Singapore for a vacation

[charlesr]

I think 7 would be good if you could hook up with people like Dave in the evenings. I was there for 8, but 3 days of it was a giant work party, so entertainment was indoors at the conference centre (magician / singers / dancers etc). Not really representative of a normal holiday). I think 5 would be enough on your own.

[gunrock]

Sounds lush, Charles.

[QualityChimp]

Thanks for the epic write up, Chaz. Nice thoughts about the place.

[charlesr]

See my flickr for pics. charlesr.com

[Mr Ono]

The f00king Battlestar ride is always bloody closed. Been to Universal SGP twice and never seems open.

[gunrock]

Anybody in Singapore, what's the humidity like for affecting your gaming gear? I mean if you move there did you take your games room and contents or is that a waste of good kit?

[noobish hat]

I might be moving to Singapore soon too. What kind of game shops do they have? Any? Do they have retro stuff? Isn't there strict censorship in Singapore?

[dataDave]

Anybody in Singapore, what's the humidity like for affecting your gaming gear? I mean if you move there did you take your games room and contents or is that a waste of good kit?

It's terrible. All my cases and instruction booklets are crinkled up, despite being kept in those Ikea cardboard box storage things. I've also had to polish my guitar frets three times in the 18 months I've had it here.

Going digital if I'm not out of here by Christmas. Which I will be, so I'll be staying physical. xD

I might be moving to Singapore soon too. What kind of game shops do they have? Any? Do they have retro stuff? Isn't there strict censorship in Singapore?

There is gametrader.sg for flogging used stuff. There are no shops which do trade-ins really. Once you buy something you are generally lumped with it for good. Hence buy wisely.

I work next to Funan, which is one of the main tech/camera/figures malls. New games are quite cheap within the grand scheme of overpriced Singapore, and cost around $60-77 SGD.

The censorship sucks. You can't buy porn mags or anything because they don't exist here. Besides that some of the more 'mature' video games can get delayed for weeks whilst they go through the MDA classification to make sure they don't contain explicit content or anything anti-communist.

Be careful what you say online as well. You can leave your free speech back home.

[Asura]

I had no idea Singapore was communist.

Or is that just because a lot of Chinese people live there? (that is right, right? I'm sure I read that somewhere, like it has the highest proportion of Chinese people in another nation, or something)

[dataDave]

It's not, not officially anyway.

Not necessarily a bad thing overall. But there are certainly remnants of it within the politics and general mindset of the people. Don't dare say anything bad about the government publicly.

The population is mainly Chinese. There are a lot of Indians too, and billions of Bangladeshi construction workers. Chinese people have it best when seeking permanent residency too, for some reason. Probably because the government is Chinese. I've got no chance.

[gunrock]

Thanks Dave for your insights. That's a big old problem. I suppose silica gel in your ikea cardboard box is a futile gesture?

[dataDave]

It is.

The pound shops sell these disposable charcoal dehumidifiers which are completely useless.

[dataDave]

Anyway, if anyone moves out here or comes for a holiday be sure to hit me up. I'll treat you to a seafood dinner and advise where to eat cheaply.

If anyone's a Street Fighter head I can introduce you to Gackt, Xian, & Co. at Tough Cookie, as well as pinpoint all the worthwhile arcades for you.

[noobish hat]

I'm in Taiwan, which has high humidity (not sure how it compares to Singapore though). I keep all my crap in air tight plastic containers with silica gel packs in there, and everything's fine. *realising I haven't checked on them in months..*

[gunrock]

So nooby, have you checked your boxes to see if the damp has stayed out?