Living in Singapore - any experience?

I’ve spent quite a lot of time there for work (staying in hotels admittedly). Restaurants are expensive, street food is cheap. Very safe with low crime.  If his accommodation is provided then I reckon it’ll be a great experience.

Public transport is great but finishes early. Personally I’d jump at the opportunity. 

I think accommodation will be the key. Have friends there and housing is expensive and slightly complicated. As is private car ownership but that shouldn't be an issue, public transport is very good. Great place for food and a multicultural experience. Great jumping off point for loads of fascinating locations too.

I would.Again. All the fantastic places to visit on airasia. And the durians. And the climate

We lived there for a few years having lived in Hong Kong immediately prior. Solarider Jnr was born there.
1) it is unbearably hot and sweaty every day.
2) it rains at 3pm every day.
3) being on the equator it is 12h day, 12h night every day.
4) it is ground hog day every day!
5) it is very safe.
6) the locals are friendly and rightly proud of the country.
7) accommodation is horrendously expensive.
8) car ownership is doubly horrendously expensive but it you are on the MRT (the underground) it is cheap to travel around (but it isn’t as direct or efficient as the MTR in Hong Kong).

9) street food (from hawker centres) is brilliant value, but restaurants are expensive.

10) it’s a great place from which to explore Asia.
11) the nightlife is not as vibrant as many other places in Asia.

12) it’s great for families but maybe not for single young students.
13) supermarket shopping is expensive and the quality of fresh produce (at affordable prices) is poor.

I know it wasn’t what you asked but if he has the choice of doing an overseas year, jump at it. If he has the chance to do it in Hong Kong instead of Singapore choose that instead.

He can do an exchange, adding a year to his degree

I'm intrigued as to why it adds a year.

Heriot Watt offer exchange on eldest's course, but it doesn't add any time...

Matt - it doesn't have to be an added year, but his Uni recommend it. Only 3 years for undergrad in England, so to study for what would be his finals year there could be tricky. There are plenty other options, but it's Singapore that's caught his attention

Like Solarider, I moved there from HK - both on the full expat package which makes a tremendous difference.

Singapore is a lovely place to visit especially for Brits. It's safe, friendly, clean(ish), English is very widely spoken and the food is fantastic. It's also hot, humid, there are no seasons, very expensive and feels overbearing and contrived. I used to have to get out every couple of weeks to get a break from it.

I know it's not very PC but a young, single, straight male should have a whale of a time. The local ethnic mix can be heavenly. Like I said, not PC and not a reason to move somewhere just a bonus.

I'd always advise anyone to do a stint in someone else's culture. It's mind expanding and should set him up for life. Just go! 🙃

I liked working out of there. As others have said it's clean and safe, great street food.

It's got a darker side (if you go looking), bit of a caste system in industry, some seedy bits of town, borderline slave labour in places, slightly iffy H&S etc.

I preferred Indo and Malaysia as a bit rougher round the edges (more fun).

I'd go for it though.

It’s got a darker side

Aye. We took some visitors to 'a place in Little India' on the insistence of the local MD. They'd just flown in from somewhere in the NE of UK never having been to Asia before. Off the plane direct to 'the darker side'. They got straight back on the plane disgusted and no business was done. Having said that, it's not mandatory to find these areas and very easy to avoid.

Heriot Watt offer exchange on eldest’s course, but it doesn’t add any time…

Normally depends on whether the year abroad is pass/fail (ie not credit bearing and doesn’t contribute to your final grade) which is typically an extra year (like a year in industry). If it does count to your final grade then it often is instead of a year in the UK, and doesn’t add a year.

Given this sounds like a pass/fail year what I’m about to say probably doesn’t matter - but I currently have a Singapore student working in my lab for 6 months, and from everything he has said, the work life balance is pretty nuts - it’s totally normal for them to be in the lab/Uni till 10 pm. His mind is blown he can only work in my lab 9-5 and has decided there is no way in hell he will be doing a PhD or similar in Singapore now he’s seen the alternative. That said, I think that is partly a cultural thing and a UK student is likely to not feel quite the same pressure.

I was there for 2 weeks last summer and the climate got to me. But if you have a chance of where to live somewhere for a year it would be a pretty cool experience and as a woman wandering back to my hotel etc, I felt v safe.

My daughter is studying at NTU Singapore at the moment, living on campus. She had a choice of other countries including Australia, Canada and New Zealand but chose Singapore for the culture, food and travel possibilities. What it's not good for is drinking and partying, things are pretty tightly regulated there.

Enduro bikes are banned, well they might as well be, handlebars can't be over 700mm and yes this is enforced. Also cycle groups bigger than 5 are banned (10 can ride two abreast but only on some roads) there are speed limits on some cycle paths, again enforced the LTA officers, oh and helmets are mandatory.

On the more practical side I'll ask my daughter to write a few notes but it's 4am there at the moment. Probably most important thing is to get campus accommodation it's a lot cheaper than private, second most get air con! Overall it's a fantastic experience for her she's mixing study with cooking, traveling and making numerous international friends she's visiting over Christmas.

In terms of costs it can be cheaper than UK especially if on campus, her total year abroad (including flights) is going to be less than a year studying in the UK, although I think course fees have been subsidised by UK university. Tech makes keeping in touch simple, ad-hoc video calls and buying stuff for her on amazon.sg and decathlon.sg!

Do it. Not for Singapore in particular (no knowledge of that) but being abroad for a year pretty much anywhere is a fantastic opportunity not to be missed.

The weather there is hot but not unmanageable.

Well, it's autumn / winter here now in the UK and all I can say is that I still prefer it hot then freezing cold.  I don't have to wear layer upon layer of clothing just to keep warm.  Over there just t-shirt, jeans/shorts and sandals will do.

As for the food, unless you are a fine dinner then just eat like most people at the food stalls.

Accommodation is expensive by comparison to their neighbours but that is no surprise.

Night life is alright with plenty of expats spending their hard earn money to de-stress.

All in all, Singapore is a safe city to spend a year.

p/s: I always wonder why they change the police uniform to dark blue colour like their neighbours. Don't they know the weather is boiling!

Singapore is a great introduction to East / South East Asia for a young person. Definitely do it.

A Singapore uni is going to run the students ragged, aren't they?

The government is a benevolent authoritarian one. You could do a lot worse but it's not the place to try your provocative standbup routine about identity politics.

I preferred Indo and Malaysia as a bit rougher round the edges (more fun).

tbf you can get to both of those places very easily from Singapore - like, day trip easily.

Cheers all - he's set on going somewhere (reaction to covid lockdowns??). I suspect he realises Singapore is a gateway to other parts of S E Asia.

I'd give him every encouragement. At least he's not going on some gap yar, drugs fuelled beach bum excersise. In fact, Sing is the exact opposite of that unless you fancy some very, very serious consequences.

I lived there for 7 months a while back. Someone up there said the climate was unbearably hot - it's really not once you get used to it. 34° in the day, 24° at night, every day, and sometimes it rains. The only 'seasons' are that some times of the year it is slightly more likely to rain than others. Before I lived there I used to struggle with heat, now even quite a few years later, I don't. As everyone has said, the food is brilliant, but the place has also been described as 'Disneyland with the death penalty' which does have some truth to it. Also see the 'Singapore is a fine city' T-shirts. It is a small place with a lot of people, and can feel a bit claustrophobic, physically and mentally.

Overall, I'd say it would be a fun place to spend a uni year, but don't break the rules.