When traveling around to many places, you rarely have time to do all of the reading and investigation that you would really like to do, so it often results in a feeling of “Ok, I’m here….now what?” when you arrive at a new location. This is why Information Centers have become our very good friends. However, while most tourist destinations will have some sort of information, not all information centers are created equal.
It was our pleasure, then, to go to the Singapore Tourist Information Center. The center itself is decent, with the standard displays of brochures, free tourist maps, etc. They are also able to set you up with an account for free wifi from one of the main providers in town, which is an added bonus and one of the reasons we decided to stop in. However, what really made our experience stand out was the staff member who helped us.
Aside from the wifi, our other questions were about some of the attractions in Singapore: Universal Studios, Sentosa World, Night Safari, etc. She politely and informedly answered all of our questions, but when we were done with our questions, she stopped us for a second and said, “The attractions are great, but if you’re in Singapore, there are some other things you really shouldn’t miss…” She went on to explain about the different ethnic areas around town (Little India, the Arab Quarter, and Chinatown), as well as some of the more historic buildings and the museums. She suggested food to try in the Arab Quarter (mutabak – it was awesome), as well as the place to get an original Singapore Sling.
It was clear that she really cared about her city, and did not want tourists to leave without experiencing the cultural soul of the country. She could easily have answered our questions and let us go, but she took the personal time to show us her picture of Singapore, and it really made our trip. Most of the staff at information centers will be polite, some of them knowledgeable, but very few take the time to really make the trip personal. That’s why we’d like to say a big public thank you to the staff at the Singapore Tourist Information Center for making our day and our trip.
If you’re like me, you love mashed potatoes to the point where you can’t fall asleep without dreaming of pillowy mounds of starches marching below your eyelids. Well for you, the technical wizards at 7-11 Singapore have been working on what I can only imagine was an enterpize similar in size to the Manhattan Project. The fruit of their labor is the technomancy that is the Mashed Potato Fountain. I’m not sure what sort of dark magic makes this machine operate, but it spits out piping hot mashed potatoes at the touch of a button, fur a few coins. I assume that the staff sacrifice the chicken in the back room in order to make it work.
