Singapore Expats

My spouse and I were talking about what things we will miss about Australia once we are living in Singapore. There are things like pizza, for example, which will probably be harder to get, but will still be available, so that's ok. Bread Top will be missed, but is easily replaced with Bread Talk. So a lot of things don't count. Almost all the things which are important to us have equivalents or replacements.

There are a few minor things only which we anticipate missing a little. We aren't sure if chili con carne, or camembert, are easily available, and we are pretty sure lamingtons or Vegemite will be permanently out of the question. Bushwalking will be particularly sad to give up. Of course, these will all be more than offset by having things like street lighting at night, footpaths, and significantly lower crime rates.

For anyone living in Singapore, what things about your previous country do you miss? Anything major? Are there things that replace these? It's interesting to see what kinds of things people found themselves longing for!

Anything approaching a half-way decent beer.
Good restaurant food.
Variable sunset/sunrise, that gives a latent 'feel' to the passage of the seasons and a year.
Quality TV programmes, and radio. Either comedy or documentary, but programming that treats the audience as half-way intelligent.
That having a sense of humour, and irony, can be incorporated into daily life.
Having no fear of discussing politics.
Being able to buy a 'run-around' car for £1000.
The opportunity of growing up in one place, school in another, Uni in another, and a job in another. I.e. not living in the pocket of your parents into adulthood. It requires you to grow up and accept responsibility early.
Perhaps the most competitively-priced travel/flights market in the world.
Farmers' markets.
The countryside.
Peace, solitude, and being alone.
The contemporary art (gallery) scene.
Street markets (Portobello Road, Petticoat Lane, etc).
Country girls who grew up riding ponies/horses.

YOu can get just about anything here, but for a price. So, would say, I miss being able to buy stuff and still have money left over afterwards.

I miss diversity. Isn't Singapore diverse? No. Singapore is sort of like a giant company with a pretty narrow range of people here in it's various classes. I miss critical thinking, intelligent humour, open-mindedness. I miss living somewhere that at least attempts to welcome and integrate foreigners whether they're maids on the bottom run, or top executives - rather than treating pretty much everyone who isn't Singapore Chinese as a temporary import that they don't really want here and can't wait to ship out.

I miss space. Wilderness. Not having too many people crammed into every corner.

I miss working with people who can solve problems without being told how to do it.

Only fair to give the other side tho: I don't miss winter, much. I don't miss having my car broken into on a regular basis. I don't miss having to walk around various people sleeping in doorways on my way to the office. I don't miss having to really think about whether to stay late at the office because I don't like walking into a dark carpark in some parts of town.

So it goes both ways.

As Indians we dont miss a lot of stuff here since most of the things we get in India we also get here.

The only things are:
Western restaurants like Dominos, Pizza hut, Mc Donalds, Subway etc in India stock like 50% vegetarian and 50% non vegetarian in their menu, here these restaurants have like just 1 or max 2 vegetarian items on their menu.

In India exterior living conditions are bad, like roads, garbage etc. However our own houses that we live in are top notch and we own them so there is a sense of ownership. Here external living conditions are awesome like clean roads etc, but the house that we live a hopeless HDBs and we dont even own them. Same case with car. No matter how bad the traffic is we still have our "own" car and sense of ownership. Here, awesome roads, good public transport, but still there is no sense of owning anything and we just squeeze in the trains and buses and stress ourselves like cattle class.

So in India we feel rich people living in poor country. In Singapore we feel we are poor people living in rich country.

We miss the different seasons. Here its always the same season.

The one thing that is good about it though, is that you can always go home if you miss them too much. After all, if it was sooooo good there, why are you here in the first place. Oh! No jobs izzit? Then all those cars & houses aren't going to be yours very long right? Life is always a series of trade-offs. If you are making a trade-off, then don't whinge about it as it is something you voluntarily opted into. At least from a pragmatic perspective. And even if you have sunk roots in the new country and been here a long time, if the "landscape" changes too much, do the same thing. Stay or leave. Little harder if there are roots, but still it's our choice ultimately. We adapt or die.

Here's a few things I did miss but surprisingly I don't miss them anymore

1.egg puffs - its this delicious thingy from Bangalore, i craved for these for a while and until I saw this sign in Farrer park " Bangalore bakery" waited patiently for the store to begin operations and the first thing i bought was egg puff

2. cigarette and chai shops - the idea is to hop on a bike and drive anywhere order a small cup of tea and buy 1 cigarette ( not a pack ) have a smoke and bugger off.
I found a booze shop in Lil India that sells loose cigs here now
60 cents/cig

3. thums up cola drink - Later I found mustafa stocks them

so ya i don't miss anything really except my dogs and my car

sundaymorningstaple wrote: Life is always a series of trade-offs. If you are making a trade-off, then don't whinge about it as it is something you voluntarily opted into.

Hmmm uncre... I don't perceive this topic as people 'whinging', rather I see people answering the OPs question 'What do you miss from home?'.It is entirely possible, nay normal to love Singapore, and yet have some things from home that you miss.

I think it is quite an interesting question, as the replies vary according to nationality, and it gives an insight into, erm, 'cultural identity'.

Going to the football ...

Its not easy following a non-Premier League team in Singapore.

miss goin on road trips, going to the beach without going overseas, lots of space, forest, the fiesta atmosphere

also i miss hearing the neighbors shouting bout mundane stuff like "whats for dinner Mom?"....plus i miss hearing the sound of rain on the roof

morenangpinay wrote:miss goin on road trips, going to the beach without going overseas, lots of space, forest, the fiesta atmosphere

Going to the beach without having to bring a passport!

Sentosa doesn't count.

Barnsley wrote:Going to the football ...

Its not easy following a non-Premier League team in Singapore.

Even then, the 3:30am games really put a damper on things.

zzm9980 wrote:

Barnsley wrote:Going to the football ...

Its not easy following a non-Premier League team in Singapore.

Even then, the 3:30am games really put a damper on things.

The midweek games from the UK are tough to watch, and Europe based International tournaments are a nightmare.

World Cup in Brazil is gonna be a shocker .... 11 hours time difference.

I do like the early Saturday games and the 10pm games (BST) as they are ideal for going to the pub.

zzm9980 wrote:

Barnsley wrote:Going to the football ...

Its not easy following a non-Premier League team in Singapore.

Even then, the 3:30am games really put a damper on things.

Yer… I am in a hotel at the moment, and its surrounded by hawker/food courts. And the racket outside at 3am+ actually wakes me up from all the locals shouting at the TV screens showing the UK matches. It’s irritating in that I don’t like sleeping with the air con on, but I can’t leave the window open as the noise is just too much. So it’s window closed and air con and sore throat and gummy eyes when I wake up.

cottage cheese
kefir
fermented baked milk
buckwheat (recently found supplier from Russia)
good rye bread
good feta
gooseberry
forest
village
large livestock (cows, goats, sheep etc)
horse sausage
hedgehogs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilka
.............

alittlerisky wrote:

zzm9980 wrote:

Barnsley wrote:Going to the football ...

Its not easy following a non-Premier League team in Singapore.

Even then, the 3:30am games really put a damper on things.

Yer… I am in a hotel at the moment, and its surrounded by hawker/food courts. And the racket outside at 3am+ actually wakes me up from all the locals shouting at the TV screens showing the UK matches. It’s irritating in that I don’t like sleeping with the air con on, but I can’t leave the window open as the noise is just too much. So it’s window closed and air con and sore throat and gummy eyes when I wake up.[/quote

You live in Geylang, right? You expect peace and quiet?