The land of Merlion

It was the 7th of March back in 2015. With lot of aspirations, I boarded an Air-Asia flight to Singapore via Kuala-Lumpur from Trichy, with a layover time of about 6 hours. One might ask why choose layover over direct flights? The cheapest option always precedes convenience. If you are from one of those families where you put the Air conditioner in sleep mode to prevent it from running overnight, just to save a few bucks of the electricity bill, you could probably relate to this! Yup, the struggle is real 🙂

Following the footsteps of what most of the unsuccessful engineers did back then, I enrolled for a Master’s degree in Business Administration at a private institution, of-course for a hefty fee. I was a little privileged to do so and hence this flight and the blog obviously..!! I was supposed to be chauffeured by an university representative at a time that I had mentioned (based on my itinerary) while filling up relevant forms for the pickup. Thanks to Air Asia’s delay of 2 hours, I was almost left stranded at the airport and the fear of not knowing Jack-shit about the place . Fortunately for me, the chauffeur had e-mailed directions to the place he was patiently waiting at! And that’s how my journey began at this progressive country!

Love at first sight is a phrase that’s often used to describe people falling for each other. I hate that bias! Why does it always have to be a person? To me, it was Singapore.I was put up at a decent backpackers facility arranged by my university for the first couple of weeks. Oh, did I mention about the chauffeured car I was in? It was a S-Class Mercedes 😉 Just like the one in the picture below..

Wouldn’t you love the place where you first did things, you never thought you would get a shot at? A lot of things unveiled here for me. Most important of all, a memorable experience! Though I was really excited about this whole study abroad idea, the only problem I had to cope with for the first few weeks was my Conversion Complex. A plate of Idly costed me S$5 in a decent restaurant..Boom.. there you go.. conversion complex kicks in – 250 Indian Rupees for a plate of idly? Believe it or not, I starved the first day. Breakfast was included as part of the package and I only had to take care of two meals and I skipped one until I got rid of the complex, as it was the easier thing to do than starving to death 😀

I got to meet few of my batch mates from the backpackers and later 4 of us decided to rent out a place closer to the campus. The whole process of renting an apartment was as organized as it could be with all the documentation. We gave it a few weeks to settle in and then the exploration phase began.

This was my first proper picture in the country in the famous streets of “Little India” which always gave me the home-away-from-home feels. My love for this country grew multi fold with every passing day for many different reasons. I will end up writing a series of blogs if I am to cover them all. So just highlighting the ones that strikes the top of mind as I write..

First and foremost, I wouldn’t have made this lovely bunch of friends whom I rely upon, if not for this chapter in my life.

Second, is what made my last few months of stay in the country THE BEST. And possibly the one thing that will keep me happy no matter where I go. This is also one among the many reasons that I am desperately wanting to go back to Singapore.

Playing club cricket is a costly affair there and folks in the picture above made sure that I din’t feel the burden. I haven’t thanked them enough for that. May be I should go back at least to thank them? Might sound illogical and impractical to y’all. To me it isn’t. Because a couple of them did adopt me too. Yes, you read that right. They took care of me when i was all cashed out and dint have a place to go 🙂 What have I done to them? Nothing. Literally Nothing. In debt forever to them and the team!

Third, the infrastructure! Magnificent buildings, artificial beaches, surrounded by islands, ease of access to transportation, tourist attractions and many more! I love high-rise buildings and Singapore is full of it.

Last but not the least, my experience with the Casino 😀 Trust me, I am not a gambler. But I did have some occasional fun! My partner in crime and I had days where we returned to our place in luxury sedans out of the winnings. However, we also had a day where we had to loiter around the whole night as we couldn’t afford a taxi and took the first metro back home! That also happened to be the last time I placed a bet! I hope to place a bet soon again on my favorite 7-UP baccarat table!

Though it was only for 12 months that I got to enjoy the awesomeness of this country, the land of merlion will always be my favorite. Majulah Singapura!