Singapore Travelogue: Casual Connect And More

Around a week ago, I returned from my first international trip ever. I flew to Singapore to attend Casual Connect Asia. It was so awesome that I remember every bit of the trip as if it happened yesterday. And I kind of wished the trip would never end. (But alas, it did.)

I entered the IGI Airport, New Delhi to board my flight. The international boarding process was somewhat new to me. When I went to collect my boarding pass, the Malaysia Airlines (my flight) staff asked me how much money I was carrying with me. I wasn't carrying any, as I had planned to withdraw it from an ATM in Singapore and use my credit card for the rest. I was denied a boarding pass and was asked to convert an amount equivalent to USD $500 in SGD. That made me panic. I did not have that much money in the bank. I withdrew all I had and converted it, and all I got was SGD $360. I went to the counter again and requested them to issue me a boarding pass. After about 30 minutes of denial, they agreed to give me a pass after checking tons of documents (like the invitation letter to the conference, which I thankfully carried with me).

After I got the boarding pass and security scan, I checked into the flight departure area. It was dinner time and I was hungry. But I just realized - due to the panic mode I was in earlier, I had converted all the cash I had earlier to SGD and I had no currency left in Indian Rupees. The stupid outlets in the departure area didn't accept credit cards or any other currency and the departure area didn't have any ATM machines (unlike almost all other airports). Thankfully, I had enough to get a burger though.

I boarded the flight, and next morning, I landed in Kuala Lumpur, a stop en-route Singapore. It was the first time I saw an international airport. The time in KL was 1.5 hours ahead of Indian Standard Time, and I wanted to experience the excitement of adjusting my phone's clock to the new time zone, but my smartphone did it automatically. Nevertheless, I felt like I had travelled 1.5 hours into the future!

The KL International Airport was marvellous. It had SkyTrain running between its terminals. And outlets actually accepted credit cards.

I boarded the connecting flight to Singapore. I was on Cloud 9. Quite literally, the sky was very cloudy and it looked amazing!

And after about an hour, I was at Changi Airport, Singapore. To my surprise, the arrival process was a lot simpler than the departure. I just had to fill out a simple form, get my passport stamped and collect my baggage. In about 20 minutes I found myself boarding the Singapore MRT to the city. The feeling of being in a different country was exciting. New faces, newer landscapes, and skyscrapers, it all seemed like an epic movie.

I checked in my baggage at 5 Footway Inn, Chinatown, where I would stay for the coming week. And then went on to my destination: Shangri-la Hotel. I took the bus to get there. The weather was burning hot.

It was beautiful.

I entered the venue, and was given a badge to wear around my neck. By the time I was there, it was already lunch time, and I decided to pack some food in.

I could relish the taste of some of the exotic cuisines while at the conference. There was vegetarian sushi, which immediately caught my eye. Can't remember the name of the recipe, but what I do remember was that it was delicious! There was fruit salad, and I saw unique white fruit with black seeds like Dalmatians. It was called Pitaya, commonly known as dragon fruit. What a majestic name for a majestic fruit. And when I googled it later, it did appear so. Here's what it looks like:

Food aside, it was time to visit the Indie Showcase. The showcase was full of great games by developers all across Asia.

I didn't happen to click a lot of pictures at the conference. I did a lot of networking though and getting some feedback on my game Spellbound, even though I wasn't formally a part of the Indie Showcase. I talked and met a lot of interesting people. It was amazing. And I collected business cards of each developer I talked to as souvenirs!

It was amazing! It was great to meet people I had only talked to online and people whose work I was a fan of. The developer keynotes on the final day were the best, they provided great insight on the development processes involved when making a game.

All in all, it was a great ride. Click here to check out some more photos I clicked during the trip outside the conference.