Scott's Trip to Singapore and China

I just go back from my trip to Singapore and China and am finally over my jet lag. I had a 2 night stopover in Singapore last week on my way to the International Guang Zhou Lighting Exhibition in Guang Zhou, China. I spent the week with IDA Asia-Pacific Manager, Reg Wilson from Australia. Reg had been to Singapore several times before, so he knew his way around the city. We spent much time both days walking around and exploring the city. We saw China Town, Little India, Orchard Road, and of course the MerLion. Singapore is a really neat place, lots of great restaurants, temples and mosques, very tall buildings, and is an interesting mix of lots of different cultures. Across from the hotel where I stayed was an arcade of restaurants called Kapitiam where we ate several times. There was a really good Indian place and lots of other Chinese/Asia places. There were a few strange ones too though like Pig Organ Soup Restaurant and Codfish Village Restaurant.

On the second night we had dinner with the members of the soon to be Singapore IDA Section. They took us to a Seafood house that specialized in crabs. We had some excellent chili crab and other Asian foods. I think they got a kick out of the fact that I am pretty good with chop sticks. I quickly learned to just try things and if I liked it I just didn’t ask what it was. The dinners in Singapore were a good intro to what the food would be like in China.

On Thursday, June 7 we left Singapore for Guang Zhou formerly called Canton. Unfortunately, there was a bit of miscommunication and we were left waiting at the airport for several hours before heading to the hotel. It was raining most of the time we were there so it seemed really gray there. GZ is a much larger city than I had thought, with over 10 million people. Our hosts for the meeting were really nice people and we became instant friends. I am really looking forward to seeing them again in Beijing in July. The three that I should mention are Paul Zhang, Robin Luo, and Daniel Cheng. Paul is the President of the Beijing Section of IDA and was one of the nicest people I have met.

Friday, June 8^th we went to the GZ convention center for the meetings and our lectures. This was the largest convention center I have ever seen and they were in the process of doubling it for even larger meetings. They were expecting more than 100,000 people to attend the convention over the 3 days. Reg and I gave our talks in the afternoon and they were both very well received. Typically, the lighting in China is not what us “dark-sky folk” would call good. They tend to do more flashy, “look at me,” lighting with lots of LEDs and floodlights. There were also a lot of the changing LED signs. On Saturday we went on a tour of the largest lighting manufacturing plant in China, Neo-Neon. They employ over 20,000 people and produce more LEDs and theatrical lighting than anyone in the world. The facility was more like a small town than a manufacturing plant. All of the workers live on the property in company provided housing. There is a hotel, lots of restaurants, sport facilities, shopping centers, and even a movie theater for the employees.

On Saturday night we had dinner at a traditional Cantonese Seafood Restaurant and it was one of the most incredible places/things I have ever seen. I’ll try to describe it and add some pictures, but there is no way that anyone will really understand what it was like without actually going there yourself. First, the place was huge. I thought it was a hotel and a restaurant, but was corrected, it was only a restaurant. When we first got there we spent some time waiting for the others to arrive so I walked around a little to see what was there. The first thing I saw was a crocodile in the floor with rope around its nose. Then I noticed the rows of tanks that went on for at least 300 meters. I have never seen so many different types of crab, lobster, shrimp, fish, turtles, snakes, clams, oysters, and many unidentifiable sea creatures in my life. I have been to a lot of aquariums in my life, but this restaurant had more varieties of fish than most of them. It really was an incredible sight. And of course, since the food was all so fresh, dinner was amazing. We spent almost 3.5 hours eating and drinking. The Chinese like to have a toast where they will say “ganbei” which means “bottoms up” and you have to drink your whole glass full of beer or wine. Since I was the large American, they all wanted to see how much I could drink. Those who know me know that I did “alright.”

Sunday was a really long day. We left the hotel for the airport at 10:30am and our flight was at 1:40. I had a 9 hour lay over on Singapore, so I went back into town with Reg and had dinner. Then the 11 hour flight back to SA and home to my lovely wife. J

Hope you enjoy the photos!