After about a week of me playing tourist we knew we had to look for a place to live. Luckily the company already had that covered and hired a realtor for us. Before that though, we were in touch with another company called NCompass that took us around Singapore and introduced us to the local culture. This was about the third week we were here. The first day we got to go around with a driver around the different areas of Singapore. I thought this was so cool because my Grandma (Dad’s mom) and Grandpa John came out here for a visit a long time ago and had car tour of the country as well. We got taken by different parts, hospitals, the US embassy, drove by the botanic gardens and also different markets.
Singapore does have grocery stores. The ones we were introduced to were Cold Storage and Fair Price. We know of another store that has food too but it’s like a super Walmart called Carefour. They also have different wet markets as well. Wet Markets are the real local markets that not only have clothing and things like that but the fresh fruit, meats and fish. It was definitely an experience. I didn’t really see many expats there but that could be that it was the morning of a week day but we were also in an area that had more locals than expats. We went from there to around the area we were staying we had lunch and coffee or as they call it here, kopi and got to know the area a little more.
The next day we met up with the woman from NCompass and our realtor to go around and see the different apartments they had in mind for us. We were warned that when we go into the different apartments we were not to speak to the landlord’s realtor, even if we had any questions about the apartment. If we had any questions during the viewing we were to write them down and ask our realtor after we got back into the car. We also had to take our shoes off at all the apartments we went to. It is part of the culture here that any home you enter you must take your shoes off either at the door or in the entry way. We also couldn’t take pictures of the place unless it was okay with the landlord’s realtor.
We went to about 16 different apartments and were really surprised in what we saw. There were some buildings that were older but bigger than the newer apartments. We went to The Sail apartments, now this complex was where we were supposed to live when we got here but the people didn’t end up moving. The complex and the views were beautiful, but the rent was at the top of our list and they weren’t furnished. Most of the places we looked at did not have the option to be furnished except for 2. At the end of the second day we knew where we wanted to live and thankfully it was literally across the street from the hotel that we were staying at. We told the realtor that we wanted The Metz, it had a great layout and high ceilings, unusual for any apartment that isn’t on the top. The view also had the famous Marina Bay Sky Park that puts on a light show every Friday night and it also is where the fireworks are for the different holidays so we could watch it from our home if we wanted to.
It took a while for us to get everything sorted and unfortunately The Metz was looking like it was out because the realtor for the place had yet to get back to us. We would have had to be in an apartment we liked but didn’t love. We waited for a little over a week and finally we heard something before our realtor had to start looking into our other options. We were upset because we really liked The Metz but knew that if we don’t make a move now, or we may have to start the apartment hunt all over again. We decided to let our realtor go ahead and write up an offer for the apartment that was second on our list. The very next day we got an email saying that we did get the Metz, we were relieved and stated that this was going to be the shortest move ever!
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