Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we demand some anecdotes.

There are parts of this that sound like a skit from a third grade TEFL course. Except for the end. The end needed a cartoon panda or something.

Let's hear em.

I'm all ears!

I lived there for 7 years, it's not that bad.

Go for a stroll while having a drink. Get propositioned by all three sexes in the most white collar residential neighborhoods. Head over to a sex shop and stock up on the latest (overpriced) toys, meander back to your short stay hotel to get your freak on while watching some online porn (sites are no longer blocked!).

Keep your nose out of their politics, don't say anything racist and drugs are bad, avoid drugs. Seriously.

Otherwise, superficially it's a pretty nice place to live. Good food, safe, nice weather, good parks to walk/jog. Un-corrupted police by most standards, pretty people from all over the world, cheap MRT/Buses/Taxi's. The city looks more modern than anything in America.

Their strange censorship laws are a bummer, it killed any future for their art scene. The disregard for any kind of manual labor doesn't help either.


But yes, it's the possible future for most of the west, and it is depressing as fuck if you think about it.

FURY-161, please do share some stories!

We were working for the STB to make a video for the Vietnamese market. It might even be on youtube, I honestly haven't checked.

We had a section about the local aquarium, and the script had a line that was something along the lines of "the aquarium has XXX species of fish!".

That line was rejected by the STB, because a dolphin at the aquarium had died that week, and they didn't want to "draw undue attention to the animals".

The animals.

At the aquarium.

One of the more expensive places to live in the world, correct?

But dat Asam Laksa...

forget laksa, i used to chill in Little India all day long cuz that's where the real best food is! although tbh, sometimes the best food is in the dingiest outdoor foodcourts.

Precisely where the world is heading. :(

I came here to say this very same thing. Pretty much doing anything outside of consuming luxury goods at the mall will get you jail time. They're not lying about that claim: it's actually a threat I think.

The world is heading for more pregnant women.

Really? I mostly remember the Michael Fay incident and that's pretty much all I know. Singapore seems to have a pretty vibrant nightlife, so I'm assuming people get fucked up just like we do in the states and suffer the consequences for our actions. Like, flagellation isn't cool but neither's getting thrown in the drunk tank, where guards turn a blind eye to drunk people beating the shit out of eachother for 12 hours and even place bets.

I was hoping for a hilarious list of trivial crimes with horrible punishments here. You guys are dropping the ball.


(Disclaimer- the following things are against the law in Singapore:

Buying or selling of chewing gum. Possession and/or chewing is legal, I think.

who cares, i could happily never chew gum ever again. as for the death penalty for drugs, well, if you want to get high go across the bridge to Johor Bahru. that's where most of the manual labourers come from, and many of them will work their entire lives in Singapore, house their families over the border in Malaysia, and never be given proper citizenship. kinda like america and mexico... maybe a little less harsh, but still living invisibly in a society that wants your dirt cheap labour but doesn't want to support you in kind.

You mean the gift or the man's reaction to it?

I enjoyed reading that. Thanks.

Anthony Bourdain + Daniel Craig = you

Everyone speaks English, it's the principle language taught in school. Most younger folk speak Mandarin (also mandatory in school), and the older folk may only know Hokkien or Tamil or Malay and some English.

I've heard Shanghai or the other big cities in China are the best places to go to find a TESOL gig. Japan might be a good place too.. but China is so much more decadent and fun.

From what I hear, Japan offers better wages but programs generally require you to have a bachelor's degree plus the TOEFL. China and SE Asian countries are more lax and while they pay less, you can find some that will hire you because you're a native english speaker. Really depends what school you apply to. In any case as long as you come out with more than you brought, you'll have enough probably for a good 6 months of basic travel, and along the backpacker circuit it's easy enough to find a temp bartender gig to fill your pockets.