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.

TAI TAI STREET CREDIT
When people think you're a Tai tai in Singapore it's not always a bad thing. You get treated really well. Cabs will pull over on the main busy roads, people smile and say hello. If they only knew that I'm really an art student and I'm not actually shopping for gem stones.


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. As long as the Indonesians aren't burning their crops and your neighbours aren't lighting fake money on fire for ceremonial purposes, that is.

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 it.