Turkish Expat working for Oracle in Dubai wants to move to S

[yasar]

Dear Friends,

I was working in Istanbul for Oracle and then I moved to Dubai. After staying in here for 2 years, I found some job opportunities in SQ. I had attended 16th Jamboree Mondial in Seoul and on the way to S.Korea, there was a transfer from SQ, therefore I had a 1 day chance to see around, yet that was in 1991. I can remember a clean city with lots of techy stuff around, especially the highrise buildings...it looked like metropolitan style place thenon to me!

My questions are not subtle:

1-Any person who knows Istanbul (24hours of living!!) would understand my question more than anyone! I am used to city life, street culture, wandering across streets, getting into minimalist cafes, eating food outside of a restaurant, going to techno/trance/dnb/electronika clubs. I mean I am an extrovert and easygoing person, I love to mingle around with friends and so on. In that respect, Dubai did not satisfy me very much. How is the life in SQ for a single person that has various social activity type of interests? I just wanted to get a flavor from you...

2-For max 1500USD, can I get a nice, 2bedroom, fully or partially furnished flat in a highrise apartment with nice view of the city! I am interested in relatively chic and quite place with lots of expats living around. I also prefer living with SQ nationals.

3-How much is an average car, brandnew? Like Honda, Toyota, sedan types with 1.6lt engine? I suppose I will forget about having a car like I have now, which is 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7lt Ltd. Cars are cheap here, I paid only 35000usd for this car with a 4 year car loan at 4.95% interest per annum.

4-Is a salary above 100.000usd in NET amount (after tax and all possible deductions which I dont know) good for SQ? Something like 100 to 120.000usd (not SQ$, USD $)

I will be very happy if you could spare some of your time for these.

If you have questions about life and business in Dubai, I can share my experience with you. Because I am a consultant in finance and project management, I saw 100s of companies, including very big ones owned by the government and I can tell a lot!

You can send an email to:

[email protected]

(neven is my nick, so mails are checked by me directly)

I will be looking forward to your replies.

Thanks in advance!

Yasar

[jpatokal]

1 -- There isn't much in the way of street culture or city life Istanbul style, Singapore's all very clean, regulated and a little boring, definitely closer to Dubai in spirit. The nightlife is not bad at all though and there are plenty of people willing to make you less single at least for one night

2 -- I'll round that off to S$3000, which is definitely an OK sum but not quite enough for the best places. You'll have to pick an older place, a smaller place or something a bit away from the center to get that price.

3 -- Cars are so horribly expensive that most people (like me) do without. It's not just the (high) base price, but the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) needed to drive it... I'm sure somebody can provide figures.

4 -- Above S$200k is a very good salary in Singapore, there are people here who live on less than S$1000 a month. You'll live like a king.