SINGAPORE

Southeast Asia has been a significant part of my life for many years.

A large part of my professional life has involved travelling across the region for customer meetings, sales visits, exhibitions, factory visits and business discussions. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore became places I returned to regularly.

Airports became familiar.

Hotel rooms became temporary homes.

Client offices became another part of my routine.

There were trips where I would land in a country in the morning, spend the day in meetings and be back at the airport before I had properly seen the city.

That was simply how business travel worked.

Singapore was no different.

I had already visited the city several times, and for me it was often a convenient stop between business commitments elsewhere in Southeast Asia and a flight back to India.

But one visit turned out differently.

I was travelling across the region for work and had planned to spend some time in Singapore before returning to India. It was supposed to be a short stopover.

Then my girlfriend decided to join me.

What was supposed to be a one-day stop became four days.

And although I had been to Singapore before, this time I decided to slow down and experience the city.

I don’t remember every detail of where I flew in from.

After years of travelling through Southeast Asia, some flights have simply merged into one long memory of departure lounges, boarding passes and hotel check-ins.

What I do remember is arriving at Singapore Changi Airport and waiting for her flight from Bengaluru.

She arrived around 10 AM.

We somehow managed to miss each other inside the airport.

She had already cleared immigration and moved ahead, while I was still wandering around trying to figure out where she had disappeared.

For someone who travels as much as I do, you would think I would be better at meeting people at airports.

Apparently not.

Eventually, we found each other.

And before heading into the city, there was another problem.

She had never been to Changi.

I had.

So while I was ready to leave the airport, she wanted to explore it.

And honestly, I couldn’t blame her.

Changi is one of those airports where the airport itself becomes part of the destination.

We walked around, explored the gardens and wandered through different sections of the terminals before finally leaving for the city.

It was a good reminder that sometimes you don’t need to rush out of an airport.

Some airports are worth seeing.

Changi is one of them.

We eventually made our way into the city and checked into Mercure Singapore on Stevens Road.

After the flight, airport walking and travelling around, the first priority was not sightseeing.

It was sleep.

I have always believed that a good hotel can change the entire experience of a trip.

When travelling for business, I don’t necessarily need something extravagant. I want a comfortable bed, a good shower, a decent breakfast, easy transportation and somewhere I can properly switch off after a long day.

That becomes particularly important when you are constantly moving between cities.

We checked in, dropped our bags and took some time to rest.

Singapore wasn’t going anywhere.

And for once, neither was I.

One thing I enjoy about Singapore is how easy it is to move around.

The city is compact, organised and extremely well connected.

You can take the MRT, catch a bus, walk through neighbourhoods or simply use a taxi when you have had enough of walking.

And we walked.

A lot.

Singapore is one of those cities where the distance between “let’s just walk there” and “why did we decide to walk?” can become surprisingly small.

But walking also lets you see a different side of the city.

Instead of moving directly from one tourist attraction to another, you begin noticing the smaller things.

Buildings.

Street corners.

Restaurants.

People.

Markets.

Neighbourhoods.

And the contrast between Singapore’s modern skyline and its older communities.

Over those few days, we visited many of the places that make Singapore recognisable to anyone who has seen photographs of the city.

Gardens by the Bay was one of the obvious stops.

The Supertrees are probably among Singapore’s most recognisable landmarks, but seeing them in person still feels different from seeing them on a screen.

We also spent time around Marina Bay, walked around the waterfront and visited Merlion Park.

Then came Clarke Quay, with its restaurants, bars and riverside atmosphere.

We wandered through Chinatown, where the city feels completely different from the glass-and-steel Singapore around Marina Bay.

And then there was Little India.

For an Indian traveller, Little India is an interesting place because it feels simultaneously familiar and foreign.

You recognise the food, the language, the shops and the aromas.

But everything is happening inside Singapore.

It is one of those neighbourhoods that reminds you that Singapore isn’t just skyscrapers and luxury shopping malls.

There is another Singapore underneath that polished image.

I have never been the person who plans an entire holiday around restaurants.

But food inevitably becomes a major part of my travel memories.

Singapore makes that particularly easy.

The city has an incredible mix of Chinese, Malay, Indian and other Southeast Asian influences, and you don’t necessarily need an expensive restaurant to eat well.

Some of the most interesting food experiences can happen in ordinary neighbourhoods and food centres.

One of the funny episodes from this trip involved Singapore noodles.

Before coming to Singapore, my girlfriend had a very specific idea of what Singapore noodles should taste like.

That idea came from the version commonly served in India.

I had already warned her that the dish she would find in Singapore might be very different.

She didn’t believe me.

Eventually, we ordered it.

One bite was enough.

The expression on her face told me everything.

It was not the Singapore noodles she had imagined.

I had been right.

I tried very hard not to look too pleased with myself.

Later, we went towards Little India and found food that was much closer to the flavours she was familiar with.

And that, in its own small way, became one of the memories from the trip.

For me, food has always been more interesting when it connects you to the place.

You don’t travel thousands of kilometres just to eat exactly what you eat at home.

You travel to taste something different.

Sometimes you love it.

Sometimes you don’t.

And occasionally, you discover that what you thought was “authentic” was actually something invented thousands of kilometres away.

That’s travel.

There was another reason this trip felt different to me.

I was still travelling heavily for work at that stage of my life.

My days were often divided between business and everything else.

Customer meetings.

Emails. Flights. Hotels. Presentations. Factories. Restaurants.

And then, somewhere between all of that, trying to have an actual life.

That is one of the strange things about frequent travel.

When you travel occasionally, a trip feels like an event.

When you travel constantly, travelling becomes part of your everyday life.

You know which airports have the best lounges.

You know where to get coffee.

You know how long immigration usually takes.

You can check into a hotel without looking at the reception desk properly.

And sometimes you realise you have spent more time in hotel rooms than in your own living room.

Singapore was familiar to me in exactly that way.

But this time I wasn’t rushing between meetings.

I had a few days.

So I walked. I ate. I explored. I sat down. I watched the city.

And I allowed myself to be a traveller rather than simply a businessman passing through.

That difference matters.

Looking back, the hotel was almost as important as the attractions.

Mercure Singapore on Stevens Road gave us a comfortable base from which to explore the city.

That is something I have come to appreciate more as I have travelled more.

A hotel doesn’t have to be the highlight of a trip.

It needs to make the trip easier.

After walking around Singapore for hours, coming back to a comfortable room matters.

Having breakfast before heading out matters.

Being able to rest for an hour matters.

When you travel frequently, those small comforts become surprisingly important.

They are what allow you to keep going.

Four days passed quickly.

What had started as a short stop between business commitments became a proper city break.

We had walked through Singapore’s neighbourhoods, visited its famous landmarks, eaten our way through different parts of the city, spent time at Changi and discovered that the Singapore noodles she had been waiting for were not quite what she expected.

And somewhere between all of that, I managed to step away from work for a few days.

That doesn’t happen often.

Eventually, it was time to return to India.

We made our way back to Changi Airport, went through the familiar check-in and immigration routine and found ourselves back in another airport terminal.

The holiday was over.

The business calendar would resume.

Emails would return.

Meetings would return.

And Singapore would once again become what it had been for me for years—a familiar stop somewhere in Southeast Asia.

But this time, I had experienced it differently.

One thing that struck me about Singapore, even after having visited the country several times, was how effortlessly different worlds seemed to exist alongside each other.

The city is remarkably clean and organised, but it never felt culturally uniform. Within a relatively small space, you can move from the modern skyline of Marina Bay to the Chinese character of Chinatown, the colours and flavours of Little India, or the Malay influence around Kampong Glam. People from different ethnicities, cultures and countries seem to share the same city without constantly reminding you of those differences.

Perhaps that’s what I find most interesting about Singapore. It feels genuinely cosmopolitan — not simply because people from all over the world live and work here, but because different cultures have become part of the everyday fabric of the city.

Singapore somehow manages to feel modern without losing its identity, and international without losing its sense of place.

I have returned to Singapore many times since that trip.

Some visits were for business.

Some were stopovers.

Some were simply because Singapore sits conveniently in the middle of so many journeys across Southeast Asia.

Every visit feels slightly different.

Perhaps Singapore hasn’t changed much.

Perhaps I have.

That is one of the things I have learned from travelling for so many years.

The places remain. We change.

The same street can mean something completely different five years later.

The same hotel can bring back a memory.

The same skyline can suddenly remind you of a completely different period of your life.

When I think about this particular Singapore trip today, I don’t remember it as a romantic getaway.

I remember it as a small break during a very busy period of my life.

A few days when I wasn’t running between airports and meetings.

A few days when I could simply walk around a city, eat something interesting, sit by the waterfront and watch Singapore move around me.

And perhaps that is what made the trip memorable.

Not one spectacular moment.

Just four ordinary days that, years later, still feel worth remembering.

Because travel doesn’t always need to change your life.

Sometimes, it simply needs to give you four good days in the middle of it.