How is Living in Singapore?
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Anonymous
| DH and I are planning on relocating to Singapore this summer due to his job, does anyone have any experience with living in Singapore? Any significant culture shocks, or any advice or precautions to prior arriving? |
Anonymous
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Don’t chew gum.
Don’t commit vandalism. |
Anonymous
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It's extremely expensive.
Otherwise lovely, one of the best food cities in the world! |
Anonymous
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80+% of the population lives in mixed-race and mixed-income public housing. So areas that you think are going to be more Chinese or more Malay or more “European” or other are actually very mixed.
You can chew gum but you can’t import it for sale. Don’t spit it out anywhere except a garbage can (and good luck finding those!) It’s not as clean or orderly as I expected. It is expensive compared to most other places in SE Asia. |
Anonymous
It's a pretty liberal city for an authoritarian government. It's very hot. For a break from the prices and culture, head up to JB for shopping/the weekend. But KL is a long drive or flight away. |
Anonymous
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Hot humid weather takes some getting used to.
Housing is expensive (hopefully your DH is getting an expat package). So are international schools (do you have kids?) Cheap, short flights to gorgous beach destinations in Thailand, Indonesia, etc. You will be travelling A LOT. (Singapore is tiny, so it feels kinda same ol’ after a while.) |
Anonymous
| It's a great place for a few years. Great opportunity to travel all over Asia. Excellent food. Diverse. |
Anonymous
It's beyond horrible. No Dems, no blacks, no LGTIRIJHFGHJS. You better enjoy diversity back home. |
Anonymous
Wut? |
Anonymous
Every American Expat I know in Singapore is a Dem. |
Anonymous
Dat |
Anonymous
Racist totalitarian magas no doubt |
Anonymous
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Hot+humid = you will spend lots of time indoors, clean, efficient, cheap as chips domestic labor cost, huge expat community, wealthy, delicious food, easy access to Southeast Asia travel (but pretty soon all the 4 star beach resorts blend together), seems like there is a free press (straits time is fine, right?), but actually press is not free.
Since you will likely be in the expat community, be prepared for everyone to have a helper or two, thus freeing them to have many dinner parties, nights out, etc. If you don’t know much about the domestic help situation in Singapore, google and do some research. Too many details to list here and I don’t want you to be too shocked when you see the helper’s quarters in your apartment. The last I checked, Singapore didn’t have a robust expat online forum, but you can check out geoexpat, which is an hk expat forum that has lots of info on Singapore, since so many people move back and forth. |
Anonymous
| Join the expats groups in Singapore on Fb. They can give you more info. Schooling is going to be very expensive and so will be housing. Otherwise I love Singapore. |
Anonymous
Would you move to Florida? It's the same but twice as extreme |