Setting up in Singapore

Setting Up & Settling In

We have been in Singapore for one month now, and we are all slowly acclimatising to the heat. Some days better than others, but we definitely know how to keep to the shade, linger in a breeze and make a dive for an air-conditioned shopping mall, even if we are not in consumer mode.

Our first week was spent downtown at the Bencoolen Hotel in, you guessed it, Bencoolen Street. Breakfast was served at tables out on the street - a nice touch. I enjoyed the salted fish and green pandan bread. After our arrival, we attended meetings at the Mininsty and some introductory workshops on curriculum at the Teachers' Network. In between times, it was a mad dash to look for and nab an apartment. We viewed at about 12 - 14 apartments in all, in a range of locations where one or other of us were going to be teaching or near to where the boys' would be attending school.

Looking at apartments, it was hard not to let that surprised, shocked look creep across the face as the agent enthusiastically told you how this particular apartment was 'soooo spacious', when you felt you were looking at a shoebox, for small sized feet at that. We saw some places with fabulous resort style facilities, snaking pools with stunning, landscaped gardens and even waterfalls; others with great panoramic skyline views, a HUDC on Braddel Hill which is a converted HDB (Govt housing in which most Singaporeans live) and which I quite liked, but Felicity and our female agent said there was something funny about the shower design in bathroom which would make it difficult for me to shower and which completely passed me by. I must have been too busy looking at the view. We even inspected one luxury condo with with three marble bathrooms that seemed bigger than the pocket handkerchief bedrooms. Over designed? A tad. Definately not for us.

The process was all about weighing up and attempting to balance: facilities, space, proximity to amenities, travel to/from two workplaces and two schools. Trying to get something to meet all those criteria was no mean feat, especially as we had no real idea where we were. The mounting hotel bill at Bencoolen, however, kept us (especially me) on our toes and out there looking. We eventually decided on a place in Bishan - which I'll tell you all about soon. After making our decision, we checked out of the 'Ben' on Sat morning and moved, with stacks of luggage, over to a backpacker place for the weekend - 'Sleepy Sam's' in Bussorah St. We gave up the refrigerator air con for fan style dorm rooms in an old shop house in Kampong Glam, the Malay Quarter. The four of us squeezed onto the veranda with matresses on the floor, a tiny area, one floor up overlooking the street, no windows only lovely, old wooden shutters.

Sleepy Sam's is a friendly place full of backpackers and the area around is fantastically atmospheric. We were awoken at 5am each morning by the call to prayer from 'Sultan Masjid' a huge mosque topped with golden domes and surrounded by minarets, about 50 meters up the street. Young Xave - always on the case - announced at breakfast, "Was there a party? I heard all these people singing in the middle of the night." We explored Arab Street, Felicity & I getting a tour of four Persian carpet shops from a very silken-tongued Iranian salesman. Nice carpets too. Special price -just for us. On Sunday afternoon, we ventured across the Rochor Canal into 'Little India' checked out a couple of Hindu Temples and ate some sensational South Indian vegetarian food, served on banana leaves. At one point Felicity asked me, 'Do you notice anything?' This time I got it right, she was the only female in there. As it turned out, we weren't committing any cultural faux pas, its just that there is a large, Indian male workforce in Singapore and heaps of them converge on Little India on Sunday afternoons. Probably their only day off.

The apartment we have settled on is in Bishan, in the central area of the island, called the 'heartland' cos bucket loads of people live here, now including us. We are up the top end of Bishan, almost in Ang Mo Kio, which is a very busy and highly populated area with many blocks of HDB flats, all with shops and hawker centres in the void decks underneath them. On the map we are kind of half way between my and Felicity's school, but in fact as it has turned out we are much closer to mine.

Our apartment is a condominium or private flat. These all come with a range of facilities and ours has a 25m pool, two tennis courts, squash court, gym and barbecue facilities. Whilst the block we have chosen is an older style place (new is sought after), it is quite spacious and the apartment has a second living area where we have housed the computer and set up our skype deck. Eventually we may put in a couch for the boys and another TV.

We realised our good fortune when we began to explore, the HDB blocks across the road and discovered two or three local hawker centres, a variety of shops and a wet market. Good food and cheaper shopping. Works for me. The other bonus is that we can take full advantage of Singapore's networked, reliable and efficient transport system, just outside our back gate. (Am I working for the govt or what?) All we have to do is head out and each of us can catch a bus, virtually to the door of our school. Xave, Jordy and Felicity often get to travel on air con double deckers and I have a choice of 4 different buses to get me to and from work. And if you think the buses are good, try the trains. The carriages stop at exactly the same place each time and if the platform info says the train will be arriving in one minute then it arrives in one minute and not a second later. In the month we've been here I don't think we've had to wait longer than 6 minutes for a train and only a few minutes longer for a bus.

Getting out of our back gate to the bus stop, we walk through Bishan Park. Just out the gate on a pole is a sigh which reads 'Do not feed the monkeys, it interferes with their natural habits and makes them aggressive to humans', with suitably amusing graphics. We though it must have been from a time long gone, until Xave had a day off school early on and, out walking in the park, came across a whole tribe of macaques playing on the lawn. Bishan Park is a long thin park that runs for a few kilometres. It has walking and cycling tracks, landscaped ponds, various stone and other wooden bridges, a lotus pond, playing fields, squirrels and much more. It is a total joy to have on our doorstep. In the morning, especially on weekends, it is a hive of activity with joggers, cyclists, rollerbladers and locals practising various Eastern forms - Tai Chi, Qi Gong etc. In the cool of early morning or evening its great for a stroll or ride.

A bit further away, but really just down the road a little are McRitchie and Pierce Resevoir Parks. Flick, Jordy & I went out for an inadvertent 10k walk there a couple of Sundays ago. Its a full on jungle park, with monkeys scampering through trees, butterflies and horse-sized flying insects buzzing around. We found a great tree top walk that takes you through the top of the jungle canopy - a bit like the Otway Fly. Very hot and sweaty, but verdant and exotically tropical. Plants with giant sized leaves and paths winding through the canopy so you walk in the shade and not out in the sun. We'll definitely be going there again. There's much more to tell as life here begins to unfold, but that will do for the first installment.