From 1°14'N

Hey there...

Despite having a blog on my tech ideas (which has been pretty much inactive for a while) I decided to open up another blog where I can grumble & mumble about my life in Singapore...

Yeah, Singapore - a tiny city which is also a country, having a latitude of 1°14'N places it just a few hundred km around the Line of Tropic. Bottom line - the country is going through summer throughout the year! Either it rains or sun shines - that's all the flavors of seasons one can get here. Coming from Bangladesh, country of 6 seasons, makes me miss the other 4 seasons badly at times... esp winter...

So, living in this multi-racial, multi-lingual & multi-cultural country - I do get to bump into something new almost everyday... makes life pretty interesting but at the same time, lifestyle here is like any other cosmopolitan country. A fast life & time does fly fast here... Anyway, this blog would be more about how I find life to be here & if possible, a small tip on this and that to those who would be coming to Singapore or new here...

For those who's not been here, well, take this country as a scaled down asian version of New York City. Like that NYC, everyone's rushing to the tube (they call it MRT here) in the morning. You get to see thousands of people but you never meet anyone. The high rise buildings are there, with higher ones being constructed on the sides... you get the picture... Well, you won't find any street performers here though...

If you're coming here for the first time & alone- bring your media player with you. Let it be an iPod, zen, generic mp3 player, psp or a fancy mp4 player... everyone seems to have one of these and using them to the max while traveling... They have this RFID card, where you can top-up money and use as ticket while you use bus or mrt (tube). It'd be a good idea to have those in ID chains with a soft plastic card holder hanging around your neck. I find it pretty inconvenient to take out my wallet to tap every time I ride a bus/mrt.

Those who wants to have a variety of food - this is your place to be, trust me on that. You get to have chines & malay food almost everywhere. Also loads of indian food places serving both north and south indian dishes. Not enough for you yet? How about Japanese too? From traditional sushi to steak being made on your plate (patented technology!) right in front of you? Did I mention that some of the hotels have french chefs? I happen to go to one of those once and then I realized why Joe once told me, "To French people, food is almost like a religion"

So far, that is all about Singapore for today, please drop your comments - they are most welcome all the time. Hope to post soon...

take care...