Work Trip Part I (Singapore & Malaysia)

I absolutely love Singapore so much! In fact, I think I would even live there. I had been there twice before (once for business school and once for work), so I was very excited to get the opportunity to go again. Rick, my former boss at Moog, and Roger, a colleague at Moog, had been trying to arrange a trip for all of us to visit various gear and machining suppliers throughout Asia. Rick ended up needing to be in Baguio at the end of February, so we decided to arrange our trip around that.

Our first stop was Singapore. I flew into Singapore on the night of 2/17/08. I really enjoy it in Singapore. It's so modern, clean, and at the same time full of culture. I spent my night shopping through one of the many malls and eating some amazing Indian food. Normally I get sick of malls quickly, but it was so nice being able to walk around and not being stared at by everyone like I do in Baguio. It was also nice to see familiar stores. Rick and Roger didn't arrive until early the next morning, so they were pretty tired, but it was so great to see the both of them. Although I had just seen there in early January, it still felt like it had been a long time.

On Tuesday, 2/18/08, we visited one supplier in the morning, and then flew to Malaysia around lunch time to visit one supplier there. Kuala Lumpur is only about a 45 minute flight, so it was just like flying from LA to San Fransisco. I was excited to go to Malaysia, because I had never been there before. Although, we were only there for a few hours, it was great to see a new place, and it was much different than I expected. We only made it to the suburbs, but from what I hear the city of Kuala Lumpur is amazing, so I hope to visit there sometime. We flew back to Singapore that night. After arriving in Singapore, we decided to visit Clarke Quay, a favorite spot for all sorts of nightlife. We chose a "tapas" place for dinner, which was absolutely amazing. One thing everyone loves about Singapore is the food. With living in Baguio, you don't get to experience a lot of variety when it comes to food, so it's always nice to visit Singapore, and experience it. Originally, the plan was to visit suppliers all day on Wednesday, and then fly back to Manila that night. This plan changed once I found out the Singapore Air Show was starting the day we go to Singapore. I had never been to an air and neither had Roger, so we really wanted to work this in our schedule. Also, we heard that the new Airbus A380 plane would be there, and we heard its quite the site. Moog had a booth at the air show, so they left tickets us. Somehow we pulled it off, but we got up early that morning, and managed to visit 4 different supplier locations, and make it to the airshow by lunchtime. The airshow was so exciting. There were so many planes, both military and commerical, and the A380 was bigger than I had heard it would be. It too was nice to see some familiar faces at the Moog booth, as well as meet some new ones.

The New Airbus A380 Plane

So huge...

Rick & I next to the Huge Engines

Rick & Roger next to the Landing Gear

We flew back to Manila that night, and since we arrived late, we stayed over at the Hyatt Hotel & Casino. We got up early on Thursday, and took the drive back to Baguio. Although, I've done this many many times, the 6 hour drive is still rough. Rick had done it before, but Roger hadn't, so he found it interesting to. We made back to Baguio by early afternoon. Although a short trip, I always love going to Singapore, and it was great to finally see Malaysia.