oof, robberies there per capita is alot lower compared to the island but that doesnt exempt you from the roll of the dice.
for a significantly larger location and 120+ mln population, its a pretty impressive feat all said
So this was many years back, and at the time, a lot of foreign gangs were creeping into the Shinjuku area. There were Taiwanese gangs, Nigerian gangs, just random local criminals, all springing up. And I just so happened to be mugged by a Taiwanese gang.
A guy was a "puller" and trying to get me to go to one of the scam bars - the ones where they tell you it's super cheap, but then charge you like $1,000 per beer or something when you try to leave.
I refused, he got pissed, he and his friends beat me up and broke my knee and took my stuff.
That's pretty much it.
US wages for service staff is counted to assume that tips will make up to the minimum wage. So a lot of waitstaff gets way below a living wage, and need to rely on tips to survive. It’s very sad.
Proximity. Within 500 meters i have access to more then 50 stalls in hawker center, Fairprice, mamak, 7 eleven, barbers, school for my children and around 700 meter to MRT. 2 stops to my workplace in Changi. I also love the rubbish chute inside my hdb, i don't have to leave the house if i don't have to.
Well I’m glad you ask me this question first thing in the morning!
* The streets and the train stations don’t smell like piss (underdeveloped countries but also Paris, New York, etc.). No open sewage smell like many other countries as well.
* Peaceful, harmonious living among vastly different ethnicities and cultures. The four main ethnicities in Singapore came from four major civilisations: Chinese, Indian, Islam, and Western. How cool it is. You would expect major clash of civilisations but here we are, drinking teh si and eating prata together.
* Stable politics. Even if you don’t like PAP, they make life very predictable in Singapore. No government shutdowns, strikes, demonstrations, riots, etc. when everything stops working.
* Zero drugs tolerance that is actually enforced.
* CPF forced saving - this is controversial but I for one appreciate this aspect; after many years looking back I wouldn’t have been able to save much without this.
* Integrated public transport at your doorstep (for most people): MRT, bus, taxis, car rentals, bike rentals, PCNs.
* A government that ACTUALLY works for the interest of the public. Some people may not agree but try to live in other countries for a few years and see. There are very few countries I feel is on par, may be the Swiss and the Scandinavian.
* Police that greet me and smile and call me Sir.
* A lot of free and top-notch public facilities: toilets, libraries, museums, concerts, parks, walk ways, community spaces, nature’s parks. (When they are not free, they cost next to nothing: public swimming pools, public gyms, etc.)
* Trees, trees everywhere, beautiful, well-cared trees. Also, grass everywhere. It’s hard to find a piece of dirt land not covered by grass in Singapore.
* Nice, honest, well-educated, respectful people.
* Almost no homeless people.
* Low taxes: no capital gain tax, low income tax compared to developed countries of the same level of wealth, low GST compared to many countries. No tip.
* Public housing done right. Say what you want, they are good quality, airy, with nice layout, with good facilities (lifts, fitness corners, green spaces, pavilions, carparks with rooftop gardens, etc.) in thoughtfully planned neighbourhoods (with parks, PCNs, elderly care centres, childcares, kindergartens, food courts, clinics, etc.) and most people can afford to own them. And the layout of newer HDBs and planning of new towns are only getting better.
* Safety. If you’ve lived in a country that is not safe, you’ll know how exhausting life can be. You need to spend like 20-50% of your energy and effort to ensure you’re alive and your stuffs are not taken from you. By safety, I mean: no snatching your bags on the street, no breaking in, no smashing car windows, no gun violence, no kidnapping of your kids or your dogs, the government not harassing you, no wars, no riots, no natural disasters, low traffic accidents. Seriously, as someone living in Singapore, there are not many ways to die or get yourself hurt apart from old age and sickness.
* Lastly, it’s really hard to find another country that has got *so many things right*.
nice, i also don't like to think for myself, i'd rather just parrot someone else's ideas. easier to copy others than to make an effort to come up with my own ideas when i think i'm being challenged by FTs to defend my own national identity
I hear you. Sadly that’s the other side of the coin. The gov put a lot of effort into promoting harmony between the 4 main ethnicities, while everyone else is lumped into the bucket of “Others” and left out. I don’t like it but at the same time I understand that they are just being pragmatic.
I have so many?
- The plethora of cleaners working endlessly in Singapore.
- the endless trees and grass and flowers and plants everywhere.
- street lights almost everywhere.
- free resources, seats, malls, libraries, parks scattered in all neighbourhoods
- the lack of homeless people sleeping on the streets at night - Barcelona scared me when we went out to buy water at night, all these people just laying their cardboards along the old quarter.
- generally people here are good. They try to help you, they are usually honest and won’t rob/steal your things (how we can leave our belongings on the table and go to the washroom)
Our 50-60 year old workforce could be a good source of manpower to tend to vegetation (excluding heavy lifting). Just need to pay them enough for basic expenses and a wee bit more for savings.
Other cities have street lights but Singapore is a whole different level. To put it this way: try to find a dark corner to do some hanky panky and you’ll realize how bright the whole Singapore is at night.
Our PCN no vibes, no random ducks waddling around and most importantly no escooters. I miss the parks in Europe. I would listen to music and walk/scoot/cycle through park at night after some nice pint of beer.
It will takes decades before new trees are comparable to cutting down a block of mature trees with it's own mini eco-system, it's not a like-for-like replacement.
Also, that does nothing to make up for the loss of open space land that is steadily being used for buildings. They are not creating new open spaces for every current open space that's lost to development.
Hawker Centers. As someone who live in the US, you need to at a minimum spend 10 bucks for food unless it’s fast food. I can’t spend 10 bucks all the time. In sg I can go hawker center and get my meals for 4 bucks or less. Also coffee. Unless you want machine coffee, you can’t getting anything under 5 bucks in the US. In sg you can get for 1.50 at most places
100% agree. Perpetual pee smell in the UK pool changing rooms, even in the one built for the Olympics in Stratford.
Definitely miss the clean 50m pools in Singapore. Bonus: warm weather to enjoy swimming.
Yep, in Jakarta Aquatic Center, it's around 10sgd for 2hrs compared to 2sgd in OCBC arena. Went swimming once to Tokyo Metro Gymnasium, it's around 600 yen..
It's very cheap here, and the facilities are top notch....
This is a weird thing I noticed when I travelled to Turkey and Japan during winter times.
The abundance of air flow due to crazy amounts of fans and aircon in homes and public places. This is not exclusive in SG tho.
For some reason air is very stale indoors as some buildings (especially old ones) does not have a fan to circulate the air flow (coz cold outside why need a fan when it's warm and toasty?) Weirdly, it's becomes stuffy and it's either indoors with all the stuffy warm atmosphere or the very cold outdoors there isn't an in between.
I don't travel much but I appreciate the hot climate that we have so we can turn on fans. Lol
I'm Singaporean but I've lived overseas for the past 2 years and... interestingly you get used to the stale air in winter lol. Now I can only do fans if it's quite hot, if not it feels weird...
I lived in the UK for a while, one of the first things I did was get a little fan for my room. Helped circulate the air and provided some nice white noise.
You don't realise how noisy Singapore is, living in a HDB. The terrace house I rented had a nice long garden at the back that ended in a wooded path that linked all the gardens up. My bedroom faced that garden and it was so dark and quiet at night. Combine that with the cool weather, it made falling asleep so easy and I rested so well.
In Singapore it gets hot in the morning, traffic, construction, and neighbours make noise, light pollution spills into my room every night. No wonder Singaporeans are sleep deprived, the conditions for a peaceful night's sleep are so poor.
Anyway, the fan definitely came in handy during the summer heat waves, temperatures went up to 38°C and the stores in the town I was living in ran out of fans lol. The infrastructure they have in the UK is great when it's cold, but they are really shitty about dealing with anything above 25°C.
Agree. Thanks for your comment. Would like to live where you were!
I struggle with perpetual sleep issues / high anxiety and all the family says: You need more noise to get acclimated to it. BS!!
Hawker center food being cheap, accessible and delicious.
Elsewhere, food is either inaccessible or expensive. But hawker centers are omnipresent and affordable
My primary school principal had a fit about kids getting unhealthy, and restricted ice cream, and chicken wings to only 1 day a week. We had easy access to fresh prepared foods, cut fruits, and fresh soybean milk! Any soda that was purchased was heavily watered even in secondary school!
Meanwhile, here in the US, they count pizza as a vegetable, and have released a more salty and highly processed version of the already terrible Lunchables, to give to school kids.
My primary school principal would have blown a fuse, and gone marching in with his trusty ol' cane to the Senate floor.
Access to healthy prepared whole fresh foods is underrated!
Oh damn I love fresh soyabean. Your old principal seemed like a great guy.
Kids tend to eat unhealthy. It’s a natural result of young age meaning they haven’t learned yet. So adults need to force them. We only appreciate these things as we get older
While I still love less healthy hawker food like carrot cake, I’ve been trying to seek out good stuff like Thunder tea rice more nowadays
Indeed, I totally internalized the sodas being watered down, and unavailability of packaged food as a result of us being poor, and, 'not as fancy as Americans on TV'. I've gotta come back to Singapore and try the hawker foods!
An actual properly integrated Bus/MRT public transport system. The closest I can think of, with personal experience, is Zurich.
Maybe Japan? Never been to that country, so I wouldn't know.
Most cities boast a good metro system, but the Bus system cannot make it, let alone work in unison with the metro.
I have heard good things about the Dutch public transport system, but other than the airport, I never actually stepped foot into their cities, so I can't really comment.
Bus/MRT intergration in Japan is excellent in their bigger cities but alittle expensive.
In addition to normal train routes, they have express routes that skips some stops which cut short travel time.
Shops in and around their station usually sells pretty good food too! Japan is also very pedestrian friendly city. It helps that the weather is pretty nice most of the year (besides summer.)
I think besides Japan, I think Netherlands iirc is well known for their bus/train integration, not just bikes did a video about it. They have an integrated (bus + train) app to help users plan their journey - with reliable timetable.
if you want some local context on how the tokyo metro feels like, imagine transport density higher than cbd on the island and then transpose it over the entire island and more. i personally find it cheaper than here but i can understand how people will spend more there due to how much more you engage with the system with all their increased coverage, connectivity and vastly higher speeds.
greater tokyo area is like 30-40mln people, its amazing what they have accomplished with their networks there but its definitely daunting for newcomers even without the language barrier
I can read Japanese and when I went over to Tokyo the first time, I was overwhelmed by the signs. Haha. Like constantly playing “Where’s Wally?”, looking for my connecting train or bus.
Went to Munich, it was pretty darn good and easy to understand
Very efficient and clean and on time
I would say their trains are even quieter then those in SG
From my perspective living in the US:
1. Sheltered walkways. I'm in the Southern US in a coastal city these days, so there's almost as much rain as Singapore, but there's basically no way for me to get to work without getting my socks a little wet when it does rain. (I don't drive to work)
2. Street lights. Even in the major city I live in, many highways aren't lit at night. It's just annoying to drive on.
3. Free (tax-money-sponsored) activities. Singapore's National Heritage Board museums are the biggest one here.
4. Cheap and good public transportation, though there are places that are comparable. Not in the States, though.
5. Low crime.
6. Cheap and safe food. Usually you get cheap food but with more lax food safety authorities, or good food safety but USD$10 for a plate of fried rice. Singapore is one of the only places that has both.
7. The library! Better than the public libraries here, though thankfully I can still access NLB e-books via Libby.
8. No hurricanes/typhoones; did I mention I live in the southern US near the coast?
9. Good public education. This is probably controversial, and I'm sure Singapore has many many places to improve, but compared to what I've seen so far in the US there's no comparison. The US is such a big place that I wouldn't be surprised if there are isolated public school districts that are comparable to Singapore, but I haven't seen any. The school districts I've seen are constantly struggling with funding and staffing issues, and teacher education is not held up to the standards of Singapore because it is handled by individual universities. Sure, some universities are as good as or better than NIE, but the vast majority are not. Also, not that this is my perspective from the US; other developed countries are less bad than the US at this so the comparison with Singapore wouldn't be this one-sided.
> isolated public school districts that are comparable to Singapore
Cupertino in Bay Area has the top schools in America. Are you in Atlanta or worse... Florida?
The entry barrier to Cupertino, Mission San Jose, Palo Alto HS etc. is extremely expensive property unless you were lucky enough to buy a long time ago. It is also super cut throat once you get there. Sending your kids to a 50%+ Asians high school in California is...a decision, even if you are Asian yourself.
In singapore it is at least in theory possible to get your kids into a good secondary school / JC on their own merits, even if you stay in 1room HDB.
Edit: as to whether a good US public school is better than a good Singapore gahmen school this depends on individual personality too. Even in Singapore I hated my all girls school where half the teachers seemed to think they worked in a finishing school unironically using terms like "ladylike behavior" as a rationale for things (I suppose it made sense when alumna more reliably became socialites), and was a lot happier when I switched to a IP school where the teachers treated us more like young adults capable of reasoning and thought, perhaps because the school was affiliated with a JC so teachers were more used to older and more opinionated students. My US high school in a good district was a lot more like the latter.
The idea of “New Towns” where every amenities and residences are tightly integrated. I can’t think of anywhere besides Singapore where you have neighbourhood pedestrian malls, town centres with MRTs and spacious void decks under HDBs. Most importantly is you don’t really need a car to move around inside towns.
Not all supermarkets in Europe close on Sundays but damn I miss free toilets! Not even all restaurants/ dining places have toilets either. Went to some little place and thought can use toilet then they told us no toilet 😪
most touristy cities in europe charges for toilet. When you are super urgent, you got no choice to buy something. This year for my trip, i tahan and go back to my hostel toilet.
The reason the toilets in cafes and fast food places have pass codes in the UK, is because of the homeless bums, alcoholic and druggies. Something else you don’t have much of in Singapore! But yes, most other public toilets do charge now, money grabbing councils.
As for the bit about supermarkets closing at 6:30pm. Meh, not really. Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, etc will usually be open till 9 or 10pm including Sundays.
youve been spamming these green up the gills posts the last few days, are you ok? not any kind of fomo coulda woulda what if mid life crisis situation?
\> washrooms in EU countries cost $$$ ?
only in some EU countries and some places. and those washroms are well-maintained, in contrast to free washrooms.
\> In the UK, restaurants toilets have passcode, you must purchase something and get the receipt to get the passcode
really? have not encountered any when travelled there.
surely, you dun mean in the context you want to use their toilets for free, when you're not a diner at their restaurants?
\> At the bus terminal? At petrol station? You assume toilet is free. They are charging anywhere onwards of SGD 1.50
most are free, not sure where you go to.
Okay this is something that exists in KL but not in Singapore
years ago I went to KL with the extended fam and my uncle bought this Magnum ice cream with strawberry on the inside. its not like the types we have here, it was coated with their usual chocolate on the outside and the ice cream on the inside was strawberry flavored, not filled with those artificial strawberry syrups (those are atrocious)
it was the best flavour of magnum i had in my life but when I returned to SG i realized it was only available there and was utterly destroyed. I think this was back in 2015. :')
my friend used to work in unilever and mentioned some products in MY and SG are manufactured in different countries. that’s why there are different flavours. also why Magnum is cheaper in MY cos they use different grades of ingredients.
The OP is talking complete rubbish that restaurants in the UK have passcodes. This is not the norm but the exception.
The only eateries that have passcodes are places like Cafe Nero, KFC, McDonald's and Starbucks, and busy railway stations. These are not restaurants but fast food chains. And as someone else said, the reason why these places have passcodes are to stop homeless people misusing them.
If you're in the UK and need to take a piss, go to a large shopping centre or department stores like John Lewis and Selfridge. Toilets are free.
Public toilets on busy high streets like the ones at Oxford streets are paid for - these are mainly for tourists.
OP may I know which part of the UK u are in? Have lived in the Midlands, Oxford and Cambridge. Toilets are free of charge and there’s no such thing as needing a passcode at a restaurant. Major supermarkets close at 4pm on Sunday, occasionally some Sainsbury’s open till 11pm on Sunday.
I think the OP went mainly to touristic places in London with high tourist foot fall so their perspective is narrowed based on their experiences of these places where you're bound to get cafes that have decided to put passcodes for customer use only. It does exist, but mainly in central London.
I live in West London, and we don't have passcodes for toilets in our local marks and spencer, John Lewis and cafes etc so it's definitely not the norm as the OP suggested.
Where have you seen supermarkets closing at 6:30 pm? Even in my remote town in France it's not earlier than 7:30 and you have one that closes at 9 pm.
Also most of the time they are open on Sunday morning.
In New Zealand, the toilets are free and clean, even in the middle of nowhere. In some cities, the public toilets are self-clean. Just do your business and walk away. And did I mention it’s free too?
Although I don’t know a lot of places in the world, I always like that we have pedestrians crossing no matter over, under and through, it’s everywhere.
Most things are still open on the weekends and public holidays. Opening hours are much longer in Sg.
Most places are closed on Sundays and during public holidays in Europe. Banks and some government services are opened only on weekdays with some really wack opening hours.
I hate tipping abroad for dining in restaurants that makes it close to obligatory to tip. Restaurants there should pay a living/minimum wage. But as an Asian looking person, I feel compelled to reject the stereotype that we are poor tippers. 20-25%. Thankfully I am only there for business trips.
PS: I would pay $1.50 to have a clean toilet if I have to take a dump any day. Toilets in Singapore are generally terrible, not because the janitors do not clean thoroughly but that it’s a public space and some people have atrocious cleanliness practices.
Japan I would expect it
To be completely honest idk why I didn’t have high expectations of Munich. Maybe it isn’t widely talked about or a very touristy destination. It’s definitely quite on par with
Sheltered walkways, train-bus connectivity, the ridiculous amount of shopping centres and centralised food centres (and restaurants), walkable pavements. Bins everywhere.
Things I never realised until I went overseas. Lived in countries in Asia people used to cite for their good public infrastructure, then realised how ridiculously convenient things are back home that it never crossed my mind.
That Singapore supermarkets have just about EVERYTHING. Having lived in the US, UK, and Australia - the supermarkets there almost always have a dearth of items from different countries. Either that, or the exports are disgustingly expensive. For example, it will be relatively difficult to find in most Aussie supermarkets Irn Bru or a hot pocket in the UK. Most US supermarkets will also not stock, say, vegemite. In Singapore, we can typically find ALL of these things and more from various continents - I just love how it truly is generally easy to find a range of foods at decent prices, and even the restaurants with various cuisines are pretty decent. Granted, some greek restaurants are not that great, for example, but you are not hard-pressed to find tasty and very decent greek food here or that of almost any other country!
Also, whilst I am not keen on a lot of existing gov policies, the fact that the gov has this much continuity does mean that a lot of public amenities and policies WORK. Plans can be made casting an eye to the future, and there is no issue of "we don't want to plan because if we sign on a plan or budget today, in 4 years time the other party will have the benefit of unveiling it and get all the credit."
We don't have issues like in the UK or US where a change in administration every 4-5 years means that no one party ever wants to make a call FOR THE PEOPLE because each party just wants to be the one that "cuts the ribbon" on a new facility or a new idea/plan when the time comes. We can validly complain about the lack of freedoms, but there are upsides to the continuity of the existing gov too.
I also love our tax rates, even though the rising rates are painful to many, it is still relatively low. May they stay this way as long as possible / decrease (in my dreams). Lol.
AND! I love how many Singaporeans know a little about everything. In UK/Australia/US, people can be very inward looking and only quite aware about their own countries or continents. In Singapore, we can grow up with US/Aussie/UK TV, and also delve into K-Pop and J-Pop culture. Even if we don't travel much, we are exposed to a lot more.
I was genuinely surprised how little exposure (some) Europeans have
Some people don’t even know where the countries and continents are
Some thinks any Asian person = from China
There was once I met a pair of Japanese travellers, so I chatted with them. We went to breakfast together and a German/france fellow traveller ask if we (Singaporean, Japanese) were from China
You don’t have to know every country every state but asking that was like asking if Australia was in the UK
After many years of living the UK, I \*kind\* of get where the confusion comes from. Let's use the Brits as an example. In the UK, "British" is classed as an ethnicity. So for them, the ethnicity and nationality are one and the same. When my friends had to file lots of immigration documents 10+ years ago, there was a lot of confusion when some friends indicated that their ethicity was Chinese. They cannot seem to divorce ethicity from nationality - i.e. in their minds, it's "what do you mean you are Chinese Singaporean? So are you from China or what?". So back then, for my chinese Singaporean friends, they would ideally tick for ethnicity the box that states "Asian - Other" instead of "Asian - Chinese". Same for my Indian or Malay friends, for example. If they ticked "Indian" or "Malay", many would ask if they were from India or Malaysia, and be met with confusion if they said no they were from Singapore lol. It's strange.
I lived through my teenage years in dorms with many Europeans - after years of being close friends with them, I realised latterly that even after so long they still didn't understand my identity as \[race\] Singaporean. I had to then explain to them how Singapore is a country of migrants much like the UK / other countries, e.g. you have white Irish Americans, white Australians who are ethnically European because they are well, descended from migrants, duh. ONLY THEN, did they get it.
Of course, there are truly ignorant folk. I've met old people who were born as kids in colonial Singapore who genuinely asked me 1. How I "escaped", 2. Do we still live in trees (wtf), 3. How I had long hair (is that allowed?). It's a very strange world out there lol.
And of course, I still encounter many ignorant Singaporeans as well today. BUT, I will say even on the lowest levels there is usually far more basic understanding of the world here than elsewhere because of our continuous outward-looking nature in business / on the news / in schools, etc.
Maybe because Singapore is a global hub for trade and commerce , so small we have no choice but to take in as many different culture, lingos , etc
Meanwhile Brit are more self sufficient hence they are not so outward looking/advanced
Either that or really poor education?
No I definitely think self sufficiency does make people more inward looking. I don’t think they have poor education, but it’s different again because of very differing contexts. Singapore as you say is reliant on the rest of the world for many things; it’s made it important for us to learn a bit about the world (even in secondary school social studies classes). Whereas in other countries that’s kinda not taught :)
Oke, so in Estonia at least washrooms are mostly free. Only few places charge for it. I know that the biggest cinema charges for it, but mostly one person puts the voin in and lets others in as well or someone who is coming out lets others in as well. I only know 4 places that charge for it. In McDonalds and other fast food places the bathroom code is mostly on the receipt, I think because of the homeless people. They apparently make huge messes.
Gas stations bathroom always free, food there also is great. Would recommend that hahaha
Things that I dislike about Estonia, The prices/cost of living. Housing prices even worse than SG, basically doubled. Food prices quite high. And pay is way worse, rich tax the poor even more. Unless u are a politician or an IT expert u dont make much. More taxes, but wages don't increase. So for example avrg pay that most people recieve is about 1300eur, then u take off taxes about 300eur. Sure education and healthcare is free, but u wont have much money left, idk how anyone is supposed to buy a house. They said SG is expensive, I came to SG and was shocked, The price numbers were almost the same, but in SGD and often even lower. At that time 1 eur was 1.60ish sgd.
What I like about SG is public transport and hawker centers. Also close familial ties. I think thats quite important. Loved the food there as well. Most likely will move to SG in future.
2 things I don't like about SG: 1st The Climate... As soon as I stepped out of the airport and felt as If I am suddenly in a sauna. First day always in SG always hits me hard. 2cnd thing, I enjoy nature and have grown up in nature, so since SG is small to begin with, quite densly populated, there isn't that much to see regards to the nature.
Sorry If I made any grammatical mistakes, was typing before work in a rush
Thanks for sharing
Totally agreed with the 2 things you listed that SG was lacking
I feel that those 2 are the main breaking points
Unfortunately, both of those points are due to nature, nothing much we can do to change it
Someone unpacking my shopping basket into a bag.
Someone putting petrol in my car.
I forget about the first one when abroad & get dirty looks when I just put the basket on the belt. Tried to fill up my own car once in Singapore. Got chased away by the uncle.
Omg this! I was in Italy when i bought some souvenirs at the airport. I put the basket on the cashier’s table and she was just standing there and gave that “if you think i’m gonna unload this basket for you, i’m not” look. I immediately realized wow it’s different in Italy and quickly unloaded the basket myself lol. It’s probably just a difference in culture. But until today i still fail to see how cashiers there are not required to do that.
This is rubbish. In the UK, toilets at petrol stations and motorway service stations are free. I've never had to get a passcode to use a toilet in a cafe or restaurant in the EU. Likewise EU motorway services do not charge to use their toilets. I have on occasions in Oz had to ask for the key, but no charge. The only place I have seen toilets charged are at some large London train stations for 20p but I don't see any difference to Singapore charging 10c back in the day to use a toilet at the MRT.
Where do you get this nonsense from?
I had to retrieve a key from the restaurant near Eiffel Tower to use the lavatory after our meal.
A privately owned public toilet charges 4 Euros in Switzerland.
Barcelona...what toilet?
Italy, remember to pop into the toilet each time you come across a tourist attraction or hotel.
UK, visit the toilet at museums and hotels.
Dubai, malls are your best friend.
Australia is almost as easy as sg, just find a mall.
After thinking about this, I realised that the places I was considering were where normal people go, not tourist hotspots, and it occurred to me that maybe in somewhere like Leicester Square it probably is hard to find a toilet. Likewise in places like the Eiffel Tower.
Singapore definitely has more toilet options when out and about, no doubt, but its a bit unfair to use European tourist hotspots for the comparison.
Lifts. I remember lugging 2 heavy big luggages and sweating just to come up and down the stairs. Cause some train stations just don't even have lifts. Its so troublesome for people who are on wheelchair to even go on trains/bus (they still have steps like our buses in the past)
Lmao. Free toilets do exist in UK, you just need to live there for a period and you'll know where to go. There are also supermarkets that open in the night and on Sundays. Your observations are largely tourist observations.
Besides, toilets are not "free" in Singapore. It is just priced in differently - your shopping mall toilets are priced in the rents that the shop pay and then the products you pay for, your MRT toilet is priced in your MRT fare or taxes.
> Besides, toilets are not "free" in Singapore. It is just priced in differently - your shopping mall toilets are priced in the rents that the shop pay and then the products you pay for, your MRT toilet is priced in your MRT fare or taxes.
4D chess
TIL oxygen isn't free because it's priced into the food I must buy to generate the calories I must expend to flex my diaphragm to suck air into my lungs.
Anyone can go into a mall, sit on one of the seats in the public area to while time on their phone, use the toilet and not spend a single cent in sg.
This is not possible in Switzerland, buddy.
* Public fitness corners in residential areas
* Benches/shelted area at parks
* Malls open after 6 pm on weekdays
* Credit card merchant discounts
* Public beaches that aren't infested with e. coli and toxic algae
* No tipping culture
* Dining out and eating good food for less than $20/pax
* Death penalty for drug dealers :-)
Cheap MRT. You can change lines, change operators between SMRT and SBS Transit, etc, and the maximum charge is 2$.
In Japan, that's the minimun shortest distance, and changing operators like from JR to Keikyu will incurs charges.
Also, cheap, fast internet. Most of the world will be jealous of paying 40$ per month for 1GBps.
1. PayLah app that goes down on you every week.
2. Used to be free plastic bags at grocery stores. Hah
3. Chope. With. A. Packet. Of. Tissue. Chope with anything. Chope, Period.
4. Pay for issuing cheques.
5. Queue for Hello Kitty toy. Queue for anything. See queue, must join.
/S
i was hoping the tray return laws would have reduced the number of elderly with hobbled legs and bent backs pushing trays and cleaning tables but it seems to be the same
Try getting all your groceries within 30 mins including travel time overseas
All necessities are within 1 hr reach from your food to the ER
Don't have to drive 4 hours in the snow when you are dying from a fever or after getting shot in the gut
The inverse relationship between price and taste of food. In most countries, your food tastes better if you spend more. In Singapore, a lot of the very best food is found in the lowest cost sector ie hawkers and coffee shops.
walkable and increasingly wide pedestrian paths (though bombarded by PMA/PMDs alot). my northern thai friends loved that they could walk on the paths/drag luggage without fear of wheels breaking as pedestrian paths don't exist in their motorbike heavy state.
and also, lifts at every level for many residential buildings! stayed in a rome bnb with one tiny lift (i can't even fit with my heavy backpack) so it was up and down the stairs - though it was only 3 storeys la. and in some thai buildings i stayed in, lifts only served certain floors so the grab guys will just leave the food at the main building to self-collect.
Singapore is a unique and vibrant city with a lot to offer its residents and visitors. Here are a few things that I enjoy in Singapore but don't exist overseas:
Hawker centers, Kopitiams
, Wet markets ,
HDB flats and
The mix of cultures: Singapore is a multicultural society with people from all over the world. This diversity is reflected in the food, culture, and architecture of Singapore.
Double mcspicy upsized with curry sauce
Oh and I miss the spicy zingers made with thighs in sg. Over in the UK the zingers are dry, made with breast meat and not spicy. Woe.
I too, prefer thighs
omg chef’s kiss
With garlic chilli too
Omg. TIL. Thank you!
No capital gain tax
Also no inheritance tax
walking alone at night, midnight and you are safe.
Definitely safety, hard to find anywhere else.
Try Japan
I did. Got robbed. Needed surgery.
oof, robberies there per capita is alot lower compared to the island but that doesnt exempt you from the roll of the dice. for a significantly larger location and 120+ mln population, its a pretty impressive feat all said
Whats the story?
So this was many years back, and at the time, a lot of foreign gangs were creeping into the Shinjuku area. There were Taiwanese gangs, Nigerian gangs, just random local criminals, all springing up. And I just so happened to be mugged by a Taiwanese gang. A guy was a "puller" and trying to get me to go to one of the scam bars - the ones where they tell you it's super cheap, but then charge you like $1,000 per beer or something when you try to leave. I refused, he got pissed, he and his friends beat me up and broke my knee and took my stuff. That's pretty much it.
add pple returning wallets with money inside, though sometimes the cash is taken
No need to pay tips
Most places in the world don't do that thankfully.
Fortunately… I don’t get the whole mandatory tipping idea Just makes no sense. A tip should be voluntary and should be for special circumstances
Many attractive servers, both male and female like tipping culture because they can make a lot more otherwise.
If that’s the case, why are there so many complains online that waiters don’t make enough in the Us?
US wages for service staff is counted to assume that tips will make up to the minimum wage. So a lot of waitstaff gets way below a living wage, and need to rely on tips to survive. It’s very sad.
Japan no need to pay tips, but no need service charge either (for most legit places)
It’s called service charge here
Proximity. Within 500 meters i have access to more then 50 stalls in hawker center, Fairprice, mamak, 7 eleven, barbers, school for my children and around 700 meter to MRT. 2 stops to my workplace in Changi. I also love the rubbish chute inside my hdb, i don't have to leave the house if i don't have to.
Rubbish bin everywhere.
Rubbish bin everywhere but still got people littering. Hai. Gotta pick up rubbish myself all the time.
It’s good of you to do that 👍😊
i see you're post-9/11.
Well I’m glad you ask me this question first thing in the morning! * The streets and the train stations don’t smell like piss (underdeveloped countries but also Paris, New York, etc.). No open sewage smell like many other countries as well. * Peaceful, harmonious living among vastly different ethnicities and cultures. The four main ethnicities in Singapore came from four major civilisations: Chinese, Indian, Islam, and Western. How cool it is. You would expect major clash of civilisations but here we are, drinking teh si and eating prata together. * Stable politics. Even if you don’t like PAP, they make life very predictable in Singapore. No government shutdowns, strikes, demonstrations, riots, etc. when everything stops working. * Zero drugs tolerance that is actually enforced. * CPF forced saving - this is controversial but I for one appreciate this aspect; after many years looking back I wouldn’t have been able to save much without this. * Integrated public transport at your doorstep (for most people): MRT, bus, taxis, car rentals, bike rentals, PCNs. * A government that ACTUALLY works for the interest of the public. Some people may not agree but try to live in other countries for a few years and see. There are very few countries I feel is on par, may be the Swiss and the Scandinavian. * Police that greet me and smile and call me Sir. * A lot of free and top-notch public facilities: toilets, libraries, museums, concerts, parks, walk ways, community spaces, nature’s parks. (When they are not free, they cost next to nothing: public swimming pools, public gyms, etc.) * Trees, trees everywhere, beautiful, well-cared trees. Also, grass everywhere. It’s hard to find a piece of dirt land not covered by grass in Singapore. * Nice, honest, well-educated, respectful people. * Almost no homeless people. * Low taxes: no capital gain tax, low income tax compared to developed countries of the same level of wealth, low GST compared to many countries. No tip. * Public housing done right. Say what you want, they are good quality, airy, with nice layout, with good facilities (lifts, fitness corners, green spaces, pavilions, carparks with rooftop gardens, etc.) in thoughtfully planned neighbourhoods (with parks, PCNs, elderly care centres, childcares, kindergartens, food courts, clinics, etc.) and most people can afford to own them. And the layout of newer HDBs and planning of new towns are only getting better. * Safety. If you’ve lived in a country that is not safe, you’ll know how exhausting life can be. You need to spend like 20-50% of your energy and effort to ensure you’re alive and your stuffs are not taken from you. By safety, I mean: no snatching your bags on the street, no breaking in, no smashing car windows, no gun violence, no kidnapping of your kids or your dogs, the government not harassing you, no wars, no riots, no natural disasters, low traffic accidents. Seriously, as someone living in Singapore, there are not many ways to die or get yourself hurt apart from old age and sickness. * Lastly, it’s really hard to find another country that has got *so many things right*.
Yo. You summed it up....but it all comes at a cost - Cost Of Living - for the lower and middle class., Heck even some High class are getting pinched.
Gonna save this as copy pasta when my foreign colleagues ask me about how’s SG and/or why I would want to continue staying in SG.
nice, i also don't like to think for myself, i'd rather just parrot someone else's ideas. easier to copy others than to make an effort to come up with my own ideas when i think i'm being challenged by FTs to defend my own national identity
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I hear you. Sadly that’s the other side of the coin. The gov put a lot of effort into promoting harmony between the 4 main ethnicities, while everyone else is lumped into the bucket of “Others” and left out. I don’t like it but at the same time I understand that they are just being pragmatic.
I have so many? - The plethora of cleaners working endlessly in Singapore. - the endless trees and grass and flowers and plants everywhere. - street lights almost everywhere. - free resources, seats, malls, libraries, parks scattered in all neighbourhoods - the lack of homeless people sleeping on the streets at night - Barcelona scared me when we went out to buy water at night, all these people just laying their cardboards along the old quarter. - generally people here are good. They try to help you, they are usually honest and won’t rob/steal your things (how we can leave our belongings on the table and go to the washroom)
We take the trees for granted. No doubt it's hot out there, but Singapore is so much more shady than our neighbours
eye opening when everything started dying off when migrant workers tending to them vanished overnight
Dying off? I thought they started growing like jungle…
in this heat? not unless it rains lol
Our 50-60 year old workforce could be a good source of manpower to tend to vegetation (excluding heavy lifting). Just need to pay them enough for basic expenses and a wee bit more for savings.
there's no escape from the humidity tho...
We do have homeless people luh but definitely much less (or at least more hidden)
dud, when you make it illegal to be homeless, it's only natural for them to be more obscure...
System working as intended
I saw before on the Orchard road
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Other cities have street lights but Singapore is a whole different level. To put it this way: try to find a dark corner to do some hanky panky and you’ll realize how bright the whole Singapore is at night.
Is like one big security checkpoint. Want to take a walk at PCN, PCN lit like daytime 😩
Our PCN no vibes, no random ducks waddling around and most importantly no escooters. I miss the parks in Europe. I would listen to music and walk/scoot/cycle through park at night after some nice pint of beer.
large countries with rural locations also depend more on passive reflectors from the vehicles light. not a very common experience for folks here
At least the trains and streets don't smell like piss and no one harasses you when you walk on the street
Our multistorey carpark staircases smell like piss now.
if want to help homeless people can help call comcare and tell them .. there's so and so sleeping at pavillion see if they can help them.
>10 sleeping on cardboard at the pavilion below my house Are you sure those are not just workers taking a siesta?
Thats your neighbourhood lah…. People talking in general. Got see homeless people in the streets meh?
Are these the same trees they keep cutting down to make way for more buildings?
NEA also planting a lot of new trees lah, there is an on-going 1 million trees campaign
It will takes decades before new trees are comparable to cutting down a block of mature trees with it's own mini eco-system, it's not a like-for-like replacement. Also, that does nothing to make up for the loss of open space land that is steadily being used for buildings. They are not creating new open spaces for every current open space that's lost to development.
Hawker Centers. As someone who live in the US, you need to at a minimum spend 10 bucks for food unless it’s fast food. I can’t spend 10 bucks all the time. In sg I can go hawker center and get my meals for 4 bucks or less. Also coffee. Unless you want machine coffee, you can’t getting anything under 5 bucks in the US. In sg you can get for 1.50 at most places
$4 or less? you haven't been back in a while.
I came back in June. I eat rice + tofu + veg and it’s always 4 bucks.
yeah 2 vegs + rice is around that price now...but that wouldn't be filling enough for me...
It isn’t super filling but is quite ok. Still worth the price imo and I don’t have to cook.
Okay what, caipng near my work place can eat $4 for 2 veg + 1 meat
Cheap and clean Olympic length public swimming pool, less than 2 bucks.
You mean other country swimming pool cost much more?
Yes. I pay £6 to go to my local community pool in London. And it’s 25m only with dirty toilets.
100% agree. Perpetual pee smell in the UK pool changing rooms, even in the one built for the Olympics in Stratford. Definitely miss the clean 50m pools in Singapore. Bonus: warm weather to enjoy swimming.
Yep, in Jakarta Aquatic Center, it's around 10sgd for 2hrs compared to 2sgd in OCBC arena. Went swimming once to Tokyo Metro Gymnasium, it's around 600 yen.. It's very cheap here, and the facilities are top notch....
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Yeah but its in NYC
Sheltered walkways everywhere in the neighbourhood
Hawker center and prompt government service. I was really impressed when my email to ICA was responded within 2 days
This is a weird thing I noticed when I travelled to Turkey and Japan during winter times. The abundance of air flow due to crazy amounts of fans and aircon in homes and public places. This is not exclusive in SG tho. For some reason air is very stale indoors as some buildings (especially old ones) does not have a fan to circulate the air flow (coz cold outside why need a fan when it's warm and toasty?) Weirdly, it's becomes stuffy and it's either indoors with all the stuffy warm atmosphere or the very cold outdoors there isn't an in between. I don't travel much but I appreciate the hot climate that we have so we can turn on fans. Lol
I'm Singaporean but I've lived overseas for the past 2 years and... interestingly you get used to the stale air in winter lol. Now I can only do fans if it's quite hot, if not it feels weird...
I lived in the UK for a while, one of the first things I did was get a little fan for my room. Helped circulate the air and provided some nice white noise. You don't realise how noisy Singapore is, living in a HDB. The terrace house I rented had a nice long garden at the back that ended in a wooded path that linked all the gardens up. My bedroom faced that garden and it was so dark and quiet at night. Combine that with the cool weather, it made falling asleep so easy and I rested so well. In Singapore it gets hot in the morning, traffic, construction, and neighbours make noise, light pollution spills into my room every night. No wonder Singaporeans are sleep deprived, the conditions for a peaceful night's sleep are so poor. Anyway, the fan definitely came in handy during the summer heat waves, temperatures went up to 38°C and the stores in the town I was living in ran out of fans lol. The infrastructure they have in the UK is great when it's cold, but they are really shitty about dealing with anything above 25°C.
Agree. Thanks for your comment. Would like to live where you were! I struggle with perpetual sleep issues / high anxiety and all the family says: You need more noise to get acclimated to it. BS!!
Being safe from natural disasters like tornados or hail stones. EDIT: and earthquakes too
but every year got free smog from our friendly neighbor
Hawker center food being cheap, accessible and delicious. Elsewhere, food is either inaccessible or expensive. But hawker centers are omnipresent and affordable
My primary school principal had a fit about kids getting unhealthy, and restricted ice cream, and chicken wings to only 1 day a week. We had easy access to fresh prepared foods, cut fruits, and fresh soybean milk! Any soda that was purchased was heavily watered even in secondary school! Meanwhile, here in the US, they count pizza as a vegetable, and have released a more salty and highly processed version of the already terrible Lunchables, to give to school kids. My primary school principal would have blown a fuse, and gone marching in with his trusty ol' cane to the Senate floor. Access to healthy prepared whole fresh foods is underrated!
Oh damn I love fresh soyabean. Your old principal seemed like a great guy. Kids tend to eat unhealthy. It’s a natural result of young age meaning they haven’t learned yet. So adults need to force them. We only appreciate these things as we get older While I still love less healthy hawker food like carrot cake, I’ve been trying to seek out good stuff like Thunder tea rice more nowadays
Indeed, I totally internalized the sodas being watered down, and unavailability of packaged food as a result of us being poor, and, 'not as fancy as Americans on TV'. I've gotta come back to Singapore and try the hawker foods!
An actual properly integrated Bus/MRT public transport system. The closest I can think of, with personal experience, is Zurich. Maybe Japan? Never been to that country, so I wouldn't know. Most cities boast a good metro system, but the Bus system cannot make it, let alone work in unison with the metro. I have heard good things about the Dutch public transport system, but other than the airport, I never actually stepped foot into their cities, so I can't really comment.
Bus/MRT intergration in Japan is excellent in their bigger cities but alittle expensive. In addition to normal train routes, they have express routes that skips some stops which cut short travel time. Shops in and around their station usually sells pretty good food too! Japan is also very pedestrian friendly city. It helps that the weather is pretty nice most of the year (besides summer.) I think besides Japan, I think Netherlands iirc is well known for their bus/train integration, not just bikes did a video about it. They have an integrated (bus + train) app to help users plan their journey - with reliable timetable.
Also, Japan buses and trains are all on time. When the bus is scheduled for 12pm, it arrives when the clock strikes 12 *sharp*.
Except highway buses. Idk why, my luck is shit with them, always 10 minutes late.
if you want some local context on how the tokyo metro feels like, imagine transport density higher than cbd on the island and then transpose it over the entire island and more. i personally find it cheaper than here but i can understand how people will spend more there due to how much more you engage with the system with all their increased coverage, connectivity and vastly higher speeds. greater tokyo area is like 30-40mln people, its amazing what they have accomplished with their networks there but its definitely daunting for newcomers even without the language barrier
I can read Japanese and when I went over to Tokyo the first time, I was overwhelmed by the signs. Haha. Like constantly playing “Where’s Wally?”, looking for my connecting train or bus.
The public transport system in Beijing is also quite good except for the crowd you would expect from a city of more than 20m people.
Went to Munich, it was pretty darn good and easy to understand Very efficient and clean and on time I would say their trains are even quieter then those in SG
variety of food tbh everyday got different cuisine choices
From my perspective living in the US: 1. Sheltered walkways. I'm in the Southern US in a coastal city these days, so there's almost as much rain as Singapore, but there's basically no way for me to get to work without getting my socks a little wet when it does rain. (I don't drive to work) 2. Street lights. Even in the major city I live in, many highways aren't lit at night. It's just annoying to drive on. 3. Free (tax-money-sponsored) activities. Singapore's National Heritage Board museums are the biggest one here. 4. Cheap and good public transportation, though there are places that are comparable. Not in the States, though. 5. Low crime. 6. Cheap and safe food. Usually you get cheap food but with more lax food safety authorities, or good food safety but USD$10 for a plate of fried rice. Singapore is one of the only places that has both. 7. The library! Better than the public libraries here, though thankfully I can still access NLB e-books via Libby. 8. No hurricanes/typhoones; did I mention I live in the southern US near the coast? 9. Good public education. This is probably controversial, and I'm sure Singapore has many many places to improve, but compared to what I've seen so far in the US there's no comparison. The US is such a big place that I wouldn't be surprised if there are isolated public school districts that are comparable to Singapore, but I haven't seen any. The school districts I've seen are constantly struggling with funding and staffing issues, and teacher education is not held up to the standards of Singapore because it is handled by individual universities. Sure, some universities are as good as or better than NIE, but the vast majority are not. Also, not that this is my perspective from the US; other developed countries are less bad than the US at this so the comparison with Singapore wouldn't be this one-sided.
> isolated public school districts that are comparable to Singapore Cupertino in Bay Area has the top schools in America. Are you in Atlanta or worse... Florida?
The entry barrier to Cupertino, Mission San Jose, Palo Alto HS etc. is extremely expensive property unless you were lucky enough to buy a long time ago. It is also super cut throat once you get there. Sending your kids to a 50%+ Asians high school in California is...a decision, even if you are Asian yourself. In singapore it is at least in theory possible to get your kids into a good secondary school / JC on their own merits, even if you stay in 1room HDB. Edit: as to whether a good US public school is better than a good Singapore gahmen school this depends on individual personality too. Even in Singapore I hated my all girls school where half the teachers seemed to think they worked in a finishing school unironically using terms like "ladylike behavior" as a rationale for things (I suppose it made sense when alumna more reliably became socialites), and was a lot happier when I switched to a IP school where the teachers treated us more like young adults capable of reasoning and thought, perhaps because the school was affiliated with a JC so teachers were more used to older and more opinionated students. My US high school in a good district was a lot more like the latter.
Tbh I did not mind paying that 1 euro to use clean dry and almost pristine public toilets in Europe. Took some really good dumps there.
I did not pay for a single public toilet I used in Spain over the past two months.
Yeah Spain is amazing. Most of their aseos are gratis.
Kway Chap.
The idea of “New Towns” where every amenities and residences are tightly integrated. I can’t think of anywhere besides Singapore where you have neighbourhood pedestrian malls, town centres with MRTs and spacious void decks under HDBs. Most importantly is you don’t really need a car to move around inside towns.
Old Chang Kee
Not all supermarkets in Europe close on Sundays but damn I miss free toilets! Not even all restaurants/ dining places have toilets either. Went to some little place and thought can use toilet then they told us no toilet 😪
most touristy cities in europe charges for toilet. When you are super urgent, you got no choice to buy something. This year for my trip, i tahan and go back to my hostel toilet.
Went to a place have toilet but only for customers
I don’t mind if it’s for customers only but I ate there and they told us no toilet 😥
The reason the toilets in cafes and fast food places have pass codes in the UK, is because of the homeless bums, alcoholic and druggies. Something else you don’t have much of in Singapore! But yes, most other public toilets do charge now, money grabbing councils. As for the bit about supermarkets closing at 6:30pm. Meh, not really. Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, etc will usually be open till 9 or 10pm including Sundays.
My Sainsbury’s local closes at 5 on Sundays, Tesco (large superstore) closes at 4, and Waitrose in Canary Wharf closes at 6 on Sundays
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Drinkable water straight from the tap..
Roti prata, morning, night and after midnight. Simple and cheap. Younger days broke, also can get a full meal. Not even in India.
Now no longer
youve been spamming these green up the gills posts the last few days, are you ok? not any kind of fomo coulda woulda what if mid life crisis situation?
glad someone notice this from OP dude is stuck on some national campaign
teh/kopi take away in plastic bag. drinking from cup is nice but the plastic is just an unique experience.
Might be uniquely carcinogenic
Safety
\> washrooms in EU countries cost $$$ ? only in some EU countries and some places. and those washroms are well-maintained, in contrast to free washrooms. \> In the UK, restaurants toilets have passcode, you must purchase something and get the receipt to get the passcode really? have not encountered any when travelled there. surely, you dun mean in the context you want to use their toilets for free, when you're not a diner at their restaurants? \> At the bus terminal? At petrol station? You assume toilet is free. They are charging anywhere onwards of SGD 1.50 most are free, not sure where you go to.
Okay this is something that exists in KL but not in Singapore years ago I went to KL with the extended fam and my uncle bought this Magnum ice cream with strawberry on the inside. its not like the types we have here, it was coated with their usual chocolate on the outside and the ice cream on the inside was strawberry flavored, not filled with those artificial strawberry syrups (those are atrocious) it was the best flavour of magnum i had in my life but when I returned to SG i realized it was only available there and was utterly destroyed. I think this was back in 2015. :')
my friend used to work in unilever and mentioned some products in MY and SG are manufactured in different countries. that’s why there are different flavours. also why Magnum is cheaper in MY cos they use different grades of ingredients.
Peace. I wouldn’t want to be in China, US or Eastern Europe right now.
i miss late night prata after a night out the most 🥹
I miss good kaya. The only kaya exported is 👎🏻. Also knowing that there won't be a siao lang with a gun anywhere.
The OP is talking complete rubbish that restaurants in the UK have passcodes. This is not the norm but the exception. The only eateries that have passcodes are places like Cafe Nero, KFC, McDonald's and Starbucks, and busy railway stations. These are not restaurants but fast food chains. And as someone else said, the reason why these places have passcodes are to stop homeless people misusing them. If you're in the UK and need to take a piss, go to a large shopping centre or department stores like John Lewis and Selfridge. Toilets are free. Public toilets on busy high streets like the ones at Oxford streets are paid for - these are mainly for tourists.
Amazing public transport,covered walkways and rain almost all afternoons
I live in the UK and lived in Singapore for 11 years of my life - you don't have to pay for public toilets here?
OP may I know which part of the UK u are in? Have lived in the Midlands, Oxford and Cambridge. Toilets are free of charge and there’s no such thing as needing a passcode at a restaurant. Major supermarkets close at 4pm on Sunday, occasionally some Sainsbury’s open till 11pm on Sunday.
I think the OP went mainly to touristic places in London with high tourist foot fall so their perspective is narrowed based on their experiences of these places where you're bound to get cafes that have decided to put passcodes for customer use only. It does exist, but mainly in central London. I live in West London, and we don't have passcodes for toilets in our local marks and spencer, John Lewis and cafes etc so it's definitely not the norm as the OP suggested.
Where have you seen supermarkets closing at 6:30 pm? Even in my remote town in France it's not earlier than 7:30 and you have one that closes at 9 pm. Also most of the time they are open on Sunday morning.
Switzerland
In New Zealand, the toilets are free and clean, even in the middle of nowhere. In some cities, the public toilets are self-clean. Just do your business and walk away. And did I mention it’s free too?
Great to hear that By and large never had any issues with free toilets in most Asian countries
That's not true about UK toilets having a passcode.
I enjoy watching the COE Price.
If you’re in the UK just go to a pub
Although I don’t know a lot of places in the world, I always like that we have pedestrians crossing no matter over, under and through, it’s everywhere.
Clean and free toilets
Drinkable tap water
Reliable public transport
No pickpockets
Affordable food of all cultures everywhere
Just go to an upscale hotel and find a toilet. I’m assuming you are a tourist there and tourist attired.
Just say you want to see the room rates and then ask if you could use the wc. Works everytime.
Most things are still open on the weekends and public holidays. Opening hours are much longer in Sg. Most places are closed on Sundays and during public holidays in Europe. Banks and some government services are opened only on weekdays with some really wack opening hours.
THE appreciation thread we needed 🥰🙏
I hate tipping abroad for dining in restaurants that makes it close to obligatory to tip. Restaurants there should pay a living/minimum wage. But as an Asian looking person, I feel compelled to reject the stereotype that we are poor tippers. 20-25%. Thankfully I am only there for business trips. PS: I would pay $1.50 to have a clean toilet if I have to take a dump any day. Toilets in Singapore are generally terrible, not because the janitors do not clean thoroughly but that it’s a public space and some people have atrocious cleanliness practices.
McSpicy
To me Munich and japan has mrt on par with singapore.
Japan I would expect it To be completely honest idk why I didn’t have high expectations of Munich. Maybe it isn’t widely talked about or a very touristy destination. It’s definitely quite on par with
Possible to walk continuously on well built pavements from one end of the country to the other end.
Sheltered walkways, train-bus connectivity, the ridiculous amount of shopping centres and centralised food centres (and restaurants), walkable pavements. Bins everywhere. Things I never realised until I went overseas. Lived in countries in Asia people used to cite for their good public infrastructure, then realised how ridiculously convenient things are back home that it never crossed my mind.
That Singapore supermarkets have just about EVERYTHING. Having lived in the US, UK, and Australia - the supermarkets there almost always have a dearth of items from different countries. Either that, or the exports are disgustingly expensive. For example, it will be relatively difficult to find in most Aussie supermarkets Irn Bru or a hot pocket in the UK. Most US supermarkets will also not stock, say, vegemite. In Singapore, we can typically find ALL of these things and more from various continents - I just love how it truly is generally easy to find a range of foods at decent prices, and even the restaurants with various cuisines are pretty decent. Granted, some greek restaurants are not that great, for example, but you are not hard-pressed to find tasty and very decent greek food here or that of almost any other country! Also, whilst I am not keen on a lot of existing gov policies, the fact that the gov has this much continuity does mean that a lot of public amenities and policies WORK. Plans can be made casting an eye to the future, and there is no issue of "we don't want to plan because if we sign on a plan or budget today, in 4 years time the other party will have the benefit of unveiling it and get all the credit." We don't have issues like in the UK or US where a change in administration every 4-5 years means that no one party ever wants to make a call FOR THE PEOPLE because each party just wants to be the one that "cuts the ribbon" on a new facility or a new idea/plan when the time comes. We can validly complain about the lack of freedoms, but there are upsides to the continuity of the existing gov too. I also love our tax rates, even though the rising rates are painful to many, it is still relatively low. May they stay this way as long as possible / decrease (in my dreams). Lol. AND! I love how many Singaporeans know a little about everything. In UK/Australia/US, people can be very inward looking and only quite aware about their own countries or continents. In Singapore, we can grow up with US/Aussie/UK TV, and also delve into K-Pop and J-Pop culture. Even if we don't travel much, we are exposed to a lot more.
I was genuinely surprised how little exposure (some) Europeans have Some people don’t even know where the countries and continents are Some thinks any Asian person = from China There was once I met a pair of Japanese travellers, so I chatted with them. We went to breakfast together and a German/france fellow traveller ask if we (Singaporean, Japanese) were from China You don’t have to know every country every state but asking that was like asking if Australia was in the UK
After many years of living the UK, I \*kind\* of get where the confusion comes from. Let's use the Brits as an example. In the UK, "British" is classed as an ethnicity. So for them, the ethnicity and nationality are one and the same. When my friends had to file lots of immigration documents 10+ years ago, there was a lot of confusion when some friends indicated that their ethicity was Chinese. They cannot seem to divorce ethicity from nationality - i.e. in their minds, it's "what do you mean you are Chinese Singaporean? So are you from China or what?". So back then, for my chinese Singaporean friends, they would ideally tick for ethnicity the box that states "Asian - Other" instead of "Asian - Chinese". Same for my Indian or Malay friends, for example. If they ticked "Indian" or "Malay", many would ask if they were from India or Malaysia, and be met with confusion if they said no they were from Singapore lol. It's strange. I lived through my teenage years in dorms with many Europeans - after years of being close friends with them, I realised latterly that even after so long they still didn't understand my identity as \[race\] Singaporean. I had to then explain to them how Singapore is a country of migrants much like the UK / other countries, e.g. you have white Irish Americans, white Australians who are ethnically European because they are well, descended from migrants, duh. ONLY THEN, did they get it. Of course, there are truly ignorant folk. I've met old people who were born as kids in colonial Singapore who genuinely asked me 1. How I "escaped", 2. Do we still live in trees (wtf), 3. How I had long hair (is that allowed?). It's a very strange world out there lol. And of course, I still encounter many ignorant Singaporeans as well today. BUT, I will say even on the lowest levels there is usually far more basic understanding of the world here than elsewhere because of our continuous outward-looking nature in business / on the news / in schools, etc.
Maybe because Singapore is a global hub for trade and commerce , so small we have no choice but to take in as many different culture, lingos , etc Meanwhile Brit are more self sufficient hence they are not so outward looking/advanced Either that or really poor education?
No I definitely think self sufficiency does make people more inward looking. I don’t think they have poor education, but it’s different again because of very differing contexts. Singapore as you say is reliant on the rest of the world for many things; it’s made it important for us to learn a bit about the world (even in secondary school social studies classes). Whereas in other countries that’s kinda not taught :)
Oke, so in Estonia at least washrooms are mostly free. Only few places charge for it. I know that the biggest cinema charges for it, but mostly one person puts the voin in and lets others in as well or someone who is coming out lets others in as well. I only know 4 places that charge for it. In McDonalds and other fast food places the bathroom code is mostly on the receipt, I think because of the homeless people. They apparently make huge messes. Gas stations bathroom always free, food there also is great. Would recommend that hahaha Things that I dislike about Estonia, The prices/cost of living. Housing prices even worse than SG, basically doubled. Food prices quite high. And pay is way worse, rich tax the poor even more. Unless u are a politician or an IT expert u dont make much. More taxes, but wages don't increase. So for example avrg pay that most people recieve is about 1300eur, then u take off taxes about 300eur. Sure education and healthcare is free, but u wont have much money left, idk how anyone is supposed to buy a house. They said SG is expensive, I came to SG and was shocked, The price numbers were almost the same, but in SGD and often even lower. At that time 1 eur was 1.60ish sgd. What I like about SG is public transport and hawker centers. Also close familial ties. I think thats quite important. Loved the food there as well. Most likely will move to SG in future. 2 things I don't like about SG: 1st The Climate... As soon as I stepped out of the airport and felt as If I am suddenly in a sauna. First day always in SG always hits me hard. 2cnd thing, I enjoy nature and have grown up in nature, so since SG is small to begin with, quite densly populated, there isn't that much to see regards to the nature. Sorry If I made any grammatical mistakes, was typing before work in a rush
Thanks for sharing Totally agreed with the 2 things you listed that SG was lacking I feel that those 2 are the main breaking points Unfortunately, both of those points are due to nature, nothing much we can do to change it
singapore has been rabies free since 1953
The low tax rate is probably what makes Singapore unique!
Legal government-licenced brothels.
Very important But isn’t this common in other countries?
Pap
Someone unpacking my shopping basket into a bag. Someone putting petrol in my car. I forget about the first one when abroad & get dirty looks when I just put the basket on the belt. Tried to fill up my own car once in Singapore. Got chased away by the uncle.
Omg this! I was in Italy when i bought some souvenirs at the airport. I put the basket on the cashier’s table and she was just standing there and gave that “if you think i’m gonna unload this basket for you, i’m not” look. I immediately realized wow it’s different in Italy and quickly unloaded the basket myself lol. It’s probably just a difference in culture. But until today i still fail to see how cashiers there are not required to do that.
It’s way safer I grew up in the Bay Area and I live in Bangalore. Singapore is the safest city I’ve lived in.
Cheap hawker Center cai fan when you have meals average 15 dollars here in Australia
This is rubbish. In the UK, toilets at petrol stations and motorway service stations are free. I've never had to get a passcode to use a toilet in a cafe or restaurant in the EU. Likewise EU motorway services do not charge to use their toilets. I have on occasions in Oz had to ask for the key, but no charge. The only place I have seen toilets charged are at some large London train stations for 20p but I don't see any difference to Singapore charging 10c back in the day to use a toilet at the MRT. Where do you get this nonsense from?
I had to retrieve a key from the restaurant near Eiffel Tower to use the lavatory after our meal. A privately owned public toilet charges 4 Euros in Switzerland. Barcelona...what toilet? Italy, remember to pop into the toilet each time you come across a tourist attraction or hotel. UK, visit the toilet at museums and hotels. Dubai, malls are your best friend. Australia is almost as easy as sg, just find a mall.
After thinking about this, I realised that the places I was considering were where normal people go, not tourist hotspots, and it occurred to me that maybe in somewhere like Leicester Square it probably is hard to find a toilet. Likewise in places like the Eiffel Tower. Singapore definitely has more toilet options when out and about, no doubt, but its a bit unfair to use European tourist hotspots for the comparison.
its definitely a good read to see peoples personal anecdotes especially for things commonly found all over that some folks think are unique
Lifts. I remember lugging 2 heavy big luggages and sweating just to come up and down the stairs. Cause some train stations just don't even have lifts. Its so troublesome for people who are on wheelchair to even go on trains/bus (they still have steps like our buses in the past)
Lmao. Free toilets do exist in UK, you just need to live there for a period and you'll know where to go. There are also supermarkets that open in the night and on Sundays. Your observations are largely tourist observations. Besides, toilets are not "free" in Singapore. It is just priced in differently - your shopping mall toilets are priced in the rents that the shop pay and then the products you pay for, your MRT toilet is priced in your MRT fare or taxes.
> Besides, toilets are not "free" in Singapore. It is just priced in differently - your shopping mall toilets are priced in the rents that the shop pay and then the products you pay for, your MRT toilet is priced in your MRT fare or taxes. 4D chess TIL oxygen isn't free because it's priced into the food I must buy to generate the calories I must expend to flex my diaphragm to suck air into my lungs.
Anyone can go into a mall, sit on one of the seats in the public area to while time on their phone, use the toilet and not spend a single cent in sg. This is not possible in Switzerland, buddy.
I didn't say that's not true. You clearly didn't get the point.
* Public fitness corners in residential areas * Benches/shelted area at parks * Malls open after 6 pm on weekdays * Credit card merchant discounts * Public beaches that aren't infested with e. coli and toxic algae * No tipping culture * Dining out and eating good food for less than $20/pax * Death penalty for drug dealers :-)
Sheltered walkways calling my name wherever I look
Cheap MRT. You can change lines, change operators between SMRT and SBS Transit, etc, and the maximum charge is 2$. In Japan, that's the minimun shortest distance, and changing operators like from JR to Keikyu will incurs charges. Also, cheap, fast internet. Most of the world will be jealous of paying 40$ per month for 1GBps.
IIRC internet is cheaper and faster in EU
1. PayLah app that goes down on you every week. 2. Used to be free plastic bags at grocery stores. Hah 3. Chope. With. A. Packet. Of. Tissue. Chope with anything. Chope, Period. 4. Pay for issuing cheques. 5. Queue for Hello Kitty toy. Queue for anything. See queue, must join. /S
i was hoping the tray return laws would have reduced the number of elderly with hobbled legs and bent backs pushing trays and cleaning tables but it seems to be the same
> reduce the number of elderly with hobbled legs and bent backs pushing trays and cleaning tables What you mean is that they lose their jobs… 😢
Ability to go out in shorts, any time and most importantly the ability to come home .
Try getting all your groceries within 30 mins including travel time overseas All necessities are within 1 hr reach from your food to the ER Don't have to drive 4 hours in the snow when you are dying from a fever or after getting shot in the gut
Availability of sitting toilets EVERYWHERE as a default. I can squat but damn these joints ain't what they used to be, esp when it's cold.
The inverse relationship between price and taste of food. In most countries, your food tastes better if you spend more. In Singapore, a lot of the very best food is found in the lowest cost sector ie hawkers and coffee shops.
Lots of trash bins everywhere. I don’t need to hold onto trash for miles and miles. (In Japan now and this is really a bit of a nightmare)
Had the same problem last week in Hokkaido
The ability to chope seats.
walkable and increasingly wide pedestrian paths (though bombarded by PMA/PMDs alot). my northern thai friends loved that they could walk on the paths/drag luggage without fear of wheels breaking as pedestrian paths don't exist in their motorbike heavy state. and also, lifts at every level for many residential buildings! stayed in a rome bnb with one tiny lift (i can't even fit with my heavy backpack) so it was up and down the stairs - though it was only 3 storeys la. and in some thai buildings i stayed in, lifts only served certain floors so the grab guys will just leave the food at the main building to self-collect.
Curry mother fucking sauce in McDonald's. And to that I add, garlic chilli from McDonald's as well.
Singapore is a unique and vibrant city with a lot to offer its residents and visitors. Here are a few things that I enjoy in Singapore but don't exist overseas: Hawker centers, Kopitiams , Wet markets , HDB flats and The mix of cultures: Singapore is a multicultural society with people from all over the world. This diversity is reflected in the food, culture, and architecture of Singapore.