Post by Kristyn
Ok, so you’re thinking of moving to Singapore from?
Well here are a few handy
tips that might help make the process a bit easier:
1.
Opening a bank account
You would assume
opening a bank account in a foreign country wouldn’t be too much of a
hassle? You can open one in Australia
quite easily as a foreigner. Well here
in Singapore nothing as easy as it sounds, unless you have the golden ticket
which is an Employment Pass (EP) which for us was a bit of an issue. However, in saying that, we were able to open
a savings account with DBS with only our passports. We did have a Singapore address though, so as
painful as we thought it would be without an EP, it was a very easy process, I
would recommend you head into to the DBS branch in the Scape Plaza, as all they
do here is open new accounts, so you won’t have to wait long, like you would in
a normal branch.
2.
Toiletries
This is a fairly big tip I’m about
to impart on you all – BRING AS MANY TOILETRIES AS YOU CAN FROM AUSTRALIA! Ok, so whilst I was packing my suitcases for
this big adventure, we obviously only had a certain weight we could bring
in. This being the case, I thought I would
be smart, and leave behind items that would a) weigh down my bags more and b)
that I could easily buy in Singapore.
Makes sense right? Well.... had I
known the prices of common toiletries in this lovely country, I may have
thought twice about packing so many shoes, my hair dryer, straightener – nah
who I’m I kidding! But anyway back to
the point of my story, basic toiletries are nearly double the price here. One example here is just normal everyday
Vaseline body moisturiser for a 400ml bottle cost me $8.50! This is the case
for everything, make up remover, body wash etc.
Don’t talk to me about being blonde either...if you are like me, and use
shampoo and conditioner specifically made for blondes, please bring some with
you. Now I did this, as I did figure
there would be a slight chance that it wouldn’t be sold here, but with such a
large expatriate contingency here, I did live in hope. I can categorically tell you that all hope is
lost! Luckily I am heading back to Oz in
a month, so I will be well stocking up on my usual toiletries and bringing them
back across the sea. As you can gather,
there is no such thing as a discount chemist store here, I didn’t realise how
blessed we were with Priceline and Chemist warehouse, all purchases are made
through the supermarket or general chemists such as Guardian, so be prepared to
not shop around, the prices are the same wherever you go.
3.
Hungrygowhere
So we all love urbanspoon, the
Cheap Eats Guide and The Good Food Guide back in Melbs to guide us on good
places to eat as voted by the public, well if you’re looking for something
similar in Singapore look no further.
Hungrygowhere comes in a variety of options such as a webpage and both
an apple and android app. The
application works on the same principal as the previously mentioned
applications. You can look for food
based on locations, cuisine, ratings etc. And you can bookmark your fave places
as well.
4.
Store opening times
Here is a tip for young
players, don’t bother getting up early to go shopping because more than likely
you’ll find that the store won’t be open.
So embrace the late opening time and have a sleep in, like I’ve been
doing. Generally stores around here
don’t open until 11am, some open at 10am, but more often than not it’s 11am,
which when you think that they are open until about 9pm it makes sense for them
to open later. We made the mistake the
first day after our arrival, but getting up early and heading out to find a
Singtel store to buy new sim cards, but alas, we had to wait until 11am. It’s like a ghost town until then; even
restaurants are fairly quiet at lunch time.
Things don’t kick off until into the afternoon and by evening the place
is bustling.
Ok ok, so this dinner is actually in Melbourne not Singapore. I was so excited to come home for a couple of weeks, I have been CRAVING Western food, that I think that these Melbourne meals deserve a place in our blog, if only for me to look back at them every now and again and reminisce....So James and I had date night our first Saturday night back, we ended up just around the corner from our place in Fitzroy at The Town Hall. This is a one hat restaurant in the Good Food Guide and well deserved too. The food was AMAZING! We started off with yellow fin carparccio and some amazing grilled chorizo and bread. James had crayfish agolonotti with tomatoe and anchovy crumbs for a main and I had eye fillet with potato gratin and red wine jus. YUM!! I had been craving good steak for so long, and this one was cooked to med/rare perfection. The food was so good that we both went for dessert as well, which is something that we don't usually do. James had the tiramisu soaked in strega, kahlua and coffee with marscapone and I had the most delicious (James had dessert envy) apple and blackberry cinnamon pie with brandy anglais. This was all washed down with a beautiful pinot noir from Tassie and a huge glass of Spanish PX with dessert. Considering this was a one hat restaurant, it was relatively cheap, the mains are all around $30. I would highly recommend anyone looking for an amazing restaurant in Melbourne that's not going to break the budget to head here. I'll definitely be going back next time we're back in Melbs. It also helps that it's only around the corner from our place in Fitzroy :)
Philips, plenty of people, not too many cheap goods...
