L’électron libre

Yeah, I know you are all tired of me writing about how much I had fun, but guess where I am back from ? I recently came back from Northern Thailand, more precisely Chiang Mai. After a quick transition in Bangkok (Tuesday), mainly to check out the floating market about 2 hours south of Bangkok by (slow) bus, we headed to Chiang Mai on a night train from Bangkok. Count ...

Many foreigners coming to live in Singapore sooner or later complain about Singapour being a boring island with nothing to do in it. No wonder the multiplicity of Singapore's cultural events is a funny joke for a Parisian or a New Yorker. Yet there is a few non-cultural activities one can do on evenings or week ends that will just spice up the daily routine. Among them, water sports ...

Thailand The first marking experience you have in Thailand is definitely the people. "Thailand" literally means the country of a thousand smiles and that you will agree of when you land there. Prices are fairly cheap for food, accommodation and goods, from 2 to 4 times cheaper than in Singapore, which is already roughly from 1 to 2 times cheaper than France. It will be a good deal though only ...

Try Anjappar ! Anjappar is a restaurant chain that sells Chettinaad dishes. Chettinaad is a region of southern India very renowned for their local cuisine. They have a stall at NUS (Prince George Park Residence), it was delicious. I rarely asked to shake the cook's hand but this time I did because great food deserves great appreciation. It was one of those dishes that just make you crazy at every ...

According to Abraham Maslow, human needs are to be sorted by priority into 5 levels, thus forming a pyramid. First, Maslow's official pyramid, followed by...a version adapted for Singapore :) And...

Although buying and reading books may not be listed in the favourite hobbies in Singapore (although shopping for books could be), you may need, at some point of time, to purchase a book. Forget about Amazon, there is no Amazon Singapore, besides so far I found no Amazon website that accepts to do international shipping to Singapore. If you're a student, or know people from a university, you may want ...

There is 3 mobile phone networks in Singapore, by order of popularity : Singtel Starhub M1 They are said to be equivalent, I haven't really been through a serious study of their prices, I was at Starhub and paid on average 36 S$ per month for ton of sms and quite a lot of phone calls. Networks here haven't yet started selling bulk sms and minutes to subcontractors unlike they did in France ...

Currently looking forward to start some business activity in Singapore, I was seriously wondering how that is done AS A FOREIGNER of Singapore. Briefly, you either start a "business" (French equivalent: EURL), with one person only, your income is taxed based on Income Tax, or your "company" (French equivalent: SARL), in which at least two people are needed and 1Euro is enough, tax being based on Company Tax. Most ...

You may be French, you're coming soon to Singapore, or you're here (already laaah) and you want to settle down and find a place to live in. I get quite a number of such requests which pushes me today to take 15 minutes and write down the usual tips I answer with. Briefing on the housing in Singapore Housing in Singapore in expensive. And guess what? It's not meant to ...

The first thing that shocked me a few weeks after my arrival in Singapore is how bureaucratic the whole system is. But to a certain extent that's fine when you come from a country like France. The real problem is the lack of flexibility, or shall I go further and say creativity. Typical example: Suppose you need to get something from a certain service. BE SURE that they will ...