Executive Club Lounge at the Singapore Marriott, courtesy of Marriott.
This past weekend, my wife and I took a very last minute trip to Singapore, partially to partake of the Night Grand Prix excitement. I have a bunch of posts drafted and will start throwing in photos in the coming days/week. For now, I though I would offer an observation from the night of the race (that incidentally has nothing to do with racing).
My wife and I had been sitting in the lounge for two hours, and we had the chance to witness a number of new connections made, folks walked into the lounge as perfect strangers, and in some cases came to share tables with their new found friends.
It might’ve been the slow wifi, or the friendly staff, or free flowing alcohol, I’m not sure, but the fact remains, people made connections. in fact, the night after, we saw the same folks, who were once strangers, sitting together.
It’s an interesting dynamic, hotel lounges, some, people use to insulate themselves, whereas others, people are more open to conversation and connections happen.
I’m not sure what makes one lounge more interesting than another when it comes to conversing with others. I’ve met and chatted with others in Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Delhi, and Syndey among others. And every time I have learned something new.
Could it be people’s travel styles? Could it be the nature of the hotels respective cities? I haven’t yet been able to figure out the answer, nonetheless, it is always interesting, enjoying evening drinks in a lounge.
Do you make friends in lounges when you travel?
I had my first stay in a hostel ever for my trip to the singapore grand prix as hotel rates were beyond outrageous. Bring an introvert I am one who almost never socializes with others I don’t know but it turned out 2 of the people I was sharing a room with were going out to eat dinner the same time I was and I was asked if I would like to tag along to the Chinatown hawker stalls. At first I was a bit apprehensive but after talking to them for a bit I found out one was a swede of Iranian decent around my age (33) and the other a younger German girl and we got into a spirited discussion of fast cars, US politics and gun culture as well as discussing the current european refuge crisis. It turned out the Iranian’s family had fled Iran when he was a small boy during the Iran/Iraq war and settled in northern Europe. In the end we spent over 3 hours taking and it was incredibly fun and an experience I never would have had otherwise.
@James – Wow! That is absolutely awesome! I love it when I’m able to make new friends when traveling. It sounds like that hostel stay really worked out for you!