Is life in Singapore more relaxing than in London?

[JR8]

Doesn't it come to the kind/quality of food you wish to eat?

If you want cheap Asian food for every meal, then you will find it readily available here. If you want cheap Western food (of any quality) then you're out of luck. It's just another example of 'When in Rome...'.

For example, a parallel, if I were happy to live on M+S ready-prep meals, they're both relatively cheap and good quality back home. And that would cover everything from a British roast beef meal, through their very long established 'Indian', 'Chinese', and 'Thai' ranges, to more recent cuisines (to the UK market) such as 'Indochinese'*. All the '''s are because although they go a good way to making them authentic, they tend to round-off some of the blunter very authentic edges, that might not translate to the mainstream market back home (leaving the shells on prawns in a dish, or bones in/skin-on for example).

More broadly, if you were say from the Subcontinent, then you might find that you can live something akin to back home over here, just with higher rents, but lower taxes. If you are of Western origin and tastes (culturally), then you can find yourself constantly fighting the tide, if you want everything to be just like home. That goes beyond dining, that includes things like the taxes on alcohol, and cars, which can take a significant chip out of SGs status of being considered a low-tax country.


*Which has me curious as to what ranges they might have launched since I have been away!

--- Note to Mods. Twice while editing this post in edit mode, I've clicked on a word or letter ('culturally', and 'that'), and it opened a new tab with the ISS International Schools website on it...

[Barnsley]

For me the positives of Singapore over London.


1. Weather


2. Eating out Asian food on a daily basis.


3. Low taxes

The income tax might be low but you are paying a premium on top for everything you buy, thus unless you dont buy anything then the low income tax actually means very little.

If you are in a city in UK you can have "Asian food" any time you like.

[Brah]

I would (as I am known to) have to qualify the Asian Food point, as the quality of that here varies and generally trends towards the lower of the range.

I've never lived in the UK but would move to London in a heartbeat.

[zzm9980]

I'm really curious wherein the US you can get better Asian food than Asia, unless people mistakingly mean "Asian style food with western ingredients." I think this is a case of being used to the first way you tried it, and disappointed when you come here in real life it's not the same as it was back home.

I've also never been quoted a price anywhere pre-GST except Sim Lim Sq for shady grey market electronics.

[Brah]

Not sure if that was in response to my post, which was about the cost and quality of Asian food here with say, Thailand or Japan.

[zzm9980]

Nah, just all of them in general. I find lots of things here good quality though.

[chris_pilgrim]

Another 10ish months to work and play here in Sg before returning to old Blighty.

Can't wait to go home yet I feel sad upon thinking of leaving

London has its beauty and Singapore has its charm... indeed I'm torn between two lovers..

[Strong Eagle]

I'm really curious wherein the US you can get better Asian food than Asia, unless people mistakingly mean "Asian style food with western ingredients."

In Houston, start at the intersection of Bellaire Blvd and Fondren Road and go west on Bellaire. Street signs are in Chinese and Vietnamese as well as English. Yes, there are western style Asian restaurants but also many truly authentic Asian restaurants.

I've also never been quoted a price anywhere pre-GST except Sim Lim Sq for shady grey market electronics.

Except for restaurants it is supposed to be illegal to quote a price that does not include GST. However, check out the furniture store ads. They all advertise pre-GST prices and it seems that no one comes down on them.

[sgkoreans]

Food is much cheaper in Singapore.. And Singapore's air is really fresh for a city. That fact that it is humid does not mean that air is not fresh. I think it all depends on the individual. What he or she does and what he or she likes. Relaxation depends on choices and preferences. These days there are many more things to do in Singapore so it is quite fun!!

[JR8]

Food is much cheaper in Singapore.. And Singapore's air is really fresh for a city. That fact that it is humid does not mean that air is not fresh. I think it all depends on the individual. What he or she does and what he or she likes. Relaxation depends on choices and preferences. These days there are many more things to do in Singapore so it is quite fun!!

Food can be cheaper, but you have to remember this is one of the top-most expensive cities in the world: So to be 'cheaper' there are corners being cut, even more so considering perhaps 99% of groceries come with the major overhead of importation costs.
It is IMHO generally lower quality, both via the ingredients and often also the 'bulk preparation'. If you can survive on the likes of $5 chicken-rice or korma+naan all well and good, er, except all that fat which won't do your arteries or waistline any favours.

Fresh air? Ha! This by faaaar the most polluted place I've lived or ever visited. I'd never witnessed smog before I moved here, nor the concept of 'particulate size' and their relative danger, never mind being able to buy 'breathing masks' to use on bad days. I'm not of course suggesting it's in any way it's SGs fault, but it is a fact of life here.

Most of the things you can do here now you could do 20 years ago. Anything more recent seems to come with a major entrance fee. That's ok for tourists I suppose, but loses it's appeal once you live here.

If you're Korean, I'm curious how you can make such claims.

[kaseyma]

Not sure if that was in response to my post, which was about the cost and quality of Asian food here with say, Thailand or Japan.

You can get good Thai food here, but these are places you'd not likely see any westerners in.

[JR8]

You can get good Thai food here, but these are places you'd not likely see any westerners in.

Ah so you mean places that do seasonal/regional specials like KFC and McDonalds? [/ironic]

I'm interested though, where would you suggest one goes for good/authentic Thai food here? Given it's proximity you'd have thought they'd be readily equipped to do it well here.

[sgkoreans]

Have you been to Seoul, Hong Kong or Beijing? Seoul has worse air pollution than Singapore in my opinion. What about Los Angeles? Beautiful city and climate, don't get me wrong. Wonderful place but strictly comparing air pollution, Singapore is not bad. If you haven't been to these cities that's probably why you don't know that Singapore has very decent air quality. There are many trees along the roads. Traffic is not so bad. Have you driven in Seoul during rush hour?

Food is definitely not high quality if you pay $3-5. But if you want better food you can always pay more. Anyway to each his own. I find Singapore to be a great place for my family so I decided to settle down some time ago. Of course you could disagree. But that's not the point of this thread. I'm not convincing you of anything but I am stating my opinion about Singapore vs London.

[JR8]

Have you been to Seoul, Hong Kong or Beijing? Seoul has worse air pollution than Singapore in my opinion. What about Los Angeles? Beautiful city and climate, don't get me wrong. Wonderful place but strictly comparing air pollution, Singapore is not bad. If you haven't been to these cities that's probably why you don't know that Singapore has very decent air quality. There are many trees along the roads. Traffic is not so bad. Have you driven in Seoul during rush hour?

Food is definitely not high quality if you pay $3-5. But if you want better food you can always pay more. Anyway to each his own. I find Singapore to be a great place for my family so I decided to settle down some time ago. Of course you could disagree. But that's not the point of this thread. I'm not convincing you of anything but I am stating my opinion about Singapore vs London.

Yes plus toured regionally, yes perhaps three times, and no I have never felt a net merit in visiting, though my wife has. The latter is similar to how I feel about the proposition of visiting Moscow, although one day I do hope I can visit the not so distant Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. I can't say I registered smog in the former two, but maybe I just got lucky, who knows.
So, our experiences apparently differ. That's life hey?
I haven't literally 'driven' in Seoul, but I've certainly taken taxis there. It's nothing, NOTHING like say BKK or Athens of the recent past. I've also hiked up mountains around Kyongjou, and if there was pollution I'd have noticed it, but there wasn't.

Singapore vs London; I've lived many years in both. I have my impressions and hence opinions too Friends in England who see the occasional pic of me on Facebook wearing an N95 mask presume I'm taking the P. Such is British humour and it's automatic deductions/assumptions. They cannot begin to conceive of the real dangers and reasons for doing so.

Where are these places you rate, that are above the $5 chicken-rice stall? It would be simpler to know if you're referring to Swenson's or the Ritz-Carlton.

[kaseyma]

You can get good Thai food here, but these are places you'd not likely see any westerners in.

I'm interested though, where would you suggest one goes for good/authentic Thai food here? Given it's proximity you'd have thought they'd be readily equipped to do it well here.

There are actually many varieties of Thai food.
Much more than the usual Thai restaurant fare of Pineapple (or Olive) Rice, Tom Yum Goong, Phad Thai and Gaeng Gai.

One I like is a Thai seafood place (Jane's?) on the 4th floor in Orchard Towers.
Though there are quite a few westerners downstairs, I don't see them coming up, at least not to eat there.
I usually just see Thai "workers" eating there when I go.
If the kratoi eat there, you know it's got to be authentic.

Of course, there are quite a few other authentic restaurants where the Thais are, in Golden Mile.
However, am not sure if you would like it there.
They do not cater to Western tastes, since almost all of their clientele is Thai.