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what's going on everybody this is Island Hopper TV and today we're going to talk about things to know
when visiting Singapore let's do it all right guys let's talk about General facts about Singapore
there's 5.5 million people who live in this country which is basically a city of 64 different
islands that make up the entire country it's very small it sits at the tip of the Malaysian
Peninsula and it strategically positioned here because it connects the South China Sea with
the Indian Ocean for a trading route that's what made Singapore such a prolific place to
begin with when the colonists and the locals the Chinese the veronicons were all settling this area
let's talk about transportation in Singapore so they do have an MRT Mass rapid transit
Subway they also have rap and taxis now grab is the competitor with Uber or well the equivalent to
Uber because Uber is not here so when you get here you need to download grab the super app that's how
you get around want to take taxis they're pretty easy to hail right off the side of the street here
now flying out of this airport in out or layover in Singapore at Changi is considered one of the
best airports in the world so Changi Airport has the jewel four terminals it's a very big uh place
there they do have ferries it will also take you to Indonesia and you can also cross into Johor
which is Malaysia so Singapore is a very small island and you can get around very efficiently all
across this area now if you're going to Sentosa island they have a cable car they also have a tram
so many Transportation options I would say that when you come
to Singapore you're going to be impressed with what you see in terms of Transportation
let's talk about history here in Singapore how did it get its name well Singapura it's because
the sultan when he arrived here said he saw a lion that's why you call it Singapura Singapore
but there's no evidence that Lions actually lived here next it is a culturally diverse
place multiculturalism is very real here you have melee you have Indians you have Chinese which are
called the bronacons indigenous people which are considered mostly melee you also have Indonesians
so it's very diverse also the British were coming here that's why you'll see things like Ben Coolin
or raffles very British colony here dating all the way back to the early 1800s all right let's
talk about safety in Singapore so in case you didn't know Singapore is definitely one of the
safest cities in all of the world actually safest countries in all of the world low crime rate now
when can you have a problem in Singapore well it can happen in certain areas that are outside of
the city center late at night there might be a little bit of an issue but you're not going to
encounter uh hardcore Prime like you're not going to have domestic violence situations as much as
you do in other places petty theft is very rare there's really not too much to worry about when
it comes to safety here men or women I mean I wouldn't necessarily recommend being out at two
o'clock at night because there are some seedy areas like around bokeh or Clark key late at
night can be a little bit rough around gilong it can be a little bit rough maybe even around
Orchard but for the most part it's really a safe place if you exercise Common Sense
let's talk about currency and money in Singapore so they use the SGD that's the Singapore dollar
right now it's currency exchange with the US dollar parity is about 1.38 Singapore dollars
equals one US dollar so you'll notice things tend to be around fifty dollars for say food but really
that's forty dollars in US dollars they're about something around that exchange rate now when it
comes to cards they do take American Express here they take Visa they take MasterCard they also have
a local currency in some areas it does depend on whether or not you have cash so I do recommend
going to an ATM and pulling out some money carrying around around 400 Singapore dollars will
last you around two to three days depending on how much you're spending but trying to use digital
payments anywhere anytime you can is always advisable because Singapore at the end of the
day really is a city that is moving more towards digital payments and less away from paper cash
all right so let's talk about food one of the big things you're going to want to know is that
the food hackers are where the locals go and that's where the good prices are and the best
variety with the best quality so let's dive into those food Hawkers and talk about that right now
all right guys we're here at the Maxwell food Hawker as you know across Singapore there's many
different Hawkers we're gonna go walk around here and see what kind of food they have right here
and Maxwell there are many food Hawkers across Singapore what a hawker basically is it's a center
for food and an open-air complex that allows many different food stalls to sell you a wide variety
of affordably cheap Cuisine here in Singapore you can find a variety of different chinese vietnamese
Korean Japanese melee Indonesian and much more along with Maxwell's also check out Lao Passat
right down the road yep so I got some roasted pork and Duck and here's a look at some saute
chicken on a stick this is very popular with melee cuisine so we're at a food Hawker right
next to Ben Cooling and this is a wonton with Port you can see the port here noodles and then
the uh little wonton right here oh it's hard to pick up the wontons but steaming hot I also got
a Sarsaparilla and W I never get this but today I just decided to get some root beer and here
we have a bun with some pork in the middle and then we have some sumai so sumai is a dumpling
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some raw oysters on a half shell
oysters sashimi
yeah and this is some minced clam with garlic
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lobsters the reason they do this is to show the freshness and the quality of the actual Seafood
wonton noodles and Char Sue seems like that's what I always gravitate
towards this is a pork and that's a chicken eye or a duck I'm not sure
so this is what I ended up getting Char soup
well we got some chicken laska and get it with seafood which
is like a clam shell but this is a white chicken
you go out late at night you'll get true Drunken Noodles right here in Singapore we're at one of
the Hawkers in Boat Key about 11 p.m we've had a couple beers after the World Cup and
we've got some Drunken Noodles see fish ball right here a little bit of some meat
and when it comes to accommodation there'll be a few different areas you may end up this here
is a look at Ben Coolin this is one of the centrally located areas right near Roker or
Bugis this is a look at a hundred and thirty dollar a night hotel as you can see it's very
small there's barely enough wiggle room Singapore being that it's so densely populated it's hard to
find big rooms unless you're willing to pay a bit more and the funny thing is those are
two different rooms at two different hotels so it's pretty standard sizing and layout here in
Singapore the hotels are high rises and so are the condos the apartments if you wanted to do
a month-long lease that's something you would be looking at is a high-rise even though the
room is small the bed is still very comfortable sometimes you get fast internet sometimes you
get super slow internet the high rent district is going to be an orchard or in the Marina Bay
area near the Fullerton hotel if you wanted to save some money try out boat key or Clark
key and check out the pod hotels like Galaxy pods the capsule Hotel there's actually a few of these
and for those of you looking to do some shopping some of the areas you can check out for Trinkets
and souvenirs Little India or Chinatown obviously that's where you're going to get more
of the cultural local feel for what's going on in Singapore but if you wanted some high-end shopping
you could head to one of the many indoor malls now Singapore has quite a few malls with affordably
cheap shopping where you can find shirts for five dollars Singapore or even more affordable so they
have the low end shopping malls and then they also have they have the one at Marina Bay Sands which
is an incredibly expensive high-end mall they also have some malls in the orchard area like ion
but if you just walk around the area of Marina Bay Sands you'll find in nice air-conditioned
environment with a gondola great lighting with even indoor food hawker stalls there's also a
mall at the Promenade which is another big mall huge Mall actually they have another mall at the
area where Sentosa is on Harbor front and you can see lots of escalators going up and down because
they build them many floors up so no matter what your taste is for shopping whether it's
Louis Vuitton and highly expensive clothing like Dior or perfume you'll be able to find
that here if you're looking for cheap affordable shopping you'll also be able to find that it's
just a matter of knowing where to go Singapore is definitely a shopping friendly City and Country
now let's talk about the weather so Singapore is considered a year-round destination because it is
just miles north of the equator it's literally the closest you can get to the equator without
getting on the Equator so they say well what are the best months to visit some would say
between December and June when I was there in November and December I found it to be very wet
and rainy it seemed like it rained every single day it's usually hot and dry in the months of
May and July if that's what you're looking for but if you're looking for more of that
rain climate November has the highest amount of rain days and the lowest is actually going
to be in February the average temperature ranges anywhere between 31 to 33 degrees Celsius or if
you're going by degrees Fahrenheit you're going to be looking at 85 to 90 degrees pretty much
any time of the year expect a lot of humidity in Singapore for me I like the rain that arrives in
the late afternoon after a long hot day it's nice to get a downpour or some rain or I like
waking up sometimes after a hot day to a nice downpour in the morning I look out the window
and it's downpouring and then usually the rain dries up and in Comes the Sun but it does get
humid it when that happens but I do not mind the rainy season also the overcast weather protects
you from the extremely bright sun down here on the equator but if you're looking to take some
pictures you probably want some blue skies so it just depends on what your interests are but I do
know that the sun is extremely hot the closer you are to the equator and Singapore is no exception
now when it comes to nightlife there are a few different areas that you can find live
music karaoke you can check out Boat Key and the Clark key area that's really a popular place for
nightlife also consider going to Orchard you'll be able to walk the downtown Avenue right there
called Orchard Road and there's lots of action going on street performances so Orchard Boat
Key Clark key you can also go down to the marina Sands area if you're lucky enough go to the very
top of the actual Marina Sands to the bar on top Singapore is a very social City so expect to go
out and do some nightlife because you'll see that's what people do out here is they enjoy
the evening times just after their work day or after the sun's gone down and it's not quite
as hot with that bright bright Sun all right guys if you enjoyed this Singapore things to
know please watch some more of our other videos from across Singapore we have a things to do in
Singapore and a full travel guide see you on the next one click one of these links [Music]