Singapore is a beautiful city, but it is an expensive city to live in. The cost of things in this Asiatic continent are surprisingly much higher than most of the major cities around the world. To live in Singapore, one has to extra careful with how each dollar is spent or one can soon get bankrupt. I learnt this through my experience as a student when I visited the country to do some studies.
When I got to Singapore, I was lucky since I had a friend who had offered to accommodate me for some time in the strange city before I got my footing and I was able to stand on my own. The friend was a former workmate who I had worked with in the University where I work before he left.
I am a lecturer at the university where I work and he was also a lecturer. He had come to Singapore to study and he had finally found employment in the University where he had been studying. He had spoken highly about his experience in Singapore and had continually urged me to come and take the short course that could get me the transformation I needed in my life. After two years of constant encouragement from my longtime friend, I decided to go to Singapore and take the post graduate course.
When I got to Singapore, I was amazed by the great developments in the city. I was particularly impressed by the massive residential flats that were strewn all across the city. This was in stark contrast to what was in my home country in Africa. In my country, such tall buildings are few with most clustered around the few advanced urban centers.
The residential flats – which I later came to understand that they were the famous HDB flats – were built and managed by the government. They were housing facilities for the people of Singapore which were provided for the public at a subsidiary cost. This encouraged me greatly because after my brief experience after landing in Singapore I had realized that the money that I had set aside for my stay at Singapore would have to be spent very sparingly.
The first and most important thing for me to do when I got to Singapore was to look for a house. I immediately hit the streets with vigor after my fist night. I did not want to burden my friend whose apartment was already too small.
Fortunately, I was able to find out that there were short term rental rooms that I could get from the local Singaporeans. Some individuals, couples, or families that had extra common rooms and master rooms in their houses were willing to rent out these quarters for a short period and earn some extra money through rent.
These short terms rentals were just perfect for me since their costs were much lower than renting a whole apartment. Living in such an environment would also be ideal for me to learn more about the Singaporean culture.
