When I was traveling around I had a rough plan on visiting Singapore for a weekend, just to use that place as an overlay for my next destination. Knowing that Singapore was quite an expensive place in southeast Asia and its sightseeing’s could be covered in a few days, I never thought about spending there more than 4 days. The reason to go to Singapore was to visit a virtual friend I knew for years to finally meet him, spend some days in the city by checking out all the touristic places and after that be out of there quickly, before I ran out of money.
I reserved 5 days for Singapore. I arrived there on a Thursday and was suppose to leave the Tuesday after. My friend Jared joined me the last 3 days to hang out and do some touristic sightseeing together. At the time I was booking the hostel I felt sorry for myself. Man! money is draining quick over there. A bed in a dorm room in China town, in the citycenter, did cost me 26 Singaporean Dollar a night. I even faced more expensiveness during my stay when I was in a wine bar. Bottles wine I could get back home in my supermarket for less than 10 Euro’s were sold here easily for 40 Euro’s or more. Overall everything was just pricy. But when it came to food Singapore is quite reasonable and delicious. The hawkers are the best. Food center’s where you can just pick a stall to order a dish from and eat at the available tables. My favorite dish is still the Popiah and Rojak together with cane sugar juice.
During my stay I met a guy who was working in Microsoft as a HR recruiter. Inviting me for a networking event at Microsoft which was held after my so planned leave on Tuesday. I didn’t had a ticket out of Singapore yet so I easily could decide to stay longer. And so I did. This is one of the benefits of travelling without a detailed and concrete plan and no advanced booked tickets, I would say. On that networking event I met some nice people who let me start to think about working possibilities in Singapore. I met someone working for Google and gave me some information on what is possible here. Who knows, might be continued…
Yes! of course I also have been to the touristic places as well: China town, Little India, SEA Aquarium, Gardens by the bay, Haw Par Villa, National Museum, Merlion. They are all checked off the list now.
After 10 days I left Singapore a bit with a mixed feeling. I never would have expected that I would like this city so much to come back. But it is because of the people I met there which made me willing to come back.
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