Chinatown is one of the touristic hot spots in Singapore and one of the most traditional -though quite fake – areas of this little country.
There are traditional messy colorful malls, like the people’s complex, and modern hospital-like malls, just opposite (chinapoint).
It’s a must to try all the strange kinds of food sold here! the steamboat (or hot post) is the traditional Chinese dish, but you can go more extreme and check out the tapioca sweets, bamboo cakes, fish cakes on a stick, prawn donuts…
If you are on shopping mood, you can also manage some good deals in between the various tourist traps.
The atmosphere is great, there is always something going on, people everywhere, eating, walking, bargaining, praying… at the huge red temple, just near the shops and stands!

Today when I woke up and looked out of the window, I saw hundreds of people quietly running on the street! felt very surreal… and hundreds and hundreds more kept running…

it’s the Singapore marathon on east cost park! Over 50.000 participants, and my room seems to be a very good viewpoint, check out the pic

They started very early morning, around 5 or so; the full marathon is 42 km, the half marathon is 21 and then thee is also the option to run 10km. Like usual Singapore is very well organized, and everything is very smooth and quite with all those tens of thousands of people.

Finally Malaysia!
After 7 months in Singapore i crossed the land border to Malaysia, visiting the border town of Johor Bahru, to find out it’s actually just an extension of Singapore with malls everywhere!
I suppose it’s like Tijuana in Mexico, which does not actually qualifies as Mexico to me… so I’m not sure i can say I’ve been to Malaysia… I hope to have the chance to see more of this country! anyway i had a few hours taste of it, and seems like the Chinese are running most of the businesses and the Singaporeans are the only clients!

Globalization: I’m Italian, living in Singapore, go to Malaysia, buy shoes branded “Fabiano Ricco” imported by chinese who went to Italy to copy the design and produce it in china and sell it in Malaysia for Singapore tourists!

The area around Raffles Place MRT, along the river, is very lively at night, with fancy & expensive restaurants and cafes. The Christmas lights give it a fairy-tale atmosphere…. I like so much to see the Christmas lights on palm trees at the equator
Walking around the streets here doesn’t feel like it is Asia… this area is very popular with tourists, you’ll find many western people around and no local dining places, everything is aiconditioned, so bring a jumper because it’s freezing (inside)
If you want to experience the real Singapore, just take the metro, two stops, alight at Bugis!

These last weeks in Singapore I have been working hard to collect data, conducting an experiment on cross-cultural differences in the reception of business visualization and I didn’t get any free time to explore, so I’m posting a picture I took last September at the Chinese Garden. You see the garden was decorated with colorful lanterns for the mid-autumn day festival, a Chinese tradition happening at the beginning of October (depends on the moon calendar).

The Chinese Garden is in the north-west of Singapore, and can be reached with the MRT (metro) green line, the ride takes approximately half an hour from the city center.

It’s a beautiful garden, although totally man-made. The most amazing part is the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum, where I have seen the absolutely most strange turtles on earth! It’s a must see if you go all the way up there to the Chinese garden: there are hundreds of turtles and several amazing species:

44 hours in the air and 500Km on the road…
October has been a wonderful month, traveling in America, Europe and Asia… 5 countries, exploring new places (Philadelphia, Atlantic city, St. Gallen), meeting new people, and above all a chance to spend some time with my friends again.
Like the Chinese say, time is circular and everything comes back… and yes indeed, I went all around the world and here I’m back again in Singapore, working…
Feelings too go round round, up and down, and come back to the start. That’s life.
The good news is that here is still summer!

]]> http://travelvirus.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/round-and-around/feed/ 1 travelvirus http://travelvirus.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/awesome-lugano/ http://travelvirus.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/awesome-lugano/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:41:11 +0000 travelvirus http://travelvirus.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/awesome-lugano/ ]]>

I was really looking forward to spend some time abroad, I was thinking Lugano is so small, always the same, same people… but when I was living there i forgot to appreciate the beauty of the lake, the safety and low bureaucracy of Switzerland, the familiar feeling in the university, so small and so intercultural…
And after being away for six months I must admit I really miss Lugano!! The lake, the mountains, the university, and above all… my friends!
As zucchero says ” è andando via che si rimane…”
It’s almost time to go back to Singapore, luckily it will be summer again there and i’ll come back to beautiful Lugano in spring!

St. Gallen is a gracious little city in the north east of Switzerland, near lake constance (Bodensee). There is a prestigious management university there, the University of St. Gallen, specialized in management. The city is tiny and cute, very well kept and stylish. The people are all elegant and dressed up, the shop’s windows are fair of formality and stylish elegance… very expensive elegance!
The very center of the city is closed to cars, so it’s very enjoyable. There are several churches, of which one is really huge. The atmosphere is vibrant, especially around the market square, with fancy restaurants and clubs.
I was there to teach and experiment, and surprisingly it was very hot and we could hear the cows’ bells during the class

Last week I attended the InfoVis conference, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The small city is a local tourist attraction for the many casinos along the Boardwalk, a long walking street on the beach side (see the pic).

There is no comparison with Las Vegas, but its peculiarity is the location on the sandy beaches. I was staying in Bally’s hotel (in the picture), which is one of the tallest hotel in the city. Others are more scenic, such as the Wild West and the TajMahal.

The conference was held inside the hotel, and just above the casino! Strange…

Lots of opportunities for shopping of all kind, from absolute kitsch & cheap, to high class brands like Guess, Armani, CK, etc.

My favorite part was to see the old grandmas in pinky cloths, going around the slot machines with their power chairs or walkers (deambulatore, in italiano) and gamling!! So cool! I wonder what my grandma would do in a casino ah ah!

Other attractions? walking on the beach, there is also a light house and an aquarium. I was indeed planning to visit the aquarium but the night I arrived a man was found dead, shot by six bullets, just nearby… so I didn’t get very far from the hotel.

Getting a taxi has also been not very pleasant… the first taxi driver told me “it’s going to be 13 $”. And I was thinking… they used to use meters in this country since very long time!! Where is this guy from? I arrive at the hotel and the meter says 7.80$: I give him 20 (didn’t have anything smaller) and he give me back 10…

Second attempt: I got a more friendly haitian driver, noel, with very fancy hairstyle; too bad he hasn’t been a driver for long, just got this job after loosing his previous one because of the recession. consequence: he doesn’t know the way around and can’t really drive on wet pavement… and the car spins half round, just near the wall! Thanks god there were no other cars near us.

Altogether, it’s an ok city, not my favorite in the united states. At least now I know why it was not on my US travel guide…

On the way to the Infovis conference I landed in Philadelphia, here known as Philly, and met up with Darya, a friend from Lugano, who is a visiting phd student there. She planned a very nice tour of the city, which is full of historical buildings celebrating american history. The most famous landmarks are the Liberty bell and city hall, which is the biggest in the world. We spent the evening at the university city with the italian phds community and I enjoyed a delicious crab cake, a famous delicacy here. The reading terminal market is also not to be missed, for tasting some local and exotic food.