International crowd at MRT Pub Crawl 2009

By: Wong Guan Jie Sidney

Instead of hanging out at the usual nightspots in town, close to 500 local and foreign university students trawled through the heartlands of Singapore on Sept. 16 as part of MRT Pub Crawl 2009.

MRT Pub Crawl is a biannual event started by Desmond Choo, a fourth-year Nanyang Technological University undergraduate, who adapted the idea from the European activity of pub-crawling, which involves people socializing while going from bar to bar to drink. This activity is also known as bar-hopping.

On the event, Choo said, “I like to see people mingle, network and make friends. I used Facebook to organize MRT Pub Crawl all by myself.”

Participants gathered at the open ground beside Boon Lay MRT Station at 7 p.m. A large majority of them were foreign exchange students from different countries such as Sweden, Scotland, and Indonesia.

Participants received white t-shirts from the organizers and were split up into smaller groups of about 20 and were led by co-organizers of the event.

The event kicked off at 7.30 p.m. with three groups taking the MRT train towards Clementi Station, the first pit stop along the East-West line.

Upon alighting at Clementi Station, the three groups went to the nearby coffee shops to buy drinks and socialize, which was a refreshing experience for foreign students.

“Before this event, I only visited the nightspots along Clarke Quay. This is my first time in a coffee shop mingling with new friends. It is cool,” said Christopher Yee, a 20-year-old Canadian exchange student from the National University of Singapore.

Participants also alighted at other stations such as Commonwealth and Tiong Bahru to explore the heartlands. Local students played host by introducing the foreign students to the local culture and atmosphere.

Local student 23-year-old Daniel Saw from Singapore Management University said, “I feel like a tour guide, answering queries from my foreign friends in the group. They asked me about everything. For example, they were puzzled why female waitresses shout out beer orders at coffee shops.”

The final destination for the event was City Hall Station where all groups gathered at about 10:30 p.m. The event ended with the participants partying at Supperclub, a pub at Odeon Tower.

Andrew Ackart, a 20-year-old German exchange student from Nanyang Technological University, said, “I took part in MRT Pub Crawl last year. It is better this year with more participants. It is great getting to know more people from the other universities.”