Yeah, I landed here on Jan 6th morning. I was expecting my friend. He came by the time I had some currency changed and we took a taxi to the place where I was going to stay. It was a nice ride, as the Changi airport was in one side of the country and the place where I was going to stay was on the other side of the country. My friend explained the places while we were going through there. This place really is clean. And almost all the places you look, you can see the country growing upwards. Lots of sky scrapers.
In 20 -30 minutes, I reached the place where I stay - yes, that’s the time it takes for you to travel from one end of Singapore to the other end. My apartment is on the 21st floor of a building, and it is not every day, till now, that you will find yourself in the 21st floor of a building. The view is awesome.
View from My Place
By the time I started settling down, another of my friend who is my roommate came. We are both from Kerala and we had some initial talks and we concluded that our first priorities are to bath, get something to eat, get a mobile connection and call home and open a bank account if possible.
We bathed and dressed and got out to the nearest mall. The weather is almost the same as that of in Kerala, humid and warm. We found a place to get a tea/coffee and then started looking for a mobile shop. From our friends we knew that SingTel is the service provider we had to look for. I really was worried about how much time will it take for the connection to get activated as I had several experiences from India. We found a SingTel shop. Within 10-15 minutes, me and my friend was calling home to give the new number and updating other details. The process was very simple.
The next thing for us was to open a bank account. We knew the names of the banks we had to look for, POSB (Post Office and Savings Bank) or DBS (Development Bank of Singapore). I didn’t want to do this on the first day of our arrival since I was really tired and opening a bank account requires so many formalities and all. But to our surprise, we finished all the formalities and I had a bank account, with ATM card and internet banking within 20minutes.
Here are some facts about Singapore. Everything about Singapore is EFFICIENT and CLEAN. There is no ethnic group as a Singaporean, and the ethnic groups here are Chinese, Indians (8%), Malay and Eurasians. Out of the whole population, around 25% are foreigners. Since there are so many familiar Indian faces, you won’t really feel that you are in a foreign country. As compared to India, cost of travel and living are high here. But the standards are equally high here.
Roads in Singapore – View from a sky pass
The next day, we went to university and registered. And so we officially became students in National University of Singapore. This time we didn’t even have to go to the embassy to get our student passes, they were there in the university and we just had to go and collect them. By the time I completed my registration, I had made some friends here and one of my best friends was here on transit. We all had a nice time. Since Singapore is a small place, it will take only around 3-4 days for you to explore the whole place.
I think I have visited almost all tourist places in Singapore, except for the ones which require entry passes, ‘cos they are really costly. I have been to Little India - its small India, you’ll really fell like you have reached India and I met some mallu people there, China Town - since the Chinese new year was due, that place was awesome, Sentosa - An island theme park, Clarke Quay, Raffles Place - The place where there is a giant Mer-lion, Chinese/Japanese Garden - very near to the place I stay etc etc. I even made it to the republic day celebrations here in the Indian embassy today. It was nicer than most of the celebrations happening in our places.
I want to write a blog about every single one of those expeditions and my experiences in singapore. I hope I will be able to make it. Since the classes have already started, I have lots and lots to study and work on. Still I am pretty sure that I will find time to update about my experiences here to bug my readers…
Here are some photos..
Chinese/Japanese Garden
China Town
Underwater World - Sentosa
Raffles Place - Merlion: With my friends
Near City Hall
Gaint Wheel near the Mer-lion Statue
In 20 -30 minutes, I reached the place where I stay - yes, that’s the time it takes for you to travel from one end of Singapore to the other end. My apartment is on the 21st floor of a building, and it is not every day, till now, that you will find yourself in the 21st floor of a building. The view is awesome.
View from My PlaceWe bathed and dressed and got out to the nearest mall. The weather is almost the same as that of in Kerala, humid and warm. We found a place to get a tea/coffee and then started looking for a mobile shop. From our friends we knew that SingTel is the service provider we had to look for. I really was worried about how much time will it take for the connection to get activated as I had several experiences from India. We found a SingTel shop. Within 10-15 minutes, me and my friend was calling home to give the new number and updating other details. The process was very simple.
The next thing for us was to open a bank account. We knew the names of the banks we had to look for, POSB (Post Office and Savings Bank) or DBS (Development Bank of Singapore). I didn’t want to do this on the first day of our arrival since I was really tired and opening a bank account requires so many formalities and all. But to our surprise, we finished all the formalities and I had a bank account, with ATM card and internet banking within 20minutes.
Here are some facts about Singapore. Everything about Singapore is EFFICIENT and CLEAN. There is no ethnic group as a Singaporean, and the ethnic groups here are Chinese, Indians (8%), Malay and Eurasians. Out of the whole population, around 25% are foreigners. Since there are so many familiar Indian faces, you won’t really feel that you are in a foreign country. As compared to India, cost of travel and living are high here. But the standards are equally high here.
Roads in Singapore – View from a sky passThe next day, we went to university and registered. And so we officially became students in National University of Singapore. This time we didn’t even have to go to the embassy to get our student passes, they were there in the university and we just had to go and collect them. By the time I completed my registration, I had made some friends here and one of my best friends was here on transit. We all had a nice time. Since Singapore is a small place, it will take only around 3-4 days for you to explore the whole place.
I think I have visited almost all tourist places in Singapore, except for the ones which require entry passes, ‘cos they are really costly. I have been to Little India - its small India, you’ll really fell like you have reached India and I met some mallu people there, China Town - since the Chinese new year was due, that place was awesome, Sentosa - An island theme park, Clarke Quay, Raffles Place - The place where there is a giant Mer-lion, Chinese/Japanese Garden - very near to the place I stay etc etc. I even made it to the republic day celebrations here in the Indian embassy today. It was nicer than most of the celebrations happening in our places.
I want to write a blog about every single one of those expeditions and my experiences in singapore. I hope I will be able to make it. Since the classes have already started, I have lots and lots to study and work on. Still I am pretty sure that I will find time to update about my experiences here to bug my readers…
Here are some photos..
Chinese/Japanese Garden
China Town
Underwater World - Sentosa
Raffles Place - Merlion: With my friends
Near City Hall
Gaint Wheel near the Mer-lion Statue
