Now the buffet in this hotel is extravagant to say the least, you can literally have anything you want. you want fry up? of course. you want 200 types of fruit, no problem! you want sushi followed by sweet and sour pork balls in a fiery chilli sauce, knock yourself out! As I was nursing last nights psycho pizza fire from hell I went for some simple bacon and eggs, but what I realised as I looked round the place was just how different people's breakfast culture are.
I spotted one little (guessing chinese) guy eating a fish salad with fruit
Another eating what looked like pad thai or some other similar dish
Another having noodle soup
Another with piled high waffles covered in syrup
and I could go on...It made me think about just how different peoples palettes must be at 7.30 in the morning. but anyway I digress...
Work went well... I'll not bore you with that...
That evening I had a choice to go with all the delegates on the organised restaurant boat by the hotel for my evening meal or join my colleagues somewhere else... I went for the colleagues option.
Before meeting up with them I went for a quick swim in the pool as the temperature at around 6.30pm was like bath water both in or out.
Was very pleasant and helped relieve some tension from quite a stressful first day.
One of my colleagues bailed due to being knackered so I met up with the other one who is a great french guy now living in singapore. We went to a place called something cafe, can't remember the first word, which his wife said did good thai food. unfortunately that was over 3 years ago and they had changed ownership, the food was purely european and although the service was very bad, eg wrong dishes appearing, the food when it did arrive was very nice. They had no idea how to make a good Mojito though!
After the meal we got a cab over to the Banyan Tree. This hotel is a tourist hot spot as it has the open top restaurant / bar on the roof...Vertigo / Moon Bar. I had always been planning to go here as many people had recommended it, but even more so as Helen and Tom (V's sis+hubby) had only just gone there a few weeks back.
Had some great Banter around the differences between england and france (well more the english and the french) but also got some real insights into what life is like as an ex pat in asia. The return on your money and quality of life seem to be right up there. We also had some very good realisations about how as England we think that we are right up there in terms of best places to live in the world / well off country / public services and in some respects its true, but in many respects we are kidding ourselves I think.
While up at the Moon Bar I took a few photos of the view:
As you can see the view is something pretty special and no better place in my view to sit with a cocktail chatting about the world...
After this we hopped back in a taxi to the hotel and I went to sleep as the jet lag was creeping up on me like some kind of creepy sleepy thing.
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