Singapore Trip, Day 2

The breakfast buffet at the Grand Hyatt was really good, especially the fresh fruit/juice selection. It does cost S$35/person but I think it is included in our room charge (S$310) already.


Since there were five people in our group, we had to take two taxis to work. During my last trip, the company chartered a van to take us everywhere but we had about 8 people in the group. It took about 30 minutes to get to work from the hotel and there was not much traffic since we were heading away from downtown. The other side of the road was really crowded however.

Yesterday was the first work day of our trip and we had meetings scheduled for about six hours straight. The main person driving the meetings is back in Chicago so it was past midnight their time when we finished. We also got a quick "tour" of the office. In the six years since I visited last, we've outgrown the original office site and now occupy space across three sections of the Northtech building in Woodlands.


At ~5:30pm, 13 of us headed out to dinner at The Prime Society, a steakhouse in the Tanglin area of Singapore.


Several co-workers ordered a sampler appetizer plate


I ordered a sirloin steak and a side of onion rings. It was better than what I had the night before at Ku De Ta but still unimpressive when taking price (S$57) into consideration. The onion rings were an extra S$8.50 and I only got 5 rings. I could have bought many many bowls of laksa for that much money.

A co-worker from the local office drove us to dinner. On the way, we asked him about the cost of living in Singapore. He said costs for private housing (i.e., no public assistance) averages S$600/square feet! That's about 2x what I paid for my house in Orange and even much higher than nice areas of Irvine. If you want to own a car, you also had to purchase a certificate through an auction. He said his cost S$50,000 and is good for 10 years. Wow... that costs more than some of the cars on the road.