Low tax and no crime... up for takers?

[Huguenot]

Had my 2007/8 tax bill through yesterday. Nice and easy to understand: transparent progressive taxation, no national insurance and no wierd double counting.

Came to 7%.

Singapore's where it's at ;-)

Unemployment is 2.3%

Last year 236,000 jobs were created (approximately 10% growth in total workforce), of which 61% went to expats. There's massive demand in these areas.

I work in advertising and media and skills shortage is really quite dramatic. Not much demand for expat roles in nerdy administrative areas though, locals are very good at IT support themselves ;-)

Salaries are a little lower than the UK, but tax is so much lower that net household income is much higher.

You need to be culturally open-minded and sensitive as although everyone speaks English, 70% of population are of Chinese descent. If you have a nervous disposition when you don't understand everyone then don't come!

The climate's terrific if a little invariable: it's either sunny or rainy, sometimes several times in the same day, but it's always 35 degrees. It never gets searingly hot as it's on the sea.

We spend weekends in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia which are all an hour or so's flight for 70 quid on a Friday night.

I hear that whilst the Asian Tiger is roaring, the UK economy is taking a nosedive?

If any of you guys are interested and have 5 year's plus experience at something useful, then have a look at the government employment site here.

It's possible to apply for 5 year employment passes from the UK that allow you to be unemployed and still resident in Singapore for periods of up to 6 months. Hence plenty of time to job hunt (although you'll be better paid if you get the job whilst you're actually in the UK).

[SeanMacGabhann]

On the other hand, not a GREAT social life there I'm guessing, huh?

[ratty]

Should this not be on the Singapore forum?

[*Bob*]

That's not fair, Sean.

I'm sure there's an absolutely kickin' corporate/executive/expat scene. And then there's the golf, of course..

[PeckhamRose]

But . . . splutter .... cough.... it's not LONDON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lozzyloz]

I spent many years as an expat in your line of work. Much as there are many benefits (mostly financial) it just ain't home. Unless you take up citizenship you know you're eventually leaving (not necessarily to go home), so you never really settle. You also get tired of seeing most of the same old expat faces and as soon as you make some interesting friends, the next thing you know they're relocated or you get another posting. I was always able to get on an overnight flight to see friends and family every few weeks (or vice versa) which helped any home sick pangs and restocking of Marmite and PG Tips, but it's a little less practical from SE Asia. Still, just think of the money!!;-)

[Huguenot]

Ha! SMG,almost right - I'm working from home at the moment, that's why I've been on here more often recently ;-) I'm drawn like a moth to the flame by the marvellous chit-chat and myriad personalities...

30-something expats in Singapore tend to be of a certain type, more Clapham than ED, but the full cross-section if you know what I mean? It tends to depend where you are, Holland Village/Siglap have quite an ED feel, a bit like a London suburb in the sun. The shops/pubs/bars are local with regulars etc. mostly Brits. Joo Chiat (where I'm at) is more like a dormer suburb with restaurants rather than bars.

The turnover in expat locals is no different to the yuppie element of ED/London on the whole. Average stay is about 4 years, but a lot are 10 years or more. I've rediscovered mates over here that I was best buddies with in the mid 90s in the UK.

There's a lack of 'high-brow' culture like theatre (only 2 venues), or large scale sports like footie or cricket. However the band scene is big here both on a small local scale and international level. Mainstream this month we've got Alicia Keys and Travis in outdoor concert at Fort Canning Park. We've just had Jools Holland. Plenty of classical, and even a two week Guitar Festival. I don't know about off-beat music, but I recognise several of those silly names that come up on the music thread.

No smoky jazz bars unfortunately, but I figure the UK lost those as well? Food is miles better here on a pound-for-pound basis, although it did take some searching for the right places.

Telly's b*llocks.

I think the big difference with your experience LL would be numbers and internationalism. You'd be describing Beijing well - it was a real hardship posting. However Marmite and PG Tips aren't an issue in Singapore - 'Cold Storage' stocks everything you'd buy in ED and then some. They've even got Waitrose ;-)

I can't say I've ever got homesick, although we all miss our mates :). I've been in Asia on and off for four years and don't really see any point in returning to the UK at all. We didn't get posted out here, we chose to have a look-see.

I reckon change happens all the time - people come and go, friendships wax and wane, and neighborhoods mutate (consider ED long termers' complaints). I prefer to initiate that change as a voyage of discovery rather than let it just happen! South America next I think...

[Marmora Man]

I had my 21st birthday in Singapore and the social life was great - then back in 197 "hrrummpp". Back then Singapore was very different - smelly monsoon ditches, go-downs, street stalls, Raffles bar for gin slings, rickshaw men. Now, what I've seen of it, on fleeting stop overs on the way to KL, it's a little like Canary Wharf set on the equator - lots a high rise blocks, clean streets, cute railways, massive massive law ' order presence.

Living there might be different but English beer only tastes right in England so that's where I plan to retire. Plus ex-pat communities can be very strange sometimes. (tho' perhaps fun - cf: Greta Scaatchi in White Mischief)

[Alan Dale]

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[Rico]

Alan don't you live in those 70's ex-local's near Somerfield? Surely they are 2 maybe 3 b'room. Are you keen for a 5 bedroom period having suffered on the estate :-)

[Huguenot]

I live in a 3,000 sq ft terrace shop house over 3 floors - freehold is now around 1m quid (S$3m). On that basis prices are pretty similar to ED ;-)

The bubble was much faster than UK, and I missed it.

Front

Back

Pretty in a cute way! :D

(I rent!!!)

[macroban]

Does any of this sound familiar?

[Alan Dale]

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[DaveR]

I was in S'pore earlier in the year, and we have considered a move there, and yet...

Ex-pat life is always different from home - it's just a question of degree. For example, had no difficulty turning down mainland China - just too isolating to be so definitively outside domestic society. Similarly, HK can be a fun place, but not where I want my kids to grow up.

The food is great though. But food in Malaysia better, and a lot cheaper.

[mockney piers]

Yeah, we had a great meal in a commuter town outside KL, four of us had thalis on banana leaves, fed to bursting point and absolutely delicious.

I settled the cheque, 5 quid...for the lot!!!!

[Alan Dale]

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[mockney piers]

I think it was a family business type affair and they all seemed a happy bunch, i think the cost of living drops pretty dramatically away from the tourist areas, this was where the taxi driver would eat.

[Huguenot]

House prices??? There are more things twixt heaven and earth, Dalatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy

MacRoban and Dale's like watching two yokel's critiquing a Model T

"Oi dohn no, nod ged no soilage in thaaaht..?"

Go on, turn the key, let's see what's over the hill.

*evil glint*

[????]

Hangin' around with Nick Leeson wanabee's and their Singaporean equivalents, banging thai whores every friday night and living in a souless city with a fake beach, sounds great.....can't stand the place

[SeanMacGabhann]

come on ???? - play your cards right and YOU TOO could one day manage Galway City FC

(another night with you not at the drinks again - people DID talk...)

[Huguenot]

Ah quids, you have your hate-tinted spectacles on again ;-)

It is so difficult to find an aspiration that you haven't pissed against like an incontinent dingo.

Are you so embarassed by your lack of bowel control that you justify it by sneering at the rest of us...?

"I'm doing this schplatt because shplart I hate you blatt not because I am weak zhzhpurrrt..."

As Sir Walter Scott said, ?Better that they had ne'er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn?

[MrBen]

Travis and Alicia Keys??

Singapore here I come!!!

[Tony.London Suburbs]

MrBen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Travis and Alicia Keys??>

> Singapore here I come!!!

......As long as its not Dave Lee Travis and Richard Keys....

[Keef]

Only spent a couple of days in Singapore, and found it really bizarre in the way old and new are all kind of thrown in together. I did like it though, but not sure I could hack it for long. That said, Mrs Keef and I have talked about doing a couple of years to see what it's like...

[citizenED]

Sorry to be a sentimentalist, but I'd not want to be a few thousand miles away from my dear old mum. She'd have virtually no contact with her darling little grandkids. Is that not an issue for anyone re-locating abroad?