Short disclaimer: Due to many exams and quite a high
workload, this blog hasn’t received the attention it deserves from Ana and
Simon. If you, as reader of this blog, had to read boring stuff on the internet
in the meantime, they truly apologize!
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| Singapore is a Fine City |
So far, the blog entries have told the interested reader
many stories of “special events” such as settling in, apartment hunting, new
work / study environments or travel experiences. However, life is not every day
THAT exciting. There are pretty uneventful days for Ana and Simon that consist
mainly of working / studying, maybe joint dinner time and sleeping. Nobody
would be interested reading that. On the other hand, everything happens in Singapore and
the place is quite different to most other places in the world. It is a
somewhat unique mixture of the skycrapers of a metropolis like New York, the order and structure of Switzerland, the population of East Asia and
tropical climate that may as well be found in steaming Africa or Latin America.
This blog will list a few interesting stories from this truly special place on
earth.
Food & Drinks
Singapore
is generally expensive. Ana and Simon specifically realized this during
apartment hunting but also most other expenses are higher – about 30% over Munich prices. One of the
few exceptions is food, or at least the basic version of it. Most neighborhoods
have so called “Hawker Centers” which are basically food courts. They usually
offer a great variety of different cuisines for a very affordable price of €4
to €8. What does different mean? Well, you can have Malay, Chinese, Vietnamese,
Thai, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, etc. Sounds all very much the same to you?
Well, there is usually also one food stall serving “Western food” – everything
from Schnitzel to Spaghetti and Fish & Chips. First, Ana and Simon thought
that this was a bit random. However, they realized that there are also a number
of places in Europe that sell
“Chinese/Thai/Indian” food. It really depends of the perspective what variety
means and which food you would maybe normally not mix together. That being
said, Ana and Simon also have had very good experience at more upscale
restaurants. Especially Ana was lucky to be invited to a few nice places with
her colleagues and they feasted on Peking Duck and Asian Lobster.
One of the specialties of Singapore is the so-called “Chili
Crab”. It actually also exists as a “Black Pepper Crab” and is basically a huge
steamed crab served marinated in chili or black pepper. Knowing that Ana is not
a great fan of spicy food, they were actually hoping that the black pepper crab
would not be thaaat spicy. Well, proven wrong – the only one who mildly enjoyed
it was Simon and they finally figured out that you could also order a crab
without any sauce – it was not on the menu though.
In general, the different cuisines in South
East Asia are all pretty spicy. Simon always thought that he had a
high level of spice resistance. Turns out that when people at a restaurant tell
him that the dish is “spicy”, it is already too much for Western taste buds. “A
bit spicy” is very spicy, “just a little bit spicy” means it is spicy and if it
is “not spicy at all”, chances are 50/50 that it is not spicy at all or only a
bit spicy. If wanted, this information could be translated into a handy table
to carry with you every time that you travel the region.
Obviously, eating out is not the only way to get food. Ana
and Simon have their own “local” supermarket about 5 minutes from their
apartment and enjoy the Chinese music coming from the speakerphones just as
much as the interesting offerings in the shelves. Rice is – to no surprise – a
big part of the diet and if you can find many sorts of potatoes in a
well-equipped European supermarket, so can you find about 30 to 50 different
sorts of rice in a local supermarket.
Also, the
variety of different tastes for Chips (Crisps) has been extended. If you
thought that “Salt & Vinegar”, “Barbecue”, and “Red Pepper” is not enough,
you were right. Come to Singapore
and enjoy chips with “Kyushu Seaweed Flavor”!
Occasionally, especially Ana is missing the rich tastes of Spain. Both of them have tried a few Spanish tapas restaurants, some of them even with very decent food. Compared to the very affordable Hawker centers, the prices at these venues are pretty close to outrageously high though. So in order to bring some culture to their apartment, Ana and Simon also hosted some friends with good Spanish tapas and the obligatory Galician white wine that their friends Ana & Jesus had brought in March. The combination of "tapas and a view" was quite nice!
When it comes to drinks, Singapore is unfortunately again
very expensive. The government taxes alcohol quite heavily so even in a super
market, you cannot get a can of beer for much less than a Euro (in Germany, this
starts at 25 Cents, if anybody was wondering). So when you go out, the cheapest
(large) beer that you can get will cost around € 5 which is still ok. But this
is at a hawker center. Tiger Beer is the beer of choice for most locals and can
be purchased almost anywhere.
If one wants to get a “good German beer” (and many people in
Singapore
actually drink German wheat beer, probably because it is very refreshing in the
heat), you should be thinking about €8 to €10. Sometimes, there is nothing
better though! The best parts are when you can melt an Asian
dinner experience with the German beer. Especially Simon is glad that this is
possible!
Regulation
Singapore
has the reputation for being one of the most dull and most heavily regulated
places on earth. Ana and Simon thus went there, expecting it would be like Munich (which already has
a high presence of police and many regulations) times 10. Little did they know.
Well, actually, it is not that bad. There is for instance a popular myth: It is forbidden to possess or even consume chewing gum.
While this had been true in the past and there is still no gum on sale in Singapore, one
can import and consume it. Before Ana and Simon figured this out though, they
just realized how bad they missed chewing gum.
On the other hand, many stereotypes about Singapore and
its heavy stand on regulation are true. There are many signs that forbid the
use / consumption of almost everything in certain public spaces, especially in
the MRT (subway/metro): there is a 500 dollar fine for eating or drinking, 1,000
dollar fine for smoking and you also cannot bring Durians (the
smelly tropical fruits that people here seem to love) into the MRT . There will be signs in
the toilet what not to do (even though Ana and Simon thought that was pretty
obvious) and even in night clubs. However, you do not have to obey everything.
Actually, Ana and Simon were surprised about the police
presence. While there are often warnings in the metro “if you see any
suspicious looking person or article, please inform our staff”, there is
relative few police on the street – definitely less than in Munich. It seems that decades of law
enforcement have done their deal and by today, it is not considered necessary
for the police to be present everywhere.
On the other hand, even without police presence, there is
“law enforcing” by the average citizen. One day, Ana and Simon went into the
metro, having purchased a lollipop and having it in their mouth. Suddenly, they
were approached by an employee of the MRT who reminded them that eating was
prohibited on the MRT (subject to a $ 500 fine, see above) and that they needed
to get rid of the lollipop. Excuse me? Well, they were basically chewing the
rest of the lollipop in 30 seconds and thanked the employee for not enforcing
the $ 500 fine.
The reader probably gets the message – it is somewhat
ambiguous: People cross the street despite a red traffic light (probably more
often than in Munich)
but they in general do like the rules and obey them. But be assured, Singapore is
less uptight than you may have thought.
There will be more insights on cultural specialties in Singapore such
as language, going out, work ethics and administration – but this will follow
and hopefully sooner than this update has reached the interested reader.
