Expat basics: before you move to Singapore

I get a lot of messages from people about to move to Singapore who want to know what to do before they arrive. I've only done two international moves but I think we made most of our biggest mistakes the first time and felt pretty on top of things on round two. Here's a list of  things I think are really good to do before you set foot out of your home country. 

Banking Switch your home banking over to an international bank at least a few months before you leave. HSBC and Citibank are good options. Make sure you have some money successfully wired over before you arrive so your first trip to the bank is as smooth as possible. 

Insurance Take out a comprehensive expat health insurance policy from your home country. No, you are not allowed to use travel insurance. We've used David Cummings Insurance in Vancouver and they were great for getting us set up with a plan for our US immigration. We later did a policy with BUPA based in London.

To add an extra note for folks heading to Singapore: I haven't seen any Singaporean health plans that don't absolutely suck. Unless your new job comes with a full expat policy from your home country, assume the local policy they are going to offer you is going to be 80% useless. The crazy thing is, your company's HR department will think their plan is great. They also think it's normal for families to spend all of their retirement savings if someone gets hurt. It's a cultural difference and one that unfortunately can get you in some very serious financial trouble.


A warning to women: expat policies usually do not include maternity coverage. Maternity insurance is an additional policy with a 10 to 12 month waiting period before you can claim. Even the most expensive expat policies do not cover women who are already pregnant. Do not leave your home country pregnant or intend to get pregnant in the first half year of your relocation. I've met far too many trailing spouses in Singapore who ended up playing Russian roulette with their pregnancy. Just to throw a few numbers out there, a C-section could put you out $22,000 sg and a premie baby could be around $250,000 sg. 

Address change.  Moving away when you don't have a forwarding address is really complicated. In Canada you can do int'l mail forwarding but in the US you can't (I guess the US can't imagine anyone leaving?). I recommend getting a mail box at a private mail forwarding company. Set up the address change before you go. Once you arrive, have them bundle mail once a month and send it over. We used Bongo this time and they were awful so just avoid that one. 

My old friend Victoria

I've been working seven days a week looking after Grannie since I arrived here. When Joel arrived last week we decided to run away for a night together. We booked a night at the Empress Hotel. I've always wanted to stay in this icon of our city but never really had the right excuse. It always seemed like a silly touristy thing to do but there we were with steaming cups of darjeeling tea looking out over the inner harbour.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world...

Joel in a mountain biking race in Malaysia

Another week, another continent

We had been in Singapore for 7 weeks and, while life was generally going well, something unsettling was always on my mind. On the night before we left for Singapore my Grannie became seriously ill. Despite my not wanting to get on the flight that next morning my family assured me that there was nothing I could really do. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. As you know, I did get on that plane somehow but I never felt at ease with it.

Last weekend, looking around at my unpacked apartment, I was finally able say, my work here is done for now, it's OK to go home. I went online, scored a seat sale and 48 hours later I was on a plane.

Landing in Victoria was totally surreal. There was snow on the ground and it was a punishing cold wind that whipped in the door of the plane when they opened it. I slid down the ramp and walked into a grey world, as quiet as a sound stage and empty. It's so very odd to go from summer to winter in a day.

So here I am on the other side of the world again. I plan to stay for 6 weeks with Joel joining me over the holidays.  I'm so glad I came. As much as I love my expat life my family is always first and when times are tough I will always be just a plane away.

Tell me on a Sunday

What to do on a November Sunday when it's too hot to move

Snow in Singapore (but not really)

We have been out exploring the neighbourhood in the evenings. Going for long walks around Dempsy Hill and Holland V. We can actually walk all the way down to Orchard St downtown which is what we did the night they lit up all the shopping malls for Christmas. The pictures above are from my iphone and that "snow" is tiny bubbles.

Joel has been riding the trails on his new BMC mountain bike that we adopted last week. He's pretty happy riding even when he bails into muddy ditches and has to dodge giant lizards. While Singapore has some of the poorest road riding conditions Joel has ever encountered he thinks the mountain biking is pretty amazing.

Monsoon afternoon

Monsoon Rain part 1 from Stacey Clarke on Vimeo.

A typical afternoon shower in Monsoon season in Singapore. This was shot from our little covered balcony with my iphone.

The Expat Experience

A lot of people have asked me how the relocation is going so far. I'm surprised to find myself saying that it has been much easier than I thought it would be. In fact, it's been easier than our move to California. One factor is, we've done this before and had a lot of things organized long before we left our last home. Another factor is that Singapore is simply set up for people to arrive from all over the world and be up and running in a few days.

Going to the Ministry of Manpower to get an employment pass was about as complicated as ordering a coffee in Starbucks and took a total of 10 minutes. We found an expat cell phone plan complete with cheap long distance and shorter contracts. We haven't needed credit checks anywhere. The banks seem so un-phased by newcomers, they are willing to set up accounts with the idea that we'll establish a permanent address at a later date. In a country with such modern business infrastructure and so many rules I thought we were going to be fighting The Man at every turn. In reality this well oiled machine knew exactly what to do with us.

If you're wondering what kinds of things we miss, both Joel and I agree that we miss natural cool air though we're finding 24 degrees celsius at night is starting to feel chilly now. Joel misses the good road cycling in California but he's excited to start mountain biking here. We both miss organic local food and good wine. In all we're really happy with our new locale and have no regrets. Cheers!

Weekend getaway options

Well we are moving into our apartment next weekend and then our next project is to take take a weekend excursion to one of the popular vacation spots close by. The decision might be a tough one so why don't you tell us where to go!

courtesy of www.mynetbizz.com

Bintan
45 minutes from Singapore by ferry. An indonesian island with great beaches, some old growth jungle and lots of resorts to wile away an weekend at.

Batam
The more industrialized and less touristy neighbour to Bintan. Known for night life and shopping but still has some nice places to stay.

courtesy of wikimedia.com

Melaka
A historic Malaysian town, about a 4 hour bus ride away.  Shopping, dining and new cultural things to poke around at.

Finding an apartment

Click on the picture to visit our botanical gardens album

We found out we actually had a real estate agent included in our relocation package so we thought we'd try her services and see what she could come up with. Thank goodness we did because we weren't getting a single call back from anyone and weren't finding much in the area we wanted. 

Our agent took us to view the available apartments near the areas we wanted to live and then gave us her opinion on what she could get the landlords to negotiate on.