I Tried To Move To Singapore But Failed

I love Singapore. Here’s why:

It’s been a goal of mine for the past few years to set up a base of operations in Singapore. The airport is one of the best connected in the world — I could get anywhere in Asia in the matter of a few hours for dirt cheap. The city-state has a mixed cultural / language atmosphere that is stimulating for me and would be excellent for my two daughters to grow up in. There is a booming sub-cultural arts / innovation scene that is rising up as more and more expats leave China and come south.

The problem is that rent is insanely expensive here. We’d be looking at $2,500 per month for a shitty place. I make a little more money now and I’m willing to pay out a little more for good places to stay, but paying that much money for substandard accommodation pushes my economic rationale a little beyond its limits.

We spent a month in Johor Bahru that’s right over the border in Malaysia as we looked for a place to live in Singapore. We didn’t turn anything up, so we retreated to Penang.