More funny facts and observations

1. When taking a taxi, the drivers - like most people in Singapore - are very nice and polite. One habit of theirs did confuse me though for some time: they will ask you which way they should take or rather if you want them to take a certain road. Like "Should I take Bridge Road?" - "I take River Valley Road, yes?". What's the answer to that if you're just a visitor and don't know the town...? I ended up usually just saying yes. Also if they ask me whether they should make a U-turn... Yes! - though I keep wondering if they'd expect me to pay the fine they could probably get....?
   
2. The other thing - no surprise there - has to do with food: in the food courts and hawker stalls, but also in the normal / local restaurants you usually use chopsticks. Of course you can have cuttlery (and it's also asian people using cuttlery) but you usually only get a fork and a spoon. No knife. It does work though.
   
3. Contrary to what I posted earlier, chewing gum is no longer forbidden. Yay! - But: you still can't buy them anywhere. Point taken.
   
4. Singapore has a great public transport system - both buses and trains / metro. While the train map is relatively easy to read - four lines at the moment, with a fourth line to open next year - the bus map isn't. Or rather: there isn't a bus map. It's a bus book. There are 74 routes serviced by 1192 buses. Impressive!
   

 

Do you like me?

It's been a week since I last posted, I have to admit I was just too lazy this weekend to go through my many pictures and set up a post. But this morning there was this cute episode I wanted to share.

Singapore has four official languages: Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English. And there are a lot more languages spoken in this multi cultural city state. Chinese languages like Hokkien, Hainanese, Teiochew, Hakka and Cantonese (not that I'd be ever able to tell the difference), Malay and Indian dialects, and other Asian languages. But the common language to all (or most) Singaporeans is English.

Still, that doesn't mean I always understand it... Like today: I went to my Juice Lady (from this post) and she thought about what fruit juice she would make for me. And then she looks at me and asks: "Do you like me?". I must admit I was confused for a moment. "Me? Do you like me?"...

But then I got it, smiled and replied: "Yes, I like milk!"

And as usual I walked away with a smile on my face and a delicious drink in my hand. Honeydew mixed with me... ehm... Milk. Try it, it's wonderful!

 

Working in Singapore...

My Dad's a civil engineer and Singapore must be the dream of any engineer or architect.... So that's why this post continues in German... and for my English speaking friends: try and use the 'Google translate' function!

Paps, hier in Singapur gibt es ja unzählige tolle Gebäude, der Traum eines jeden Ingenieurs oder Architekten. Ich habe schon ein paar mal Photos von den Gebäuden gezeigt, hier aber ein paar Fotos von den Baustellen, die es hier auch en masse gibt - und den dazu gehörenden Schildern:

Die Bagger sind natürlich etwas grösser als auf dem Schild. Die Baustellen auch:

Wo gearbeitet wird, braucht es auch Pausen:

In der Nacht sind die Baustellen genau so in Betrieb:

Und wieder ein paar Schilder: "Arbeiten im Gange - verzeihen Sie die Unannehmlichkeiten".

 

Funny facts and observations in Singapore

Well, of course those things I observed are funny to me - probably not to the Singaporeans....

1. Like in many former british colonies, people in Singapore drive on the left side. But escalators (as in moving stairs) are usually 'ridden' on the right side.... like 70% of them. Which means the other 30% are still 'left-driven'... seems like they couldn't really decide? And I keep trying to step on the wrong escalator ...
2. Women use every opportunity to look at any reflecting surface to straighten their hair. That's normal. But I'm used to women trying to do this very inconspicuosly. Not here - take the elevator (as in 'lift') in my office building: the doors are mirrors. A dozen people in the cabin, all going up to the 14th floor. EVERY woman looks into the mirror and keeps straightening her hair. All the way up to the 14th floor.... ok, not every woman, not allways... but most of the times.
3. This one I really love: when people hand you something like a buisness card, they always use both hands to give it to you. Also the cashier in the supermarket when returning your credit card. This is of course a sign of respect - I only always try to do the same when giving my card to the cashier - but I just don't have two free hands (with my handbag and purse and everything). Oh well, I guess the thought counts...
4. Singapore is multi-national, both regarding the Singaporeans as well as all the expats working and living in S'pore. So from time to time I hear somebody talking German, French or another European language I understand. But SOMETIMES... there's some people speaking Mandarin and I could swear I catch a few words, a piece of the conversation and it just sounds like Swiss German. Like actual Swiss German words.... can be quite creepy...
5. Last but not least for today: Chewing gum is forbidden, but contrary to what I believed first smoking is actually not. How does that make sense???

There are some more Funny Facts and Observations, but I'll leave them for another post...