Reunion

I tell you, three airplane meals in a row is far too much! At least I needed to give up the third one, just couldn't take it any more! But was ok, cos then I was already approaching one of the food paradises of the world - Singapore (all, Malaisian people reading this blog, please do not get offended, I just haven't experienced your kitchen so much yet :)

So, I landed in Singapore around 20 minutes before my actual arrival time. Had no troubles on the border if I do not count the face of the border guard when he was trying to figure out what is Estonia. Got my luggage easily and stored it in airport so that I wouldn't need to carry it around for the next 3 days. And was just about to start wondering if I should give a call to Ying, when I saw two people running towards me - Ying and Triini!!!!! Hah! What a surprise!! I thought Triin was just left for Thailand the day earlier - I even sent her SMS from Bangok airport that she should enjoy Thailand for me too - but she was just pulling my leg! Very nice of course!

Was extremely lovely to have dinner with Bulan, Vega, Ying, Triin, Cecilia and some other people with the best dumplings I've ever tried and later sit by the Singaporean river and have nice coctails. Just couldn't believe I am there together with my best Asian friends :) Just soooo lovely!

But the first thing I noticed about the country was not the weather - although, yeah it is humid and hot - but the fact that you don't really need to go outside when going around in the city! RMT (local train/metro/subway) is mostly underground and in order to change the line you just take the escalator to another floor, half of the houses are connected to each other so that you can spend hours not even needing to step out. There is air condition everywhere obviously, which usually is rather cold, so you may totally forget about what is the real whether outside.

The next day Triin showed me around in some residential areas. I saw where she used to live -> this was when I realised that it is difficult to understand whether you are inside or outside the house. All the corridors and ground floors of the houses have minimum amount of walls and no windows or doors, the pavement of the street smoothly becomes the floor of the building etc. I saw what means if the bank have a slogan "your personalised service!" -> Just a short part of the conversation between the customer and the clerk that I caught:
Clerk: "Oh! it is your birthday today! Happy birthday!"
Customer: "Yes, thank you!"
Clerk: "Any celebrations coming?"
Customer: "Yes something a bit"
Clerk: "Do you have children?"
Customer: "Yes, two of them"
Clerk: "So nice dinner coming up today?"
Customer: "What dinner? It's the middle of the week, no time, lah! At weekend there will be"

I also had a chance to give a glimpse to how local family lives, thanks to Sheryl, and tried durian. Hah, durian is supposed to be the most nastily smelling fruit ever which leaves your hands and surroundings to stink for long time. And many people cannot stand it at all. But actually, these are all rumours. Durian is nice and good and yeah, the smell does stick to the hands for a while, but it's not so frightning at all. I liked it :) Then we headed to Malaysia - to the town called Johor Bahru - to have lunch there, can you imagine!? I am here only for 3 days and already going to Malaysia, how cool is that!? :)

The evening passed wandering in Chinatown on my own and then again with Vega, Bulan, Cecilia and Jessica. Haha, and getting some salsa lessons from Chris. Irw, I didn't really think I would ever come to learn salsa in Singapore!!!! Doesn't quite make any sense, right? But it was a lot of fun, especially as it was ladies night and all drinks for free for girls :P And probably I won't have a chance to have a party like this for a long time..

And so came the last day. With sleep-in at Vega's place and last lunch together with all the former MCPs. Some wandering around in the streets. Last chocholate cake and coffee at the airport and then to Kuala Lumpur, where I again met Triin and also Joe for 30 minutes!!

Oh, I am soo happy that I came thru Sipo! So heartwarming to see all those familiar faces which I have been longing for. And I believe it was a nice start (and softer landing :) to my real Bangladesh adventure... So stay tuned for the future news. Coming soon, I promise!