Japan/Singapore Day 9: Code Sprint

November 16, 2019

Today is a preliminary day to the 106th Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting which will occupy the coming week for Jim, although Kenna will get to do some sightseeing while Jim is in meetings.

Today Jim is participating in the “code sprint”, where a small group of IETF participants work to improve the online tools that support the organization. Jim’s plan is to work for about half the day, and then join Kenna for a little sightseeing after that. Fortunately, Jim was able to find a couple of small tasks to complete that made that possible.

While Jim was “sprinting”, Kenna tried to figure out how to get started exploring Singapore. She found a walking route for visiting sights around the Marina Bay area, and seeing that it was close by, decided to start there. She walked toward the Marina Bay Sands, the iconic hotel that looks like three towers with a surfboard on top. After crossing the Helix Bridge she found a passage through a higher level of the hotel that led to an area that overlooked the Gardens by the Bay. She then continued around the bay and back to the hotel as she was feeling the heat and humidity. It was a relief to get into the shopping mall adjacent to the hotel. She explored a little before finding a place to get a late lunch.

When Jim was finished, we had a little time to go over to the Orchard Road shopping area. The street was very busy with shoppers and sightseers. Everything was decked out for Christmas even though it was only the middle of November. Apparently the decorations here go up as early as the beginning of October and stay up through January.

On the recommendation of our friend Liz, we took a short detour off Orchard road to Emerald Hill. Here we saw a number of well-preserved, very elegant “shop” houses in a style representative of Singapore in years past.

We got back in time to head off to dinner at a German-style restaurant with many of the members of the IETF Nominating Committee that Jim will be spending a lot of time with in the coming week.

This article is part of a series about our recent travels to Japan and Singapore. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.