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SINGAPORIAN EXPLORATION
BY AAKAASH SENANAYAKE
The Dulux colors competition is an annual event open for 1st year students, as a means of allowing them to explore their creativity through colour.Following the final critique, the students in the top five ranks, Vithya,Seshani,Dinu ,Osuri, Nilranda and Aakaash were given the opportunity to visit Singapore.
We arrived there on the 26th of November, all eager to make the most of our trip as it was the first time for us to be travelling alone without our parents. We were however accompanied by Faculty member Archt.Anuragi and Dulux representative, Ms. Dilshani.
As we made our way out of the airport, we were greeted by our friendly and quirky tour guide, Francis, who was incredibly helpful throughout the trip.
The next day we were taken to Universal studios where we enjoyed as many rides as we possibly could, most importantly the roller coasters, which were definitely my highlight of the trip .Osuri managed to get one of the roller coaster rides stopped prematurely as she had forgotten to take off her glasses, which led us to being taken off the roller coaster along with Osuri and then reprimanded before being allowed to board the ride once again.
After universal studios we were taken to the Gardens by the bay, where we were utterly awestruck by the sheer scale of these botanical gardens, it is honestly a must see for anyone who wishes to visit Singapore.
That night, after visiting yet another hawker food destination, we decided to take the bus back to the hotel, although we had absolutely no idea on how to use busses in Singapore. We managed to flag down the right bus at the wrong bus stop, but made it back to the hotel in one piece.
On day three we were taken to the AkzoNobel regional head office, where we were shown all areas in which Akzo Nobel has diversified into. And we were quite intrigued to discover that Akzo Nobel was not only involved in domestic paints but also in specialized industrial coatings. We were shown how certain colours affect our moods and behaviour in ways that we didn't realize before. It was an incredible informative session.
Before beginning the tour once again, we were given forty five minutes to do some shopping at the factory outlets at Changi mall. Osuri decided to go missing in the mall and had the entire group begin a manhunt.
We finally found her in the Nike factory outlet buying shoes for her immediate and extended family. After barely meeting our dead-line we re-joined Francis and were taken to some of Singapore's most iconic landmarks such as Merlion, the Wishing wells at sunset city as well as the Fullerton Hotel which is a repurposed post office and finally to orchard street.
Unaware of the closing time at the mall we managed to get ourselves locked in the basement floor, which had our staff advisor running from one escalator to the next, trying to devise an elaborate escape plan. However, simply asking the security where the exits were proved to be an easier option. On our last day we visited Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and it was quite amazing to witness how architects and their acievements are made note of and displayed. We also had a look at scaled model of the entire country of Singapore which showcased its development as a nation.
This was probably one of the most memorable experiances I have had in my life so far. I would like to thank AkzoNobel for granting us with such an opportunity.
