Misconceptions about Singapore

When you sit down in front of your laptop on a long weekend in your room, somehow you remember the stuff you want to share with others, thus here comes another post to compensate for the weeks of inactivity.

As you travel around, people start asking where you are from and stuff and you start to know what others know about your country. Here are some of the common or biggest misconception people have about Singapore.

1) Singaporean chinese speaking Mandarin is pretty new to some of our chinese folks. Some thought that we only speak English while others express surprise at my fluency (I WAS in higher Chinese ok?)

2) Singaporeans do not like the English (the people of UK). I met this teacher from Manchester in Rome who felt that the fall of Singapore in WWII was a total disgrace on the British and thought that we Singaporeans hated the English because of it. You are always welcomed in Singapore, Martin!

3) Tourism is Singapore's only if not biggest source of revenue. Did I mention that 70% of the World's oil rigs are built by us(mentioned by some ME prof)? Surely we did not attain 5th in terms of highest foreign reserves based purely on 10mil visitors a year.

Another interesting incident

There is this new guy who came into our house 2 weeks ago, while interning in Munich. Last week he tried to bake those frozen pizza from the supermart without turning on the oven.

1) It cannot be fully his fault as you need to turn 2 knobs to turn the oven on.
2) However he failed to realise that the oven was not on after tens of minutes, all the while looking at a still frozen pizza and an oven not heated up.
3) When the oven was finally heated up thanks to my intervention, he had wanted to start eating the pizza while the cheese on top of the pizza had yet to melt = uncooked pizza.

A few days ago, he pulled another stunt. Approaching me for help after he failed to open the washing machine. I too failed to open the washing machine and suspected something was amiss. I realised that the washing machine was still filled with water, meaning it has yet to finish the entire procedure before someone switched it off. So I asked...

CX: There's still water inside, did you switch it off before it was done?

New guy: Yeah, I did.

CX: Then I guess you have to re-run the wash again and wait until its done.

New guy: I need to wash again??

CX: Yes, because its not done washing. What mode did you choose just now?

New guy: This one (the timer showed - 0:48), 48 seconds.

CX: 48 seconds?!? (Even hand wash cannot attain such speed!), Its 48 mins!

New guy: 48 MINUTES!?! It needs so long??

CX: (stares at him blankly)

New guy: Is there a faster one?

CX: Quick wash, 28 minutes.

New guy: Ok... thank you.


I had a good laugh after that. I figured that he must have switched off the washing machine by himself thinking that 48s have passed. Nicely done!

The Cycling routes

Universities in Munich do not have halls or residences the way NUS has. All student accommodation is handled by the Studentenwerk which houses the thousands of students in the numerous dormitories around the city. As such there is hardly any dormitories that are near the campuses unless its a rented apartment. As TUM is a rather long-established university, the main campus was near the city centre but subsequent expansions have to be done outside the city centre. There are 2 campuses I attend lessons in and unlike NUS, there are no shuttle buses here. Purchasing a monthly ticket would cost me roughly S$130 thus the next best option here would be to purchase a bicycle which cost me S$70 and I can still sell it at the end.


Route 1: Studentenstadt --> TUM main campus
Distance: 5.8km

First we go South through the residential area beside the student city before taking the straight road down towards the city centre.

Towards the city centre with the Siegetor in sight

The walking man statue which some german learners should recognise through NUS' german courses.

5 mins later will bring you to Siegetor, one of the old entrances to the city

Then passing through LMU which the TUM folks like to call it 'Lousy Munich University'.

Turning right into Theresienstrasse and going straight down will bring you to Arcisstrasse where TUM main campus is.

TUM Audimax, just a big hall like the ones we have in MPSH but they sell food and beer while there's no exams or events.

Total time taken: 20 (personal best when running late) - 30 (average)



Route 2: Studentenstadt --> TUM Garching
Distance: 11.2km


Going North towards Garching will bring us through the Freimann area where the big Flea market is (to be posted later).

Then coming out of Freimann, riding along a canal from the Isar river is a tiring stretch of straight and monotomous road.

5 mins later, riding through this stretch of road along the plantation will take at least another 5-10mins.

No idea what they are trying to plant now, it used to be a nice field of Canola plants.

Looking back, one will be able to see the wind turbine and a hint of the Allianz Arena which would have roughly mark the halfway point of the route.

Some sights along the way...

Almost there will be what you will be thinking once you see this fountain in the town centre of Garching.

Going through Lidl and Rewe outside the campus.

More fields, its really almost there...

It reads 'Technische Universität of München, Fakultät für Maschinenwesen' - Technical Univerisity of Munich, Mechanical Engineering Faculty. In TUM, ME has an entire block roughly half the size of the entire Engineering faculty in NUS, that's how big ME is in Munich.

Total time taken: 35 - 45 mins

An interesting incident

This happened in Florence, Italy when 3 exchange students in Munich made their way to the city's most famous Museum - The Galleria degli Uffizi. First they reached there on Labour Day at 7.30am, thinking they beat the crowd (it was rumoured that you need to queue for at least 3hrs to get in), they happily sat down in front of the door. But how could a musuem that famous be empty 1 hr before opening (opening at 8.15am)? Then they realised that the museum was closed on Labour Day. Tough luck!

The next day, the same 3 students reached the Galleria degli Uffizi at 7.45am, only to end up queuing 3hrs to get into the museum and it was a little boring btw. But an interesting incident happened while the 3 waited for their turn to enter the museum. A japanese lady came up to them and asked them a question.

Japanese: Nihon-ji des ka? (are you japanese?)

Exchange students from Munich: instinctively shook their heads and said, 'Nein' (in german)


What is interesting is that they were all in Italy, the japanese asked a question in Japanese while the students were earlier conversing in Mandarin. The exchange students then looked at each other and wondered why in the hell they answered in german so instinctively.