My First Asia Conference Trip - Part 1

Two weeks ago I went to Singapore with my friends from church to attend Asia Conference at Singapore Expo. For you who may be wandering what kind of conference it is, actually it's a conference where you can hear God's vision about Asia, shared by great speakers from America, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea. It drew around 30 thousand people packed into the three halls every day.

I planned this trip since February 2010. My housemate informed me about this conference. I have never been to Singapore before, so why not? It's a good change to spend holiday with my friends instead of my family.

The day finally came...Monday 24 May 2010. There were 8 of us went to the conference. We didn't go in the same plane. The first group went early in the morning, while me and my other 3 friends boarded afternoon flight from Jakarta. I started to pack my bag after midnight, continued on Monday morning while watching LA Lakers vs Utah game 3 (sadly Lakers lost at the end ..) However even Lakers' loss didn't dampen my mood. It's going to be an awesome journey !

I called Blue Bird taxi and it arrived on time. It was a smooth journey to the airport. There was a car tripped over at the green area near the airport. Amazing what you could do when you didn't pay attention.

I was the first who arrived at the airport. The airport was crowded, many people sat on the floor, waiting to say goodbye to their soon would be parting relatives. Like it or not, it's my country's international airport.

Soon two of my friends came but we have to wait for almost half an hour until the last man came. We flew by Air Asia and the plane was delayed for almost half an hour. From this group, only one friend had been to Singapore almost 10 years ago. We're ready to go..

One and half hour later...

We approached Singapore, the tiny island that became the major transhipment ports for shipping activities all over the world. The country with 5 million people but has become the world's fourth leading financial center. It is the fourth wealthiest country in the world in GDP (PPP) per capita terms, and twentieth wealthiest in terms of GDP (nominal) per capita. (Source :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore).

Singapore has become major tourism destination through its many creative ways - shopping fever, medical care, attraction parks, food, conferences, exhibitions, world artist show and don't forget Formula One. The flight distance from Jakarta to Singapore is only 1.5 hour, but the distance of its people mind set is so far.

Finally we arrived at Changi - the world's most awarded airport. We took a cab and went straight to our hotel - Fragrance Hotel at Joo Chiat road. It was 15 minutes drive from the airport. The journey was very smooth, a nice change from traffic jam that would almost certain welcome you, when you left Sukarno Hatta airport.

The hotel was nice and clean, although it situated near pubs and karaoke. We got connecting room for all the girls (1 family + 1 twin room). The earlier group had not checked in yet and we could not get in touch with them. Ehm...they must be busy shopping now.. and none of us had a clue where we should go.

It was 5 pm when we decided to leave the hotel. We walked by faith without even seeing our tourist map we had grabbed at the airport or asking directions the receptionist. Very intelligent wasn't it ?...Then we realised we were heading to the opposite direction, so we turned back and walked along Joo Chiat road based on the memory when we boarded the taxi earlier.

Finally we found the main road and small food court. We were starving cos none of us had lunch before. Our first meal was chicken rice. After we finished our dinner, each four of us opened our maps, trying to figure out where our location was and where our destination would be. And amazingly we could not find where we were now. You can not move forward until you know where your current position is . The Sunday's preach from my pastor became so real now.

So again by faith, we walked through the main road, trying to find nearest MRT station. My clock showed 7.30 pm. When finally we decided to cross the small road near the green park, we heard a familiar male voice, " Yailah.." We met the first group ! I could not express the Godly relief we all felt.

They had just come from shopping at Orchard, brought some shopping bags, and looked very exhausted. After short conversation and information exchange, we separated. Our group tried to find interesting & nearby hanging out place to spend the night and the other group went back to hotel and had dinner. Unfortunately the shops were all closed, so we went back to hotel again..walked along Joo Chiat road..seeing some very well dress-up ladies waiting near the bars and pubs along the road.

That's the end of day 1 in Singapore....to be continued...