Singapore - Balestier Road area

[terry57]

absolutely superb photos fatboy and the travel section of teak door is brilliant.

alot of people say singapore is boring but if one likes to explore and is motivated i find that its a great city to stay in, except its getting a tad expensive these days.

the food is still cheap and i love the out door eateries and also the eating halls.

i apreaciate asian food in general and the singapore laksas are awesome.

i love the drive into the city at night time with the city lights, the greenery hanging of the bridges and singapore in general is a beautiful city full of awesome trees and plants.

ill be back in september and look forward to spending a few days wandering around again.

nice photos and keep up the good work.

cheers

[mad_dog]

Looks rather similar to Bangkok eh?

[Spin]

Good stuff fatboy, I like these shophouses, they look cute, shame Thais cant build them like that

[Butterfly]

older pics of Singapore were like Bangkok. No sidewalk, shop houses everywhere. Then 30 years later, Bangkok still the same shithole, Singapore shinning.

Hum, I wonder why ?

[gos]

did you try all the massages down balestier road and point you seem to know a lot about them how clean the rooms etc are
I am only jealous keep up the good work great thread and photos

[slimboyfat]

did you try all the massages down balestier road and point you seem to know a lot about them how clean the rooms etc are
I am only jealous keep up the good work great thread and photos

how dare you? i have never been so insulted

there's one place to go for reviews of all that kind of thing in singapore.

http://www.sammyboyforum.com/

[stroller]

To save us the lengthy search, just out of curiousity, how do prices compare to Thailand?
Not that I have any personal interest nor experience, neither in Thailand nor anywhere else, you understand, just wondering like, judging by the prices of everything else in Sing, i'd probably have to sell all my stock investment for a few drinks and a little "gobbal".

[slimboyfat]

rough guide - all prices in Singapore dollars

for massage places the standard is $30 for 45 mins massage

extra's - HJ $50 BJ $80 Sex $100 (but not all girls will do more than HJ). These places are illegal and you may get caught in a raid.

The only legal prositution in Singapore is in the brothels in Geylang, although there are plenty of illegal streetwalkers there too.

For Geylang whore houses and freelancers I really dont know - I heard you can get a Thai girl for $40 in the brothels there. There is lots of info on that sammyboy website.

Orchard Towers is up to your negotiating skill - I have heard some people pay $100 for a girl and some up to $300. But again, dont really go in for all that. Maybe Butterfly might be able to help on how much a ladyboy will charge.

[slimboyfat]

This thread wasnt really about sex.

i blame that damn Teakdoor newsletter for misleading people.

[stroller]

Thanks for sharing anyway.

Maybe I should copy/paste some posts from Sammy. There is an "SBF-extra" who seems knowledgable.

[slimboyfat]

SBF is short for sammyboyforum. its not me!

[stroller]

Sure...

[gos]

we beleive you thousands would not

[slimboyfat]

At the corner of Balestier and Boon Teck Road is a free water dispenser. I have never seen one anywhere else in Singapore - mind you I didnt know what it was until someone pointed it out to me either.



According to the Urban redevelopment authority -

"The free water dispenser at the corner of
Balestier Road and Boon Teck Road was once
very common in Singapore. They were placed
by charitable organisations such as Clans and
places of worship, to provide free drinking
water for the servants and drivers of the horse
carriages (and later, cars) for the rich, while
they waited for their employers"

Actually I didnt know anyone actually used this or even knew what it was for, but this morning I saw a couple of delivery men availing themselves of the charity water.



I am not surprised when you have to pay 2 bucks for a bottle of water at the 7-11 just behind the Fragrance Hotel.

[MeMock]

Looks like I need to visit Singapore again as I never seen this sort of stuff before!

Good thread - cheers.

[slimboyfat]

Looks like I need to visit Singapore again as I never seen this sort of stuff before!

Good thread - cheers.

I am pleased about that. My whole reason for posting these threads and pics is to try and show that Singapore is not a completely boring and sterile place -although it can be if you only stick to Orchard Road etc. I was talking to an American guy in Bangkok who had lived in Singapore for 2 years and it turned out he never left the expat areas and only ate western food and drank Starbucks in that time. No wonder he said it was boring.

Singapore is probably the safest place in the world so really there is no excuse not to wander a bit off the beaten track.

[terry57]

you are doing a brilliant job with you photo's fat boy, cheers and keep them coming.

i think that if one has enough get up and go in him and is willing to go out of ones way to have a good look at singapore, it has a shite load to see and do.

to bad the night life is so expensive, but thats life mate.

as you have so rightly said, if you hang on orchard road all the time you will find it boring. but its the person who is boring and not the place.

nice work mate.

[babygirl]

Great photos and story, slimboyfat. Singapore looks very modern and clean. Do the majority of Singaporeans speak English? How is the shopping there?

[cisco999]

I thought the same.......


outstanding report.

thank you

[slimboyfat]

Great photos and story, slimboyfat. Singapore looks very modern and clean. Do the majority of Singaporeans speak English? How is the shopping there?

everyone under 40 will speak english (and many over 40 too - in fact some of the older chinese can ONLY speak English). it is the language used for all school lessons (apart from chinese, tamil or malay language lessons)


the shopping is outstanding in Orchard Road so I am told. I hate shopping.
I dont bother taking pics and making reports on those kind of things though as they are not particularly interesting or unique to Singapore

[panama hat]

Singapore is an oddity in that it has three official languages (Tamil, Malay and Mandarin) and English as the business and unifying language. A dialect has taken firm roots, called Singlish which is a bastardisation of English with a smattering of Hokkien (an Chinese dialect) and Malay thrown in.

As SBF mentions, everyone speaks English - - - save new immigrants from China, under the immigration/population policy of keeping the Chinese race dominant, in terms of numbers.

Shopping? That's the second pastime for people, the first being food - which is very varied and excellent. Kind of leaves Thai food in the dust when it comes to diversity.
Malls everywhere, as well as pasar malam and pasar pagi (morning and night markets)
Orchard road is where even Hongkies come to shop

We just left Singapore after 6 wonderful years to live here for our business.

We miss it.

[babygirl]

^Interesting, panama hat, and SBF!

I was told that it is illegal to chew gum in Singapore, or if you are caught littering there is a hefty fine? Is this true?

Singlish is a funny name, reminds me of Konglish that you hear in Korea. I would guess that the food that you speak highly of, would be a mix of Chinese, Malay and Tamil?

[slimboyfat]

^Interesting, panama hat, and SBF!

I was told that it is illegal to chew gum in Singapore, or if you are caught littering there is a hefty fine? Is this true?

Singlish is a funny name, reminds me of Konglish that you hear in Korea. I would guess that the food that you speak highly of, would be a mix of Chinese, Malay and Tamil?

it is not illegal to chew gum, however it is illegal to bring it into the country. You can buy it at pharmacies etc.

Yes there are hefty fines for littering. Is that a problem for you? It is fine by me - you can see from this thread that even in a very old and un-touristy part of town there is seldom any litter.

The rules are quite tough but I have never had even a cross word from a policeman here in 12+ years. If you are not an idiot you wont have any problems. You can walk around the streets anywhere here quite safely at anytime day or night.

You can get every food you like here (although i havent been able to find bangers mash peas and gravy - thats why i make trips to Pattaya every few months), although as you say the local foods are chinese malay and indian.

[babygirl]

^ no problems with littering here. Sounds like a paradise from what I've witnessed in other Asian countries, excluding Japan. I'll be looking into jobs there at some point. Thanks

[slimboyfat]

you're welcome. anything you would like to know then feel free to ask