Discovering the Neighborhood Cafes of Singapore

1. always ascertain the price of a dish before making an order - the price of a dish and the humble appearance of a small eating place could vary significantly
2. be familiar with the MRT (train) as it is the most efficient mode of transport - no traffic. Save this image
3. negotiating for a 10% discount is acceptable in reputable places, but in places like Lucky Plaza or Sim Lim Tower, you can bargain as low as you want
4. tipping is not part of the culture...you can skip this part and save yourself some cash
5. most establishments (including taxis) accept credit cards, so no need to carry an insane amount of cash with you
6. keep your receipts as you may be able to get a refund of the 7% GST before your departure
7. MRT shuts down at 11pm. You may end up taking a cab at night which is expensive to begin with, but at night, there is even a 50% surcharge. And you pay an even higher rate if you take a Mercedes Benz cab
8. carry coins in case you need to use a public toilet
9. if you are stationary on the escalator, stay on the left side. The right side is for people who walk up or down

1. Little India - along Serangoon Road, try fish head soup, lively painted shophouses, saris, gold bangles, spices and incense
2. Chinatown - colorful and animated with Chinese ware shopping, sumptuous street food and hawker-style eats, try Ah Balling Peanut Soup
3. Orchard Road - upscale shopping and glitzy night life
4. Arab Street - backpacker dorms, shisha smoking with Middle Eastern atmosphere
5. Singapore Zoo - experience the night zoo, S$38
6. Fountain of Wealth - at Suntec City, largest fountain in the world (Guinness Book of Records in 1998), shop-til-you-drop, http://www.sunteccity.com.sg/fountain_of_wealth.php
7. The Southern Ridges - best trekking trails in Singapore extending 10kms through lush forest canopy. Bring water, sunscreen and a hat (nparks.gov.sg)
8. Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery - biggest Buddhist temple in Singapore
9. Marina Bay Sands - Singapore's most iconic building and most expensive at US$5.5B. Imagine a surf board on top of three skyscrappers

1. remove shoes when entering someone's home or entering a mosque or temple
2. to be on the safe side, address people as Mr. or Ms. and the surname. Don't adddress them by the first name, unless expressly permitted to
3. when dealing with Malays, who are generally Muslim, do not offer alcohol and offer a gift when departing - not upon arrival
4. when dealing with Chinese people, initially refuse a gift before finally accepting it. It shows you are not greedy
5. do not immediately open a gift in front of the giver. Do not wrap a gift in white - white is for mourning
6. when dealing with a Muslim, use your right hand to shake hands, to offer anything, to eat
7. refrain from talking politics or religion. Singapore is multi-cultural and there's a thin line when you cross that divide
8. do not touch the top of someone's head. The head is considered sacred
9. don't show the bottom of your foot as it is considered dirty
10. don't point with your index finger as it is deemed rude (use your thumb to point)
11. if you see a packet of tissue paper on a table in a hawker-style eatery specially during peak hours, it means it's reserved - look for another table. Sometimes they use an umbrella
12. if you're a backpacker and look the part, try to dress up more appropriately. Your beach wear and dreadlocks may be out of place in this cosmopolitan city
13. don't litter, don't chew gum, don't vandalize, don't write grafitti, don't smoke in public where prohibited, don't do drugs as you can be fined by plain clothes policemen or caught on CCTV cameras which are all over the city. Even a direct plea by the president of the United States may not help you! (Michael Fay incident)

1. Baba House - restored house of a wealthy 1920s Singaporean family. Free tour by appointment - Mondays 2pm, Tuesdays 6:30pm, Thursdays 10am and Saturdays 11am. (babahouse@nus.edu.sg)
2. Southern Ridges - free use of the best trekking trails in Singapore extending 10kms through lush forest canopy. Bring water, sunscreen and a hat (nparks.gov.sg)
3. Haw Par Villa - a theme park of Chinese mythological creatures created by the guys who brought you Tiger Balm! 262 Pasir Panjang Rd, +65 6872 2780, Hours: 9am-7pm, Ten Courts of Hell exhibit 9am-6pm
4. Casinos - if you are a non-Singapore passport holder (read: a foreigner), you get to enter the 2 casinos free - Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands. Inside, you also can get free water, tea or coffee

Singapore is a small city-state 707.1 km² and one of the youngest countries in the world with no natural resources. After WWII, it suffered from decaying infrastructure, social unrest and sluggish economic growth. Now, barely 60 years later, it ranks #3 in global GDP per capita, outranked only by Qatar and Luxemburg (2013 data from International Monetary Fund and the World Bank). For the last 16 years, it is voted the most liveable city in the world by ECA International. What exactly took place to make this a reality? Below is a recent history...in a nutshell:

• 1818 - British Governor General of India appointed Lieutenant General Sir Stamford Raffles to establish a port of call for the British East India Company on the tip of the Malay peninsula to provide logistical support to their merchant fleet in their expanding trade between India and China. Singapore became the logical choice
• 1832 - Singapore became the center of government of the Straights Settlements, which included 2 earlier acquisitions, Penang and Malacca, after becoming an important commercial and military center of British India
• 1942-45 WWII - the Japanese occupied Singapore after the British capitulated
• 1945 - Japan was defeated and the British regained control of Singapore. There was economic unrest, slow economic growth, high unemployment rate, labor strikes and decaying infrastructure. Singaporeans faced a housing shortage which would continue for a decade. This became breeding ground to a nationalistic awareness of the people, specially after realizing the British were not that invincible after their capitulation in WWII
• 1959 still within the British Empire, Singapore became autonomous with Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister.
• 1963 - Singapore unilaterally declared independence from Britain and joined the Federation of Malaysia along with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak
• 1964 - with simmering racial tension between the Chinese and the Malays, 2 race riots erupted in July and September killing 36 and injuring over 500. This was a wake-up call for Singapore to address racial issues. No one wanted a repeat of this. The peaceful co-existence of the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians of Singapore today stems from the hard lessons learned from this painful episode.
• 1965 - Singapore left the federation after ideological conflict with member states. It gained full independence from the British with Lee Kuan Yew remaining Prime Minister
• 1967 - Singapore becomes founding member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
• 1968 - Britain pulls out of Singapore resulting in a 20% job-loss. This is aggravated by losing Malaya's economic support due to Singapore's departure from the federation. Economic prospect was bleak for Singapore. It was a trying episode in the country's history. With Lee Kuan Yew's strong leadership, Singapre took advantage of its strategic location and attracted foreign inverstors
• 1960s - this decade saw the aggressive construction of public housing to address the long-standing housing crisis. High-rise low-cost housing complexes were built. Today (2015), up to 90% of Singaporeans live in these developments. New complexes are continuously being constructed in anticipation of population increase.
• 1970s - USA and Japan made sizeable positions in Singapore's economy as the manufacturing sector continued its ascent with foreign-owned or joint-venture companies. Singapore's economic boom contunued unabated during the rest of the 1970s
• 1980s - Singapore shifted its focus from labor-intensive manufacturing to high-tech high-value industries, becoming the leading producer of disk drives and parts, accounting up to 30% of its GDP from manufacturing. In the late 80s, it pushed its financial services sector as well to become top 3 as Asia's most important financial centers, together with Japan and Hong Kong. This shows how nimble Singapore is in adapting to emergent trends and technologies to keep its global competitive edge
• 1990s - Singapore is now home to more than 650 multinational companies and a few thousand financial institutions. Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee Kuan Yew
• 1994 - Michael Peter Fay, an 18 year old American is caned for theft and vandalism. His sentence was reduced to 4 instead of 6 as a way to give face to American president, Bill Clinton, who asked for leniency. Proceeding with the caning despite a personal plea by a US president sent a strong statement to the international community that Singapore is not one to buckle down under American pressure. It gained Singapore global respect for its political resolve.
• 2003 - Singapore is hit with the SARS virus outbreak as it spreads across Asia and parts of North America and Europe
• 2004 - Lee Hsien Loong became Singapore's third prime minister. He is Lee Kuan Yew's eldest son
• 2008 - recession hits Singapore as the US-caused sub-prime market meltdown ripples through the global financial landscape resulting in bank failures worldwide
• 2010 - Marina Bay Sands opens to the public as the 2nd most expensive building in the world at US$5.5 billion (land included). Its stunning and unique architecture gives Singapore a globally identifiable iconic signature landmark similar to the Eiffel Tower of Paris, the Petronas Twin Towers of Malaysia and the Empire State building of New York
• 2013 - Singapore suffers its worst haze, reaching 401 PSI due to uncontrolled forest fire in Indonesia
• 2015 - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong imposes tougher measures against corruption after a number of high-profile graft scandals rocks the political landscape
• Mar 2015 - former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew passes on, ending an era of transition from third world to first world

US$1 = S$1.38 (Singapore dollar) = Php 44.10, as of Mar 7, 2015

Discounted Tour Prices (provided by Ideal Backpackers, tel 6846 4741)

As a general rule, you get tickets cheaper if you buy them outside the venue. Purchase the tickets through your hotel or travel agencies. Chinatown has numerous travel/tour agencies where you can buy tickets cheaper.

• S$ 72 Universal Studios Singapore
• S$ 30 Singapore Flyer (big ferries wheel)
• S$ 33 Night Safari
• S$ 25 Singapore Zoo
• S$ 23 Jurong Bird Park
• S$ 15 Tiger Sky Tower
• S$ 30 Duck Tour
• S$ 35 SEA Aquarium
• S$ 26 Underwater World Singapore / Dolphin Lagoon
• S$ 35 Adventure Cove
• S$ 25 Jewel Cable Car, 2-ways
• S$ 31 Hippo City Sightseeing Tour
• S$ 18 Singapore River Explorer
• S$ 25 River Safari
• S$ 8 Merlion Cove
• S$ 5 National Orchard Garden

Singapore Cost Index at backpacker places

• S$ 1.50 1.5 liter drinking water
• S$ 3-4.00 noodle soup with meat or rice meal at food courts in housing developments, otherwise S$ 5 in regular eating places
• S$ 1 tea
• S$ 22 dorm bed
• S$ 1.5 sugar cane juice
• S$ 3.20 flagdown, 22 cents/400m taxi, surcharge of 50% at night, additional surcharge if M Benz taxi
• S$ 5 per 11kg load coin operated laundry
• S$ 1 per 5 mins coin operated laundry dryer
• S$ 1-2 internet cafe, usually it's $1.80 with no membership
• S$ 2/k banana
• S$ 35/session yoga, non-member drop-in
• S$ 3.50 nasi goreng
• S$ 22 40-min river cruise on Marina Bay
• S$ xxxxx ticket
• S$ one hour massage
• S$ one mug draft beer
• S$ bicycle rental

Price Busters

The best deals are usually in the big national groceries/supermarkets like Giant, Seng Song and Fair Price . They always have promos that are price busters!

• S$ 2.70 2 veggies + 1 meat viand + rice at Rice Garden (in food courts within a housing development)
• S$ 1.20 three 1.5 liters of Alpha Water at Fair Price grocery with promo
• S$ 2.00 Roti Prata + tea, at regular Malay eating places, best value breakfast meal