, Kavita was bothered that it had her name, and not the company or Fraser Place, as her fears of identity theft continue to mount, and become a recurring theme during our travels.

Saturday night was probably the worst night for us to arrive in Singapore after traveling so far.  For starters, we're still not quite over our jetlag (our stay in Hong Kong did little to lessen the effects).  So we arrived at a very busy, bustling Robertson Walk complex, but we were too tired to enjoy it.  After checking in and dealing with some power issues, we went straight to bed.  Then, there are a number of amenities to enjoy at Fraser Place, one being breakfast.  And fortunately, the breakfast can be quite good, with just enough variety to keep most people satisfied.  But alas, no free breakfast on the weekends.  But I suppose that forced us to explore.  And finally, there is no housekeeping on Sundays.  So we had to wait until Monday for our room to get cleaned.  Yes, we like being spoiled.

We checked into our apartment, in Real World fashion, we ran around the place exploring every little corner.  Full kitchen, stocked with dishes, pots, pans.  Large bathroom, open dining and living room, plenty of windows, and 3 A/C units!  No problem escaping the heat here!  The apartment also comes with a flashlight, which turned out to be very useful within the 30 minutes...

I was unable to determine if the surge protector we brought could handle 220V, so I decided just to try it out.  Sure enough, it didn't, and now our brand new apartment had no power.  Fortunately, I knew where the flashlight was, and that lead me to the circuit breakers, and then we got power again.  And for now, we'll only have to use appliances with a built-in 220-110V transformer.  It was our first night in Singapore, and we already dealt with our first crisis.  It's going to be an interesting 6 months...