Stuff I love about Singapore

WARDROBE SIMPLICITY
What's the weather going to be today? Oh I don't know, 33 degrees with a probable short rain shower in the afternoon, dipping down to a cool 27 overnight. So the outfit goes like this: Sundress, umbrella, flip flops and maybe a scarf for sun and aircon protection.

SOMEONE HAS TO DO THAT FOR YOU
There's a 2% unemployment rate in Singapore. That's astoundingly low. These are hard working resourceful people. So resourceful that they have figured out how to create jobs in areas I'd have never even thought of. Just about every maintenance thing for your home is a service provided by a local who you are expected to employ for this task. At first I found it frustrating that we often couldn't get hardware bits and pieces to do things ourselves... now I have fully realized the glory of not having to wait for Joel to have time to fix things around the house. I just call the handyman (who was assigned to us by our landlord) who goes and buys the parts and gets it done in very short order.

SIDE TRIPS
"Yeah, we're going to fly to Bali for a couple of days" It's typical coffee shop conversation here and it's the way we roll in Singapore. Restless? Buy a cheap flight and leave in the morning. There will be hotels to book on arrival and the rest is just easy. Joel goes to Malaysia on weekends to ride his bike all the time, we've done three side trips to Bali, two to Malaysia (aside from the regular day trips over the border for biking) and a trip to Bintan in the past year. That's six trips that weren't vacation days. We were able to still do a North America trip and Europe trip as our official vacation time.

BEST AIRPORT EVER
You gotta hand it to the Singaporeans. They made the best airport ever. It's clean, organized and better yet, you don't do the security check until you get to your gate so you don't have to arrive very early for an international flight. Joel typically leaves himself an hour. I do two because I'm anal like that but in other countries 3-4 is often barely enough to get through the lineups. You also have to love the easy customs. They glance at your passport, stamp it and you're through. Or if you have an identity card like we do you check yourself in and out of the country through these little card scanner gates.

AIR QUALITY
If you've been anywhere else in Asia you'll know the air here is decent. Singapore has the lowest PSI rating of any other Asian city. 

URBAN /JUNGLE
You can be in a shopping mall and then 5 minutes later in the middle of a rainforest where you expect to see a tiger at any moment. The parks here are lush and amazing and they are all over the place.

BEST MOUNTAIN BIKING
Joel is lukewarm about the road cycling here because he's a hill climber and Singapore is pretty much flat as a pancake. However, cross country mountain biking is the best he's seen in the world. [Joel corrects me that this is not the best in the world but it is awesome] He comes back from every ride with a huge smile on his face because not only was the ride great, he also saw lizards and monkeys and snakes and amazing jungle.

FOOD EXPLOSION
You like ethnic food? Welcome to heaven. The fusion of culture along the "Staits" is a blend of Malay, Indian, Indonesian, Chinese and European food and it has created a culture of food adoration. From street hawkers to fine dining restaurants your meals are going to be spicy and delicious.

NIGHT CULTURE
I'm not talking about night clubs, I'm talking about the miracle of night time shopping, eating and walking around. When the temperature cools down the city comes to life. You want Dim Sum at 1am? No problem.

SAFETY
You will never feel safer than when you're in Singapore. I'm not a huge fan of all the punishments they dole out for menial offenses but I'm also appreciative of the amazingly safe atmosphere of the city. I can go for a walk alone late at night. I've never been harassed by men here and it's a truly remarkable feeling of freedom. I probably came home with a creepy man story a few times a week in Vancouver or San Francisco. Here I rarely even get a look from anyone. I love that.

Pet peeves about Singapore Part One: Service

SORRY CANNOT
You want salad dressing on the side? "No we cannot. It comes with salad dressing." If you push them, they will call a manager to your table to discuss if they are allowed to put your dressing on the side. You might need the owner to be called and they might also need to consult with the cook. I've had to order a separate glass of champagne and an orange juice in a fine dining restaurant because they did not have a button on the computer to put a mimosa on the bill. I had to order a soy milk and a black coffee in two separate glasses to make my own (very messy) iced soy latte at the table because they were not authorized to pour the soy milk into my coffee. These basic creative problem solving skills are absent from your guy at the till often right up to higher levels of management. It doesn't matter how obvious the solution is, unless they have written permission on a piece of paper in front of them, they cannot.

Ordering your Kopi

In our house these days, if you call out for Kopi-O you'll get this:

Because that's our new kitten's name. But what does it usually mean in Singapore? It means black coffee with sugar. There are is a complex language of ordering drinks in Singapore which is best explained in this little gem of local culture:

Story of a Singapore rescue kitten

On March 1st someone left this tiny kitten in a plastic shopping bag at a market in Singapore. Luckily he was found quickly and a fosterer brought him home for a night. Lynn at the Cat Welfare Society texted me his picture and asked if I could take him.




I took a taxi to the far end of the island and found a small pet shop in a very old HDB. The owners led me into a back room where a ragtag crew of local alley cats greeted me. The fosterer of the kitten I'd come to see eventually showed up and placed this tiny little fluff ball in my hands. He was skinny, filthy, covered in fleas so naturally I loved him at first sight and took him home. He's now in his forever home with us.

The Cat Welfare Society
www.catwelfare.org/