Ten Dollars - Ten Minutes

Like many things here, you can spend a lot for something or you can spend very little.  Take a haircut for example.  I asked around and learned that S$40-60 is what you'd pay in a salon.  Then I found a couple of places like this in a couple of shopping malls.  They are the local equivalent of Supercuts, I suppose.

"Our Japanese trained barbers will cut your hair professionally in about 10 minutes for 10 dollars."  I decided to risk it and see how it worked out.  First you buy your ticket from a machine, then you queue up (if there is a wait), and you get called to the cutting station.  You take a seat and they ask how you want your hair cut.  

Then the flurry of motion begins.  I'm accustomed to clippers being used with a guard and a slow steady motion.  Not here!  Sometimes using a guard, often with just a comb, the clippers are moved like a painter dabbing a brush.  (That is, if the painter is on speed.)  Then the clipper gets put away, and a similar process with scissors begins.  It wraps up with a full scalp vacuum and brushing off to remove the cut hair.

How did it turn out?  Perfectly acceptable, and perhaps a bit shorter than I intended.  I'll do this again, although next time I might try the salon for comparison's sake.

Small Lessons & Observations

Being in Singapore and being immersed in a multi-ethnic community provides many opportunities for learning, both about the environment and about myself.  Here are some of the small stuff.

1. The first place people in restaurants assume I'm from is the UK.  This means they really double check when I order something spicy.
2. The female clerk running the home delivery counter at Ikea was wearing blue jeans and a traditional muslim head scarf.  At first, seeing these really caught my attention -- it's now just part of the background scenery.
3. When I was running last weekend, I turned a corner and saw a beautiful golden retriever being taken for a walk.  Living in West Plano made me expect to see a caucasian expat woman walking the dog.  Instead, it was an elderly Chinese man.  Of course - what was I thinking?
4. There is a Philippine subculture.  Most of the live-in maids are Filipino.  On Sundays, the maid's day off, you find them congregating on the stairs of the OrchMRT station.  At the Lucky Shopping Plaza there are many store featuring Filipino foods and goods, along with banking services to wire the money back home.
5. Cell phones work practically everywhere, even when you're riding the subway.
6. You can tell which stalls at a Hawker Centre are good because they have queues.  Remember to mark your spot with a newspaper or book (nothing valuable) so you have somewhere to sit when you eventually get your food.
7. When you buy a movie ticket, it is a reserved seat.  You can book these on line and pick your seat in advance, or you can show up at the theater and they'll assign you the best available.  Popcorn and a soda costs S$6.90; a movie costs S$10.00 (US$7.36).
8. Gasoline costs S$2.10 per litre.  That's US$1.55 per litre or US$5.85/gallon.  They measure fuel economy as litres per 100 km.  Lower is better.  A Honda Civic hybrid is advertised as using 4.6 litres/100 km; that's 51 MPG.
9. There are two colors of license plates.  Black ones can use the roads 24/7.  The red ones can only use the roads between 7PM and 7AM, weekends, and public holidays.  The red ones are cheaper.
10. High traffic areas become toll roads during heavy usage times to help cut down on traffic congestion.  These are not highways; they are city streets.  Each car comes equipped with a "toll tag" that deducts value from a cash card that you buy and refill at a gas station (or at specific types of ATMs).  There's a big fine if you run out of value on your card.

Next weekend I begin moving into our rental condo.  The air shipment arrived this week and is ready to go through customs.  The sea shipment gets packed this week and will take about 4-6 weeks to get here.

Spoilt For Choice

This phrase is used here to describe the wide range of food options available throughout Singapore.  (It's also used to describe shopping venues.)  There are so many options, it can get confusing.

Take a typical "Hawker Centre" (as shown in the photo  below).  The US equivalent would be a "food court" and in some cases you'll also find this phrase used here.  It's a bunch of different vendors, each with a different type of cuisine with a seating area in the middle and around the sides.  Want some Malay?  How about Indian?  Indonesian?  Japanese?  Korean?  Of course that's just the first decision; you still have to decide what you want from their many choices.

You'll find these everywhere.  Some are free standing locations with outdoor covered seating.  A few are located in the basement or on a several levels of a shopping mall.  Some are specifically halal and observe Muslim dietary laws (so no outside food may be brought in and you won't find pork on the menu).

Meals range from $3 to $9 depending on what you order and the location of the HC.  You can order up ice water (tap is safe to drink here) or enjoy fresh or canned fruit juices.  Our favorites are sweet coconut water or the lime juice.

Finding a place to sit at lunch or dinner is as challenging as deciding what to eat.  The trick is to find an open spot and mark it as taken with something that isn't particularly valuable like a newspaper or a book.  Then (and only then) should you go wait in line ("queue") to get your food.  If you're eating with a group, one person stakes out the places for everyone.  If you don't do this first, you'll get your food only to wander around with your tray aimlessly looking for a place to sit.  You'll see lot of apparently open places -- only to learn (with a bit of frustration) that that one person is holding places for 8 others.  (If this sounds like first-hand experience, that's because it is...)

One of the fun local breakfasts here is kaya toast.  Kaya is a jam that's made from coconut, egg, and sugar or honey.  The toast starts thick like "Texas Toast", then grilled.  It is sliced sideways, making two halves with toasted and un-toasted sides.  Butter is put in the middle along with the kaya, and the toast is re-assembled.  There are several chains that specialized in this.  At these restaurants, coffee ("kopi") is brewed using something that looks like a sock to hold the grounds.  It is typically served with sweetened condensed milk.  You can order it other ways if you know the code.  Kopi-o is black; kopi-c is made with evaporated milk (not sweetened).

Lots of great food and food options here!

Number One Option

Raye has picked her top choice for an apartment.

The realtor is working out the arrangements and we are hopeful of finalizing things on Tuesday or Wednesday. The complex is called Richmond Park (oddly similar to Richmond Heights, the suburb where Raye grew up in Cleveland). It's located very close to Orchard Road, and as illustrated in the photos has some terrific views. It's an older building - relatively speaking - built in 1996.

The apartment is on the 22nd floor. We'd found one on the 24th floor which was slightly larger with a bit better view, but that owner opted to rent to a friend and took it off the market.

As apartments go here, this one is quite spacious - a benefit of being in an "older" building. We will have plenty of space for visitors.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that everything concludes successfully so we have an address to give to the movers when Raye returns to Dallas on Wednesday.

Ikea, the MOM and Banking

Morning is the best time to call back to the States -- so we did.  Bassinghall is being shown regularly which is a good start to that process.  MagicJack is working great and we've done a couple of video conferences on Skype.

This morning we took the MRT (subway) to the western part of the island to check out Ikea.  We found a couple of sleeper chairs that will work well in a guest room.  These will also be what we will be sleeping on in the condo before the shipment with our bed arrives sometime in the first two weeks of July.  Additional selections and urchase will take place later, once we know where it will go, i.e. when we have settled on a place.

This afternoon we completed the paperwork for our various residency passes and went over to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).  The system was very well organized with multiple electronic queues for the various service counters.  We waited for about 25 minutes before being called up.  Everything was in order, but unfortunately it was too late in the day to actually have the passes issued in our passports.  So we will go back tomorrow morning (and get another electronic queue ticket) to complete the process.

Getting these passes are critical step to being able to open up local bank accounts and obtain credit cards.  The latter is important because our US cards collect a 3% service charge on foreign currency transactions.  The former will enable setting up direct deposit, etc. when Paul starts work on Monday.  We did some web research and talked to one of Raye's new contacts here (arranged through Gordy Fuller) about bank selection.  We visited the one that seems to be the best fit and got the list of stuff to bring with us tomorrow to open an account.

Our realtor continues to work on our top choice and will show us one or more other units in the same building tomorrow.

House Hunting - Part One

We met our realtor on Thursday afternoon at 2PM.  She'd prepared a full itinerary of locations based on some e-mail exchanges prior to our arrival.  Raye wisely wore sandals; Paul learned that wearing tie-up shoes when house hunting in Singapore is a mistake.  Proper etiquette here involves removing shoes before entering a home.  Visit 6 places; take your shoes on and off 6 times.  Slip-ons will be part of the plan next time.

The variety was good and Raye took photos and notes to help us remember which one was which.  Of the ones we visited, one stood out as the best of the bunch.  We asked the realtor to begin negotiations.  It is a high floor unit with 3BR and a clean layout that is close to Orchard MRT.  We also visited a terrific little place up the East Coast that had a roof garden and an excellent patio.  Unfortunately, the rooms were just a bit too small and it was too far out of town for Raye's liking.

Some of the other interesting things we learned was that apartments (actually condos) come mostly partially furnished if not fully furnished.  (Our top choice was empty, much to our preference).  Amenities vary; all have pools but workout facilities range from none to decent.  Ethnic communities are all varied with some locations having concentrations of this group or that.  Not a factor for us.

Earlier in the day we checked out the American Club based on recommendations we'd received prior to the trip.  It's a very nice facility: activities, restaurants, pool, gym, meeting facilities, various shops, etc.  We are not convinced of the need or value at this point in time.  On the other hand the American Women's Club caught Raye's interest and will likely be part of the plan going forward.

The Trip Over

Erica & Jackie dropped us off at DFW airport.  The flight from Dallas to Tokyo was about 13 hours and fairly full.  We both slept a bit in between meals and movies.  Raye watched four movies; Paul opted to drain Raye's iPod battery watching TV shows.  The 3 hour layover in Tokyo spent at Admirals Club.  Raye took a shower while Paul answered e-mails.

Flight from Tokyo to Singapore on Japan Airlines was very empty so Raye had the whole middle section to lay down and sleep.  We both slept a good portion of that 7 hour flight.  Luggage arrived without incident and company-arranged transport to service apartment was most welcome given the 1 AM arrival.

Service apartment is 2BR and located very close to Orchard MRT (subway) stop.  We are very pleased with accommodations and service level.  We hooked up Paul's laptop and tested the MagicJack phone system by calling Erica & Jackie.  It works great so we have free calls to/from the US in addition to Skype.

After checking in and doing some unpacking, we hit the bed for a good nights sleep.