Travel basics and tips for visiting
Singapore I'm Chris this is yellow
productions I do travel guides that are
fun informative and entertaining I have
a series on Singapore about all the
places you might want to see do and
things to eat if you're interested in
those you can find them in links in the
description but in this video I'll just
give you some general basics about
visiting Singapore so you understand
what you're getting into and I've got
these basics divided into six different
areas along with tips in each one and if
you're wondering what this is well
there's some notes that I wrote to make
sure I keep myself on track and I'd tell
you all the basics and tips that I want
to tell you so the things we're going to
talk about first we're going to talk
about weather then we're gonna talk
about the language money safety and laws
food and public transportation so we'll
begin with the weather Singapore is hot
and humid it's actually not just hot and
humid it's really hot and humid so dress
appropriately Singapore is one degree
off the equator so it's hot pretty much
all year round the weather doesn't
change all that much your only reprieve
from the heat is going to be on days
when it's partially cloudy today is a
good example of that or days when it's a
little bit rainy and actually the rain
will be your friend one of the things
I'll tell you and this is kind of a tip
related to dressing is don't just dress
cool but dress in clothes that dry
quickly I love cotton t-shirts I always
wear a yellow productions' cotton
t-shirt wherever I go I do not wear it
when I come to Singapore because it gets
wet from the rain and my sweat and then
it never dries and that really stinks
literally so I like to wear these shirts
from ex-officio there's a bunch of
companies that make these types of
shirts they dry really quickly they also
have quick drying underwear that's
probably little more information than
you want to know but there you go the
other things I'll tell you to bring with
you make sure you are sunscreen because
it's sunny and really hot and always
carry little umbrella it's good to
probably get a little travel umbrella
like this keep it with you because the
downpours can be pretty sudden there's
usually some partial percent chance of
rain all the time of the year every day
they're here so don't get caught without
it and frankly some people wear those
rain jackets like those plastic bag
things that you put over yourself oh my
god those are awful here because it's so
hot and humid you'll end up being just
as wet inside from your sweat and if you
just got in the rain okay number two
let's talk about the language in
Singapore a Singapore has four official
languages that include English Mandarin
Malay and an Indian language but the
official official language is English
you'll find everybody here pretty well
speaks English the question is is it an
English that you understand English and
Singapore is often referred to as
Singlish because they add a lot of
Chinese words into their English and add
a lot of extra words at the end for
emphasis like hey this line that the
Hawker Center is really busy law and the
law is a emphasis type word so they have
a bunch of those words you could lookups
English read all about it
but you'll definitely hear it when you
get here by the way something I forgot
to mention in the weather section is
it's hot and I usually carry a towel
from the hotel to wipe off my sweat
because it really is that hot but
instead I'll use my sleeve on this
self-drying shirt okay next let's talk
about money they kind of look like this
the Singapore dollar at the time that I
did my video the exchange rate was about
a dollar fifty US two one Singapore
dollar while Singapore is a really
modern city a lot of it is still cash
based so it's really important to have
cash in Singapore most of the major
stores will take credit cards but many
stalls at Hawker centers won't and taxis
kind of hit or miss with credit cards
and if taxis do take credit cards they
will often charge you a 10% surcharge
for using your credit card in the taxi
so bring money and my tip related to
bringing money is avoid all of the
exchange counters don't go to that
exchange counter in the airport or the
shady exchange counters on Orchard Road
get money from an ATM bring your ATM
card the ATMs here in Singapore will
give you the best exchange rate much
better than the
counter as well might be a good idea to
let your bank know that you're traveling
I said that they don't deny your claims
when you get here all right so that's
money next tip we're going to talk about
safety and laws kind of together one of
the things is that Singapore is a
country of rules and the country of laws
and you should follow them they have a
lot of interesting laws like chewing gum
is illegal don't even bring it into the
country with you
durians a fruit is illegal to take on
the subway it is a really big fine if
you take a durian on the subway so make
sure you follow their rules don't
jaywalk don't do a lot of things like
that you will get a big hefty ticket and
that's no good but because of all those
rules Singapore is quite safe
so you don't really have to worry about
your personal safety walking around
actually you'll see in Hawker centers
people will often put their purse down
to save their table and guess what their
purse day is there for them to come back
I might not advise you to do that
because actually their biggest crimes
are petty crimes which are things like
pickpocketing still worthwhile to be
aware okay next one food food Singapore
is a foodie destination and you really
don't have to worry about getting sick
here in Singapore because the food here
is awesome
clean and if you eat at the hawker
centres or food courts cheap don't think
you have to go to high-end restaurants
to get the best food and actually my tip
is to tell you that really the best food
is in the Hawker centers and my second
tip is if you don't like heat then go to
food courts you'll pay a little more and
the food might not be quite as good but
still pretty good and you'll be in
air-conditioned comfort I got a whole
video on the best Hawker centers and the
best food courts in Singapore so you can
check those out of the description for
more information on that and the final
section is to talk about public
transportation public transportation
also in Singapore is fast clean
efficient relatively cheap they have an
MRT their metro rapid transit or mass
rapid transit that's their equivalent of
a subway
and it goes almost anywhere you would
want to go as a tourist they recently
connected Changi Airport to the city you
do have to transfer once if you're going
to the city center but I will tell you
about riding the MRT is make sure you
buy a ez link card you can buy tickets
per ride but it's much cheaper it's
almost half the price if you use the EZ
link card for tickets it's about a 10 to
12 Singaporean dollar deposit you just
load it up and tap it in when you go on
and go off the rides are so cheap one
ride cost me 82 cents last night so
that's too cheap not to use it I use it
even if it saves me five minutes of
walking and they come all the time so
definitely take the MRT the hours of the
MRT they open at 6 a.m. and they close
at midnight so now you're gonna say well
what do I do between the hours of 6:00
and midnight well then you're gonna take
a taxi taxis are also relatively easy to
come by and relatively inexpensive
unless you are riding them at night they
have a lot of hidden surcharges on taxis
if you're riding at peak times you're
riding at night and at night they charge
a $0.50 additional charge to ride the
taxi
there's also buses but I think you'll
find that a combination of taxis and MRT
will get you almost anywhere you need to
go so I hope you enjoyed this video and
I hope it didn't get too fogged up while
I was talking and if you enjoyed this
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description below or you might enjoy
watching some of my other Singapore
videos check out the links in the
description all right bye bye