Things you always have to have in Singapore if you want to melt in:

1. An umbrella, whether it is raining or not, you can always use it as a protection from the sun (1 bad thing if you look out from the window to see if it is raining and see people with their umbrellas you might get confused, since here the sun and the rain go together – crazy weather)

2. A mobile phone, everyone has one

3. A blue tooth device for your mobile, you are not IN if you have to hold your phone while walking and don’t seem like you are speaking to yourself (this is a bit irritating coz I kept looking around to see who the people were talking to when there are only 2 people in a lift, finally figured people like talking to themselves, then I discovered they had something in their ears… hmmm)

4. An IPOD – everyone seems to have some form of music playing machine and a voice to go with it (not necessarily a very good one), since a lot of people sing out a loud in trains, on the streets…(don’t know if it is on purpose or not)

5.A lot of dangling accessories from your mobile, the more of those you have, the more ‘in fashion’ you are (warning: those things scratch the mobile monitors and can me irritating making sounds and disturbing you while you are trying to have a conversation via phone)

6. A fat wallet – since there is ‘a special offer’ wherever you go (oh yes, the land of shopping, shopping and what was is again? Shopping!)

7. A good appetite – restaurants wherever you go (oops: shopping and food, zillions of different cuisines)

8. Lots of patience – specially when trying to get off the MRT (their tube)

9. Bags the size of TVs (all girls seem to think it suits them – but they are in luck - it is IN this season)

10. Just the right English pronunciation, otherwise they will not understand what you are saying

11. A good ear (and no hearing disorder) in order to distinguish different languages from English and you require some understanding of Singlish (Singaporean English).

12. Some vague knowledge of Chinese (at least) since the 70% of the population is Chinese it will be highly appreciated. Ni hao ma?:)

13. Ability to eat with chopsticks (folks: practice at home before coming here, since you might be eating lots of tasty Chinese food at one of the zillion restaurants they have – yummy!).

14. Flip flops and boots (it amazes me how people even at +35 degrees still prefer to wear boots and jeans – the wild wild East)

15. If you are a girl you have to have whitening cream – white skin seems to be the definition of beauty amongst Asian women whereas in the country I come from we use tanning lotions, fake tan creams and other means of making our skin darker – very interesting indeed.