My hotel was even more stunning in the morning. My room had a little cupola \/ sitting area which poked out like a glassed in porch. The curtains were mechanized, meaning that at a touch of a button I was able to reveal Singapore in its full glory as I sipped my coffee.<\/p>\n
In the exercise room, they had what can best be described as a “treadwall.” It was a rock climbing exerciser, a treadmill covered with climbing holds that could rotate from fully vertical to horizontal (in which case the climber would be on the undercling. I wish that I had had the guts to sneak a camera into the gym, but I didn’t want to be that guy.<\/p>\n
Conference presentation went well. Maybe 40 people showed up, and I got some fiery questions at the end. One guy kept at me about high performance codes and libraries. Basically he wanted to know how I could *ever* suggest clusters as an alternative to big SMP machines. Turns out that he’s the CEO of a company that does parallel optimization on big SMP machines. <\/p>\n
After the conference, my host bailed (to do some work while in her home country). I took a taxi down to Chinatown and wandered around. Ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant. It was really good. Clavorful curries and piles of rice. About halfway through the meal I realized that I was sitting under a signed photo of the Dali Lama. I took that as a good sign. Also toured a hindu temple and saw the Singapore “merlion.” It’s a big statue \/ fountain near the mouth of the Singapore river. It has the base of a fish, and the head of a lion. Water shoots out it’s mouth. You’ll have to take my word for it that it’s fairly cool. Stopped off almost at random at a tea merchant, and bought 100g of some esoteric and fancy tea. It’s the un-opened blossoms of some tea plant, as he explained to me. Seemed cool, though I hope that customs doesn’t turn the tea dogs on me to sniff out my agricultural product. <\/p>\n
The grittier part of wandering around were the omnipresent massage parlors. Women slouched in doorways, making eye contact with quiet calls of “massage, honey? You want a massage?” It wasn’t just one neighborhood, and it wasn’t one or two places. Almost every shopping district I walked through had several. Port city, not founded by puritans, I suppose.<\/p>\n
Overall, singapore struck me as safe, clean, and touristy. I have no idea what awaits me in Delhi, but I’m writing these words on the plane to India. Singapore air continues to impress. I just got the complimentary deck of playing cards.<\/p>\n
A pause for travel<\/em><\/p>\n Now I’m in Delhi. This is crazy. The hotel seems pretty cool. It’s at least very posh. I think that my “you’re getting scammed” filters are poorly tuned for travel in India. I mean, our taxi driver was totally cool, but I felt this urge to watch him like a hawk. <\/p>\n It’s 2:30am Chris (adjusted) Standard Time. That’s 12:30 Delhi time. Meeting the apple people at 8:30 for breakfast. Sleep now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"