Maybe it was the reality of jobs and the 'real world' that sent us running into hiding in South East Asia, or maybe we have just been pain lazy. Anyhow, we're back.
From Nepal, we arrived in Bangkok where we had three days to clean up and prepare for three job interviews/meetings in Singapore. It was a little frantic trying to find cheap clothes (that aren't supposed to look cheap) and get set up in some dingy guest house in the backpacker ghetto! But we left Bangkok at 7am Monday morning with our game faces on!
But we made it to Singapore in time. It was quite a shock after being in India and Nepal for so long, how clean and almost sterile it seemed. We managed to find a nice hostel for $18 per night each, which is a lot considering we are used to $5-10 for both of us. The hostel was pretty flash though, for our standards, so very luxurious.
So down to business... but first a coffee!
So down to business... but first a coffee!
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| Takeaway coffee, Singapore style:) They give you your cup with a cool little plastic loop handle thing that you just slip onto the cup. Very novel but we hate the amount of plastic and packaging they have over here! |
Well day one was a reorientation back into the real world, where the price displayed is the price it is! No converting back to New Zealand dollars being that NZ and Singapore are basically matched dollar for dollar. So there was a lot of cringing, many gasps and begrudging handing over of money. We stopped for coffee on Orchard Road, Brock ordered the usual Latte and then headed off to the bathroom leaving me to browse the menu. After much horrified browsing I placed my order, a glass of water to counteract the exuberant price of Brock's $7 Latte (yes, $7 real dollars). A very prompt, short, sharp jerk back to reality.
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| One of the many clean, organised, planned footpaths we marveled at. And note, midday and the street is empty, there is no fighting for space, no cows, or motobikes or tuk tuks! |
Day two was our first interview so we were up early to primp and preen ourselves for the first time in a long, long time. And yes both of us, Brock now has a lot of hair and takes just about as long as I do!
So began the transformation from this:
to this:
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| If you're struggling, we are the ones in front of the Merlion, the suave looking ones. Don't worry we barely recognised ourselves looking all dressed up. |
So after much fuss and research on how to get there we set off, umbrella in hand (this is Singapore after all), bright and early.
It was quite a novelty really, we felt almost 'normal' again, on the bus with all the other commuters heading to work on a Tuesday morning. So we arrived for our 10am interview with the Swiss School of Singapore about 30mins ahead of time, allowing for a 10 minute walk from the bus stop, perfect. BUT somewhere along the way, sitting on the bus musing away I began to have a niggling feeling, was it Tuesday 10th at 10am for Swiss and Thursday 12th at 2.30pm for OFS or Tuesday at 2.30 at Swiss and Thursday at 10?? So we jump off the bus all ahead of time but no actual idea of the interview time!! Thankfully (being Singapore) Brock managed to find some random WiFi long enough to check my email only to realise we were 6 hours early for our interview!
After much killing of time, coffee (the cheap version from McDonald's) and newspaper reading we decided to get some lunch before wandering back for our interview. 6 hours on we were not looking as fresh, however, we still scrubbed up pretty good until... Brock's chicken curry for lunch which lead to a frantic 15 minutes in the bathrooms with soap and the hand dryer. Brock's note to self: eating Indian style (with hands) before an interview, not a good idea.
Eventually we set off, by this time in the rain, to the Swiss School. After having walked for about 15 minutes huddled under our umbrella we arrived looking slightly soggy. But somehow still managed to impress!
Day three we had recovered enough from the shock of the real world to venture out and explore a little, be a little touristy. We had the luxury of heading to some malls and checking out the huge buildings around the city! Basically 'normal' stuff, dressed 'normally' and feeling 'normal'.
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| The big smoke! |
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| Brock deciding which car to choose ... |
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| Apparently there's no competition ... really any one would do. |
But no rest for the weary. From there it was straight into a taxi and back to the Swiss School where they wanted us each to present a lesson observed by the principal, vice principal and head of department! But it wasn't all work and no play, they found time to 'wine and dine' us at the adjoining Swiss Club (we could get used to this). Definitely a far cry from the public system!
On a high from the interview and lessons but also getting rather tired from all the 'work' we were doing we headed off for some more sightseeing.
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| Brock after a hard day's work |
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| Self explanatory, I think? |
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| Not one single attraction seemed to hold Brock's interest or create as much excitement as this street corner at around 6pm (home time), much to my amusement. Yes, we stood there for close to half an hour so that Brock could drool over the multitude of Porches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis streaking past. |
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| This man looked how we felt after our final interview on Friday, the working world of Singapore, it's a real grind. But he's rolling in the dough, it's even falling from his pockets! |
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| China Town gearing up for Chinese New Year |
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| The local fish market at the Malay Village. Being so close to Malaysia there is quite a big community of Malays in Singapore. |
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| The sun setting on Singapore, as we head back to Bangkok. And just to put it out there, Jet Star International was not that bad!! |
Thanks so much for this update, Sarah!! I have really missed your blog updates.. and this is lovely! Great photos and writings!
ReplyDeleteHugs xx