Surviving Singapore: Public Tranport, Climate, Food, Language and Shopping

Even though Singapore is the smallest country in South-East Asia, it is also an Asian Tiger, meaning its economy is highly developed. For all you exchange and international students, we will provide a short survival guide about Singapore. The country might be small, but the differences are big.

Let’s start off with public transport in Singapore. First of all, the public transport system in Singapore is well established, meaning that there is a great connection between places. Singaporean Public Transport includes taxi, rails and bus.

SBS Transit and SMRT Buses are found throughout the island. MRT buses runs across the entire city and is quite convenient, starts around 6 am and ends around 12 am at night (timings vary depending on which part of the line you are). In weekends it runs a bit later than the weekdays. The frequency also varies – buses depart around 2 minutes during peak hours and around 6 minutes during non-peak hours. Unlike Rotterdam, the MRT is always very crowded, so be prepared to stand and squeeze (especially if you are going to town around 8.30 am or 6 pm). Furthermore, there are maps and all stations are announced in English, so quite user-friendly as well. To use the buses you need a farecard, which can be bought at any MRT station. The farecard comes from the term “distance-fare”, meaning that your fare price depends on how far your journey is. You can also buy single tickets from the machines at the MRT stations. You always have to pay a $1,- deposit, which you can get back if you return the single ticket back in the machine. For exchange students we advise you to get an ez-link card, similar to the Dutch OV chipcard. You have to pay a $5,- deposit and you can top them up by cash/credit/debit at the machines in the stations. It’s similar to the OV chipcard, since you also have the tap-in-tap-out system. If you don’t tap out, you get charged the maximum fare. The rail transport in Singapore knows four main lines, namely; the East West Line, North South Line, the Circle Line, and the North East Line with more than 100 stations. MRTs are more reliable time-wise than other buses. You can buy an unlimited bus pass for $52 per month, an unlimited MRT pass for around $40 per month or a joint unlimited MRT-bus pass for $92,- per month.

                                                       Rail transport in Singapore

Taxis can be found anywhere and are 50% more expensive from 12 pm until 6 am. Taxis keep revising the fares, because of the taxi drivers’ complaints. Starting price is around $3, and it goes up with 20 cents every 400 meters. There are some extra charges. For instance, when you call a taxi, you have to pay a starting price of $2.50, peak hours you pay 30% extra than normal or midnight- 6 am you pay 50% extra than normally. Taxi drivers are normally very talkative. Most of the taxi drivers are Chinese with a very heavy accent and others are Singaporean whom speak English. Unlike the Netherlands, it is not common to cycle in Singapore, except by the beaches.

An important note; you are NOT allowed to eat and drink on the buses/trains. If you do so, you get fined quite heavily. There are also consequently no bins inside the MRT stations.

Since Singapore is close to the equator, it is very logical that the climate is hot, humid and wet. You can decide to take a shower outside, since the showers are year-round and there is always a high temperature. You might not be used to the warm and humid weather, so it’s very important to dress accordingly. June is the hottest period in Singapore, meaning around 35 degrees Celsius. From July to October the Southwest monsoon, rain fall for the entire day, takes place. So it’s always good to have an umbrella against the very heavy tropical rain fall. The rain starts and stops very suddenly – always a natural surprise! It is less hot from November to February. On a small note, don't forget that there is air conditioning in every building. It might not be a bad idea to bring a cardigan with you, in case you get a cold. Moreover, it doesn’t really get colder at night. Besides, it is also important to apply and re-apply sunblock if you’re going outside, since the UV intensity is very high. Flip Flops are A MUST and seems to be the national shoe. Even though Singapore is a small city, it may be totally sunny in one area and having a downpour in another. Always good to check the weather – say if you book a tennis court etc.

  

We don’t have to forget to fill the stomach with some yummy food. Where and what? If you want to eat out, you can find traditional cheap out-places at Hawker centers for around $2,50 per meal. Some of the Chinese food are quite oily though, so it may not suit everyone’s taste, but others say that the best Singaporean food can be found in the Hawker centers. Another option is the food courts (also called “food junction” or “food republic”) and these can be found on the top floor/basement of shopping centers. The food court consist out of lots of stalls with Chinese, Western, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian food around $5,-. MacDonalds also reached Singapore and so did Burger King and Pizza Hut , which are 24 hours open. In Little India you can find many Indian Restaurants. Tasty dim sum can be eaten in Chinatown – the chains; Din Tai Fung and Chrystal Jade are famous for their dim sum (open until 10 pm). Bubble Tea has become very popular in Singapore and people queue up for them for good lables like Gong Cha. If you want to cook at home, you can find lots of supermarkets which close around 10 pm. Prices are comparable to the Netherlands, although fruits and dairy related stuff may be more expensive.  

                               Dim Sum at Din Tai Fung                                   Bubble Tea at Gong Chu

The national languages are English, Malay, Tamil and Mandarin. Malay, Tamil and Mandarin are three representative races of Singapore and English is the common language. Schools are all taught in English and all the signs are in English. People in Singapore have a "Singaporean accent" and over time they have also developed this thing called "singlish" - a mix of English, Mandarin, Hokkien and Malay words. Thus, if you have hear Singaporeans talk, you may hear unfamiliar words in between. They also like to add "lah" and "leh" at the ends of their sentences. If you look Chinese, it might be the case that people approach you in Mandarin.


Singapore is filled with shopping centers. Basically, for each MRT station stop, there is a shopping center on top of it. These are the smaller ones though, and may not have all the shops you want. In general they will have bakeries and ATM machines. There are bigger shopping centers in the town area - Orchard Road is called the "shopping street". They sell branded goods and you can find high street store types, supermarkets, bookstores, electronics, etc. The newer shopping centers are Orchard Central (for luxury goods) and Ion and the older shopping centers are Plaza Singapura and Takashimaya. For clothes, you can take a look in the Bugis street. It is market like, and therefore it's hard to decipher between the fashionable and the not so fashionable clothes. 

Orchard Road - Shopping Center

Last but not least; Chewing gum is strictly forbidden and you can't buy it anywhere in Singapore! On top of that, you are also forbidden to smoke in public spaces! 


Special thanks to Soonae Hwang, a Singaporean student on exchange in Rotterdam, who gave me all inside-information about interesting Singapore. 

- Shermin C.