Calling people who know Singapore

[vztrt]

Ok well I thought I'd bring this thread up again (cant sleep) and sorta like a car review give a description of living here after 3 months when the novilty has worn off.

Disclaimer: My impression of Singapore so you can take it with a grain of salt.

Food:
Yeah its ok, in all seriousness I wouldn't write home. You can find some decent food at the Hawker centers (I find it funny that for $3 the food was ordinary but for $4 it was good). I believe that the biggest problem is that it's not fresh as most of the stuff is imported.
Pizza....well forget about it I found one that has potential to be good pizza but needs to be cooked properly. But in terms of western food unless your gonna spend some cash dont expect anything special. It is cheaper to eat out in this country then cook at home but I would cook at home so I could have some good tasting food.
Chinese food is alright but it's better in China, the Singaporians like Dim Sum I had it here and thought it was ordinary and until I tried it in China and thought this is fantastic.
Portion sizes are small which I guess is good as I eat less then back in Melbourne. But if you want a variation in your meal dont expect it. My collegue wanted twice as much meat in his Black pepper beef rice and the place we were at (we go their regulary) were stumped so their solution was to bring out the meal twice with an empty plate to throw the rice out. We found this strange as the price of rice, like oil, has gone up through the roof.
Oh I'm judging this from a european backround quality of taste so it may differ for other people. But from others with the same background I'm getting the same feedback.

Drinks
Liquor, beer and wine are expensive. you buy one can of beer or 24 cans and it'll be the same price per unit. Aussie wine here is not cheap ($8 bottle wine is like $25). Liquor is expensive I found myself buying a bottle of bacardi becuase it was like $32 instead of $42. Oh and to drink beer in Singapore you put ice in there as the coldest beer I've had here was from my fridge.
There's some nice drinks here like the lemon ice tea, or the Ice Milk tea. The fruit juices here aren't really fresh and you can get some wierd combinations.
Milk...well real milk doesn't exist as it's all powdered milk here. You can get Pura but again its powedered milk. So I stopped drinking milk in this country as I dont like the taste.
Oh and if anyone wants to know you can drink the water in this country.

Climate
Before I came up here I was told that you will struggle with the climate. Ahh its not that bad. Mind you I normally do handle weather then other people. But I play basketball here and I seem to be able to handle it. You do sweat up here but no more then a summers day in oz. 95% of days it rains but if it rains in the morning it wont rain in the afternoon and vice versa.

Cars
Well it is a car forum after all. Well they're not cheap. You need about $15,000 aussie before you can have the right to purchase a car. On top of that you add about 300% tax on the cost of the car and your there. The cheapest new car I have found is a 3cyl Kia that is about the same price I paid for my Falcon. Its not the cars that are expensive its the government charges that stuff you over. Even insurance is based on age and thats it. In saying this I've seen a few lambo's, an Audi R8, Skyline GTR, and a few Evo's and WRX's. Car modification happens here but it's mainly rice and on the performance side if your car doesn't comply with emmission laws the government will take the car to test it. Also they hve tolls everywhere, every freeway and as soon as you enter into the main city area there's a toll. It was told to me by a taxi driver that the ERP stood for 'everyday rob people'
So for the moment I'll keep using public transport.

Public Transport
Well its efficient and clean, problem is its packed. Also people on the MRT (trains) change. Lots of rude impatient people, they even have signage now the trains to tell people to be considerate. I've noticed that if the public transport system got taken out then this country would be in trouble. Also if its raining in the morning its pretty much impossible to get a taxi. The taxi charges went up by 20% but its still pretty cheap so I like using taxi's if you can handle how they drive and the drivers telling whats wrong with the country.

Drivers
Well I've seen worse but it gets worrying when your 5cm's from the side of a semi or a bus. One thing I've noticed with the taxi drivers is they cant keep a constant speed. They take their foot on and off the pedal and it feels like they're braking all the time (most taxi's are diesel, some are CNG). Not many people use indicators its more I'll just move in. But highbeams are used to indicate if you should stay in your lane. But no real roadrage.

People
Well they seem friendly enough. Only once I've really heard someone saying something about westerners but then he saw me and changed from english to Manderin when he saw that I looked like I could belt him. They do have a word for stupid Westerners which is 'Ang Moh'. But if you ask them a question they will help you out and wont brush you off. Mind you watch out when your shopping when there is no price tag. You'll get the westerner price and not the locals price.
Unfortunatly the government has made them very straight and narrow. This was done with the generation that is about my age, as you had to be good at maths, chinese, english. But if you were good at arts you were made to feel useless and no good. So alot of expats here are in the arts field. But they are changing this.
But this straight and narrow does cause issues when you want some sort of variation as they understand what your asking but just cant do it.
In terms of english you can get around quite easily, but when your out of the tourist parts of Sing the english gets worse but still good enough to get by.

Government
All I can say is that I felt I had more freedom in China. Yes things are good but the government hasn't changed...ever. They work really hard at making sure any opposition parties are destryoed or become non threatening. Why? Well you'll notice that the members have their finger in the largest companies over here. Its illegal to strike in this country but 1st May is a public holiday.
But everywhere you turn the government is taking as much money as they can of their citizens, and now I'm hearing that they wanna double the GST form 7% to 14%.

Entertainment
There's lots of places to go out. I ended up getting on an expat website as they go out each Friday night so I get to see some new places and different pubs/clubs. TV is ok, nothing really on....mind you aussie TV didn't have anything on. So I normally watch the news channel here. Sports here is just the local stuff but dont expect motor racing on here. But they constantly have F1 specials on TV (guess they're trying to promote the race in sept).
I onced asked one of the girls at work whats there to do in Singapore and her response was there really isn't anything to do besides movies and shopping. So i learnt that you dont ask locals what to do in singapore.

Housing
If you like condo living then your in heaven. But for me I'd rather a back yard. The apartment I live in is good quality. But if you have a problem expect trouble as the landlords agents are useless (I've got this from a few people now) and the contractors seem to do no wrong. They look to blame any issue on the tennant. On to of that apartments are expensive as they had a housing boom in the last two years.

Cleanliness
Well it's clean, especially in the tourist area's. When you get out of that area then the country is still clean but nothing spectatular. But there is lots of cleaning always going on. One thing that Does worry me is when I go eat somewhere the utensils dont seem that clean and I'm always wiping them with my napkin.....well thats if they give you one. Some places they don't provide you with a napkin.
Oh and the urinals are really low in this country I'd hate to be 7ft tall and have to go to the bathroom.

Overall
Singapore has its good and bad. I've tried to be non bias but at the end of the day I'm human. While it's a safe, relitively clean country it seems to be like a Toyota....it has no soul. Maybe I'm missing something but thats my feeling. I can live here but I cant wait to get back to Oz. You don't realise how good you got things till they're gone.