Wednesday, December 15 - A Great Day!

After a standard morning of meetings, about 6-8 of my coworkers took me out for lunch. We took a couple cars over about 10 minutes to a nearby Chinese seafood restaurant. Inside, We all sat at a large round table and they proceeded to order. Interesting thing here was that I never saw a menu, there was just a checklist that one of my coworkers filled out. We had a number of very familiar dishes, Chinese dumplings, various forms of prawns, vegetables, and some small fried fish - similar to smelt. Finally, one plate was brought out that made some people nervous - it looked like tiny brown twigs all wrapped up in roughly the shape of an egg. As it turned out, the twigs were a delicate fried shell that housed a nice sweet sauce in the middle with perhaps a small bit of shrimp? Anyway, it was delicious. We had some great laughs, but all too soon, it was time to head back. In the office, I wrapped things up and, made my goodbyes.

At this point, I took a taxi (along with one of my friends from the office) over to my reward for my long work trip... I was headed to the City Center, this time, specifically near the casino at Singapore Flight. Although, I didn't go on this, I do have to describe it briefly for you. The ferris wheel is incredibly large, and instead of a seat, each position has a large, all-glass, cylinder that must hold 40 people or so! The wheel maybe contains 12 of these pods, and offers a great view of Singapore. However, that would have to wait for another trip. At the base of this ferris wheel, is a high end mini shopping mall. Parked outside, were 2 brand new Ferrari's - One red, one yellow. For s$200, you could actually drive them around town for 30 minutes. How about that! Unfortunately, this too would need to be done on another trip, as a far greater experience awaited me - you guessed it - a flight Simulator! The store, called "Flight Experience - Singapore" is a dream come true for me. It allows anyone to pilot a full sized 737 simulator and sit alongside a pilot who will assist/teach. After paying the s$295 (I know - I am crazy) I had reserved my hour of flight! I climbed into the simulator, hoping it was professionally done and not a huge waste of money - and was delighted to find it of very high quality. In fact, I believe spot on for a real 737 cockpit (I had a good reference, as I got to go in one at EAA this summer). I took my seat in the captains seat, and the instructor sat next to me. My guest from work sat in one of the two jump seats in the read of the cockpit. I was a bit nervous, as I knew a 767 pretty well, but had never flown a 737 in my simulator programs. I knew the system were very similar, and hoped I would be able to pick it up easily. I will spare you all the gory details here, but I started it up from "Cold & Dark", took off from London's Heathrow first. Then I flew around Hong Kong and did a great visual approach into Kai Tek and nailed it. That airport was famous for having one of the most difficult and dangerous approaches around. You basically have to fly in between the skyscrapers right at a hill, then turn 90 degrees to the right and immediately land. Oh man, I can't believe I nailed that landing - probably best one of the sim! Finally I did a short flight from Milwaukee down to Chicago. Nothing great to took at, but I was using different techniques to navigate and land, so I wanted an approach that I was familiar with. All too soon, my hour was up, but I have to say, my goosebumps lasted for about 3 hours. It was awesome. I will be doing that on every visit until my simulator at home is complete (in about 10 years time). One final note: I was really, really hoping that the experience in a full simulated cockpit was really going to be much better that anything I had yet setup at home. This way, I would know that if I devoted the 10 years to building mine, that the end result would be worth it. IT WAS! One last note on this: Did I mention how much fun it was???

I then said goodbye to my friend from the office and took the taxi back to my hotel. Once there, I immediately put in my DVD recording of my simulator time and watched it from start to finish - cool! Please, please, ask me to show it to you!! Around 6:30, I met my friend Jeff in the hotel lobby, where we each had a drink. Next, we took a taxi over to the East side of Singapore on the coast. There, we planned on dining at Jamba's - according to Jeff, home to the greatest Crab dish on the planet. After the 30 minute taxi ride, we had arrived. The drop-off was a site right next to a strip of about 10 seafood restaurants, all open-air with a canvas roof for the seating area. If it weren't raining, we would have been all he way outside. The place was packed, and everyone appeared to be ordering the crab - that was a good sign. Soon our food sides arrived: rice, broccoli /w mushrooms, a bowel of "drunken prawns". Apparently, they used to bring the prawns out live (in water), then pour in alcohol to watch them get drunk, then, sadly, they would light them on fire! Anyway, for us, the came out already cooked. As were were about to start on the prawns our crab arrived. We ordered a medium crab (not sure what kind, but it did resemble Alaskan King Crab). It was served in a giant bowl and was covered in a chili sauce. I was relived to find the sauce not too hot. In fact, I cannot describe it well, other than to say it was like a saucy mix with some small chunks and a hint of a flavor that reminded me of Saz's BBQ. Very unique and a definitely fantastic taste. The crab was a mess to eat, and upon getting totally covered in the sauce and bits of crab, Jeff tells me that they charge extra for napkins! (Remember all goods in Singapore are imported). Dinner was unbelievable, and I had to admit to Jeff it did even surpass my crab from Dalian. We then headed back to the hotel where I said goodbye of Jeff, and went to my room to pack up. I really wanted to get some of my posts out, but it was getting late, and I needed my sleep as I needed to get up early.