Life in Singapore...

The first day was quite eventful, I used almost every available mode of transport - Sky bus, MRT, walking, cab and bus, in that order. I also managed to collect my race bib from the organisers who were stationed at Marina Hotel on my way from the Airport. As expected of Singapore, it was very well organised and the whole process was completed in a couple of minutes. I really liked the gift pack they had organised along with the race bib, this included a very smart Adidas singlet using the Standard chartered bank colours, a smart bag and a few other things from the sponsors. Procam, organisers of the Mumbai Standard Chartered marathon, need to come here for a crash course, they would take at least 15 minutes for the entire process, if you come during the non peak hours, you collect race bib from one counter, champion chip from another and the gift pack from the third one.

The efficiency of the public transport system is similar to that of Bombay, though for obvious reasons its less crowded. The number of cars in Singapore have gone up considerably in spite of the harsh taxation on owning them. Maybe its time for the government to hike it further. Also the much hyped cleanliness of the city, has gone down in recent years. You will manage to find a stray can, some plastic scrap & cigarette butts.

In my hunt for the Marina hotel and my cousins house, I had managed to walk a good 4-5kms. Since I was travelling extremely light that was not really a problem. I ended the day by having some adventurous Indian food by the Singapore lake (its like a huge food court having different restaurants). The food was not really similar to Indian food in India, the veg food did a very good job but the mugali food - Kababs, butter chicken (which tasted more like chicken tikka masala) was a little disappointing.