Revenge of the nerds

My first flight of 2024 turned out to be a quick work trip to Singapore in mid-March. The Lion City has become a regular part of my itinerary over the last few years, a sign of both the growing significant of the Southeast Asian hub and the need to be able to adequately cover the market from an asset management perspective. When I came to Singapore in November of 2022, right when Hong Kong was still just opening up from the Covid pandemic, the difference between the two cities was incredibly stark – Singapore had a buzz to it that made Hong Kong seem half-abandoned, which you could argue it was at that point. A year-and-a-half later, its a bit sobering as someone from Hong Kong to see that the gap is still very much there, despite the furious efforts of Hong Kong’s authorities to boost the territory’s global appeal. Somebody I met up with in Singapore described the change in fortunes as the “revenge of the nerds” – sadly I have to agree. Let’s see what happens over the next 18 months. Anyway here’s some shots of the city I took in between interviews and meetings during the week.

Mount Faber and the Henderson Waves

One afternoon I found myself with a little bit of time on my hands in between my last interview and my dinner plans in the evening, so I took a Grab out to the Mount Faber area – both to check out the views from one of Singapore’s few natural peaks and to take a gander at the Henderson Waves, a pedestrian overpass with a trippy, undulating design. I walked up the trail to the Henderson Waves first, which looks out over Singapore’s lush Southern Ridges green belt and neighbourhoods. There were a few groups of Korean tourists walking along the bridge, plus a handful of solo visitors and couples taking photos of each other against the cityscape below, but the feature is long enough so that it never really felt crowded.

From there I continued the mini-hike up onto the summit of Mount Faber, catching the late afternoon golden hues of the setting sun over the city, light scattered by the tropical cloud cover that was ever-present but never seemed to get to a point of outright showers. There was a nice breeze coming in over the ocean as well, which helped make the walk much more pleasant. After enjoying the views from the restaurant at the summit, I briefly considered taking the cable car back to civilisation, but in the end I decided to take the Marang Trail down the hill instead. It’s about a wild as I’ve ever experienced Singapore, but it’s still just a 10 or 15 minute walk until you end up across the street from the VivoCity Mall. At that point it was just about time for me to head over to the West Coast side of Singapore to meet up with friends for dinner. Not a bad way to spend a few hours in the late afternoon.

Be Right Back

The justification for taking this Singapore work trip is that I’d be coming back in Singapore in May to help moderate a conference for my parent company, and I figured I would come over a few weeks ahead of time to get some meetings done as I’m not really sure how much time I’ll have to meet people while also being busy with conference things. That’s how things are going these days, with much of the energy and vibrancy of Hong Kong having seemingly moved on to Singapore, judging by the number of industry events happening there compared to my home town, and I don’t know how that’s going to change any time soon. So I’ll be back, and probably again and again and again.