Category Archives: Travel

Cocktails at the Raffles hotel in Singapore – life could be worse – but I do miss their coctail range from 4 years ago – dry ice added a nice bit of theater to a relaxing afternoon of indulgence.

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These pics were taken on a recent family/friends trip to Singapore. Love that city and love the Raffles hotel.The cocktail list from 4 years ago was better though. If you have the time visit the Long Bar, where, according to legend the last tiger in Singapore was shot and the Writer’s Bar, where they have a sublime selection of scotches.

Interior shots of the strangest building in Singapore

These shots I took while I was having a drink inside the building with my friend Phil, who initially alerted me to the building. I will not guide your own conclusions but do we detect the presence of ‘stonecutters’?

A building of this kind does not just happen – it servers a purpose. It may carry messages, statements, proclamations or simply show intent. I do not know which but I am certain there is more to this building than meets the eye.

“There are many bronze effigies of some of the most famous figures in world history, including Sun Yat-sen, Abraham Lincoln, Salvador Dalí, Mozart, Chopin, Isaac Newton, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Shakespeare, Plato, Dante, Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkview_Square

I saw the statues myself – we truly are standing on the shoulders of giants.

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Strangest building in Singapore

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I am not sure if you are familiar with this building but it stands out like the proverbial – what’s its –  very much art-deco and reminiscent of other 1920s architecture – certainly the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building – it is nonetheless an oddity. I urge you to go and look at it if you are in Singapore. I will upload some internal shots as well in my next post.

Info about the building:

Parkview Square is an office building located in the Downtown Core Planning Area, Central Region, Singapore. It is situated along North Bridge Road, and is near the major commercial hub at Marina Centre. It is next to Bugis MRT Station, Bugis Junction, and The Gateway, and straddles the Rochor Road and Ophir Road corridor.

Parkview Square was designed by the US firm James Adams Design, together with DP Architects of Singapore.

It was built at a cost of SGD$87.93 million.

It was built as the last major project enterprised by the late Mr. C. S. Hwang, a Taiwanese tycoon chairman of Chyau Fwu Group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkview_Square

 

 

Thoughts

India is very vibrant, alive but in the jungle sense of the word – there is no order and everything feels organic. Structures, even when new, seem be in a state of permanent disrepair. Nature and Culture face off in a constant battle, neither winning, only keeping entropy at bay to allow continued existence, to allow life to propagate, to allow chaos, to allow colour and decay, beauty and brutality. Inimitable.

One is not sure if a view into the past is afforded or, indeed, a vision of the future. For the world has many paths it can follow – all possibilities along the quantum stream, liber universum.

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Traffic in Delhi

I am in Delhi at the moment and have a driver who takes me to and from the office.

He says there are three things you need to drive in Delhi.

1. A good horn

2. Good brakes

3. Good luck

 

I can attest to the veracity of this statement. It is astonishing that the entire population of Delhi has not been killed in traffic accidents yet.

Whatever forces or system are at play – it seems to work, defying all logic and sense.

Travelling for work

Ok, so I travel for work. A lot, of late.

San Fran, New Orleans, Singapore, India…and then of course the travel we do for fun. Singapore, Hong Kong, Xian, Phuket.

But let’s focus on work related travel. It sucks, mostly. Simply because you work a lot more when you are away from home. There just isn’t anything else to do, and even if there was, you rather check one more email, write one more instruction or whatever else you do for a crust.

It also sours countries for you. I love Singapore. I really do. Working there can be likened to entering somewhere between the eighth and ninth circle of hell – Treachery and Fraud – if you follow Dante.

Anyway, it is a very different experience that one has.

Most work related travel is also superfluous – Do we really need to go places in person for work these days? Really? What about video conferencing, instant messaging, Online collaboration and virtual encounters?

 

Right now I am in India, for the first time – and it is for work.

Sad, but that’s where we are now.

How do you feel about work travel? Like it? Hate it? Meh…?

(PS Why is everybody beeping here all the time???)