[Singapore, Singapore]

Another day, another dollar! Or, in this case, another two days, two more attractions and two interviews!

We started off our Wednesday morning with our first mobile payments interview. As exciting as that was all on its own, it was even better that it happened on the 33rd floor of the Citibank building, in a corner meeting room overlooking the harbor. Not a bad way to start the day!

Interviewing mobile payments folks at Citibank

Afterwards, we went for lunch at the historic Raffles Hotel. Named after the founder of modern Singapore, sir Thomas Raffles, this historical hotel is where people go to admire the architecture and sip on the signature drink of this country, the Singapore Sling.

Raffles Hotel

Singapore Sling

Finally, in the late afternoon, we went to the Singapore Flyer, this time during working hours so we could actually ride it! At 165m/541 ft, the Flyer is the largest observation wheel in the world. It’s fairly new addition to the Singapore skyline – only three years old. The views, ofcourse, were pretty spectacular, and the 30-minute ride provided ample opportunities for picture-taking.

Today (Thursday), we started off with a visit to Marina Bay Sands.This one-of-a kind hotel is famous for the boat-shaped deck (the SkyPark) with an infinity pool that overlooks the Singapore skyline. Even though we had already seen Singapore from the Citibank building and from the Flyer, the views from the SkyPark were still breath-taking – definitely a must-see for anyone visiting the country.

When I came back to the hotel afterwards, I saw that I had a comment on my previous blog entry from a middle-school friend of mine from Bulgaria. The message said: “I am in Singapore too! Let’s get together!”. It’s a small world! I haven’t seen this friend in 10 years or more – after we both finished high school, I came to the US and she went to France and we were never home in Bulgaria at the same time. As it turned out, she had arrived in Singapore only 10 days before me to complete a quarter abroad as part of her MBA program at INSEAD in France. I took a quick cab ride to her apartment and even though I had only 30 minutes of free time, it was great seeing her! What a treat to be able to catch up with a long-time friend on the other side of the world!

I hurried back to the hotel so that we can complete our last interview here with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). This was definitely a more cross-cultural experience as compared to our Citibank interview and it took us a little while to break the ice but by the end we were laughing and joking with our hosts.

I am definitely sad that this is our last night in Singapore as I thoroughly enjoyed this marvelous country, but I am also looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal in 3 days!!! 🙂

**Update** June 1, 2011
In looking over my pictures from Singapore, I realized we did a few more things in the evening on Thursday that I did not include in my blog. On Thursday night, we went to a great seafood place called Jumbo and we tried Singapore staples like the chilli crab and the black pepper crab! It was very yummy! Afterwards, we ended up going to Marina Bay Sands for a couple of drinks and enjoyed the view at night.

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