Culture Shock - Arriving in singapore

Moving to Singapore? Ask our regular expats in Singapore questions on relocation and their experience here. Ask about banking, employment pass, insurance, visa, work permit, citizenship or immigration issues.
Post Reply
Hannieroo
Reporter
Reporter
Posts: 999
Joined: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 6:04 pm

Post by Hannieroo » Tue, 28 May 2013 11:59 am

Ah, westerners. What else do you do?

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Tue, 28 May 2013 1:28 pm

x9200 wrote: Sooner you will be accused of a theft of JR8's walking stick. You already committed something illegal prior to your attempt to run over him so your credibility is rather low.

:lol:

[Thx, genuine LOL moment!]

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Tue, 28 May 2013 3:01 pm

- I hear a 'New Orleans' style brass+drum jazz band from the street below, and think it most curious. Then I remember that such a band forms part of a local Chinese funeral cortege.

Sure enough a few minutes later, a hearse, and following band, people on foot, and then in cars, comes into sight.


- Dinner for two at a heartland hawker centre, S$5.50 (GBP2.90) = 1 x Mee soto + 1 x Chicken rice. It's good too!

- There is always a background level of noise at a food-court. Kitchen clatter + chatter. I cannot imagine there being one second that is silent.

- The same seems to be the case sitting at home. School-children out in the schoolgrounds, school alarm signals, traffic, low flying aircraft, and seemingly omnipresent (permanent, seemingly from all directions) pneumatic drills ... breaking up concrete or similar. I realize that we moved from a relatively very quiet city, so I appreciate that I will acclimatise to it in due course.

- As the military planes fly around overhead, a Woodstock-era song lyric arrives in my grey-matter inbox: 'And I dreamt I saw the fighter-jet bombers riding shotgun in the sky, turning into butterflies, above our nation'. ['Crosby Stills Nash and Young'?]

- Locals (from the majority race) staring at my wife. All in all the locals do seem to do quite a bit of full-on staring! lol... But I imagine if you asked a person why they're staring at you, they'd deny it or run a mile. Hmmm ... a different and seemingly conflicting set of inter-personal boundaries (from a western viewpoint - sort of physically closer, but socially further apart..?)

- Suspiciously cheap wine offers at a nearby NTUC. Two offers on French bordeaux wine, both 2-1, one at $25 (i.e. for 2), the other $28. Need to Google their quality, as the price is suspiciously low.

- A C130 flying low-level loops. Coming in from the north, and then veering off east.

User avatar
sundaymorningstaple
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 39875
Joined: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 1:26 pm
Answers: 11
Location: Retired on the Little Red Dot

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Tue, 28 May 2013 3:38 pm

Suspiciously cheap wine? Maybe refrigeration was down on the container on the ship? :-|
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Tue, 28 May 2013 9:00 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Suspiciously cheap wine? Maybe refrigeration was down on the container on the ship? :-|
Yes, I'm sticking with the 6.5% 'Old Exterminator' (or what ever it's called), until such wine offers are established as viable!

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Tue, 28 May 2013 9:30 pm

- Carbon-fibre bonnets, on tiny little hatch-backs.

- Young ladies in big sunglasses and maxi-dresses (like Notting Hill say 10 years ago).

- Boxes of Kleenex, in loud dayglo cloth and lace covers, glued/stuck to the passenger side of a cars dashboard.

- Recently arrived from Europe. Three weeks in-country, but day 1 in the sun, pool-side was approx 1hr from 4pm, with a short swim. It was over-cast. Next day in the shower washing my hair I realized my scalp is slightly burnt, and that was me being very careful! That said, in Europe I've seen no 'sit out and enjoy' sun, at all, since maybe last September.

Today I go out for less time, and wait until 5pm to head out. Slowly...slowly ...

- A very polite local boy (c5YO) holds open the lift door for me. I had not even realised he was in the lift or holding it for me!

- A rather punk/alt-rock looking young lady with two or three of her children, playing in the pool. She reminds me of Nina Hagen (East German punk singer), striking, rather than beautiful in a way. Or beautiful because she is so striking - depending upon how you see it. She speaks to her children in Russian. She is mid-thigh in the water, a young son jumps up and grabs her bikini, straight down, and yoo-hoo from 3m I am treated to a Full-on beaver show!!! :-D

- Does rain clear the air. Pollen, smog? This afternoon the views were wonderfully clear and long, and into early evening the colors of surrounding building became very vibrant and rich.

User avatar
sundaymorningstaple
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 39875
Joined: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 1:26 pm
Answers: 11
Location: Retired on the Little Red Dot

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Tue, 28 May 2013 10:48 pm

The carbon fibre bonnets, etc. aren't carbon fibre at all. Its film like the sunshades you tint your windows with or cover your iPad screen with. Big pretenders, like the guys who buy a Toyota Harrier and replace all the badges with Lexus badges. (The dealership will do it for you for a couple of grand).

That Lexus/Harrier scam is stupid if you ask me. Do the changeover and then drive it to Malaysia so it will get stolen because they think it's a Lexus. How to tell the difference? Look at the mfg mark embedded in the windscreens. It's doubtful that they changed all the glass in the car as well, so if it' a harrier it will say Toyota but a Lexus will have Lexus embedded in the glass (even though Lexus is a Toyota brand - Like Cadillac is a General Motors brand not to be confused with Chevrolet, also a GM brads).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus_RX Basically a Toyota Lexus is a rebadged Toyota Harrier with an additional $100G added to the price tag.
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Wed, 29 May 2013 1:58 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:How to tell the difference? Look at the mfg mark embedded in the windscreens. It's doubtful that they changed all the glass in the car as well, so if it' a harrier it will say Toyota but a Lexus will have Lexus embedded in the glass

Interesting stuff, I had never heard of the Toyota Harrier.

p.s. You can imagine how the owner of a rebadged Harrier must get eaten up inside, when each time he looks out of a window he has 'Toyota' staring back at him :)

User avatar
sundaymorningstaple
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 39875
Joined: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 1:26 pm
Answers: 11
Location: Retired on the Little Red Dot

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Wed, 29 May 2013 2:08 pm

JR8 wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:How to tell the difference? Look at the mfg mark embedded in the windscreens. It's doubtful that they changed all the glass in the car as well, so if it' a harrier it will say Toyota but a Lexus will have Lexus embedded in the glass

Interesting stuff, I had never heard of the Toyota Harrier.

p.s. You can imagine how the owner of a rebadged Harrier must get eaten up inside, when each time he looks out of a window he has 'Toyota' staring back at him :)
If he's inside the car he has ATOYOT staring back at him. :lol:
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

User avatar
Sergei82
Editor
Editor
Posts: 1456
Joined: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 9:52 pm

Post by Sergei82 » Wed, 29 May 2013 2:18 pm

Another Singaporean fetish: what is the point of having a sports car in Singapore that make A LOT of ear-damaging noise??? You can't drive fast in Singapore, you can only make noise - that's it! Idiotically ridiculous...

Steve1960
Editor
Editor
Posts: 1106
Joined: Mon, 13 Aug 2012 10:58 am
Location: Singapore

Post by Steve1960 » Wed, 29 May 2013 2:26 pm

Sergei82 wrote:Another Singaporean fetish: what is the point of having a sports car in Singapore that make A LOT of ear-damaging noise??? You can't drive fast in Singapore, you can only make noise - that's it! Idiotically ridiculous...
Status symbol or maybe pen1s extension :wink:

User avatar
sundaymorningstaple
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 39875
Joined: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 1:26 pm
Answers: 11
Location: Retired on the Little Red Dot

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Wed, 29 May 2013 2:28 pm

Or both, considering the low TFR here I would imagine they have a higher than normal incidence of ED compared with most countries. :lol:
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

User avatar
Sergei82
Editor
Editor
Posts: 1456
Joined: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 9:52 pm

Post by Sergei82 » Wed, 29 May 2013 2:36 pm

I also thought about penis. 2 days ago one was passing by near me - I almost got deaf - it is THAT loud. And the speed was... I moonwalk faster!!! The road was congested anyway... maybe that was in order to scare away other drivers on the road?

User avatar
Wd40
Director
Director
Posts: 4376
Joined: Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:53 am
Location: SIndiapore

Post by Wd40 » Wed, 29 May 2013 2:40 pm

There used to be a white Lamborghini Gallardo in the Signature carpark. I wonder who owned it :)

Here's the pic I had taken from my office desk. And you say CBP is not a plush location ? :)

Image
Last edited by Wd40 on Wed, 29 May 2013 2:50 pm, edited 4 times in total.

User avatar
JR8
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 16522
Joined: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:43 pm
Location: K. Puki Manis

Post by JR8 » Wed, 29 May 2013 2:45 pm

Sergei82 wrote:I also thought about penis. 2 days ago one was passing by near me - I almost got deaf - it is THAT loud. And the speed was... I moonwalk faster!!! The road was congested anyway... maybe that was in order to scare away other drivers on the road?
:???: :o :lol:

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Relocating, Moving to Singapore”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests