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.

Singapore.  Most folks in the US have no idea where the country is.  To them, it’s some mystery Asian country that was featured a couple times in Pirates of the Caribbean, where it was ruled more by bandits and outlaws than anything else.  But, the truth of the matter is, Singapore is a small but powerful island-city nation.  It touts one of the largest per capita GDP rates of any nation in Asia, and packs its almost 4.5 million residents in less than 800 square kilometers, making it one of the most densely populated cities in the world.

Because the country’s small land size, the government had to get creative, to be able to maintain a healthy real estate market and keep all of its citizens in decent and affordable housing.  The solution was high rise apartment buildings, in which the apartments, or “flats” as they are called, could be purchased.  Most “blocks,” the name buildings themselves are called due to their distinct building numbering, are more than 9 or 10 stories high.  Some of the new buildings look to be at least 20.  

The beauty of this is that there are plenty of homes for sale at most any moment allowing the free market to set the prices.  And the government regularly pulls down old apartment buildings, and replacing them with new, which means there is not usually a problem with one section of town being wildly out of class with another.

In this picture, you can see the apartment buildings ranging in their various sizes.  Also, if you look closely at the building closest in the picture, you can see a number, 116.  This is the “Block” number.  Every building is a “Block” and is numbered as such.  Another tidbit, due to the land size, industry and housing can many times share very close quarters, and this picture shows a small industrial area made up of the little red buildings sandwiched between apartment blocks.

I hope to show some other little things about Singapore in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Andy