Day 1: From embassy to Clarke Quay

A wee break

The official program of the study tour started this afternoon. The morning could still be used to our own preference, either by giving in to jet lag and sleeping out, or by doing some personal touristy stuff, or even by getting rid of some pesky work-related actions, as was the sad fate of yours truly.

Still, there is the physical body to be maintained - in fact, doing so is by many of our fellow humans seen to be a prime cause for doing everyting else. Eating is always an adventure in a foreign place, doubly so in a plce as foreign as the one in which we find ourselves. For the initial meal of the day, the risk is mitigated by the fact that hotel breakfasts have standardised on a bland average that is very similar all over the world, with a very few local highlights. In our case those highlights consist of bread and butter pudding (sweet, faintly reminiscent of the Dutch wentelteefjes, for which the omniscient Internet does not have a proper English alternative but in France and Belgium is called lost bread), and cocunut jam. For lunch there was no choice but to go down to some stall at some minutes walking distance, where indeed one could get very decent take-away food for even more decent prices. I made do with a lamb roll, worked down with some effort because no part of my body except my head believed it was time to eat something.

Signapore is a fine city (as they say); but what's the penalty for durians?

At 12:45 we got going. Today's dress code was "business formal", meaning the full monty: suits and ties. Going consisted first of all of getting down to the Dutch embassy. Good choice to start the routine of company visits, seen as a strategy to leaven the culture shock. Every member of the 5-person organising committee acted as mother duck for a group of 4 or 5 others. After negotiating the very well-regulated Signapore metro, drawing stares from all other passengers because of our climate-unsuitable suits and metro-unsuitable heights, one mother duck discovering that it is indeed possible to get into the wrong train (but that this mistake is easily set right at the next station) we first cooled our heels as well as other parts of our bodies downstairs before re-entering Dutch territory.

On the 13th floor we were welcomed by the vice-consul, Hans Akersboom, who filled us in some more on the history and culture of the young city state of Signapore, as well as the true reason to have an embassy (to make money). Then Mark van Staalduinen took the floor, representative of the Signapore office of TNO, who confirmed that they, too, are here for the money, this time in the form of apparently limitless funding for R&D projects. Signapore being the only country in the Asian economic region ASEAN that is acknowledged to be non-corrupt, everyone wants to invest here, rather than in some other place where the money is likely to end up lining the pockets of whoever is currently in power. Consequently these 1600 square kilometers are overflowing with money for innovation and technology.

Business formal, minus jackets

All this was an interesting insight in the local economy and culture. There was another session planned, in the form of a workshop under the guidance of "Dr. Mark", where the students were given an hour to investigate the most promising Blockchain application (Blockchain being best known as the technology underlying the Bitcoin currency), the risk involved therein, and the potential impact of that risk. This assignment was carried out in groups of 3 and 4, whose findings were then pitched back to the whole group. Quite impressive to see how quickly this was picked up and how well the students were able to collect material and turn that into a coherent story in such a short while. As a nice touch, the reward for the best 5-minute pitch consisted of a cold beer for the best-performing group. (Well, I say beer, but it was actually Heineken.)

More public art on the Signapore streets: a pattern emerges

We had gone a bit over schedule. Not a problem, since this sort of session is exactly what we're here for; but for this particular night I had arranged to meet Chris Poskitt, whom I know from my visits to York University. After a stint at the ETH Zürich, he is now in Signapore for a year as a postdoc. In fact, I had only today realised that the university he's staying at is actually the target of our tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon visit! Well, nothing to be done about the delay: the internet still worked, and 45 minutes were quickly added to our meeting time. I might have been able to make it at the original hour, but only at the price of not returning to the hotel to shed my suit: not an option, really. In fact, after being physically confronted with the consequences of walking for a stretch through the truly tropical heat, I had decided to follow the advice of wearing a cotton undershirt after all: as Matthijs Koridon was so kind to illustrate, sweat spots appearing all the way through your suit are not a nice sight for your host.

Signapore skyline at dusk

An hour or so later we pretty much bumped into each other at the selected destination: the Telok Ayer Market. This is a so-called "hawker centre", appearing rather unexpectedly as the only two-story old-style architecture buulding amidst the highrises downtown. A hawker center, I had myself be explained and could indeed see around me, is a regulated eatery where the government provides the buulding, stalls, tables and cutlery, which are enclosed by food stalls, which are separate small businsses run by individual entrepreneurs much as they would operate a cart on the streets, of the type so common in, say, Indonesia. I suspect this will turn out to be a very Signaporese solution unknown in Kuala Lumpur.

Fish stall (stingray center stage)

The choice here was very varied: many national cuisines were represented, though they all somehow managed to look the same and exude the same atmosphere, even the grillhouse. With the help of Chris I chose a stingray, which I would certainly never have selected on my own, as well as some more ordinary-looking noodles from a non-fish-type stall and sate from a vendor approaching us as we sat. Drinks were to be obtained at yet another stall: beer, at a price which after yesterday evenening I considered to be reasonable. It was all delicious, even the stringray about which I would almost certainly not have said that as little as a year ago. It seems my personal programme of broadening my palate is paying off.

Erdinger on Clarke Quay

From the hawker center we chose to go on foot to Clarke Quay, a popular area on the waterfront, by way of a shopping mall where I could buy some undershirts. These turned out to be priced in the order of one beer each, which induced me to buy some regular short-sleeved shirts are well. I think there is room in my suitcase. Clarke Quay was lively but not too much so. I had half thought to meet some of the students there, but (judging from the dozens of messages and pictures on the group app) they had opted for either more high-brow places such as Marina Bay, or more seedy ones where alcohol was to be had at more affordable prices and/or female company was more abundant. Just as well, maybe: this way, Chris and I had time to chat in relative quiet. I was regaled with some further anecdotes about life in Signapore, as well as about the USTD to be visited tomorrow. Not too late (but too late for the metro, which ends at midnight) we took a cab back, which dropped me off at the hotel. Taxis are on the affordable side of this strangely priced country; moreover, it seems to be a regular saying that in Signapore you can trust even the taxi drivers.

Though it would have been wiser to opt for the bed at this moment, wisdom had gone out at some point when the Erdinger kept coming in, so I decided it was a good moment to investigate the rooftop terrace of the hotel. It had by this time cooled down to 28 degrees or so, a reasonable temperature at which to distil some of the day's events into blog text. I had to turn down an offer of some whisky from our dear - some vestiges of wisdom were still clinging. After a pleasant hour, without too much blog progress, I decided that I had better take advantage of the six hours of bedtime still remaining.