Welcome to Singapore

The flight IC-555 took off from Chennai with 10 min delay. Seeing delays up to 6 hours this was nothing in front of them. The journey was fully enjoyed from the take off to the landing. It was around 7:10 AM SGT, as we were landing I happen to see the new place where I was to start a new career. The first thing I noticed was the Singapore river then the runway with all lights lit up. Is this the place that's going to change me??? Is this the place I'm destined for??? No Answers!!!

After finishing the immigration formalities moved towards the checkout counters to collect my baggage. At the airport, I happened to see lots of Singaporean from Indian and most of them happened to know Tamil and immediately there was one song that was on my lips ... Namma Ooru Singaari from Ninaithaley Inikum.

I admired the place for sometime for its infrastructure and then headed towards my guest house. For sometime I felt I was lost as there was no one to guide you as to where to go next? There was an information center, seeing me lost they asked if they would be able to help me. I told them that I had to go to the Eunos Mansion (Guest House) and showed them the contact number of the HR and VP. They gave me 20cents and asked me to use the prepaid phone from there to call one of them and inform about my arrival. It was more like the movie Sivaji, where Rajanikanth stands with a rupee in his hand ... Poo Paathai OR Singam Paathai ... I tried to call my good old friend Arthy ... NO ANSWER, then the HR ... NO ANSWER, so collected the 20 cents and walked back. I was stopped by another person, he said he has a calling card which I can use to make calls for 10$ but it costs only 5$ ... Buy 5$ and make calls for 10$ so 5$ FREE!!!
"Deei Vanthathum Varaathathumaa Yennoda Nethila Yethaiyoo Paathutaandaa ... Usaaru Aiyaa Usaaru" this is the exact thought in my mind. I told him I don't need it and was about to leave. He replied, you Indians won't trust others and won't accept anything that's even free. I had to reply, "Hey Friend, just because it comes for free of cost, its not necessary that I need to take it".

Then I headed back to the information center to thank the ladies there who helped me by giving the 20 cents. I was guided to the taxi stand to go to my guest house. When I went to the taxi stand, I saw a Hyundai Sonata with a LED display on the top reading "TAXI" and some others taxi's with the display as "HIRED", "BUSY". I was waiting and the HS driver asked me if I needed a taxi. I replied "No Thanks" and walked towards the taxi counter asking him, if there would be any other taxi ... The taxi driver didn't understand anything as to why I was asking for another taxi. The person at the counter advised me to take the HS Taxi. I asked him, if there would be any other cheap taxi assuming that Hyundai Sonata might charge high. He said, all the taxi's are the same and asked me to board the taxi. Hyndai Sonata - TAXI - My God, where am I??? The driver helped me with my luggage and we boarded the taxi. I told him the address and zoom he was to the place. First thing the driver asked me was to wear my seat belts, then on it was my turn, I asked him too many questions about the place, driving, climate, route ... etc It was a Chinese speaking driver and had thought that I had come for a RJ position.

The first bike I saw was Bajaj Pulsar, woow our dear Bajaj in Singapore as well!!! COOOL then when I saw the taxis was stunned for a moment, almost all the taxis are either Toyota or Hyundai make. There are even taxis of Mercs and Bentley!!!

It was a journey for about 12 minutes and he charged me 9$ ... I was like from that place till here Rs. 300 ?? Next I thought of calling my people back in India and inform them about my arrival. I had charged for Rs. 400 the previous day and was quite sure that the call would go. To my surprise even the Airtel network got automatically recognised as SingTel. So I made the first call back to India, it was approximately 8:00 AM SGT (5:30 AM IST) and spoke to them for about 2 min and disconnected the call saying will call others as well. Since it was a prepaid card, it gave be the balance saying "Rs. 8.05 left in Your Account" ... I saw the message twice and consoled, convinced and what not ... just to realize that the call made cost Rs. 300 which is Rs. 150 per minute. International roaming is truly International. Later I proceeded to call the HR as I didn't have a clue of the floor or the apartment number. It was Eunos Mansion, its a posh apartment like our Shoba's with all Gym, Swimming Pool and other facilities within the apartment campus.

The I met another person who looked like an Indian, I inquired him about the company guest house but he had no clue. But he showed me a coin booth and gave me few more cents. He had come to Sing for studying and was on his way to morning walk along with the owners. I tried calling my company people and there was no response till I called the Vice-President of my company. Firstly he was shocked to receive a call that early, secondly he was shocked for the reason I was calling him - regd Accommodation. But he was kind enough to provide me a solution and I figured out the company guest house. Now this house has just one key for the main door and the key is kept in the secret place. I took the key from the secret place and entered the appt.

It was a 3 BR apartment (1 Master + 2 Common) fully furnished with A/C, TV, Cable, Broadband ... everything set in place. Luckily I was the only one in the apartment, it was like a dream apartment but missing all my people. Later I had called Albert Anna about my arrival and he said he would visit my shortly. So my journey was safe without major hiccups.

I thought of refreshing myself and get myself settled. After shower thought of taking a short nap for an hour till Anna arrives. The A/c room fully chilled and made my eyes doze off at a sooner pace. Then I heard someone giving me a call on my landline. It was Albert Anna who had tried reaching me for the past 15 minutes. When I saw the time I had slept for 3.5 hours, now you call that a short nap. Slept like crazy in thee A/c room unaware of what is happening around. Thanks to Shruthi (Albert Anna's daughter) who asked him to try give me a ring once again to my landline. He had tried close to 10 times in those 15 min and I was faaaaaaaast asleep.

He guided me to the nearby places and gave some tips for the next days travel. After he left I went to the nearby store to collect a calling card to make some international calls using my landline. I had informed everyone possible till the last balance of that calling card to inform about my arrival. Well. so far didn't find anything so interesting, except that the place was kept clean and disciplined. Everyone obeys the traffic signals and even pedestrians use the Zebra crossing to cross the road, that too only when the singal turns GREEN. So that was the only thing to be mentioned to everyone that I had called.

There were some grocery stores close by, being the first day started to calculate anything and everything in INR. Made some friends at the grocery store and at the hawker centre where I had "Chicken Biriyani" (Singaporean style), my first food item in Singapore. The Biriyani rice was served separately and the roasted chicken separately.

Later in the evening I thought of visiting the nearby places and boarded a bus. Every other person had a swipe card and I had only cash in my hand. I asked the driver to issue me a ticket and he asked me to drop that in the cash box. I asked him for a receipt he said it will generate automatically. But I noticed the machine to be not working and asked him how much to pay and he said 1.40 c ... I had a 2$ note with me and asked him for change ... But he could not understand what I was asking for and just directed me to the cash box. I was confused and asked the bystander for help ... I felt the racism there for the first time, when the person refused to even speak to me ... Looked for a similar skin in the bus, found a happy going couples. Asked them for help and they asked me to drop the cash in the cash box. Since there was no tickets I told the driver that Ididn't have change and gave him just a dollar. Another interesting thing is there is no conductor and everything is handled by the driver. So when you want to get down, you need to press a button that would intimate the driver that someone needs to get down. So that was the first travel in bus - a one dollar travel. All the buses are fit with A/c similar to the Volvo buses in our place.

The first place was Eunos Station, where you have both the bus terminus and the train station close by. I asked for the EZLink card which is used for travel and started to make my travel from there to the places around in bus and train. Actually the bus goes around and around, probably from our front gate to the side gate it would go another 2-3 km and reach our side gate.

The whole of Singapore is well connected using bus and trains (MRT) (Mass Rapid Transit). You won't get lost and even if you get lost call 999 for help. This number is reachable through the mobiles as well. All the bus stops are numbered and the entire stretch of the road has the same name. That's when I realized one thing, that morning Anna had asked me where I stayed and I told him the nearest bus stop read as "Jln Eunos", later I came to know there are more than 7 stopping with the same name stretching for more than few kilometers.

Some important tips for the first timers:
1. Get a SingTel prepaid card when you reach Singapore for mobile connectivity.
2. Collect the EZLink card from the MRT Station (Train station) for internal travels.
3. Have your passport handy always till you get the employment pass.

Wish You a Happy Stay in Singapore!!!