As a continuation of my Singapore experience, I’d like to show you a more mundane area of Singapore life that used a technique that was new to me.  I haven’t seen this particular method in the United States, although, that is by no means a barometer of the true state of the nation.  

To frame this, let me say Singapore is a very beautiful and modern city.  But when the daily temperature is rarely below the 80’s Fahrenheit, there is one item in the laundary equipment list that Singaporeans don’t find all that useful.  The clothes dryer!

There are many Singaporeans that have dryers, but most Singaporeans don’t own one.  And when offered one, they don’t really want it!  Their view, why pay electricity, when I can hang it out to dry.  And they have quite a system for doing that.  Almost every flat built (excepting some of the newest ones) have little holders in the wall just out the window to allow them to hang their clothes on bamboo or aluminum sticks.  And the newest flats that don’t have the holders, have a built in line to be able to hang the clothes in a hallway in the house, or a swinging mechanism that goes outside as well.  And in the kitchen, on the ceiling are little hooks to hang the poles on when they aren’t outside.  I know many Americans still hang their clothes out on the line, but I have yet to see them hanging them on sticks stuck in the wall!

This system is all over the place, whether it an old block of flats or one of the newest skyscraper blocks, you’ll see the poles with clothes attached all up and down the buildings.  It’s great!  Most are right out the kitchen window, which is usually where the washer is.  But that creates some little complications.  

One of them is falling food or water.  Many times the cook of the house will throw out little bits of left over soup or curry out the window, and, yes, has the possibility of landing on your nice clean clothes!  So, most folks cut open a little plastic grocery bag and clip it over their clothes so that any dripping water, or falling curry sauce doesn’t tarnish that beautiful new shirt you just bought yesterday.  And as a comical side note, don’t walk under the kitchen windows of the blocks either, as you might end up with a little bit of curry down your shirt!

Another little complication, what if you’re like me and tend to be a little clumsy dropping things.  Well, sometimes, no matter how hard you try to clip things before you get them out the window, things fall.  Never fear, as they many times get caught on someone else’ pole on the flat downstairs.  So then you use your little pole and do your best to retrieve the item.  It’s funny to watch and embarrassing to experience!  If you can’t get it with your pole, you get the great opportunity of asking the neighbor for that piece of dropped underwear!  But, if you’re unlucky enough to see your clothes make it all they way to the ground without getting caught somewhere, you best run like crazy for the ground, because clothes usually get picked up by a maintenance person or passing neighbor rather quickly.

The last complication is weather.  Many times, you can get caught with a surpise little rainstorm.  And when that happens you can see everyone diving for their kitchen windows to yank those poles in the window as fast as they can.  Because many times when it rains in Singapore, it really pours!  The light little sprinkle turns very quickly.  So you want to work quickly.  It really brings the neighborhood together, as they tend to laugh and joke with each other, since it can be pretty humorous.

All in all, it works great.  And they have the weather that can make it really effective.  Clearly here in the north country, it’s only effective about 2-3 months out of the year.  But in Singapore, it’s just the way the world turns.

I’ve been meaning to post for more than a week, but trying to pack the last few things in have left no time to write.  I promise in the next week, I’ll post a few more impressions from Singapore.

Stay tuned!

Well, we’ve now been here just over a week.  Probably the biggest thing that I’ve learned to use is mass-transit.  Now, if you’re used to riding mass-transit, then it isn’t such a shock, but this small town kid, who loves his car, has had some adjusting to do.  Singaporeans use mass transit almost exclusively and for good reason.  So, I’ve been learning the in and outs of traveling by bus and train, and the occasional taxi.  Now let me give some background.

Like I said in the previous post, Singapore has a lot of people crammed into a very small space.  If this country were to behave like most of the United States, and each person had their own car, there really wouldn’t be enough room to fit all the cars.  So, the government has created a system to limit the number of cars on the road.  The system has been fairly successful, as most people cannot afford to drive.

To begin with, a person who wishes to buy a car, must buy a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) for the car.  To purchase one, you must bid for it in an auction.  The number of available COE’s is very limited, so the cost is very high.  As of the last auction, last week, a COE for a car more than 1600cc was just over S$17,000.  Also, there is the regular car registration fee of S$1,000, and add to that the “additional registration fee” of 110% of the overall market value (OMV) of the car.  And since there are no domestically produced cars, there is also a 41% OMV import duty.  Note, a US dollar is worth approx. 1.32 Singapore dollars, so yes, it is a lot of money. 

Once you own the car, there really is no free parking.  You must rent a space at your apartment, and if you go in town, you must pay to park almost everywhere.  Also, there is what is known as the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system, that is basically a road toll charging system, that is all automatic.  It uses a card system installed in every car imported into Singapore, where you must have a prepaid card to cover you tolls, or you get fined quite heavily.  And as far as operation, when you drive on certain roads at certain times of the day (which usually translate to the time you must drive in town), the tolls can be quite high.  And did anyone say fuel prices?  Petrol here is over S$2 per liter!  So beyond the initial purchase, cost of ownership is really cost prohibitive.  The only ones owning cars are the rich, the pure showoffs, and some expats who convinced their companies to foot the bill!

One last barrier is the driving test, rumor is that it is very difficult to pass.  So they have “driver’s ed” here too.  Although, I don’t think the government provides it.

So, the folks, who aren’t among the 800,000 or so motorists, ride the bus, train or taxi.  The picture here is one of the many transit buses, an open-top tour bus, and a couple of taxis.  By the way, the taxi is the mode of choice when you’re late!