The rest of my time in Singapore was quiet. I rattled on about minor irritations about my hotel accommodations until the management took pity on me and gave me access to the lounge. While it probably seems a minor point, I realised that it was also a significant cost differential. For instance, if I have breakfast in Straits Kitchen, it will cost me $41 SGD (about $30 USD), whether I have a glass of juice or eat for 2 hours non-stop. But if I just want some fruit, eggs, toast, and coffee I can get it for free in the lounge. And at night, if I have dinner at any of the three hotel restaurants, it will run from $50 to over $100 for me alone before any wine or cocktails. And that is NOT having the lobster and fois gras meals either! But I can have free cocktails, wine, and buffet foods for free. This is a significant hit on the bottom line of my travel expenses. The company benefits from this deal as much as I do.
The management finally explained about the lounge access. It seems I have previously lucked out on getting specials of various types, which didn't happen this time. I won't be properly eligible until I get a few more visits logged. Not far away though. And they will make sure that my room preferences are filed and arranged for future visits. So I will stop complaining for now.
The work goes well. My coworkers are very nice about making sure I get out for lunch and they even volunteer for a Japanese sushi restaurant for lunch. I have never had a meal where I had 4 other people tell me they actually WANTED to eat Japanese with me. They took me to a chain restaurant called Sushi Te. This turned out to be excellent. I had sashimi and a tempura ten don, which was a small lacquered box half filled with flavored rice, then topped with mixef tempura pieces. But the others order various fish and vegetable rolls, a sashimi salad with sesame dressing, fried salmon skin strips, and assorted udon and soba noodle dishes. We sampled everything and finished it all. We ended up with a dessert of roasted sesame seed ice cream. This was a real winner. It was black (really a dark gray) and it was only slightly sweet. But the smoky sesame oil flavor was clear and distinctive. If you don't like roasted sesame you will absolutely hate this dish. But I will be on the lookout for it in shopping in Asian grocery stores in the future.
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