Day 3 - The Art of Living in Singapore

Singapore has many different and some unusual facets that affect daily living for its inhabitants.

It is predominantly a walking society with streets safe to walk at all hours of the day or night. Children can easily walk or ride the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) without fear of harm. This has caused some concern when they leave to go to college elsewhere and expect the same safety.

ERP, depends on vehicle type and time of day to determine the ERP (congestion) fee.

Chope – a method used to reserve a table or seat at a restaurant or hawker center by placing a tissue package on the end of the table. Those inhabitants needing extra money to feed themselves often sell tissue packages near or outside restaurants.

Hawker Center - Singapore hawker centres are basically large outdoor food courts with stalls around the perimeter serving everything from full meals to snacks and drinks. You'll usually find a selection of local dishes as well as flavors from across the world, including Chinese, Malay, Indian, and western.

Waiters don’t check on your progress during your meal since they consider that rude and an interruption. You need to raise your hand to get their attention. And there’s NO TIPPING in Singapore for the many people we customarily tip at home. A service fee of 10% is added to each bill automatically to cover this aspect of the charges.

Singlish – English infused with grammar and vocabulary from the Mandarin, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Malay and Tamil languages.  English is the official governmental language of Singapore but Singlish is the language of the street. When asking a yes/no question, your response will be “can” or “cannot” instead of yes or no.

Auntie – Every woman older than you is an Auntie whether a close friend, neighbor, bus monitor or just the restaurant waitress.

British influence – They drive on the left side of the street. Cars never stop for pedestrians so keep a lookout both ways as well as any cross street behind you for traffic. And motorbikes are fast and aggressive.

Lift – elevator

Carpark – parking garage

Brolley – umbrella

Lorie – 18 wheeler truck

Mozzies - mosquitos

It’s a plastic economy. Only small street vendors require actual currency. Exchange rate is favorable but prices are high. $1 = 1.25 S$ and the S before the $ signifies a Sing Dollar. I ordered dinner through GrabFood of 2 large pizzas and a lava cake for dessert = S$48.94 ($36.71).  Dinners out are easily S$100 ($75.00) or more!

Grocery stores don’t all carry the same products or even have them in stock since many items must be shipped in. We went to 3 different stores for coffee creamer and each one was out. The norm is probably 4-6 weeks before restocking the shelf as they await a shipment.  So Kim does a work-around by using Prime and having milk and cream delivered and doing her own “half and half” mixing.  Locals are fine with just milk for their coffee.

Many items can be delivered through Prime right to your door within 24 hours but the items I brought in my suitcase (deodorant, Q tips, toothbrushes, etc) are unavailable or their equivalents are unacceptable.

Subsidized Housing, Housing Vouchers, and Public Housing Programs assist low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities to get into affordable private or government-owned rental housing. ... The subsidy allows recipients to pay no more than 30 percent of their income towards housing.  You do not qualify if you are single and under 30 years old.

CCTV monitors are everywhere! Emergency? It’s faster to use a Grab than to call an ambulance to get to the hospital. Ambulances obey all traffic laws and sit at stop lights even when they are on a call with sirens blaring.

Located just north of the equator, the temperature is always 87-92 degrees Fahrenheit year round with high humidity. There are two seasons: hot and monsoon. There is no clear-cut wet or dry season and rain is experienced every single month, usually in the afternoons and early evenings. However, there are two main monsoon seasons in Singapore: Northeast Monsoon Season (December-March) and the Southwest Monsoon Season (June-September). Using a leaf-blower looking machine, fogging is done for mosquitos once a week during the wet times and once a month at dryer times.

With two flu seasons, two flu shots are required each year.

I’m sure there are other things I could put on this list but can’t think of any at the moment. If I do, I’ll interject them into a future posting.

Spent the afternoon as a tourist at the Gardens by the Bay. That's Day 3 Part Two coming up with lots of photos.