First impressions on Singapore

To sum it up in one word: WOW!

Singapore Airlines arguably has the best service and the prettiest attendants of any airline. From the moment you step out of the plane into the beautiful Changi airport, you know you’re somewhere special. There was no line-up for customs. Once more, my Canadian passport got me in without a single question, just a pleasant smile from the officer. By the time I reached the carrousel, my 80kgs were ready for pick-up. This place operates with incredible efficiency. So much so that the Singapore Airport Authority operates different airports in other countries.

Everything in Singapore is electronic: toll collection, public transportation, keys etc. You can even “Dial a Coke” by sending a text message to the Coke machine, and the cost of the can is added to your mobile bill. You can pay with credit cards everywhere you go without fuss or additional charges. Public transportation operates with exemplary efficiency and everything is spotless clean. Singaporeans are very courteous and helpful. All speak English plus several other languages.

A cheap Mercedes shuttle van brought me to my hotel, which I once more booked on hostelworld.com the night before. I dropped my load and plugged in my laptop to attempt to arrange a meeting with fellow students through NetVestibule, our school’s admitted student website. Within an hour, a hilarious guy by the name of Tapan responded to my message. Tapan is from India and is officially my first friend in Singapore. We had dinner at Boat Quay and stayed out quite late in different bars/night clubs. Excellent first night in Singapore.

The next day, I took care of many housekeeping issues, such as dry cleaning, dropping by the Indian embassy to drop off my visa, and repartioning my hard disk and reinstalling Windows without the Dell stuff, which increased its speed by leaps and bounds. Irving and Ravi, the Indian tour organisers, had to pull some strings with the High Commissioner of India in Singapore to secure my visa in 2 days. A fellow student put together the first BBQ of the year at Heritage, the building I will be living in during my stay in Singapore. Heritage reminds me 5-star hotel, with several pools, fountains, tennis courts, BBQ pits, a gym... It is the lap of luxury at an affordable price, and about 5 minute walk to INSEAD. About 90% of the students either live in Heritage or neighbouring Dover communities, which makes it very easy to organize ad hoc parties as all your friends live within 500 meters.

I met many students from all over the world, both from the previous and the current intakes. I am amazed at how unpretentious and approachable everyone is here, much unlike typical American Ivy league schools. It was a great time, and we vowed to make BBQ a frequent occurrence. Since there are 150 of us, INSEAD students have a bad reputation for having loud pool parties until the police shows up. A few other students thought midnight would be a great time for a swim, and after a quick dip, Tapan and I headed to Clarke Quay for another late night on the time.
Thursday was very uneventful. I finished setting up my PC, visited an Indian embassy for the sixth time this week (in 3 different countries) to finally secure my visa. I had a nice dinner at Genevieve’s place (from Montreal) and called it a night. India, here I come!