Singapore biz trip (11-12 March 2013)

I've been planing to go Singapore for vacation for the longest time but every time I plan, there's always obstacles. Not sure why that is...

Recently I got a chance to go (finally! haha) but it was a business/official trip. Went there for 2 days with my boss & 2 colleagues - Day 1: Executive Briefing for Lync 2013 at Microsoft Technology Centre, Day 2: Visit to AT&T office in Singapore.

Even though it was an official trip, still managed to squeeze in some "unofficial activities"..haha. As the Malays would say it "sambil menyelam minum air" or in English "killing 2 birds with one stone" (please note that the English version is not a direct translation of the Malay one..hiks) :P

Day 1
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We departed to Singapore on Monday morning, 11th March 2013 by Malaysia Airlines.

Upon arrival in Singapore, we straight away went to Microsoft Technology Centre (MTC) which is near Marina Bay Sands. Was there whole day for an executing briefing/demo of Lync Server 2013. We also had a guided tour of MTC to see the latest technology. All the gadgets & devices were excellent!
  

Some of the UC devices on display, most of it is Polycom

The servers for cloud hosting & research on latest hardware

I was particularly impressed with Microsoft Surface...it's awesome!

The day at MTC ended around 6pm. We then went to Holiday Inn Orchard to check-in & refresh.

In the evening, we went out exploring the Marina Bay area. It was awesome! We went to the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and watched the light & sound display at night, had dinner..then took a walk in Marina Bay Sands Hotel (the hotel is super duper nice!) then we went to the Gardens by The Bay and went to SuperTree Grove..


View of Marina Bay Sands from MTC

SuperTrees Grove @ Gardens by The Bay

Our exploration ended at Mustafa Center...the shop/mall is amazing, it sells all sorts of things, like Mydin in Malaysia but with more choice!

Day 2
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After much exploring on Day 1, we started Day 2 not so early. Went to Orchard area to get some breakfast/lunch.

In the afternoon we went to AT&T's office in Singapore to meet up with the Managed Hosting folks. We were welcomed by Nathaniel, he took us around and introduced to the folks there..including Kim who is from Network team.

It was great to finally get to know the people's faces which we deal with on daily Operations :)

With MHO T2 Server & T2 Network guys (from left: Praveen Sasikumar, x, me, Nurul, y, Kim Frivaldo, Renn, Nathaniel Lim)

Done with visit to AT&T Singapore, we went back to hotel to get our bags and proceed to the airport for flight back to KL.

It was a quick 2 days trip, hoping to visit Singapore again soon in vacation mode :)

More photos from the trip can be found here.