Our Hawaiian friends had about 2 hours of rest, washing up and preparing for their first adventure in Singapore : Shopping and Eating.
Hongliang, Xiao Tian, Kevin & myself had a short afternoon tea break during their 2 hours rest and we soon rejoined them at Hotel Phoenix. The boys were ready, along with their scoutmasters and the parents that came along with them, board the coach and head towards our “new kid on the block”, Vivo City.
We alighted at the bus stop near the fountain and we could see that our guests really liked Vivo City, soon the cameras were out and they were snapping away and taking photos together.
Dinner was at the food court below in the basement, whereby our Dragon Scouts were waiting for them to arrive. Lots of friendly exchanges and catch up, our boys and girls playing great hosts and showing great hospitality, bringing our Hawaiian friends around the food stalls, assisting them in the selection of their dinner. We had quite a big bunch of our people around and the teachers, leaders and old boys could interact more with the parents.
It was an interesting and hilarious food eating cultural experience for our Hawaiian friends, especially dealing with spicy food and local Asian flavour food e.g. prawn paste used in rojak. Nevertheless, the boys had fun trying out many different types of meals. As for the parents and scout masters, they won’t miss out the fun too and they tasted many different food as well.
After dinner, we brought them up to the 3rd floor viewing area, looking at Sentosa, container terminal and part of our Singapore Harbour. The Hawaiian boys were later given time to shop and look around Vivo City with our Dragon Scouts, the parents went shopping on their own and the Hawaiian scout masters with our Singapore counterparts went to have coffee and discuss on the schedule ahead. Jeff dropped by and met up with us, catching up old times.
Finally, after an hour of shopping (for most of them) and discussion, we regrouped and they proceed for their future adventures ahead, while I returned home, finishing my PR/Helper/Photographer/Liason role for the day.
Due to work commitments, I wasn’t able to join in their entire schedule that was really wonderful and fun (I wished I was able to be with them throughout the entire schedule). Nevertheless, it was really great fun for me, probably due to the international scouting friendship bond that was built 13 years ago.
Some things never change……