My good friend Michael Sampson is soon presenting his Masterclass in SharePoint Collaboration in Singapore. He emailed me earlier today "I haven't been to Singapore since 1978 ... so have never had to plan what clothes to take. As a fellow kiwi, what style of business and casual clothes have you taken? I hear it's hot there!".
I visited Singapore on business 6 times from later 2006 through 2007, usually for 2 weeks at a time. My answer from the email reply I sent him follows, but adapted for blogging, ...
Clothes for Singapore
Yes. Temperatures are consistently in the mid to high 30s, and very humid. Even into the evening & through the night. Tropical humidity does that. Be prepared for tropical rain too, particularly Nov-Jan. Sometimes it is every day at lunchtime for about 1/2 hour! Although that is a good time to stay undercover which is plentiful.
Business dress in IT seems to be mid-level formality in most settings although occasionally they have delusions of grandeur & go full suit/tie. But usually business style trousers with long sleeve shirt (maybe polo) are perfectly suitable (& comfortable!). Suit/tie (bizarrely given the heat, but colonial habits die hard!) are still the thing in more formal settings eg the financial industry, and when working with senior management in any industry.
For casual dress in evenings I would sometimes wear my long Columbia travel pants & polo shirt or similar with comfortable walking shoes. Warm enough for cool inside settings & formal enough for all but the most expensive or exclusive cafes & restaurants. Or, if I knew I wasn't going to a more formal setting, I would go for travel style shorts, tidy t-shirt and travel sandals, or maybe comfortable walking shoes without socks. I don't remember ever needing a sweatshirt or jersey despite the air-conditioning. My Scottevest t-shirt would be perfect - wish I'd had it back when I was visiting!
Visiting Singapore Generally
Inside many buildings it can be quite cool. The lobby in one hotel I stayed in felt freezing coming in from the heat & humidity outside. They really go overboard on air-conditioning in every building (almost). Locals don't go outside much.
The locals (including many ex-pats) thought I was mad walking around so much, and outside at that!
Locals either walk inside where it is cool, or use taxis & trains. You can traverse much of the inner city by going from building to building, to mall, to underground train, etc. And taxis are super cheap - most inner city journeys are $5 to $10 although it can be hard to get a taxi, especially in the evening.
If you can get your bearings the underground train is superb (Wikipedia). It is super cheap even paying cash per journey ($1 to $3 most journeys) but even cheaper & more convenient if you get a prepay card. I think they now sell prepay cards especially for tourists - probably at the airport. This came in just after my final trip, but I seem to remember it being something like unlimited travel for 1, or 3, or 5 or 10 days. Bus is good too although I only used it a few times as I didn't know the route numbers whereas train maps are everywhere london underground style.
Getting into town from the airport is best done by taxi. Prob $30 or so. The train does go out to the airport but I found it a bit of a nuisance with luggage & just a little too long when you've come off or are heading to a long haul flight. I used to try and book a taxi for my return journey to the airport as I always left the city around 5pm Friday when you usually have to queue for awhile on most taxi stands.
Wikipedia has a good articles on Singapore itself, and tourism to Singapore. Wikitravel also has a good article on visiting Singapore.
Things to do in Singapore (added Thu-29-Oct):
- drink a "Singapore Sling" at Raffles Hotel - a colonial must do for those of us with a sense of commonwealth history (in WWII the Brits running Singapore drank these at Raffles while (ignoring?) Japan invading from Malaysia in the north because they had only setup naval based defense to the seaward south) - the true experience is in the long bar upstairs, but I preferred the courtyard cafe on the ground level (where they sometimes have light/jazz live music);
- I loved walking the area around Raffles as there is some stunning colonial architecture - in particular the building that is now a museum / art gallery (which is worth visiting itself);
- my favourite restaurant area was Chijmes (near Raffles) which is an adaptation of a former catholic church / monastery / convent complex (they moved out of the inner city) containing numerous bars, cafes, restaurants and boutique shops - there were no cafes/restaurants of particularly Singaporean origin, but a good range of international food styles and some have outdoors tables in a sunken courtyard which is great in Singapore's warm evenings (not the cheapest place to eat in Singapore though);
- taking a walk through Chinatown, particularly when the street markets are open (Fri/Sat evenings from memory);
- taking a walk through Little India - in particular the streetside cafes, not particularly elegant in terms of decor, but the food is stunning - and sometimes you have to communicate in sign language as this is the one area of Singapore where I found their English might not be so good (which is actually quite a fun experience);
- the multi-level Sim Lim Square electronics store/mall near Little India has a lot of cheap (sometimes cheap & nasty) gadgets - good fun even if you don't buy anything (I would only pay cash here, don't use credit cards for security reasons);
- the street stalls/markets near Sim Lim Square are a fascinating experience - my wife and teenage daughter would have a ball fossicking and buying cheap clothes, bags, etc - I never bought much but enjoyed the experience (again, I recommend only paying in cash);
- having a cheap but authentic local style meal at one of the numerous 'hawker stalls' - these can appear offputting at first (think Asian 'greasy spoon') and I avoided them on far too many of my visits - the food can actually be quite stunning, and is always cheap;
- the Singapore Night Zoo experience is an enjoyable and different zoo experience (but too busy on a Friday evening), and Singapore Zoo itself is also a world class zoo (the daytime part is next to the nighttime part, with separate entrances), but I felt a little odd going on my own as I'd much rather take my kids (I took hundreds of photos for them instead!);
- Changi Prison Chapel Museum is another compelling experience for history buffs but it is quite a way out of town (good bus service though, and not too expensive by taxi) but this experience is probably only an option if you allocate a morning or afternoon allowing for getting to and from (I did it on a Saturday morning, and went from there to Singapore Zoo for the afternoon) - I found the stories behind the wall murals, and the hand made brass cross in the chapel, extremely moving;
- the river and restaurant / cafe area there is worth at least a walk through, but less interesting for a meal unless you're with others;
- there's a tall hotel near Raffles with a top floor cocktail bar that has quite stunning views of Singapore (I don't remember it revolving so you have to move around to see all directions) - from memory a $10-$20 cover charge but worth it for the views even if you just have a look around and don't drink (keep moving around so the wait staff don't harass you for using up a table but not buying anything or much!);
- there's now a London Eye style ferris wheel which might be worth checking out, but I haven't tried it because it opened soon after my last trip;
- I enjoyed walking all through CBD Singapore - some evenings I would walk all evening just enjoying the sights and experience of it - all the main streets are safe (but I did get propositioned and almost cornered by a transvestite-prostitute (and 'her' pimp) in a back alley shortcut I probably shouldn't have gone down in Little India!);
- there are numerous huge western style malls which can be interesting due to their sheer size and range of shops, but they would be much more fun for my wife and teenage daughter!;
- Orchard Road is the well known shopping street but it didn't mean much to me, although in the evenings some stalls are setup outside the shops & malls and they sometimes have interesting things to at least look at - there's also a lot of tailors if you want a suit or shirt made to measure ( but I think they need a couple days to make so do it early in your trip);
- I like to get to airports early so there's no risk of missing my flight, and Singapore is one of the world's best airports which I always enjoyed just walking around while waiting for my flight (I also stayed in one of the airside transit hotels on my way to/from Jakarta);
- I never checked out Sentosa Island as I'm not into theme parks unless I'm with my kids but I hear it is good fun;
- there's a bird sanctuary which I never checked out as I'm not into tropical birds like brightly coloured parrots etc but I understand it is quite something if that is your thing.
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 11:55 PM 
Update: Mike & Susanne have blogged further details, as have Chad & Cindy.
;)
