House hunting in Singapore - part II

Now, where was I? Oh yes, how depressed I was...the whole process is daunting esp when you consider the fact that you don't have the leisure of spending a day or two to mull over your decision- you are supposed to make up your mind right then otherwise they warn you that someone else might snap up the offer. I don't like being rushed...I don't like being pushed into decisions... And everything is so costly. We started off thinking we would be able to find some decent place at 2K. Boy, were we wrong? We had to stretch our budget till it got to the point where we would have a place to stay but survive on stale bread and tap water.. And then you have this thing about nationality. Apparently, some owners don't want to let out to Indians and so you would have ads saying 'no indians'. I spent the best part of the first month in the office glued to rental websites, gumtree and on the phone to agents. They would ask my name, my nationality, the kind of pass I have before I could even ask about a property. There were some interesting conversations too. Like for instance after I said I was Indian, the agent said 'But your name does not sound Indian.' I assured him I was so but he had more doubts 'But you don't talk like an Indian'. I was getting amused by this time. He continued 'you sound like an 'ang mo' ( the term used here for a white person)..I didn't know whether to be flattered or cry. He called me up again to ask, very apologetically I must add 'Are you the fair kind of Indian or the dark-skinned type?'. Now I was really finding this too amusing. Apparently the landlord wanted to know if I was from North India or from South and they were trying to figure that out from my melanin level!!! I told him I am neither from the north or the south but from the east. He persisted, 'Are you fair?'. At this point I felt I was being quizzed for a marriage proposal. I was kind and didn't try sarcasm and told him that I was not dark, on the fair side. He said he would pass on the information to the landlord. I was told afterwards that the landlord has decided to rent out to Indians so my fair skin was of no use. Damn. All that fair and lovely cream gone to waste (hey, joke, joke...I am anti-whitening)......(to be continued, maybe)

House hunting in Singapore-part 1

This is a long due post of the traumatic (you know how melodramatic I am )experience of house-hunting. We were put up in a serviced apartment for one month in the central district-house keeping service everyday and free breakfast and all those things. I had been forewarned by my colleagues who spoke of their less-than-pleasant experience of finding a suitable place. There are condos-private apartments, and those govt built HDB. I was told most of the HDB apartments are cramped, the toilet too small and horror of horrors, no balcony. I hate the thought of a house without outside space even if it is a balcony where you would have no space to move your butt. The last apartment we had in the UK overlooked a river and it was so cool to watch swans and ducks and boats gliding by while you hug a book and daydream. Back to the present. I was told the best thing would be to enlist the help of an agent and I was given the number of one such being. He was a soft-spoken elderly man and he gave me list of apartments available for viewings. I had quite a lot of boxes to tick- walking distance from the MRT, big, two bathrooms, a balcony... He took us around to see three flats and all of them were so depressing. ........,.,to be continued