Travel To India

I chose to go to India via Singapore. Due to Anawat's help with an upgrade, I went Business Class out; due to Anawat's lack of miles (even he runs out eventually) I went coach back: Big Difference!

On the way we stopped in Hong Kong for about an hour and toured the shops there in the airport (I think the Hong Kong airport is a bigger mall than any in the Bay Area). Then we went on to Singapore where we had several hours to explore the city.

So I have pictures of the Hong Kong mall, the NetApp sales offices in Singapore, the mall in the basement of the Netapp sales office and a random chunk of Singapore that I could see from the tour bus.

I'm on the flight to India on Singapore Airlines. This picture was taken after about 12 hours of flying. Notice how much room we have; this is business class. For some reason they kept the plan freezing the whole way; I had this jacket on all the time and I was still cold. (I learned the reason on the way back: sure it's cold here in Business with so few passengers but back in coach where everyone is crammed together like cattle, it's quite warm.)

The Hong Kong VIP lounge: nice chairs and tables in a quiet environment, free food and drink and network connections.

Anawat chowing down in the Hong Kong lounge. Behind him you can see a rack of glasses and row of booze bottles as well as, to the right, a cooler full of deserts.

The HK airport really reminds me of shops I've seen in US malls.

One of several display cases in a knick-knack shop in HK. I was impressed by the quantity and quality of the stuff they had here.

The HK airport is quite large but it has good people movers in it. I kept trying to get on the right hand mover which is, off course, wrong since HK, like most of the world and all of the former British Empire, always drives (and walks and stands-while-being-carried-along) on the left side of the street. Anawat had to keep leading me over to the left, although I'm sure I would have figured it out had I been by myself...

One of the perks of being the guest of a frequent flier is that the premier lounge has showers. When we landed in Singapore I hadn't showered for 10 hours and we were planning on wandering around for another 9 hours so a shower was a very welcome amenity, indeed!

Before wandering around Singapore we left our luggage in this little luggage storage room at the airport.

Here is the Network Appliance sales office in Singapore.

This is the reception area, the sales area and the Customer Service area which has mostly been eliminated (but they kept the space because they have a deal with the landlord).

Here is a snack counter with some cubicles in the background.

The view from these offices is incredible. Actually, the architecture throughout Singapore is beautiful and from here you can see some excellent examples. I don't know what this building complex is but, as you can see, it's all very well integrated and takes up most of an island. And is surrounded by lush vegetation which we seldom see here in dry California. Very nice.

Here's a view in another direction. I find these round buildings very cool. I don't know what these buildings are but I've been told that the Singapore government has invested heavily in high rise housing which it leases to its citizens for 99 year terms. This means, of course, that the lessors can stay as long as they want but it also means that, 99 years from now, when the property will certainly be much more valuable, the government will get it all back! Of course, just as Hong Kong discovered, this can be a bit of a shock to the people who are occupying the property when the lease finally runs out...

Burger King, McDonald's and many others.

I really liked the buildings in S'pore so I took some pictures. This one is notable for it's horizontal stripes; perhaps this makes it look slender.

I think this is a Hindu temple. I saw several in India but this is the first one I saw and I think it's a pretty good picture so I kept it.

Here's an example of a somewhat unusual building (although I saw very few "normal" buildings there).

This one is round.

We went on a tour and the bus stopped at the Singapore Botanical Gardens.

Being a westerner and generally protected from such things, I found this squat toilet very interesting. As someone said, "it's just like when your camping except you don't have to dig and then bury the hole." So it's sort of like camping out in the city?

In the middle of the information center of the Botanical Gardens was this cool clock.

This is our tour bus, all decked out with images of Singapore.

We never actually went IN to the Botanical Gardens so the most interesting plant we saw was this in the parking lot. It was very large and very beautiful.

Have a Nice Day! Singaporean Hospitality on the tour bus.

Outside a mall they had some pretty cool sculptures in S'pore. I think this would be a pretty cool thing to do in CA but it will probably cut down on the parking spaces so we probably won't.

Here is another example of stores you would see in America cropping up in Asia. The contents are largely different but the logo and the strategy are the same.

Anawat suggested that we go back to the airport on the subway. Naturally, we're doing this in the middle of rush hour. I had flashbacks of my days commuting to the City on Bart. I didn't find it all that novel or interesting although they had different advertisements... One thing that was different was that the cars were very long with few seats and lots of cars strung together; apparently a LOT of people ride public transportation there.

Here's Anawat riding on the subway with me.

On the way back I sat next to a man who works for Dell in Sales. The last time I took a plane trip (that time from NY to CA) I sat next to a woman who worked for a part of Dell which thought of itself as being in competition (although I don't think we see Dell as a big scary storage vendor) but this gentleman sells a lot of stuff to us. I was pleased to meet him because he organized a cab and got me to my hotel; I certainly would have worked it out but it would have taken me twice as long and caused me some undue anxiety.

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Dave Menconi

Webmaster

Last changed 4/13/04.

	I'm on the flight to India on Singapore Airlines. This picture was taken after about 12 hours of flying. Notice how much room we have; this is business class. For some reason they kept the plan freezing the whole way; I had this jacket on all the time and I was still cold. (I learned the reason on the way back: sure it's cold here in Business with so few passengers but back in coach where everyone is crammed together like cattle, it's quite warm.)
The Hong Kong VIP lounge: nice chairs and tables in a quiet environment, free food and drink and network connections.
	Anawat chowing down in the Hong Kong lounge. Behind him you can see a rack of glasses and row of booze bottles as well as, to the right, a cooler full of deserts.
The HK airport really reminds me of shops I've seen in US malls.
	One of several display cases in a knick-knack shop in HK. I was impressed by the quantity and quality of the stuff they had here.
The HK airport is quite large but it has good people movers in it. I kept trying to get on the right hand mover which is, off course, wrong since HK, like most of the world and all of the former British Empire, always drives (and walks and stands-while-being-carried-along) on the left side of the street. Anawat had to keep leading me over to the left, although I'm sure I would have figured it out had I been by myself...
	One of the perks of being the guest of a frequent flier is that the premier lounge has showers. When we landed in Singapore I hadn't showered for 10 hours and we were planning on wandering around for another 9 hours so a shower was a very welcome amenity, indeed!
Before wandering around Singapore we left our luggage in this little luggage storage room at the airport.
	Here is the Network Appliance sales office in Singapore.
This is the reception area, the sales area and the Customer Service area which has mostly been eliminated (but they kept the space because they have a deal with the landlord).
	Here is a snack counter with some cubicles in the background.
The view from these offices is incredible. Actually, the architecture throughout Singapore is beautiful and from here you can see some excellent examples. I don't know what this building complex is but, as you can see, it's all very well integrated and takes up most of an island. And is surrounded by lush vegetation which we seldom see here in dry California. Very nice.
	Here's a view in another direction. I find these round buildings very cool. I don't know what these buildings are but I've been told that the Singapore government has invested heavily in high rise housing which it leases to its citizens for 99 year terms. This means, of course, that the lessors can stay as long as they want but it also means that, 99 years from now, when the property will certainly be much more valuable, the government will get it all back! Of course, just as Hong Kong discovered, this can be a bit of a shock to the people who are occupying the property when the lease finally runs out...
Burger King, McDonald's and many others.
	I really liked the buildings in S'pore so I took some pictures. This one is notable for it's horizontal stripes; perhaps this makes it look slender.
I think this is a Hindu temple. I saw several in India but this is the first one I saw and I think it's a pretty good picture so I kept it.
	Here's an example of a somewhat unusual building (although I saw very few "normal" buildings there).
This one is round.
	We went on a tour and the bus stopped at the Singapore Botanical Gardens.
Being a westerner and generally protected from such things, I found this squat toilet very interesting. As someone said, "it's just like when your camping except you don't have to dig and then bury the hole." So it's sort of like camping out in the city?
	In the middle of the information center of the Botanical Gardens was this cool clock.
This is our tour bus, all decked out with images of Singapore.
	We never actually went IN to the Botanical Gardens so the most interesting plant we saw was this in the parking lot. It was very large and very beautiful.
Have a Nice Day! Singaporean Hospitality on the tour bus.
	Outside a mall they had some pretty cool sculptures in S'pore. I think this would be a pretty cool thing to do in CA but it will probably cut down on the parking spaces so we probably won't.
Here is another example of stores you would see in America cropping up in Asia. The contents are largely different but the logo and the strategy are the same.
	Anawat suggested that we go back to the airport on the subway. Naturally, we're doing this in the middle of rush hour. I had flashbacks of my days commuting to the City on Bart. I didn't find it all that novel or interesting although they had different advertisements... One thing that was different was that the cars were very long with few seats and lots of cars strung together; apparently a LOT of people ride public transportation there.
Here's Anawat riding on the subway with me.
	On the way back I sat next to a man who works for Dell in Sales. The last time I took a plane trip (that time from NY to CA) I sat next to a woman who worked for a part of Dell which thought of itself as being in competition (although I don't think we see Dell as a big scary storage vendor) but this gentleman sells a lot of stuff to us. I was pleased to meet him because he organized a cab and got me to my hotel; I certainly would have worked it out but it would have taken me twice as long and caused me some undue anxiety.