Red Cross Volunteerism Campaign with Michelle Yeoh: Travel for Work Stay to Play, Singapore 2011

Following a work trip to Vietnam, I flew to Singapore. This was my first time in Singapore. I was here was for a Red Cross promoted (IAVE) International Association of Volunteer Effort conference where Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Tai Chi Master, Supercop, Tomorrow Never Dies) were role models promoting Volunteerism.

Now just because I was in town for work doesn’t mean it was all work and no play. By the time the press events ended and work was done, it was roughly the lunar new year aka holiday vacation in the form of Chinese New Year celebrations– so I had a few days in Singapore to sightsee and hang out with friends.

Fortunately, the one friend I know in Singapore happens to be the one guy you need-to-know in Singapore. John Langan is tearing up the nightlife scene in Singapore with his popular VIP club Filter along with a few other venues at which he promotes. The first night I met John up at Ion Orchard. It’s a shopping area and there are a few bars around there. It was a chill area to start the night.

Later on in the night we went to a couple of clubs promoted by John. I ran into a friend from ucla who also knew John and was also just globe trotting around the world. Props! After a night out, we all went to go eat. This late night food spot served some very solid tasting chicken. Very delicious!

I also remember at one point in the night we had a huge bottle of Dom Perignon from bottle service, but since we were club hopping we didn’t know what to do with it when we left the club. We ended up hiding it in a bush, thinking we would come back for it later. I don’t know what we were thinking, but I knew that we would never see that Dom again. And sure enough, we didn’t. While eating John kept saying, “I can’t believe we put Dom P, Life’s Trophy, in a bush!”

The next day I went with my coworker to the Singapore Night Safari. It was pretty awesome! Going to the zoo is already fun, but a NIGHT safari– was incredible.

When you get there they have a few shows like people dancing with fire or various animals up close and personal. You can pay to have fish eat your skin! After you pass this entrance area, you enter on this safari car (just like in Jurassic Park) where you enter the safari. At some points of the tour you are literally separated from the animals only by a little puddle of water or a fence. Then there are points where you can get off the car and choose to walk certain trails. At certain checkpoints you can hop back on the next car.

A major highlight of the safari was having bats fly all around and potentially right up to your face! On part of the walking tour you can enter these caged areas where only one door opens if the other door is closed. You can enter into these bats’ living quarters where bats the size of your head (not including wingspan) fly around you. They are HUGE fruit bats. They can seem freaky, but also really amazing at the same time. Walking in that bat cage, I think I felt 1/100th of what Batman felt when he first fell into the bat cave.

The rest of the trip I caught up with my friend Cat who lives in Singapore. She showed me Raffles Square and the Merlion which is Singapore’s mascot. It has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Upon first meeting up, Cat suggested to meet at Max Brenner – a very chocolatey chocolate bar which I believe to be a global chain in locations like the US, Australia, Singapore, Israel, etc. They had very rich tasting chocolate milk along with a selection of other chocolates. I think to call it “chocolate milk” is an insult to it. It was more expensive than your average hot coco, but it was very tasty. Chocolate lovers should definitely check out Max Brenner.

My co-worker Andy and I also visited the recently built Sands Casino in Singapore. This casino is made to attract foreigner income and not locals. The Singapore government made it such that if you are a Singapore citizen it costs 100 Singapore Dollars to enter so they check your passport at the door. They also have a sweet infinity pool with an amazing view at the top of the Sands. We played a little bit of blackjack and roulette and then went to have some pizza in the shopping area surrounding the casino. This pretty much was the conclusion to my Singapore adventure. All in all, it was a good first trip to Singapore.