A Room with a view

Peel back the curtains to reveal: nothing

It is a depressing state of affairs when a plane trip from Melbourne to Singapore is considered short, but the 8 hour trip is just that. When flying for work, we are obligated to take the cheapest flights, with some leniency with regards to avoiding ridiculous layovers. Conveniently, when going to Singapore, there are myriad direct flights and mostly with reputable carriers. There were two of us going over to the conference, and it was necessary that we fly out on Saturday if were to make it to the all important reception on the Sunday night. It was thus we found ourselves sitting on a Singapore Airlines A380 on a Saturday afternoon. We continued to sit in the same place for some hours and then miraculously we alighted at Singapore airport. It was 2130 when we landed and it was surprisingly quiet: my previous expediences of Changi airport had left me with the impression that it was constantly busy place, but we swiftly passed through immigration, even receiving a lolly. We were straight on the metro and crossing town on the East West line to get to our accommodation: the cheapest hotel that was in the city proper, the Moon 23 Hotel. The hotel lobby was nice enough, as were the rooms, but it was the view that really took the cake: we opened the curtains on the wall to reveal nothing but more wall. It was a hot, sweaty, twin-share box, but it would serve the purpose of housing us for a post-flight sleep.

The Island's Island

Enjoying a breakfast a fresh tropical fruits had us figuring out what we would do for the day. The conference was being held on Sentosa, the island home of the former British military base and Japanese prisoner of war camp (location), which has been reborn as "the state of fun". We did not have any commitments until the evening, but nonetheless decided to head over to the island for the day. Besides being close to our accomodation, our primary goal was to go to the water park Adventure Cove: I had only beet to Wet'n'Wild as a child, but absolutely loved it. This may have been because it was the only park where there were not minimum height restrictions on rides, so my day needn't involve waiting with my mother for my siblings to go on the fun rides. In any case, being in the tropics seemed like a good place to enjoy a bit of splish and splash.

We took the metro across town and given we were planning on staying in the water park as long as possible but did not want to get reamed by in-park restaurants, we decided to have an early lunch at the Malaysian Food Street nearby, which is still serving a tourist market but doesn't quite have the captive market that exists on the other side of the admissions gate, and to be fair, we found some pretty tasty food. We made our way over to the park and paid our fairly steep admission fee and set out to find the ride in which was the most fun. It rapidly became evident that every ride had fairly significant lines, of order 30 minutes or longer; waiting in lines and having fun are mutually exclusive, but we had little choice. As we waited and also went on rides, it also became evident that any fun that was to be had on the rides had been completely under the purpose of safety. It was incredible how over the top the measures were to ensure nothing could do any damage to an individual, completely sanitising the entire experience. I am not advocating for recklessness or danger, but if you do not allow individuals responsibility for their safety you are going to have a bad time. And it is not to say that there were not fun moments, but the experience was lame, with both Rory and I feeling that the bulk of the enjoyment had been rinsed out of all activities. As a consequence, we did not not stay for as long as we had initially planned.

We made our way to our accommodation which was on the other side of the island, closer to the conference venue: the Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa. The large hotel complex near the fort complex on the north-west extreme of the island is completely over the top for a physics conference, but as is often the case, when you are not spending your money you are willing to pay much more for food and accommodation. We were obviously not staying there; our place was no slum either, close to the beach and with a large pool in the centre of the complex. We hung around in the pool until the conference welcome got underway in the evening, and this would turn out to be a really worthwhile event to attend: the people whom I would meet I would see and interact with for many years to come. Overall, I had expected the conference to be poorly attended by Europeans and North Americans given the cost and distance to travel but many were using the conference as either a starting point of end point to further travel in Asia. I was always amazed by the ability of Europeans and Americans to complain about the accessibility of conferences, moaning about a 4 hour trip, seemingly ignorant of researchers from Asia and Oceania usually having put in at least 20 hours. In any case, there was a really positive vibe at the event: I knew a few people but met countless more and everyone was in good spirits. It was going to be a good conference.

Business time

Delightfully, the breakfast at our accommodation was decent so over eggs and fruit I could mix with people in a social capacity before everything turned to physics. Our accommodation was not officially linked to the conference, but was absolutely dominated by students given it was the cheapest place to sleep on Sentosa, so once the time came there was a great migration over to the Shangri-La. The welcome reception was on the beach, so it was only for the first session that we actually went inside a saw how outrageous the venue actually was: it was dripping with excess. Moreover, there were peacocks everywhere!

The conference itself was run as a series of plenary and invited speakers - there were no parallel sessions - and as is always the case, there is a mix of people presenting their research as they are excited about what they are doing and others that present to show how good they are. I have no time for the latter, but unfortunately there is plenty of it. Needless to say there were some good talks and there were some bad talks. Mixed between the talks however was some of the finest conference food I have ever experienced: the price of admission included tea breaks and lunch as put on by the hotel, which was extravagant fare. Highlights included the noodle chef, who would make whatever noodle dish you could imagine on demand and a dessert bar that extended for roughly 1/3 of the total buffet length. It was a real winner.

Outside of the conference, we were able to access the hotel facilities, so there was much swimming and some very sweaty table tennis. In the evenings there were a few official engagements - such as the poster presentations - but by far the most enjoyable evening involved a large group excursion to the Tiong Bahru Market back on the mainland. Delicious food coupled with ice-cold beer and good company is a hard thing to top. There was a social afternoon, but given the additional cost and lack of interest in the possible tours, we went our own way and see the Singapore Botanic Gardens. I had visited many years ago on a trip to Singapore in 1993 but I hated almost every second of the trip as I could not handle the humidity. As an adult I thrive in it and the UNESCO world heritage site is absolutely my cup of tea. I was particularly excited to see the National Orchid Garden, which boasts one of the most impressive collections of orchids in existence - and presents a welcome reprieve from all the people cruising around the garden taking wedding photos.

Following on from the gardens we headed to Little India smack-bang in the centre of town with the express purpose of checking out some temples. This was the first time that I had visited temples, so i was quite unsure of what I should be doing, and adding to my uncertainty was the number of people around given it was just after work had finished for the day. Given I am very tall, I always stick out, but for whatever reason I felt particularly self-conscious at the state of my socks, which were filthy. Moreover, given I had my camera out, I was not doing a good job of blending in, but I didn't really care. Once we had had our fill, we set out to find another Hawker market as we had enjoyed the last one so much. Without any guidance, we ended up stumbling across the Pek Kio Food Centre, which wasn't nearly as happening as the Tiong Bahru Market, but it felt pretty local and we ended up with a good feed and some cold beer.

Being in Singapore raises a sense of unease in me, and it is difficult to put my finger on exactly why that is the case. For example, the country is astoundingly clean, which definitely suits me, but it is clean in a highly superficial way: everything is polished but it only acts to distract or obscure the filth below. The country is well known as a financial hub of Asia, that is, it has a low company tax rate and hence is a tax-avoidance haven, the country suffers from severe economic inequality with a higher Gini coefficient that the U.S.A. and it shows. The affluent lead lavish lifestyles and large cohorts of migrant workers do the actual work, and the tension this creates is palpable. The façade that is put up by the wealthy the pretend it is all roses is embodied by Sentosa, a destination for those with disposable income to spend some cash. Early one morning I went for a walk around the island and could not shake the feeling I was in a theme park. The island is home to theme parks, but it seemed as though the entire place was fake: maybe it was the artificial beaches or the manicured forest, hard to say.

Few things embody inequality like fancy hotels, and that was exactly where we were headed for our conference dinner, well, next door anyway at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. Yes, that is the place right on the bay and connected to the Marina Bay Sands hotel: the one made to look like there is a boat on the top. Such a venue was again totally unnecessary and bordering on inappropriate for a physics conference, but we jumped on the busses and were taken over. In what would prove to be a devastating mistake, the conference organisers did not mention that there was an open bar. Normally this would not be a problem, but at every other event, drinks were extremely limited, usually restricted to a single beer. This is perhaps unsurprising given the brutal duty on alcohol which, along with religion is responsible for one of the lowest rates of alcohol consumption per capita in the world. So when the drinks kept on flowing during the pre-dinner mingle, people were putting them away assuming that they would be cut off by the time dinner rolled around. Consequently, many people were very merry before dinner started, and the alcohol kept on coming. The dinner looked like the standard meal one would put out when trying to impress - for example a large plate of abalone - but the vegetarian fare left much to be desired. As the dinner wrapped up, the night was just getting started.

We made our way over to the Marina Bay Sands hotel as we wanted to access the rooftop. We figured that we could talk our way up as we had been at the conference centre, but it would turn out we did not even have to do that: it was a Thursday evening and just entering the lifts with other guests of the hotel allowed us to have access. But it was during this process that the evening's highlight was being prepared, with Rory having a drink too many and deciding on our walk over to the hotel that we wouldn't be able to go up in the lifts and the stairs were the best option. So without us knowing, he slipped away and began his literal run up the stairs, all 57 floors. It was only when we were enjoying the view from the top that someone asked where Rory was that I realised that he had become separated from the group, but coincidentally it was not long before he popped out of the stairwell, mentioning something about running into security guards that asked what he was doing, to which he replied "climbing the stairs" or something similar. He did not have much time to take in the view as before long, the dinner and alcohol decided to make a second appearance and his bed was buried amongst the bushes. It did not get much better when we descended and he started talking some serious shit with the employees of the hotel, all of whom were too kind to tell him where to go. In the end, a group that was heading back to the accommodation was happy to look after him whilst I stayed out, which was phenomenally kind; especially since we only had one key for our room, so we were trying to coordinate how they could put him to bed but still get me access to my room. Despite the exorbitant price of alcohol, the group of us were still keen to have a beer and somebody knew of a place where we could get towers of beer nearby. We stayed for a while and when I got back to the hotel I was able to get access to the room, although Rory was passed out in the toilet and I just wondered what I had let those kind volunteers put themselves through.

It would turn out that Rory was not able to get out of bed the next morning, although as we were checking out that day, there was a hard limit on the time he could stay in the room. I will not soon forget his ghostly visage when he appeared in the conference hall, obviously evicted from the hotel room and with nowhere else to go. Valiantly he tried to sit through a talk, but it was not long before he was making a beeline for the bathroom where he was to throw up everywhere. Better yet, a concerned bystander was trying to help him, organising for the cleaners to come and asking if he required medical attention, to which he needed to reply: no, I am just really hungover. It would also turn out that the volunteer brigade that took Rory home was spearheaded by a woman from Saudi Arabia: someone who had never left the country nor seen people drink, so good knows what she thought of the whole scenario. But boy does thinking about the whole situation bring a big grin to my face.

The conference officially wrapped up after lunch, but lab tours soaked up the rest of the day. Once we were done we trekked over to our accommodation, a swish hostel in the middle of Chinatown. We ultimately chose the place as we could sleep inside a decommissioned bank vault, but this would turn out to be a terrible choice as by design, bank vaults don't have much air flow. Moreover, we were sharing a room with a bunch of Japanese guys who were totally inconsiderate, in that way that makes you hate staying in hostels. Given the magnitude of the previous night, we were content to keep things pretty low key and just have a relaxing evening in China town.

Hot and sweaty

After a very warm night, we had an entire weekend to do whatever we wanted. As both of us are keen on the outdoors, Singapore is not an ideal location. Rory was set on going to Universal Studios Singapore and I had an interest in going to the S.E.A. Aquarium, both of which were back on Sentosa, so despite not being overly keen on the place, we were back there first thing on our first day off. I enjoyed the aquarium, but I was certainly glad that I was there early: before long the place was packed with young kids which made be get the hell out of there.

My next destination was quite a mission to reach, but I was keen to do some climbing and so headed to Onsight climbing gym. Nestled in a larger sports complex, the place was pretty relaxed but very hot and sweaty. There was a collegiate attitude amongst the climbers, but it was just a bit serious for my liking. I enjoyed a good bouldering session before making my way to little India to have some lunch. I came across the Tekka Centre and demolished a curry before embarking on a self-guided tour of area. Taking things a little more slowly was definitely a good idea; I just wandered the streets and enjoyed the architecture and did plenty of people watching.As the day wound on, I ended up at The Esplanade, the much flashier part of town and there was a massive crowd gathered. After chatting with a few people, I was informed that the following weekend was National Day, and given it was celebrating 50 years since their independence from Malaysia, the party was going to be big. So big in fact they were doing a dress rehersal, which included many military manoeuvres, including jets flying in the formation of a 50. It goes without saying that it was terrifyingly loud, especially amongst the high-rise buildings, but it made for quite the spectacle.

As the sun was setting, I made my way to the The Helix Bridge, ultimately on a mission to get to the Gardens by the Bay, which sit just behind the Marina Bay Sands. The gardens are home to all sorts of wonders, the Flower dome, Cloud Forest and iconic Supertree Grove. By this point in the day I had been walking for quite some time and was starting to run low on steam. Thankfully the sun was down but the temperature had barely tempered. I have vivid memories of photographing the Singapore Flyer from next to the domes and just being exhausted. But I had plans, so quitting was not an option. When we had ascended the Marina Bay Sands hotel I did not have my camera, so my plan was to repeat our entry method; however it would turn out that on a Saturday night, things operate a bit differently. I still went into the guest elevators, but it look a few goes to get access to the rooftop and when I got up, I was soon greeted by security and told to GTFO.

I found myself wandering back around the bay and I ended up up at the Merlion, a Singaporean icon of which I have vague memories from my previous visits to Singapore, but this was the first time I had really admired the site. It is distinctly modern and verges on soulless, but at night it is simultaneously breathtaking and I could not help but spend 10 minutes just seated with everyone else, admiring the view. Sitting there I had to admit to myself that I was thoroughly cooked, not to mention I had seen and done everything that I had planned, although I was disappointed by my Marina Bay Sands rooftop failure. After a long walk home, I found Rory who was in an incomparable state compared to Friday and was pretty chuffed after riding roller coasters all day long. We once again stayed in the area and had a late meal in the Smith Street food arcade, which was distinctly not a hawker-style food court, was sufficient given we were both completely knackered.

Hubris

We were treated to another brutally hot night in a vault, topped off by our dorm mates taking the fan which provided the only airflow into the room. Perhaps thankfully, they had to leave at about 0300 for their flight home, which meant we were not able to sleep for the hour beforehand, but there was some rest to be had afterwards. And we would need it. Our plan for the day was to visit Pulau Ubin, an island off the north east of Singapore and basically the last rural area of the country. We wanted to go there as we had heard it was something closer to that which you would find elsewhere in Asia. Early in the morning we took a Taxi to the northwest extreme of Singapore: Changi Village, which is only a stone's throw from the airport, and we were very careful to clarify to the driver that we were indeed going to the village, not the airport.

We got our tickets and the were loaded onto a small boat and taken over to the island with a bunch of other tourists, but mostly local tourists. Many people were travelling with bikes as the island is well known for its bike infrastructure and indeed its mountain biking facility. Hearing both mountain biking and Singapore in the same sentence certainly makes me chuckle, but it was part of the adventure. So after stepping off the boat, one of the first things we did was put down some cash at one of the countless bike rental locations and picked up our junk bikes. Given our heights, it was clear they would never have bikes that fitted, but even still we had some very undersized bikes. Still, we are both keen cyclists so we could handle whatever was going to be thrown our way. Given cycling was the trick of the day, we were headed for the Ketam Mountain Bike Park which is located roughly in the centre of the island and surrounds Ketam Quarry. On the way to the park we passed the pretty Pekan Quarry which explained that the island was a source of rock for many of the early construction projects in Singapore as it is a granite outcrop. The now unused quarries have been flooded and litter the landscape providing an important refuge for the islands many birds.

On the ride out to the bike park, we passed food carts and importantly drink carts, serving up fresh younf coconuts, something for which I had been on the lookout since we arrived in the country, and were destined to be our post-ride reward. Arriving at the track, one is presented with different grades of ride and we figured we would try the blue track and try to gauge the difficulty before making further decisions. It turns out the grades are pretty underdone and the blue course was little more than a well maintained path through the grass. We found it quite funny how the locals had really professional gear which was total overkill, but I suppose at least they were committed. It was obvious then that when the turnoff for the black trail appeared that we would take it, and so we did. It was not long before we realised that there was a big difference between blue and black, with a pretty serious climb and a much rougher track. Still, we would be fine.

We peddled on, the track narrowing, the forest closing in and thickening and the midday sun roasting away. It must have been about half way around where we acknowledged to each other that the track was actually pretty darn hard. Fortuantatly we were well prepared, with one water bottle which we had mostly drunk on the way out as it was really hot, well before we started the sweaty work under the canopy. Fortuitiously, I had purchased a bag of purple mangosteen the day before, so we could at least get some nutrients and liquid for the ever so delicious fruit. I have such distinct memories of devouring the few that we had left and feeling energised, ready to get out of the trail and back to the coconuts. It would also turn out that the climb, whilst difficult was something we could do, whereas the downhill rocky, technical descents were something we simply did not have the skills to do, so we had to get off and carry our bikes down. Needless to say, during our tribulations there were many people with swish gear absolutely nailing the course. We did however get down, only walking in to sections but with some pretty rough descents and sections that made you feel "alive". Everyone else thought we were fools, but many had a begrudging respect that given the calibre of our bikes, we were still able to get around. But the worst was yet to come: when were returned to the drink vendors, they were all out of coconuts and I cannot emphasise how sad I was about this, but at least they had some cold 100 plus, which went down without touching the sides.

Both Rory and I had our burning desire for adventure satiated by our ride and felt the need to do little else in a hurry, so we stopped in for lunch Season Live Seafood a restaurant on the water serving up simple fare and it was great. A sea breeze with freshly cooked noodles was exactly what I needed to recharge. It was effective enopugh that we set out to explore the eastern side of the island which is covered by the Chek Jawa wetlands. Once again we would ride over there, but everything about the ride was more comforatble: the road was good, the forest was dense but not closed and the sun was no longer directly beating down: there was even a breeze which meant that it was easy to reach the boardwalk section park. The road ends at a Visitor Centre in old house where we left our bikes and set out on the loop; it was noticeably more crowded on this side of the island, which meant that we were not going to hang around. We climbed the Jejawi Tower to look over the wetlands and walked on the impressive boardwalk, but the sheer volume of litter in the wetlands was distressing. Singarpore does what it can to remove it, but the sheer amount that pours out from the surrounding nations means that the task is akin to pushing water uphill.

On our ride back we encountered a wild pig and a troop of very canny monkeys, with some distracting us and others raiding our bags from behind. It was well rehearsed and well executed and served as a good reminder that we aren't the only smart things out there. Back on the mainland, we returned to our accommodation to clean up before heading out for something that we agreed we would do whilst still in Melbourne: go out and get some chilli crab. Given we were in Chinatown, it was not hard to find somewhere that had good looking a well priced crab: Ba Dao Guan. Perhaps the low price also had something to do with the rodents that were cleaning the floor below our table; however, I did not notice this and Rory was kind enough to hold off on telling me until we had finished eating our food. In any case, the crab was tasty.

Tourtuous

The conference was over and we had visited some labs at the National University of Singapore, but we were also to visit some labs at Nanyang Technological University. Located on the far west of the island, we hailed a taxi and took the trip out the the very confusing complex that was the university. We had organised to meet a few different groups and be shown around, but I think both Rory and I were more than keen just to get back to Australia and get back to normal. It was nice to be shown around, but a conference really takes it out of you, and visiting labs only holds your interest for so long. Consequently, when the tours wrapped up, we were pretty happy just to leave and find somewhere to relax. The version of this we chose was to wander around the Marina Barrage Pump House and the Marina Barrage, an outrageous complex of water storage but also a neat enough place to just explore and given it was a Monday, we were the only people around. It was really nice just spending time and chatting with Rory as well, I felt I got to know him much more on the trip, but especially so in the hours spent aimlessly walking. Before long it was time to make our way to the airport for our flight, but not before one last meal at a hawker market: the Maxwell Food Centre. I certainly was going to miss the food, and was saddened to have my last meal: at least it was high quality. But as these things go, our flight was delayed by many hours, so we were given food vouchers. When second dinner rolled around, I would refuse to get non-local cuisine, insisting to get food from the airport's "hawker" market and was treated to disappointment on a plate. Still, that was much better than my last visit to the airport whereby I got food poisoning from burger king and spent the entirety of the layover on the toilet. But in a similar vein of self flagellation, I would return to work the next morning after flying overnight as I had done recently on a trip to New Zealand and with a similar result: being absolutely buggered.

Adventures