Swedish in Singapore: Hello Singapore!

We landed on time at 06.05 in the morning on the 16th of June in Singapore after a very pleasant flight, walked through immigration with no problems, got our bags in 5 minutes, swept through customs and packed ourselves into an AC:ed taxi towards Robertson Quay Hotel. S$20 (20 Singaporean dollars; x ca 5 to get SEK, x ca 50 to get JPY and x ca 0.5 to get є) and 30 minutes later, we arrived at the hotel, checked in, left our bags and headed for breakfast. We had a lot of coffee (!) and started planning what to do next.

Singapore at dawn

Since we wouldn’t have access to the room until ca 12.00, we decided to see if we could find info regarding some practical issues like bank accounts, phones etc. We strolled through Clarke’s Quay, over to the River Walk and passed small, very cute restaurant on the way to Raffles Place. Banks in Singapore open at 8.30 and at 9.15 we stepped out with bank accounts, platinum VISA cards and internet banking secure login equipment. We had only brought Jonas employment papers and our passports. Everyone spoke English. We signed three pieces of papers. That was it. Hooray!
We then went across the square to Singtel; here it took only 20 minutes and then we had one phone subscription sorted. We needed to see if it worked with our Japanese phones before buying another, so we decided to go for lunch at a Hawker center (open food court) close by and then go back to the hotel. Food at Hawker centers are typically S$2-6 and ANY freshly pressed juice is S$1-3; you can choose between local, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Korean, Malay, Japanese, Turkish, German, French, Italian, African, Indonesian, Balinese etc cuisines and the quality is good to fantastic.

The only thing to watch out for in Singapore at a hawker center: this drink is absolutely disgusting

When we got back to the hotel we got our room, unpacked, had long showers (!) and then J started fixing the phone while I got going with the next main goal: finding an apartment. The hotel only had wired internet but since J had packed the wireless router in the hand luggage, we were soon browsing wirelessly on all computers. After a couple of hours the phone issue was sorted and Jonas went back to the store for a second phone account; since I already had agent for apartments calling us on my line I stayed and started booking apartment viewings.

A fantastic picnic in bed with everything we’ve been craving for the last months in Japan

After afternoon picnic in bed, a nap and updating our families via Skype and Viber, we took a brave decision to go for Singaporean chili crab to celebrate everything running so smoothly. If you ever find yourself in the same situation, don’t. First, remember you are not Singaporean and hence not used to Singaporean chili. Second, make sure that you always have water with you, a lot of water, at least the first week whenever you decide to go for Singaporean food (they have chili in pretty much everything). Third, know where the bathroom is. We are normally OK with spicy food, but not this kind and tones of it. It was just brutal. In addition, it was really messy and since we of course didn’t realize the water trick until it was too late, we in addition got absolutely shit faced since we were downing beer after beer. The combination of two very tired souls, heaps of chili and massive amounts of Tiger beer was not treating us to become the best of guests, so after paying we quickly left as gracefully as possible. Both of us looked like the helpers of the Matador in Disney’s Ferdinand (Badariljarena?), with huge red lips and big round eyes. It was just not a good experience and I’m still both amazed and surprised we found our way back to the hotel with all our belongings without falling in the canal on the way.

Jonas starting his meal, still looking OK

Next morning no one in our room was up for scrambled eggs with egg shells nor pale slithery sausage and coffee smelling of old feet, so we skipped breakfast. I had booked the viewing starting on Saturday morning, since I had a suspicion we really needed a day off; we took a walk to where Jonas would start working, did some quiet shopping and chilled at the hotel pool. Around 19.00 we were picked up by our friend David who brought to the Singaporean Flyer (I think it’s actually the world’s tallest Ferris wheel) in the marina to join the Sing Beer Fest. Completely amazing and we had a fantastic time; thank you David and Claudia!

My man in action at the beer fest, loving every second of it!

The next day at 10.00, the apartment hunt began. Oh lord.