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.
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